Before you read the story I link below, I strongly recommend you read Dr. Andrei Lankov’s overview of the North Korean food distribution and rationing system. I disagree with some of Dr. Lankov’s policy recommendations, but he is an invaluable source of knowledge about the North Korean government, such as it was when he was there, at least. The essential point to take from his article is that food rations have been a practical non-entity for everyone except the elite...

Two North Korean fisherman were rescued by South Korean maritime police today. It doesn’t sound like a defection; they had engine trouble and drifted for two weeks.

North Korea has officially declared itself pissed about the “outpost of tyranny” moniker. They need to call back the guy who wrote “human scum” and “sea of fire.” This time, the best they could do was to compare Bush to a Christian fundamentalist missionary. Which probably made him shake his head and say, “so?”

An Amicable Divorce for the U.S. and Korea? That’s the recommendation of two alumni of the center-left Brookingslibertarian Cato Institution (Bandow has long advocated a U.S. withdrawal from Korea). On the surface, the idea makes some sense, given the divergence of common values and interests, however, I haven’t read their piece in detail. Thanks to Dave Sheridan, who runs this superb blog, for pointing out my error on the think tank.

Break It to Us Gently. A week after Curt Weldon returned from making nice with the North Koreans in Pyongyang, (but apparently not with Kim Jong Il himself, interestingly) he has finally gotten around to telling us that North Korea told him it has The Bomb. They also told him they don’t intend to possess it permanently, which isn’t that comforting if you think it through. Thanks for nothing, Curt. Someone take this guy’s passport away.

Warning: Very angry rant ahead. You have been warned. If cynical European mercantilism has ever hit a greater low than lifting its arms embargo on Beijing in spite of considerable deteriorations in China’s human rights record over the last several years, well . . . perhaps it was its corruption of the United Nations so that it could keep arming and trading with Saddam Hussein (admittedly, it’s never hard to corrupt an institution without standards). It’s absolutely stunning that some...

Break It to Us Gently. A week after Curt Weldon returned from making nice with the North Koreans in Pyongyang, (but apparently not with Kim Jong Il himself, interestingly) he has finally gotten around to telling us that North Korea told him it has The Bomb. They also told him they don’t intend to possess it permanently, which isn’t that comforting if you think it through. Thanks for nothing, Curt. Someone take this guy’s passport away.

Warning: Very angry rant ahead. You have been warned. If cynical European mercantilism has ever hit a greater low than lifting its arms embargo on Beijing in spite of considerable deteriorations in China’s human rights record over the last several years, well . . . perhaps it was its corruption of the United Nations so that it could keep arming and trading with Saddam Hussein (admittedly, it’s never hard to corrupt an institution without standards). It’s absolutely stunning that some...

Warning: Very angry rant ahead. You have been warned. If cynical European mercantilism has ever hit a greater low than lifting its arms embargo on Beijing in spite of considerable deteriorations in China’s human rights record over the last several years, well . . . perhaps it was its corruption of the United Nations so that it could keep arming and trading with Saddam Hussein (admittedly, it’s never hard to corrupt an institution without standards). It’s absolutely stunning that some...

The dissident video from North Korea has been translated into English. , although given the length of the tape, I suspect it’s not a full transcript. Thanks to Budaechigae for digging this up.

A Second Chance for Capitalism: On this site, at least. Google explained how to block out offending ads, but I have to catch them first, and then add their URLs to a block list. Please help me keep watch for anything hawking the Great Leader label, although I otherwise intend to take a laissez faire attitude. Please also let me know if you think the ads affects your ability to log on. Traffic is up again, and one reader in...

Gazprom is talking about “promising” oil and gas fields off the North Korean coast. While I’m an advocate of cutting off North Korea’s access to hard currency until it commits itself to human rights improvements, this one doesn’t much concern me. I’ve worked as an exploration geologist and studied how the industry works, and it takes many years and millions of dollars to explore and develop a productive oilfield or gasfield. I doubt North Korea will be under the same...

More Tension at Sea: Just a day after the Korean papers proclaimed a great step forward for peace when the North Koreans allowed South Korean rescue ships to enter its waters, North Korea has walked away from the afterglow, ordered takeout, and turned on the game. They are now claiming that South Korea, acting at the urging of the American “imperialist aggressors,” violated its territorial waters in an attempt to provoke a sea battle. In fact, I can’t say from...

What’s the Korean word for “oblivious?” Yonhap ran this headline today: “S.K. Expects U.S. to Be More Flexible: Roh Aide.” The subject of the story was not yoga, it was North Korea. Umm, don’t these guys read the papers? Even Reuben Staines at the Korea Times agrees with my assessment that Bush sounded a lot like he was talking about Kim Jong Il. He did everything but say, “Hey piggy boy in North Korea, yeah, I’m talkin’ to you.” UPDATE:...

Famine Facade: South Korea is again making motions to show that it cares about alleviating the lack of food and medical care in North Korea. Plans are urgently needed; the government could fall, or outside pressure could finally cause North Korea to relent and let in aid without restrictions. The problem here is that the South Koreans are not interested in pressuring the North Koreans to allow the aid to go where it is most needed. What do they propose...

Japan Sanctions Update: A Japanese civic group that claimed to have photographs of Japanese hostages alive has retracted the claim. The group had claimed that the photos showed the hostages alive after the time Pyongyang claimed they had died.

The dissident video from North Korea has been translated into English. , although given the length of the tape, I suspect it’s not a full transcript. Thanks to Budaechigae for digging this up.

A Second Chance for Capitalism: On this site, at least. Google explained how to block out offending ads, but I have to catch them first, and then add their URLs to a block list. Please help me keep watch for anything hawking the Great Leader label, although I otherwise intend to take a laissez faire attitude. Please also let me know if you think the ads affects your ability to log on. Traffic is up again, and one reader in...