The ROK National Assembly has rejected “strategic flexibility” for the USFK, thereby depriving the Pentagon of any basis for a USFK budget request for FY’08. Seriously. Why appropriate funds for a part of your military that you can’t even use?

Amidst all the shouting over North Korea’s counterfeiting and denials thereof, and how it could all spoil our six-party warm fuzzies, one can almost forget that North Korea still denies even having a uranium enrichment program. Some apologists continue to buy into the North Korean version in spite of evidence proving the contrary beyond any reasonable doubt. Richardson patiently, methodically delivers a lethal fisking to Tim Beal.

Answering thuggishness with masochism. It makes me feel ill. (Original Post here, where I asked whether Europe can defend its liberal values.) Update: The Big Hominid gives us 100% fatwa fearless parodies. When the milk stops coming out of your nose, read this. Kevin’s take on the Great Cartoon War of 2006 may be the best I’ve seen anywhere on the blogosphere. Update 2: At last! Intelligent life!

A tip of my hat to the Nomad for pointing out this series in the World Peace Herald, which I’m obliged to point out was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung-Moon. The Rev. Moon, as regular readers know, has gone from uncompromising right-wing cold warrior to being one of Kim Jong Il’s favorite investors. Moon purchased a large parcel of land near Pyongyang for his own personal Vatican (fourth item) and even signed a deal to build a ski resort...

Spotted in Seoul: Brack Power condoms! Found at the photo album of Newley Purnell.

South Korea’s intel chief is wrestling with the fact that even his own agency has previously found that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S. currency. As I predicted, fear of offending Kim Jong Il triumphs over facts that not even the puppetmasters in Beijing can deny. Seoul is now back to pretending not to be sure.

North Korea is accusing the United States of nuclear proliferation.

Although I’m a fan of departing USFK Commanding General Leon LaPorte, I think he’s fallen victim to the bureaucratic tendency to preserve and expand one’s own organization while missing the fact that the same tendency may work against the whole government’s greater good: The outgoing commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, Gen. Leon LaPorte, on Friday called on supporters of the Korea-U.S. alliance to speak out. LaPorte warned the alliance faces difficulties ahead in both countries from those who think...

I’ll just let you read this entire piece and ponder the following: How long will Sin Gwang Su be treated like a hero in Pyongyang, now that the word is out that he fingered the Dear Leader himself under questioning? How forthcoming were the South Koreans with this information? Have the North Koreans admitted to abducting this poor soul? Sin entered Japan in a spy ship on the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture in April 1980 and kidnapped Hara, who was...

The low characters of the Muslim world are rioting and burning while their statist overlords quietly applaud, titter, and observe from their balconies. In response to cartoons drawn by Danish artists, printed in a Danish newspapers distributed in Denmark, and as a protest against the very portrayals of Islam (and its prophet) the defenders of the faith set out with such determination to reinforce. . . . Caricature (ht Gaijin Biker): Reality (ht Small Wars Journal): The charicature is relative...

It never ceases to astonish me how many sober-minded people in Washington see no alternative but to wait around for China to force North Korea to reform and disarm, if only marginally. My response to that idea has always been a less precise version of what the ICG reports here: China’s influence on North Korea is more than it is willing to admit but far less than outsiders tend to believe. Although it shares the international community’s denuclearisation goal, it...

Andy Jackson, a/k/a The Flying Yangban (and OFK co-blogger) is now a dad. More pictures of the littlest Yangban here. We eagerly await a similar announcement from Brendan Brown.

Via the excellent Suburban Dissident blog, here’s the newest detailed report on the food situation in the North. The executive summary is that even accepting North Korean estimates of an improved harvest, it’s dramatically insufficient. . . . North Korea’s grain production rose 5.3 per cent to 4.54 million tonnes in 2005, helped by better harvests and fertilizer shipments from South Korea, South Korean data showed today. The 2005 harvest was still far short of the impoverished country’s annual demand,...

Yeah, admittedly this is geostrategery from a 19 year-old girl, but how functionally distinguishable is that from the Korean government’s policy? Said government is now removing the anti-tank barriers that ring the northern edge of Seoul, and which had been one of the only uncongested kill zones impeding an unlikely-but-still-not-unthinkable North Korean armored advance.

Incredibly, the National Human Rights Commission is saying it will do exactly that, specifically citing the constitutional provision conferring citizenship on North Koreans. There is a loophole. Sort of: “It is impossible for Seoul to exercise jurisdiction over North Koreans residing in North Korea or in a third country, but if a North Korean has his human rights violated by a ROK national agency in a third country, he may file a petition with the NHRC. It also added, “Though...

This SFGate article is completely unremarkable for those familiar with how things are in North Korea, up until the very end of the story: Even government officials privately say things need to change in North Korea. “I say I don’t believe in God, but every day I pray to God for change,” said a North Korean who requested anonymity. “I hope God is more powerful than those who don’t want any change.”

The document discussed the developing U.S. doctrine of “strategic flexibility.” The leaker is still unidentified, and plumbers have been called. With the number of Korean leaks of sensitive documents recently, it’s hard to be shocked about this. There’s almost the appearance of a policy of leaks as a negotiating tactic.