As predicted, the truth of what took place during the Bush-Roh meeting is starting to leak out from behind the U.S. and Korean governments’ message machine. The “left” faction of Uri, as represented by Anti-Unification Minister (of Silly Talks) Chung Dong-Young, appears to want a do-over, and Chung has stepped up and declared himself the man for the job. Seoul’s most pliable man is now on his way to Washington to bring fresh tidings of the reformed man formerly known...

More required reading from Jasper Becker. Thanks to Norbert Vollertsen for the hat tip. What is this nagging inconsistency about the region’s North Korea diplomacy? Becker articulates: Anyone proposing to offer Kim cast-iron security guarantees and unconditional aid thus has to engage in a kind of “double think.” They must ignore their better instincts in order to justify engaging him and simultaneously believe that, given his track record, he is capable of unleashing nuclear weapons. Chinese diplomats routinely claim that...

This is your must-reading of the day. Nicholas Eberstadt has a new piece out in The Weekly Standard. Here’s a sample. Not far from Seoul–maybe a half hour’s journey north, by jet plane–an untold number of terrified Koreans are hiding in a foreign land, engaged in a grave and uncertain struggle for survival. . . . These wretched vagabonds–most of them women and children–are escapees from North Korea. They have crossed the Yalu and the Tumen into China in tiny...

This is your must-reading of the day. Nicholas Eberstadt has a new piece out in The Weekly Standard. Here’s a sample. Not far from Seoul–maybe a half hour’s journey north, by jet plane–an untold number of terrified Koreans are hiding in a foreign land, engaged in a grave and uncertain struggle for survival. . . . These wretched vagabonds–most of them women and children–are escapees from North Korea. They have crossed the Yalu and the Tumen into China in tiny...

The Midland Ministerial Alliance is not really a newcomer to the movement for human rights in North Korea, but the journey of a group of them to Seoul–and to the center of the spotlight–is. They have proven their influence over President Bush on Sudan, and they are shifting their focus to North Korea. Perhaps that explains why the South Korean government agreed to meet with them. What I wouldn’t give to see the discomfort in that room. Members of the...

So says the Sankei Shinmun, apparently via U.S. intelligence agencies. Insert your own disclaimers. At issue is technology used in cruise missiles known as Kh-55s that Ukraine exported to Iran in 2001 under former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, the Sankei Shimbun daily said, quoting Japanese government and ruling party sources. “They are linked by a network beneath the surface regarding the development of weapons of mass destruction,” Sankei quoted a Defense Ministry source as saying about Iran and North Korea....

ABC News reports that an entire family has sailed to South Korea. It’s the second sea-borne defection in a week, and doesn’t include last week’s defection through the wire at the DMZ: A couple and their nine-year-old son defected from famine-hit North Korea by boat on Sunday and were being questioned on South Korea’s western island of Baekryong, the military said. The South Korean navy picked up the 42-year-old man, identified as Hong, his 39-year-old wife and their son after...

The only interesting graf from Dafna Lizner’s latest in the Washington Post consists of a scrap that fell off the WSJ’s table. Otherwise, the woman can’t get through a single paragraph without a gratuitous editorial comment. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the White House is planning to pursue the assets of companies that are believed to be aiding the weapons or nuclear programs in North Korea, Iran and Syria. A thousand curses on the WSJ for requiring registration...

Thanks to Dan at tdaxp for forwarding the link. Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state. This scene, of police confiscating...

The Midland Ministerial Alliance is not really a newcomer to the movement for human rights in North Korea, but the journey of a group of them to Seoul–and to the center of the spotlight–is. They have proven their influence over President Bush on Sudan, and they are shifting their focus to North Korea. Perhaps that explains why the South Korean government agreed to meet with them. What I wouldn’t give to see the discomfort in that room. Members of the...

The Midland Ministerial Alliance is not really a newcomer to the movement for human rights in North Korea, but the journey of a group of them to Seoul–and to the center of the spotlight–is. They have proven their influence over President Bush on Sudan, and they are shifting their focus to North Korea. Perhaps that explains why the South Korean government agreed to meet with them. What I wouldn’t give to see the discomfort in that room. Members of the...

So says the Sankei Shinmun, apparently via U.S. intelligence agencies. Insert your own disclaimers. At issue is technology used in cruise missiles known as Kh-55s that Ukraine exported to Iran in 2001 under former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, the Sankei Shimbun daily said, quoting Japanese government and ruling party sources. “They are linked by a network beneath the surface regarding the development of weapons of mass destruction,” Sankei quoted a Defense Ministry source as saying about Iran and North Korea....

ABC News reports that an entire family has sailed to South Korea. It’s the second sea-borne defection in a week, and doesn’t include last week’s defection through the wire at the DMZ: A couple and their nine-year-old son defected from famine-hit North Korea by boat on Sunday and were being questioned on South Korea’s western island of Baekryong, the military said. The South Korean navy picked up the 42-year-old man, identified as Hong, his 39-year-old wife and their son after...

The only interesting graf from Dafna Lizner’s latest in the Washington Post consists of a scrap that fell off the WSJ’s table. Otherwise, the woman can’t get through a single paragraph without a gratuitous editorial comment. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the White House is planning to pursue the assets of companies that are believed to be aiding the weapons or nuclear programs in North Korea, Iran and Syria. A thousand curses on the WSJ for requiring registration...

The only interesting graf from Dafna Lizner’s latest in the Washington Post consists of a scrap that fell off the WSJ’s table. Otherwise, the woman can’t get through a single paragraph without a gratuitous editorial comment. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the White House is planning to pursue the assets of companies that are believed to be aiding the weapons or nuclear programs in North Korea, Iran and Syria. A thousand curses on the WSJ for requiring registration...

Thanks to Dan at tdaxp for forwarding the link. Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state. This scene, of police confiscating...

Thanks to Dan at tdaxp for forwarding the link. Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state. This scene, of police confiscating...

I’m feeling optimistic today because the hardest-line of two hard-line candidates (the one wanted for murder in more countries than the other) prevailed in the patent sham that the Iranian mullahs call an “election.” Having said that, I suppose I should explain myself. Does anyone really still believe that any candidate the Guardian Council would have allowed onto the Iranian ballot was amenable to real reform? That should have been the lesson of the Khatami presidency, which proved itself both...