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Banco Delta Sanctions ‘Severe Blow’ to NK Economy

The Chosun Ilbo, relaying an AWSJ story, reports that the Treasury Department’s action against the Macau-based bank “dealt a severe blow to the secretive country,” “dried up its financial system,” and “brought foreign trade virtually to an end.” In December, I noted reports that North Korean front companies and spies were fleeing Macau en masse. According to today’s story, Banco Delta has now announced that it’s ending its financial ties with North Korea in an effort to prevent a run...

Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/U.S. Law/Uncategorized

Is China Sending Its Goon Squads to America?

Read and decide for yourself. The evidence seems pretty underdeveloped so far, but the matter certainly merits a thorough investigation.

Censorship/China

Defector: NK Cheerleaders Sent to Gulag

Who recalls the days when South Korea’s faith in reunification bordered on an obession – a religion, perhaps? Nothing was more telling of the North Korean regime’s success at self-popularization in the South than the public swooning over a squad of North Korean cheerleaders, despite all the procrustean, regimented eeriness surrounding them. Let’s look back at that time: This bustling South Korean port bid an emotional farewell Tuesday to a North Korean cheering squad whose presence at the Asian Games,...

Appeasement/Defectors/Human Rights/Inside NK/Korean Politics/Korean Society/North Korea

Say It With Me: I Love My Work

It’s been eons since I read writing this quaint: Officers in Virginia’s Spotsylvania County plumbed for full immersion, posing as customers and enjoying the establishments’ services in their quest for incontrovertible evidence. Whoever wrote this clearly approached his English hagwon studies with equal focus. Simply precious.

Humor/Satire/WTF?

Vershbow: I’ll Believe It When I See the Plates

The U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, is taking the fight back to “enemy” territory, as predicted. In an interview with OhMyNews, Vershow responded to North Korean comments that some have interpreted as North Korean flexibility on counterfeiting. Vershbow is obviously familiar with North Korea’s track record, because he wants more tangible proof that North Korea is capable of sincerity and good faith: The U.S. ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said yesterday that Pyongyang must show some “convincing evidence” that...

Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized

Members of China’s Elite Denounce Censorship

[Updated 2/16; scroll down] This looks like very good news for China: A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country’s most powerful newspapers, have denounced the recent closing of a prominent news journal, helping to fuel a growing backlash against censorship. The trigger for the protest letter, which was leaked to journalists, was the closing of a Chinese newspaper...

Censorship/China

U.S. Moves Toward Regime Change Policy in Iran

No, the State Department isn’t using those words, but it’s asking for $85M for broadcasts and for unnamed dissident groups: “We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,” Ms. Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists.” . . . . The American aid announced by Ms. Rice is to include $25 million to...

Iran/Resistance/Uncategorized/WMD

NK ‘Spokesman’: We Have ICBMs!

Today’s WTF headline is this piece of work by Kim Myong Chol, North Korea’s unofficial and unmedicated spokesman in Japan. The real torment of this piece is the difficulty of deciding which of the choicest cuts to serve you: Three factors make North Korea unique. The first is possession of a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing retaliatory nuclear strikes on the US mainland. Second, the North Koreans still torment the Americans as a result of their...

Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Asia/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WTF?

Stranger Than Fiction: The Pyongyang Charm School

Everyone is ashamed of something in his past. High on my own list is the time my brother persuaded me to read “The Charm School,” a Nelson Demille spy novel. The plot premise was that Moscow took custody American MIA’s from North Viet Nam to create a “charm school,” an exact replica of an American neighborhood, complete with American residents. The idea was to immerse Soviet sleeper agents into their next work assignments. Unlike some other aspects of life in...

Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Japan/Japan & Korea/North Korea/Southeast Asia/WTF?

Kim Jong Chol Reported Sidelined as Successor

Today’s WTF News comes courtesy of the Donga Ilbo, which reports that Kim Jong Chol, previously named as the likely heir to Kim Jong Il, has been sidelined in the succession struggle. Kim Jong Chul (photo), the 25-year-old second son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his most likely heir, is reportedly suffering from a medical hormone problem, and there is speculation that he may have lost his spot in the country’s succession hierarchy. . . . ....

Kremlinology/North Korea/WTF?

Korean Teachers’ Union Gets Some Competition

You may recall how the KTU recently made itself famous in the Korea blogosphere: its “What a Wonderful World” video for the APEC Summit. This led, in part, to an acrimonious controversy over education reform and a silly GNP boycott of the National Assembly. On a somwhat more productive front, tt also led to the formation of an upstart rival: The Korean Liberal Teachers Union, established last month by teachers opposed to the educational direction of the left-leaning workers union,...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Education/Korean Politics/Korean Society

From ‘War Criminal’ to Tourist Attraction?

You may recall the recent controveries over the MacArthur statute in Incheon. The latest news is more mundane.

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Society

For Now, An Uncensored Portal for China

If you’ve been bummed about both Yahoo and Google helping China censor their Chinese-language internet portals, there’s good news (via Rebecca MacKinnon): AOL has launched its own Chinese-language portal. Rebecca reports: I can confirm: the search engine on this portal is uncensored. Searches for “Falun Gong” and “Tiananmen Square Massacre” turn up the full range of results from dissident and human rights websites. I can also report that according to my friends in China, so far the AOL Chinese portal...

Asia/Censorship/China