China Cracks Down on Blogs, Arrests Journalist

In its latest measure to tighten policing of the Internet, China has begun requiring bloggers and owners of personal Web sites to register with the government or be forced offline. (Link) I suspect that I get plenty of hits from China, based on the number of “anonymouse” visits I get. If this site has indeed been blocked in Korea, it would represent a new step in the Sinification of Outer Koguryo. Very depressing for the in-laws, who don’t seem to...

You Don’t Say

“Restart of Nuke Talks Is Only First Step” Listening to CSPAN last night, it came out the North Koreans haven’t even set a date–definite or otherwise–for their return. Preconditions? Why, it never came up. And that doesn’t even approach the question of substantive progress. Of all people you wouldn’t have expected to report the best call, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler did: [A] U.S. official familiar with the one-hour meeting [sounds like DiTrani, no?] and two Asian officials briefed by...

China Cracks Down on Blogs, Arrests Journalist

In its latest measure to tighten policing of the Internet, China has begun requiring bloggers and owners of personal Web sites to register with the government or be forced offline. (Link) I suspect that I get plenty of hits from China, based on the number of “anonymouse” visits I get. If this site has indeed been blocked in Korea, it would represent a new step in the Sinification of Outer Koguryo. Very depressing for the in-laws, who don’t seem to...

You Don’t Say

“Restart of Nuke Talks Is Only First Step” Listening to CSPAN last night, it came out the North Koreans haven’t even set a date–definite or otherwise–for their return. Preconditions? Why, it never came up. And that doesn’t even approach the question of substantive progress. Of all people you wouldn’t have expected to report the best call, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler did: [A] U.S. official familiar with the one-hour meeting [sounds like DiTrani, no?] and two Asian officials briefed by...

You Don’t Say

“Restart of Nuke Talks Is Only First Step” Listening to CSPAN last night, it came out the North Koreans haven’t even set a date–definite or otherwise–for their return. Preconditions? Why, it never came up. And that doesn’t even approach the question of substantive progress. Of all people you wouldn’t have expected to report the best call, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler did: [A] U.S. official familiar with the one-hour meeting [sounds like DiTrani, no?] and two Asian officials briefed by...

So Much for Sunshine

Xenophobia, the last refuge of a despot: North Korea is aggressively asserting greater control over domestic and international communications, apparently out of fear the United States could launch a preemptive military strike on the country, two sources with close connections to North Korea have suggested. Starting in April, the sources said Pyongyang blocked 90 percent of its international phone lines to hinder leaks of information to the outside world. Before April, the North operated 970 international phone lines, but the...

A Korean Patriot Risks His Freedom for the Return of His Countrymen

An activist helping South Korean prisoners of war detained in North Korea return to the South said yesterday he does the work because the government does not. Choi Seong-yong, 53, head of an organization called the Abductee Family Assembly, was interviewed yesterday by the JoongAng Ilbo. Mr. Choi said he became involved in his work after his father, a fisherman, was kidnapped to North Korea in 1967. Read the rest on your own. If you missed my recent post on...

111817238641907823

Another reason not to contribute to Amnesty International–the terrorist they asked us to help them free. If they don’t see an obligation to investigate the backgrounds of those whose causes they take up–and to be truthful with their supporters about what they learn–they’re certainly revealing much about themselves. After all, they were certainly uncritical in their acceptance of what captured terrorists and detainees said about the United States.

What G.W. Bush Should Tell Roh Moo-Hyun

Whether you still hope that North Korea will “come back to the table” and wrestle with us in the sticky-but-hardening amber called The Six-Party Talks–or not–your hopes have been raised and dashed–or dashed and raised. I’m in the latter category, having conclusively decided on the unseriousness of negotiations with North Korea sometime around 1992, which I realize is sometime before the negotiations even began. Today, if you haven’t heard, the latest news is that the talks are off again. They’ll...

So Much for Sunshine

Xenophobia, the last refuge of a despot: North Korea is aggressively asserting greater control over domestic and international communications, apparently out of fear the United States could launch a preemptive military strike on the country, two sources with close connections to North Korea have suggested. Starting in April, the sources said Pyongyang blocked 90 percent of its international phone lines to hinder leaks of information to the outside world. Before April, the North operated 970 international phone lines, but the...

A Korean Patriot Risks His Freedom for the Return of His Countrymen

An activist helping South Korean prisoners of war detained in North Korea return to the South said yesterday he does the work because the government does not. Choi Seong-yong, 53, head of an organization called the Abductee Family Assembly, was interviewed yesterday by the JoongAng Ilbo. Mr. Choi said he became involved in his work after his father, a fisherman, was kidnapped to North Korea in 1967. Read the rest on your own. If you missed my recent post on...

111817238641907823

Another reason not to contribute to Amnesty International–the terrorist they asked us to help them free. If they don’t see an obligation to investigate the backgrounds of those whose causes they take up–and to be truthful with their supporters about what they learn–they’re certainly revealing much about themselves. After all, they were certainly uncritical in their acceptance of what captured terrorists and detainees said about the United States.