North Korea is cracking down on illegal border crossings again. We are hearing about such border crackdowns with increased frequency, and yet there always seems to be an urgent need for another one a few weeks later. It never helps when the guys who are supposed to be watching everyone else are on the take: Pyeongyang has launched a large-scale crackdown on “anti-state activities” along its border with China, targeting not only border crossings by North Koreans, but the smuggling...

Now, they’re talking about actually providing competent translation services for criminal defendants. What’s next, rules of evidence? Actually letting defendants sit next to their lawyers? Zealous representation? Overall, though, it’s another very good sign.

The people of Ukraine, a nation of fifty million people of enormous strategic significance in Europe, wanted democracy after all. This sort of thing always seems to surprise some people. On reflection, I tend to find such things so unsurprising that I probably missed the story’s importance.

If you’re addicted to South Korean politics, don’t miss today’s Flying Yangban post on Goh Kun, a name you’ve probably already forgotten but from whom (at least according to the guys who predicted the rise of whatsisname from the World Cup) you may yet hear again. Andy also has an interesting sidebar about ancient Rome, reminding us why we read him.

Call Karl Rove. Somebody needs help with their message control. Monday‘s headline: Pyongyang Makes Positive Assessment of Inter-Korean Relations South and North Korea have joined in a struggle to unify the two countries, a senior North Korean official said Monday. Jong Tok-gi, a secretariat section chief of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, said anti-unification activities become more vicious this year but the inter-Korean intention to forge unification has become stronger. Tuesday‘s headline: N. Korea Blames S....

Could free medical care for ordinary North Koreans be one of the few good things to come from the Kaesong Industrial Park? It would if the North Korean authorities actually allowed it, but they won’t. Their engagement strategy is to insulate ordinary North Koreans from the kindness of the outside world. Meanwhile, a second plant, this one slated to make auto and semiconductor parts, is slated to crank out its first wares at Kaesong next week. The plant will eventually...

North Korea is cracking down on illegal border crossings again. We are hearing about such border crackdowns with increased frequency, and yet there always seems to be an urgent need for another one a few weeks later. It never helps when the guys who are supposed to be watching everyone else are on the take: Pyeongyang has launched a large-scale crackdown on “anti-state activities” along its border with China, targeting not only border crossings by North Koreans, but the smuggling...

Now, they’re talking about actually providing competent translation services for criminal defendants. What’s next, rules of evidence? Actually letting defendants sit next to their lawyers? Zealous representation? Overall, though, it’s another very good sign.

The people of Ukraine, a nation of fifty million people of enormous strategic significance in Europe, wanted democracy after all. This sort of thing always seems to surprise some people. On reflection, I tend to find such things so unsurprising that I probably missed the story’s importance.

If you’re addicted to South Korean politics, don’t miss today’s Flying Yangban post on Goh Kun, a name you’ve probably already forgotten but from whom (at least according to the guys who predicted the rise of whatsisname from the World Cup) you may yet hear again. Andy also has an interesting sidebar about ancient Rome, reminding us why we read him.

“Pots for Peace”: not another cannabinoid conflict resolution initiative from Marin County, but another Kim Tae Kyung OhMyNews pipe dream, to be sure. TK, who loves everything from North Korea except defectors, has gone all erotic and stickied himself up over the North Korean-made cookware the ajummas are buying up at the high-end department stores in Seoul (there are reportedly still some export control complications with Kaesong’s plans for a penicillin factory, a pesticide plant, and a large aluminum tube...

“Pots for Peace”: not another cannabinoid conflict resolution initiative from Marin County, but another Kim Tae Kyung OhMyNews pipe dream, to be sure. TK, who loves everything from North Korea except defectors, has gone all erotic and stickied himself up over the North Korean-made cookware the ajummas are buying up at the high-end department stores in Seoul (there are reportedly still some export control complications with Kaesong’s plans for a penicillin factory, a pesticide plant, and a large aluminum tube...

Kim Jong Il–or possibly an unknown person manipulating the strings attached to his wrists–has said that North Korea has no intention of invading the South. The bizarre context of this statement is an editorial criticizing South Korea’s new “independent” defense, which is the result of North Korea getting at least part of something it’s demanded for years–the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Anyway, now that we have it from such an impeccable source that there is absolutely no danger, the USFK...

What’s behind the mystery of China’s disappearing North Korean restaurants? They seemed to have been quite successful until recently, when large numbers of their staff, down to the waitresses, were suddenly called back to Pyongyang. Once again, a pillar of the Sunshine policy wobbles; the North Korean regime always seems to sever the hand that reaches out too far.

Yonhap, South Korea’s government news agency, is reporting that Pyongyang is giving its bureacracy a transfusion of new blood: North Korea is expected to hire more young loyal “technocrats” to fill key party and government posts in 2005 as part of its efforts to strengthen the power of leader Kim Jong-il, a South Korean government report said Sunday. There are no clear signs of Kim’s grip on power weakening but outsiders are closely watching whether the 62-year-old leader may be...

The drumbeat of Japanese threats to impose sanctions on North Korea is starting to sound like a North Korean “sea of fire” threat; as empty as it is noisy. If Japan isn’t quite sure what it will do, North Korea is certainly shaping the debate against its own favor by refusing to even discuss the issue. Meanwhile, Japan is also developing a new spy satellite to keep an eye on North Korea.

Kim Jong Il–or possibly an unknown person manipulating the strings attached to his wrists–has said that North Korea has no intention of invading the South. The bizarre context of this statement is an editorial criticizing South Korea’s new “independent” defense, which is the result of North Korea getting at least part of something it’s demanded for years–the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Anyway, now that we have it from such an impeccable source that there is absolutely no danger, the USFK...

What’s behind the mystery of China’s disappearing North Korean restaurants? They seemed to have been quite successful until recently, when large numbers of their staff, down to the waitresses, were suddenly called back to Pyongyang. Once again, a pillar of the Sunshine policy wobbles; the North Korean regime always seems to sever the hand that reaches out too far.