Search Results for: Lankov

CALL ME OLD FASHIONED–it’s fine, really, I’m used to it–but I fail to see what’s so hard-line about the idea, most recently advanced by John McCain, that restarting six-party talks ought to be contingent on North Korea demonstrating its seriousness about disarming, such as by beginning to disarm. That’s pretty much the same view the Obama Administration had stated publicly, although it seems necessary to clarify it when North Korea has, more times than I could count, said it will never give up its nukes, when...

LEVI AMMUNDSEN IS BIKING ACROSS NORTH AMERICA to raise awareness about human rights in North Korea. Ammundsen attributes his inspiration to Blaine Harden’s “Escape from Camp 14.” —————————————— MICHAEL TOTTEN watches the ascendancy of the Salafists from Syria’s formerly non-violent, pro-democratic protest movement and concludes, “I’d like to sketch a plausible endgame for Syria that isn’t horrifying, but it gets harder and harder each month.” I’d add that the longer it takes us to identify and empower the least offensive...

ON THURSDAY, I HAD DINNER WITH ANDREI LANKOV, which gave me the opportunity to rib him personally about his statement that Mickey Mouse shows “are by no means trivial.”  We don’t agree about that, but as usual, we found plenty of other things to agree about.  For one, we agreed that the food supply is a significant tool of control, so significant agricultural reforms would be meaningful to the North Korean people (we agreed to wait until spring to see what evidence...

WHEN I WAS A KID, I LOVED HIKING IN THE DESERT.  I remember seeing those great pools of blue water on scorching July days and thinking of how good the water would taste and feel, especially as I watched them recede and vanish as I got closer to them.  North Korea watching is another vocation where sensible folk must train themselves not to chase mirages: Many of the changes appear purely symbolic at first glance ? like, for instance, the...

I’D LIKE TO BELIEVE THIS: An underground, democratic movement is active inside North Korea, a human rights advocate claimed Monday, surprising many observers skeptical that any organized opposition could exist in one of the world’s most secretive, totalitarian states. Kim Young-hwan said he and three other South Korean activists were arrested in Dandong, China, near the North Korean border, on March 29 after they met with North Korean dissidents who had slipped into China. The North Koreans were later deported...

COMMS CHECK:  Some of you are reporting difficulty accessing this site, particularly from South Korea, and my visitors’ log agrees.  I suspect shenanigans, and I’ve been in contact with my ISP, but I’ve just been too busy to pursue the problem.  If you’re reading anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region, I’d be interested in hearing whether you can access this site. —————————————- THIS TIME, THE WOLF IS REAL — HONEST!  I don’t doubt that this is an exceptionally dry year in...

Several weeks ago, I blogged about the North Korean manager of a restaurant in Nepal who absconded with the till and defected. The Chosun Ilbo has several interesting updates to that story, including the fact this turns out to have been just one of two such restaurants in Kathmandu, that the manager has arrived in South Korea, and that Nepal has released the South Koreans who helped arrange the defection. Then there is this illustration of how small changes in...