A Conveniently Forgotten Outrage: Contrast Japan’s popular fury over the abduction of its citizens with the vast collective yawn that is the South Korean reaction to stories like this.

Cho Se-Hyon in the Korea Herald: There is a saying that the only effective medicine for a mad dog is a good beating with a stick. It is about time, I believe, to give Kim Jong-il a good thrashing, that is to say, stiff economic sanctions, instead of offering a carrot or a sugar cube, if you like, for another lease on life.

Containing China. Another setback for the Peoples’ Co-Prosperity Sphere: China issued a stiff protest Sunday over an updated U.S.-Japanese strategic agreement, saying its reference to Taiwan violates China’s national sovereignty and its criticism of China’s military buildup is “untenable.” The strategic importance of Japan is fairly obvious from this map. Note the extension of the Ryukyu Islands all the way to Taiwan, something most maps of Japan simply truncate. In actual fact, Japan fences off half of China from the...

If you don’t know why the resignation of Lewd Rubbers Ruud Lubbers as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is good news for the people of North Korea, then read this. My only regret is that he wasn’t fired for dereliction of duty. Whatever.

This certainly looks like good news. Yes, Lebanon is a volatile place riven by religious and tribal factionalism, but it seems that nothing unites factions like a common enemy. The old canard of using Israel and the United States appears to have lost its appeal; Syria is the new object of popular enmity despite its best efforts to blame the usual scapegoats. Today, Beirut’s streets are filled with Christian, Muslim, and Druze protestors calling for Syrian withdrawal. Only Hezbollah supports...

anti-Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young says that Seoul will continue to give the North Korean regime aid, no matter what its behavior regarding the nuclear talks. In other words, to hell with the United States and everyone else.

A Conveniently Forgotten Outrage: Contrast Japan’s popular fury over the abduction of its citizens with the vast collective yawn that is the South Korean reaction to stories like this.

Cho Se-Hyon in the Korea Herald: There is a saying that the only effective medicine for a mad dog is a good beating with a stick. It is about time, I believe, to give Kim Jong-il a good thrashing, that is to say, stiff economic sanctions, instead of offering a carrot or a sugar cube, if you like, for another lease on life.

Containing China. Another setback for the Peoples’ Co-Prosperity Sphere: China issued a stiff protest Sunday over an updated U.S.-Japanese strategic agreement, saying its reference to Taiwan violates China’s national sovereignty and its criticism of China’s military buildup is “untenable.” The strategic importance of Japan is fairly obvious from this map. Note the extension of the Ryukyu Islands all the way to Taiwan, something most maps of Japan simply truncate. In actual fact, Japan fences off half of China from the...

If you don’t know why the resignation of Lewd Rubbers Ruud Lubbers as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is good news for the people of North Korea, then read this. My only regret is that he wasn’t fired for dereliction of duty. Whatever.

If you don’t know why the resignation of Lewd Rubbers Ruud Lubbers as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is good news for the people of North Korea, then read this. My only regret is that he wasn’t fired for dereliction of duty. Whatever.

This certainly looks like good news. Yes, Lebanon is a volatile place riven by religious and tribal factionalism, but it seems that nothing unites factions like a common enemy. The old canard of using Israel and the United States appears to have lost its appeal; Syria is the new object of popular enmity despite its best efforts to blame the usual scapegoats. Today, Beirut’s streets are filled with Christian, Muslim, and Druze protestors calling for Syrian withdrawal. Only Hezbollah supports...

Remember reunification–the dream of all Koreans? That’s soooo last week. Have a look at what OhMyNews is printing now— Regime change in North Korea would mean the disappearance of the country itself. North Korean statehood as such would be finished, as South Korea could not possibly accept any new separate power in North Korea formed “on the local base”. Such a new power constellation is anyway highly unlikely, simply because there is no human potential for it in the North...

Remember reunification–the dream of all Koreans? That’s soooo last week. Have a look at what OhMyNews is printing now— Regime change in North Korea would mean the disappearance of the country itself. North Korean statehood as such would be finished, as South Korea could not possibly accept any new separate power in North Korea formed “on the local base”. Such a new power constellation is anyway highly unlikely, simply because there is no human potential for it in the North...

More bad news for press freedom in South Korea. The woman slated to become the new presidential secretary for public information apparently thinks one of the ways the government should advance its agenda is to favor sychophantic newspapers and try to destroy the critical ones: “So long as the Chosun Ilbo remains the most influential newspaper, no reforms of the government can succeed,” she asserted. She also proposed a drive to double the readership of the Hankyoreh, attributing the daily’s...

More bad news for press freedom in South Korea. The woman slated to become the new presidential secretary for public information apparently thinks one of the ways the government should advance its agenda is to favor sychophantic newspapers and try to destroy the critical ones: “So long as the Chosun Ilbo remains the most influential newspaper, no reforms of the government can succeed,” she asserted. She also proposed a drive to double the readership of the Hankyoreh, attributing the daily’s...

Sensible comments from the former Tennessee senator and U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Howard Baker. The thing I worry most about with the North Koreans, to tell you the truth, is not that they’re going to bomb Tokyo, but rather that they have a demonstrated record of selling any military device they own. . . . A regime such as the North Koreans, with that record, selling nuclear material to all comers, is a very serious issue. . . . They...

“It is difficult to get an exact account on how much Beijing is providing North Korea as it has never made this public, but in actuality 70-80 percent of all foreign goods circulating in North Korea comes [sic] through China. . . . Imagine what would happen if China blocked just three of the roads at once for two months, citing maintenance work.” — Kim Ha-Joong, South Korea’s Ambassador to China, telling it like it is