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...

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.

For the uninitiated, Korea robotically answers questions about the unraveling of the U.S.-Korean alliance with the wierd cliche that the alliance is “forged in blood” and therefore, strong. Now the last thing I’d want is for any person–whether that person be an American, an Iraqi civilian, or a Korean soldier, in short, anyone but one of Michael Moore’s minutemen–to spill blood in Iraq. My point here is to compare the military value of South Korea’s deployment of 3,000 troops to...

Ask and ye shall receive. A photo of the heir apparent is here, although it’s hardly recent. Other photos apparently exist, and I’d appreciate links. More info here. All I have to offer in exchange is this delectable bit of gossip: Attention naturally turned to the elder of the two brothers, Kim Jong-chol, and Newsweek magazine published a dated and blurred black and white photograph of him during his school days in Switzerland. More recently, though, the emphasis has been...

Kreminology Update: Just after we hear fresh rumors that Kim Jong-Il may be safely locked away in a gilded cage comes fresh word that the North Korean radio is playing up the heredetary succession of Porky’s li’l sprout, Kim Jong-Chol, to lordship of the sty. It’s hard to know what to make of this, so here are several avenues of utterly unsubstantiated and wild speculation, all to be taken that their stated face value, which is very little: 1. Kim...

Hmmmm. I wonder if we’ll ever find out just what this was all about: Abruptly canceling his scheduled attendance at a South Korean prosecutors’ forum, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill is scheduled to return to the United States today. Mr. Hill was to give a lecture Thursday at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office about new U.S. law on North Korean human rights. The U.S. Embassy canceled the meeting yesterday, announcing Mr. Hill has to return to the United States for consultations,...

Kaesong Update: Will a South Korean-proposed “Kaesong clause” kill the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement? We can only hope so, although South Korea has already signalled that it’s not a deal-breaker (thus proving that they can sometimes be just as bad at negotiating with us as with the North Koreans). Why should we snatch the Axis of Evil from the jaws of death when it’s this intractible on nukes and human rights? As Uncle Vic says, “you wanna play, you gotta...

For the uninitiated, Korea robotically answers questions about the unraveling of the U.S.-Korean alliance with the wierd cliche that the alliance is “forged in blood” and therefore, strong. Now the last thing I’d want is for any person–whether that person be an American, an Iraqi civilian, or a Korean soldier, in short, anyone but one of Michael Moore’s minutemen–to spill blood in Iraq. My point here is to compare the military value of South Korea’s deployment of 3,000 troops to...

Seen on CafeUSA: Somehow, I think the entertainment value is mostly going to be inadvertent. CafeUSA is the public affairs blog of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and to be fair, most of the pictures are at least somewhat better.

Ask and ye shall receive. A photo of the heir apparent is here, although it’s hardly recent. Other photos apparently exist, and I’d appreciate links. More info here. All I have to offer in exchange is this delectable bit of gossip: Attention naturally turned to the elder of the two brothers, Kim Jong-chol, and Newsweek magazine published a dated and blurred black and white photograph of him during his school days in Switzerland. More recently, though, the emphasis has been...

Supporters of South Korea’s leftist President Roh-Moo Hyun have announced a fresh campaign to persuade citizens to cancel their subscriptions to the often-critical Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, and to subscribe instead to the pro-government Kyunghang Sinmun and Hankyoreh Sinmun. The latter newspapers both strongly support the Roh administration’s policy of appeasing North Korea and assuming a more neutral role toward the United States, which maintains 34,000 troops in Korea for that nation’s defense. The group, known as Nosamo, or...

Kreminology Update: Just after we hear fresh rumors that Kim Jong-Il may be safely locked away in a gilded cage comes fresh word that the North Korean radio is playing up the heredetary succession of Porky’s li’l sprout, Kim Jong-Chol, to lordship of the sty. It’s hard to know what to make of this, so here are several avenues of utterly unsubstantiated and wild speculation, all to be taken that their stated face value, which is very little: 1. Kim...

Hmmmm. I wonder if we’ll ever find out just what this was all about: Abruptly canceling his scheduled attendance at a South Korean prosecutors’ forum, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill is scheduled to return to the United States today. Mr. Hill was to give a lecture Thursday at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office about new U.S. law on North Korean human rights. The U.S. Embassy canceled the meeting yesterday, announcing Mr. Hill has to return to the United States for consultations,...

Kaesong Update: Will a South Korean-proposed “Kaesong clause” kill the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement? We can only hope so, although South Korea has already signalled that it’s not a deal-breaker (thus proving that they can sometimes be just as bad at negotiating with us as with the North Koreans). Why should we snatch the Axis of Evil from the jaws of death when it’s this intractible on nukes and human rights? As Uncle Vic says, “you wanna play, you gotta...

Seen on CafeUSA: Somehow, I think the entertainment value is mostly going to be inadvertent. CafeUSA is the public affairs blog of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and to be fair, most of the pictures are at least somewhat better.

Supporters of South Korea’s leftist President Roh-Moo Hyun have announced a fresh campaign to persuade citizens to cancel their subscriptions to the often-critical Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, and to subscribe instead to the pro-government Kyunghang Sinmun and Hankyoreh Sinmun. The latter newspapers both strongly support the Roh administration’s policy of appeasing North Korea and assuming a more neutral role toward the United States, which maintains 34,000 troops in Korea for that nation’s defense. The group, known as Nosamo, or...