From UPI, May 6, 2004: North Korea has no intention of selling atomic materials to terrorist groups, a South Korean daily reported Thursday, citing an expert from a U.S. think tank. During his visit to Pyongyang late last month, Selig Harrison, director of the Asian program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, was told by North Korean officials that Pyongyang would not sell nuclear materials to al-Qaida or any other terrorist group. “The North Koreans said they would...

From UPI, May 6, 2004: North Korea has no intention of selling atomic materials to terrorist groups, a South Korean daily reported Thursday, citing an expert from a U.S. think tank. During his visit to Pyongyang late last month, Selig Harrison, director of the Asian program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, was told by North Korean officials that Pyongyang would not sell nuclear materials to al-Qaida or any other terrorist group. “The North Koreans said they would...

Condi Has a Spine. One of her first official acts is turn that lethal glare of hers on the cynical European death-merchants who want to lift the EU arms embargo and sell China missile engines, electric cattle prods, thumbscrews, Mirages, blood-resistant tank treads, or whatever is on their shopping list. She raises the same concerns (arms race, human rights), albeit much more diplomatically, that I raised in this fulminating rant. Add a point to Condi’s column.

This certainly looks pretty desperate. Too good to be true, almost. Could anyone actually try something this patently ridiculous?

Victory by Vodka? I admit that this is even more innovative than what I’ve suggested (well, maybe not this innovative), but the essential point is this: in most cases, the most effective way to dissolve the control of a tyranny is to give the people access to something they really want, and which the government doesn’t want them to have. A great story, even if we’ll probably never know whether it’s true.

Name That Scandal! I nominate “dough-for-ho’s.” My apologies in advance for plunging the level of our discourse to a new low . . . at least until your nominations bring us to a new one.

Condi Has a Spine. One of her first official acts is turn that lethal glare of hers on the cynical European death-merchants who want to lift the EU arms embargo and sell China missile engines, electric cattle prods, thumbscrews, Mirages, blood-resistant tank treads, or whatever is on their shopping list. She raises the same concerns (arms race, human rights), albeit much more diplomatically, that I raised in this fulminating rant. Add a point to Condi’s column.

This certainly looks pretty desperate. Too good to be true, almost. Could anyone actually try something this patently ridiculous?

Umm, Jon, the war isn’t over yet. Let me try to explain this one more time: it takes a long time and a lot of patience to win a guerrilla war. This was a good week. Triumph and disaster were just what Kipling called them: impostors. Still, it’s encouraging to see what this guy is doing–objectively considering the possibility that what we did may have been right. There’s still time. We’ll need that reservoir of determination later, when the tough...

Condi Rice and the Tempting Politics of Race: My thoughts here, on the rising, disturbing bipartisanship of a destructive trend–the acceptance of race as a component of one’s qualifications. Yes, I’m blaming conservatives this time. What happened to “the content of our charater”? I could swear someone just gave me an extra day off to think about this.

Doug Bandow has it right. He thinks the purpose of the U.S. military is to serve U.S. interests, not to be a legacy in which the wealthy heirs of anachronistic alliances maintain property rights. If I gave you two guesses who he’s talking about, I bet you’d be right twice. Now go read. I’ll be back later.

Victory by Vodka? I admit that this is even more innovative than what I’ve suggested (well, maybe not this innovative), but the essential point is this: in most cases, the most effective way to dissolve the control of a tyranny is to give the people access to something they really want, and which the government doesn’t want them to have. A great story, even if we’ll probably never know whether it’s true.

No Lavendar Dynasty for North Korea? It appears we have some inconsistent information. Yesterday’s Joongang piece suggested that the most likely successor was Porky’s second son (“watchers and Seoul officials said Kim Jong-chol, 24, is the likely successor“), Kim Jong Chol, the one who is rumored by some to act like a person who fits a stereotyped behavior pattern suggesting he might possibly be GAY. Not so, says James Brooke in the New York Times. Distinctly gay-UNfriendly North Korea has...

Name That Scandal! I nominate “dough-for-ho’s.” My apologies in advance for plunging the level of our discourse to a new low . . . at least until your nominations bring us to a new one.

Umm, Jon, the war isn’t over yet. Let me try to explain this one more time: it takes a long time and a lot of patience to win a guerrilla war. This was a good week. Triumph and disaster were just what Kipling called them: impostors. Still, it’s encouraging to see what this guy is doing–objectively considering the possibility that what we did may have been right. There’s still time. We’ll need that reservoir of determination later, when the tough...

Condi Rice and the Tempting Politics of Race: My thoughts here, on the rising, disturbing bipartisanship of a destructive trend–the acceptance of race as a component of one’s qualifications. Yes, I’m blaming conservatives this time. What happened to “the content of our charater”? I could swear someone just gave me an extra day off to think about this.

Holding Pyongyang Accountable. Not for the Rev. Jeffrey Park (of whom we’ve heard nothing since this post, and for whom it’s pretty hard to pin responsibility), but for the Rev. Kim Dong-Shik, who by now has probably earned an unwanted distinction–one that carries one of the world’s most abused labels: martyr. Twenty congressmen, including speaker Hastert, have made it quite clear that North Korea will remain on the U.S. terrorism list until North Korea comes clean about his fate. Given...

More Troubling Suppression of “Offensive” Political Speech. This time, apparently, the censorship is from–on the paternalistic behalf of–the right. The Chosun Ilbo gets it, right, too. Is it at least possible that this kind of censorship validates the false outrage of Koreans on both extremes (here, here, and here), even when they’re really reacting to what might be mainstream political expression elsewhere? Add “tolerance” and “a sense of humor” to Korea’s list of pressing needs.