The other part of my e-mail to the Human Rights Committee was a complaint. You’d think it subject matter would have been obvious enough from the subject line: Complaint–discrimination based on race and national origin Here, in relevant part, is what it said: I am [my bad; should have said was] an American soldier who spent four years defending your human rights. Today, I am an activist for withdrawing US forces from Korea, and for promoting human rights for North...

I’m hosting, so if you have submissions, send your links to onefreekorea(at)yahoo(dot)com. My arbitrary and capricious deadline is Sunday morning . . . before I crawl to the computer. The earlier you send it, the better the odds I’ll include it.

One of my main criticisms of the South Korean view of engagement is that it’s seldom permitted to include the people of North Korea. It often reaches the South Korean people, of course, but only with a carefully scripted portrayal of the North as benign and neighborly. Most engagement with the North thus far has been South Korean state welfare for the North’s government and government-owned industries. See through the schmaltzy emotionalism of this report of a South Korean singer’s...

In response to an earlier comment, I went and dug up the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and did some analysis. The answer is yes, but with strict conditions that North Korea has not met. I thought the comment worthy of a post on the main page, so I reproduce it, slightly edited, here. ________________ First, I place very little value on what the NPT does and does not allow in a case like this one. What can you say about the...

Take everything you read in this post with extra skepticism, because the reports this week are even less consistent than usual. The main questions this week surround Pyongyang’s claim on a right to “peaceful” nuclear programs. Amid recent signs that the U.S. was ready to cave on that and other issues in the wake of Anti-Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young publicly taking Pyongyang’s side, the U.S. and South Korean positions aren’t exactly manifest. The Chosun Ilbo reports on South Korean Foreign...

Don’t let the entertainment value fool you. This one appears to have been a bust of major significance, which the feds claim “decapitated” one of the largest crime syndicates operating in the United States: The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City. They ended up in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring. Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides...

The EU appears to have given up on negotiating a defiant Iran out of its nukes. Someone tell Dafna Lizner. It’s not the first time Lizner’s anti-Bush drumbeat has been undermined by the Times.

Breakthrough or Cave-In? The AP, via the N.Y. Times, is reporting rumors that all six nations may be prepared to agree in principle on a path toward an eventual peace treaty with North Korea. Even North Korea’s demand for “peaceful” nuclear power–a demand no doubt emboldened by the statements of our former South Korean ally–is described by Chris Hill as “not a show-stopper.” If so–and it’s not so yet–it’s disturbing. One wonders how well we would bear up under similar...

Original Post: “Seoul Asks Pyongyang to Confirm Fate of POWs.” Well, at least they’re finally asking. Update: James Chen e-mails a link to this must-read James Brooke report in the NY Times. Until recently, the former Southern soldiers, bent with age and hard labor in Northern coal mines, were forgotten human footnotes in a deeply divided peninsula. After the end of the Korea War, North Korea tried to ease a labor shortage by secretly holding back thousands of South Korean...

Do Pat Robertson and I actually agree on something? Not yet. Hugo Chavez is clearly a thug, an anachronism, a supporter of terrorists (principally, in Colombia), and a first-class S.O.B. This fall, Gordon Cucullu will publish a book alleging that Chavez is retailing North Korean heroin. That said, I see a vast gulf between how our government should deal with elected leaders and unelected ones. If there is a sanctifying event at which a government becomes legitimate, it’s called “election.”...

Roh will visit Central America in early September, after which he will head North to address the U.N. General Assembly Summit in New York. LiNK will be waiting for him: PROTEST! Roh Moo Hyun and South Korea’s official policy of negligence and silence on North Korea’s vast human rights abuses! South Korea’s President Roh Moo Hyun will be attending a special dinner with President George HW Bush (41) here in New York City. Let’s show the Korean government we do...

Michael Yon’s blog is of greater value in understanding what’s going on in the Iraq battlefield than the aggregate of all other news sources combined. The same goes for my level of interest in his reports and photos, versus the ground-up, churned-out, salted-down press releases that pass for news elsewhere: But then, without even giving the leaders at Deuce Four a head’s up, a typically entralling military press release went out to major, mainstream, media outlets. We all learned of...

Yesterday, a scant five days before his third birthday, my son made a first fateful step that can only lead to a life of elbow-patched tweed jackets, gently used Volvo wagons, and NPR tote bags. ewwwww. Me, to my wife: There’s a mosquito the room. My son, to me: I don’t yike mosquitoes. Me, to my son: I don’t like them either. They bite. My son, to me: I don’t yike mosquito bite. Me, to my son: I’m going to...

NK Siezes Chinese Fishing Boat? Sure, it could be as reported. Then again, there have already been two sea-borne defections near Baekyrong Island this year.

Here’s an amusing interlude to the gallant ride of the VANKyries. They’ve been hacked! Just as an aside, “East Sea” is directly east of one unnaturally divided country (plus a mostly-deserted stretch of Siberian coastline), while there’s only one large sea next to Japan’s home islands. Which is just one more reason why the VANKers should be seen for what they are: small, narrow, hissy minds with too much time on their hands. Update: I wonder how many more cheap...

So much for trying to set a positive atmosphere. According to the report, the United States raised the issue going into the latest round of talks, while South Korea (say it with me) questioned the report. Again, it’s always hard to say what’s going on up North, but any emissions from a chimney at Yongbyon is surely calculated to provoke. All of which shows how unserious the North is here. HT to Won Joon Choe.

Drug addicts in North Korea? So says the DailyNK.

Turnout was almost exactly 100, including media, but not including five of the District’s finest. Most of those present were members of Korean churches in Virginia. The pastors contributed most of the speaking talent there, and some where indeed very talented speakers. Several congressmen contributed statements which were read by various activists in attendance. As with the April protest, I doubt that our efforts inspired a flurry of urgent cables to Comrade Hu. On the other hand, we outnumbered the...