Today, in what seems to be a coordinated response, the Australians (via Andy Jackson at The Marmot’s Hole) and President Bush’s National Security Advisor have both gone on the record as saying that North Korea will not receive “economic aid” before it disarms. Some translation is necessary here. Recall that the Bush Administration’s position is that it does not use food as a weapon, [corrected: I typoed “does use” before–sorry!] and the United States has long been the top donor...

Your North Korean Kremlinology Fix is here at the IHT, via Choe Sang-Hun.

From the Korea Times: The United States will consider expanding its broadcasts to North Korea and providing literature for its people to learn about the outside world, a U.S. government report said Sunday. The State Department report to Congress said non-governmental organizations have proposed a number of ways to reach the people in North Korea, an isolated communist country. They include expanding Korean-language broadcasting, increasing medium-wave radio broadcasts, and providing radios or other devices capable of receiving foreign broadcasts in...

I think the Nomad said this one best this week, in another context: Just when I think South Korea has run out of NORK ass to kiss – someone, somewhere, proves me wrong. This time, it was no one else but a member of the beloved Unification Ministry (are you surprised?). This time, Chung Dong-Young is actually proposing–post-breakdown–that everyone reconsider North Korea’s newest offer, which appears (lack of details notwithstanding) to be completely irreconcilable with the terms to which it...

Park Jin is running for mayor of Seoul. Although I tend not to be comforted by national leaders who write fad diet books–and I like my dolphin mixed with my tuna, thanks!–compared to his peers, Park has been a stalwart on North Korean human rights and speaking honestly about the threat the North represents. Here is Park’s Web site (ht: The Yangban, who has shown some interest in Park’s future). Some grafs, and they’re a mix, but more good than...

Chosun Ilbo on Hyde Letter. In case you’re interested in reading half as much information a week later. . . . And no, I don’t think that’s a garbled reference to this site. If you want to read the full text, just click. Update 11/15: Suddenly, I realize how much we are going to miss House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde when he retires, and how essential it is that the next chairman be of similar caliber (in other...

Hostile Policy Update: Just in case this didn’t get your attention, Pyongyang is reenforcing the message: Nine North Korean fishing boats and one patrol boat crossed early Sunday morning into South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea, but returned to the North after the South Korean Navy’s warning, the military said. After the fishing boats sailed over the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas on the Yellow Sea, between 2:30 a.m. and 5...

This must be the first time American television has dealt with the subject of human rights in North Korea seriously, and if the people of this country ever awaken to how ghastly things have really become in the North today, this documentary will be a landmark in that process. Indeed, it even surpasses the BBC’s “Access to Evil” in its focus on the everyday hazards and humiliation of life for ordinary people. Unlike claims about gas chambers that may wait...

[Update: I changed the time stamp on this post because it was written to segue from the post on the CNN docu.] Meanwhile, the flower of South Korean youth continue to do nearly nothing to help their brothers in the North. Unification makes a great chant at a soccer game, but let’s not rush it, k? For now, they’re filling the streets over a visit by President Bush, who is as firmly linked to that amorphous bogeyman called “globalization” as...

Ethan Epstein’s Blog: Another blogger signs up for Kim Jong Il’s shit list! Please welcome Ethan Epstein. You can read some of his writing on North Korea here, here, here, here, and here.

Maybe my prayers have finally been answered. Maybe we’ve finally realized giving the screaming baby lollipops only begets more screaming. For whatever reason, the talks have broken up almost as soon as they began, and not even the South Koreans can put a positive spin on this one: [A]n official close to the South Korean delegation said, “Everything considered, it looks like a resumption this year will be difficult. The fresh round only lasted three days and was largely taken...

LiNK Newsletter: If you want your own free copy by e-mail, e-mail info@linkglobal.org. The information in there is not just interesting, it’s well-written and fun to read. I’d actually link it if I had the url; can anyone help? Kumar?

Or at least, that’s what you’d have to conclude on reading this latest dispatch from The Washington Times’s Inside the Beltway column. As I’d hoped, Rep. Curt Weldon, North Korea’s favorite Congressman and (follow that last link if you doubt me here) an accomplished bomb-thrower, was duly humiliated by the fact that his “diplomatic” guest engaged in the kind of behavior that would have gotten any ordinary voter restrained from going within ten blocks of the Capitol. Now, Weldon–who I...

Update: Added larger images. Scroll down. Better?

This had already become the most interesting crime story all year, and then I saw this: A federal grand jury indicted two men Wednesday for allegedly conspiring to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the United States for use abroad. Such missiles are designed to bring down aircraft. The U.S. attorney’s office said the charges marked the first time a 2004 anti-terrorism law has been used. The law calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years and the possibility of life...

Freedom House invites you to attend our second international conference on North Korean Human Rights entitled, The Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea, to be held on December 8-10, 2005 at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, Korea. [Link] The Seoul Summit is shaping up to be the most exciting and important meeting to press for the improvement of North Korean human rights. We expect to bring together an outstanding group of individuals, NGOs, religious leaders, government and civic...

Since I’ve been experiencing some of the busiest weeks in my professional life lately, I haven’t been able to sneak out of the office to attend hearings, but there are two interesting highlights to report. The first is the latest House hearing, which took place October 27th, covering the U.S. government’s implementation of the N.K. Human Rights Act. Here is a link to all of the testimony, which I freely admit I haven’t the time to review in full. Still,...

Setting Korea Free: U. of Hawaii Professor Rudy Rummel and I discuss how to do it on his blog, a deeply cerebral journal of the war between freedom and slavery. Rudy’s benevolent militancy is very much to my own taste. He is the only academic I know who lusts for the opportunity to refuse power and devolve it unto individuals.