The Chosun Ilbo has an interesting piece on the subject. I’m not among those who would try to minimize the cost, although the estimates I’ve read are so diverse that it’s impossible to come up with a statistically significant average. Some have estimated that it would cost a trillion dollars. Others have suggested that the Korean “peace dividend” would pay for it, which I think is simply wrong. Reuinification will mean a dramatic deterioration in security over the short-term, as...

They will never rest in peace. Christopher Hitchens recently grabbed me when he spoke of those who would “ventriloquize” the dead for their own purposes. Do you suppose these two girls ever imagined, or wanted, to become icons for emotional manipulation in the service of repression? It’s always tragic, of course, when a life lasts for so many fewer years than it should; sadder still when that loss was both preventable and mostly unmourned. It isn’t my intent to ventriloquize...

The Human Rights Commission is calling on the cops to read people a Miranda warning at the time of an arrest. I realize what an extraordinary reach of activism it is to suggest that the Korean legal system should recognize the precedental authority of a case decided in a foreign court decades ago, so overlook the flimsiness of it on legal grounds. From the few Korean appellate opinions I’ve read, the concepts of judicial restraint, rules of statutory construction, and...

Kaesong Update: The Commerce Department is mulling over a South Korean request to move high-tech communications gear into North Korea. Given North Korea’s awful record on proliferation and dual use misuse, its lack of transparency, and its intransigence in disarmament talks, this would seem to be an easy decision.

“My heart feels like it’s going to burst when I think that you’ve left your family to come to see me,” Ms. Kim said. “I wish I could see my grandchildren and daughter in law before I die.”According to Unification Ministry, 486 South Korean civilians abducted to North Korea since the Korean War are still alive in the communist country “• 435 of them were fishermen.

August 15, 2005, a date on which more bullshit flowed than one snarky blogger could possibly step around, so I’ll let the stories pretty much speak for themselves. In case you’re new here, this is the anniversary of the date on which American soldiers–supported by Russian invaders further north–entered Seoul before passing the reigns of government to the Koreans themselves. Yes, things could have been faster and smoother, and Korea’s first rulers were certainly not Jeffersonian democrats, but what’s most...

The following bloggers report that they’ve been blocked in Korea: The Asia Pages, The Big Hominid, and The Lost Nomad. Simon World claims it affects both Blogger and Typepad, which would seem to affect both this site and NKZone. Some commenters on these sites report being able to load the pages, but I’m not sure who’s in Korea, and who’s on or off-post. Readers in Korea, can you read me? What an Orwellian way that would be to celebrate one’s...

My deepest thanks to Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute for agreeing to a telephone interview. Eberstadt is one of Washington’s most highly regarded Korea experts. The interview ended up lasting a full hour. Nothing has been edited out, although I missed a word here and there because I’m not a stenographer. Still, this is pretty close to a verbatim transcript; Nick Eberstadt is one of those rare individuals who speaks in complete sentences. All comments in brackets and...

My deepest thanks to Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute for agreeing to a telephone interview for OFK readers. Eberstadt is one of Washington’s most highly regarded Korea experts. The interview ended up lasting a full hour. Nothing has been edited out save one abortive “I don’t know” answer, although I may have I missed a few words because I’m no stenographer. Still, this is pretty close to a verbatim transcript. Nick Eberstadt is one of those rare individuals...

The Chosun Ilbo recently made the grave mistake of commissioning a survey of young citizens’ attitudes to commemorate the 60th anniversary of independence from Japan. The Chosun deserves credit for reporting the distressing results rather than burying them, but the factual basis for some of its analysis is not evident to the reader: The survey by Gallup Korea of 833 individuals born between 1980 and 1989 also found a marked shift in attitude to North Korea and the South’s traditional...

The online version of the Christian Science Monitor story, which originally stated that South Korea’s Human Rights Commission had endorsed calls to tear down MacArthur’s statue in Incheon, has been corrected: A complaint filed with the quasi-governmental National Human Rights Commission, which is reviewing the statue controversy, condemns MacArthur as “a war criminal who massacred numerous civilians.” The complaint adds, “To induce or force children to respect such a person by erecting a statue of him and teaching them that...

Representative Kim Moon-soo is only in his third term in the National Assembly, something that might have deterred an American couterpart from putting forth so bold a proposal on the most important issue of South Korean diplomacy, economics, politics, and nationhood. Just twenty-nine fellow lawmakers, all from the Grand National Party, co-sponsored his new North Korea human rights bill, suggesting that the GNP leadership continues to suffer some discomfort at Kim Moon-Soo’s brash confrontation of a sensitive and still unpopular...

Kim Moon-Soo is the man who may yet break the drought that has fallen on the bleak political landscape of South Korea, one that for too long seemed to have been divided between opportunistic appeasers and opportunistic reactionaries, each with its own dubious connections to Korean dictatorships that the nation’s history will not view kindly. Charismatic, fiery, and proficient in the use of new media, Kim has emerged as the standard-bearer of the New Right, a new political grouping largely...

I had a long post ready to go on OFK reader and contributor Won-Joon Choe’s new piece in the Christian Science Monitor (with co-author Jack Kim), but Blogger ate the entire entry, and I don’t have the time to rebuild it. It deals mainly with their thoughts on why South Korea doesn’t really mind the idea of a nuclear North Korea–its faith in reunification and belief that even a North Korean nuke is a Korean nuke. They lay responsibility for...

I don’t have one, for reasons I’ll be able to explain later. For now, don’t assume the HRC’s position is as reported.

South Korea’s Minister of Silly Talks, Chung Dong-Young, has opened his mouth again, an occurrence that never seems to end well. This time, he’s left no doubt that South Korea and the United States are much further apart on their positions on North Korean nukes than one would except of nominal allies: Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Wednesday North Korea must have the right to use nuclear energy peacefully for agricultural, medical and power-generation purposes. Chung told the online news...

From the Chosun Ilbo: Chun Man-kyu (49), the head of the residents’ committee, said, “Friday will be a historic day when half a century of shooting at Maehyang-ni stops… The yellow target-practice flag that symbolizes the pain and hurt of residents will disappear and the flag of peace will be hoisted.” Interestingly, Korean Army gunnery ranges appear to lack the same spiritual importance, which is fine, since troops who can’t hit anything aren’t much good in the event of war....

I’ve previously blogged about Deborah Fikes here, and about meeting and talking with her at the Freedom House Conference, here. Now, the New York Times has discovered her Midland Ministerial Alliance, which put on what appears to have been a very substantial event to publicize the same human rights issue that the Times has been ignoring for the most part. As with Nick Kristof’s recent piece, the article manages the difficult balancing act of being both patronizing and envious of...