May 10, 2006

Review: ‘Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea,’ by Guy DeLisle

Please — not another travelogue of tyranny tourism in North Korea. In the last several years, dozens of con-men, apologists, and petty tyrants have described North Korea as a great place to golf, bowl, get rich quick, or profit by displaying the misery of others. Three U.N. aid workers published a fine dining guide, just as the last mass graves of the Great Famine were filled. A UNICEF worker recently lamented that North Korea was unfairly stereotyped. A Korean-American unificationista...

Categories Books & Films/Inside NK/North Korea
May 9, 2006

Sen. Brownback to Hold Press Conference on NK Refugees Tomorrow

The people of North Korea don’t have a better friend than Senator Sam Brownback. Unfortunately, you will need a press pass to get past the imperious bitch person at the front desk. Let’s just hope that that the organizations that hold this monopoly will give us reasonably complete reports (reporters and editors). Might this be a time to suggest giving more press passes to bloggers, who are much more likely to publish fairly complete reports of the politicians’ statements, the...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 9, 2006

In a Word, ‘Predictable’

Who haven’t we heard from yet? The Korean Teachers’ Union, which infamously celebrated 9/11 in [a] video for Busan schoolkids before the last APEC summit. I can hardly wait. — The Korea Liberator, April 10, 2006 “Hollywood movies like “˜Spider-Man’ and “˜Batman’ will dominate our movie industry and we will be brainwashed by American ideology.” — Actor Choi Man-Shik, brainwashing public high school kids at a KTU-sponsored harangue. The reception, overall, was mixed.

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/NK Economics/Uncategorized/Unintended Humor/WTF?
May 9, 2006

Roh Moo Hyun, Imperialist Flunkeyist Lackey!

Remember the good old days when only right-wing regimes would call out the Army to battle protestors or haul North Korean sympathizers before military courts? Chew this one slowly. You owe it to yourself to savor this delectable irony. President Roh Moo-Hyun (of the squishy left) is marshaling the power of the state against the radical unions and students (of the bomb-throwing left), many of whom undoubtedly contributed to this razor-thin election in 2002. It seems so very long ago...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Democracy/Korean Law/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
May 8, 2006

We Are (Not) One, Part 2

According to this unscientific-looking survey, half of the North Koreans living in South Korea would prefer to live in the United States, despite differences of language and culture and a lifetime of anti-American brainwashing. Why? A survey conducted by the Chosun Ilbo on Monday among 100 North Korean refugees who settled in South Korea found that 50 would go to the U.S. given a choice and 46 South Korea. The others were not sure. Of those who chose the U.S.,...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 8, 2006

HRC Update

Arguably, nothing South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission does matters more than documenting and trying to prevent human rights abuses in North Korea. The HRC has often seemed reluctant to do that, and its priorities have sometimes seemed wildly disproportionate to the gravity of the matters it investigates. This time, however, it is actually looking into the impending execution of a North Korean prisoner. It’s a small step in the right direction.

Categories Human Rights/Korean Law
May 8, 2006

Kaesong Absurdities

[W]e have signs to believe that there are certain incentives for North Korean laborers working at the Kaesong complex, such as there are no complaints from workers who are asked to work overtime. — Unification Ministry Official As long as the UniFiction Ministry speaks, this blog will never lack for exquisite fisking material. With the White House standing firmly behind Human Rights Envoy Jay Lefkowitz’s concern that Kaesong fails to comply with international labor standards, (I would also raise U.S....

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 8, 2006

Refugees Reax, Part 2

We have learned, via the Donga Ilbo that the arrival airport was Los Angles. The Donga also speculates about the meaning of the U.S. decision to comply with its own law and concludes that the admission of “common” refugees means that the U.S. is also preparing to clamp down hard on North Korea diplomatically and economically. While I hope that’s indeed the case, the conclusion ignores the fact that plenty of those in Congress (Leach and Lantos, to name two)...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Defectors/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 7, 2006

The Battle of the Hump, Part 3: Reestablishing the Rule of Law

[Updated below; S. Korean prosecutors are seeking to court-martial civilian demonstrators, and I’m not entirely comfortable with that.] There are some encouraging signs that the government and Korean society are losing patience with violent protests. Violent attacks on U.S. troops in Korea are old news, of course, but now that the red guards have attacked Korean troops (and even the mothers of riot policemen) the soldiers’ parents have had it. Have a look at the ineptitute and weakness of this...

Categories Democracy/Korean Law/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea
May 7, 2006

Links of Note

The Political Pendulum: The Chosun Ilbo thinks that the Korean blogosphere is turning right. Although the report depends on readers’ ideological self-identification, I do see modest signs that in South Korea, the pendulum is swinging away from the far left. The problem for the Korea right continues to be that it has articulated no vision that has appeal for younger voters. In a word, it’s reactionary. ====================== Engaging the People: American cartoonist Ranan Lurie wants to bring “uniting artwork” to...

Categories Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Korean Law/Korean Politics/News Links
May 7, 2006

Reaction to the Arrival of North Korean Refugees

The arrival of the first six North Korean refugees — including survivors of concentration camps and sexual slavery — could mark a tipping point in the politics of North Korean human rights. The timing of the arrival is either a fortunate coincidence or the height of shrewdness. Local elections are coming up in South Korea on May 31st, and with the human rights issue having created a clear schism (see here, here, and here) between the United States and South...

Categories An Alliance?/Defectors/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 6, 2006

Why We Signed

I grow weary of sounding the death knell of the U.S.-Korea alliance now that it’s just a question of being how fast and how ugly. If anyone is smart and honest enough to offer a cogent defense of it, it’s U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, who has made plenty of enemies in Korea by speaking his country’s views plainly. Now we know that the best justification he can offer is as light, flavorless, and indigestable as styrofoam, and just as easily...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Geopolitics/North Korea/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD
May 6, 2006

So Much for ‘Ein Volk, Ein Reich.’

Viewed in its historical context, this is only the latest wave of, umm, intercourse between Korea and its neighbors. In the county, with a population of about 25,000, 150 couples were married last year. Forty-four of the marriages were international ones, mostly between Korean men and Southeast Asian women. In other words, about three of 10 Korean men in the county who married last year had foreign brides. Korea’s proud identity of “one blood, one nation” is becoming outdated.

Categories Korean Society
May 5, 2006

The Battle of the Hump, Part 2

They’re ba …. ack! A day after the Defense Ministry forcefully evacuated protesters from an area in Pyeongtaek slated for the relocation of U.S. military installations, about 2,500 activists staged abrupt demonstrations by cutting through the fences built around the site of the future base. About 2,000 protesters from around the nation broke through the police line to seal off the area from outsiders. They marched three hours to join about 500 other protesters who had been scouting in Daechu...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 5, 2006

Had Enough Tokdo Yet?

Time Asia does a spot-on summary, if you can bear it. According to a report by Peter Beck, the Northeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, “One would be hard pressed to find a single Korean over the age of five willing to admit that control of Dokdo does not matter.” By contrast, says Hideshi Takesada, a professor of Korean politics at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies, “most people in Japan have no knowledge of the issue,”...

Categories Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/Unintended Humor/WTF?