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...

The American Enterprise Institute’s Nicholas Eberstadt is unimpressed with the latest round of six-party talks with North Korea. After thirteen months of pining for this dead parrot, we returned to the talks to hear an intentionally obtuse new set of North Korean demands–including demands to abrogate our alliance with South Korea (something that we’d more likely do without North Korea getting mixed up in the matter), and to let North Korea keep its reactors for “peaceful” uses. In fact, Eberstadt...

Korean here.

The deconstruction of the South Korean Human Rights Commission continues in the wake of veteran Korea hand Don Kirk’s report that the HRC supports tearing down the General MacArthur statue in Incheon. I have no reason to believe that Kirk would get something this important wrong, but commenter Antti and The Marmot declare themselves incredulous, in part because the HRC didn’t publish a formal statement. [Update 8/14: Kirk and the CSM have corrected the story to reflect that the HRC...

Warning: Following this link and viewing these pictures may cause misconceptions.

The Chosun Ilbo asks why the United States is offering its limited support for nuclear programs in Iran and India, both of which are on the IAEA’s bad boy list, while refusing to allow North Korea any “peaceful” uses of nuclear energy. The headline suggests a code-yellow stupidity alert, but the article turns out to be a fair analysis, if already outdated by events. Confronting the question requires us to suspend all memory of events taking place in North Korea...

Fatal beauty.

Wolf Blitzer, Dumbass. One group that could stand to hire more veterans is the news business. You would think that military experience would be an important qualification for a journalist assigned to cover a war. Lacking that, how is it that CNN has the budget to hire asshats like James Carville and Robert Novak, but apparently can’t afford anyone to teach CTT to reporters who have successfully mastered the journalism programs of America’s top colleges?

[Update: Scroll down and read the updates. Mr. Kirk and the CSM have corrected the story to reflect that the HRC did not actually take such a position. Kirk appear to have quoted the complaint, believing it was the HRC’s own position. Thanks to readers Antti and Aaron for asking the specific questions that caused me to contact Don Kirk and ask him for verification. ] When my wife first showed me the the comments of Prof. Kang Jeong-Ju, South...

Post-Mortem on the Six-Party Talks: My synopsis is here, at NKZone.

The BBC reported the inevitable conclusion on Saturday, Washington time: Talks on North Korea’s nuclear plans are due to go into recess on Sunday for two weeks, China’s Xinhua news agency quotes a Russian official as saying. Chief negotiator Alexander Alexeyev said the talks would break up after a plenary session on Sunday morning. The North continues to deny US reports of a uranium-based capability. Three previous rounds of talks have ended in failure, but this fourth round has gone...

The South Koreans are asking to take jurisdiction over a soldier involved in a recent fatal traffic accident that killed a 51 year-old Korean woman pushing a yogurt cart along a street. All available evidence suggests that the death, tragic as it may have been, was accidental. The soldier was driving an Army truck, and presumably was on duty at the time. Under the U.S.-Korea Status of Forces Agreement, Article XXII, para. 3(a)(iii), the U.S. military has primary jurisdiction over...

The Silencing of Hong Kong has begun in earnest.

Whenever you read that the World Food Program is calling a situation a “food crisis” or “food shortage,” bear in mind that this is how they described the North Korean famine while millions were starving, out of a fear of offending the “host” nation. The reasons for this food shortage, incipient famine, whatever, are also analogous: Mr Morris said the government’s policy of trying to control the economy and the movement of people was to blame for the fact that...

Talks Update: The BBC says “near deadlock.” I don’t know how one concludes that they’re not already deadlocked; “near breakdown” might be more accurate.

It’s bad news if you hold hope in negotiating an easy deal with North Korea, better news if you see North Korea’s self-isolation as a better outcome for the present: BEIJING, Aug. 4 – Negotiators on the North Korean nuclear program decided today to meet for at least one more day in hopes of breaking a deadlock with North Korea, even as discussions began about what might be salvaged if this round of talks ends without an agreement. The outcome...