This from the Korea Times: A U.S. senator has accused China of violating international law by continuing to repatriate North Korean refugees caught on its territory, expressing concern over the recent “warning” given by a Chinese diplomat in Seoul to a lawmaker engaged in an international campaign to help North Korean refugees in China, an aide to the legislator said Sunday. In a letter of protest sent to Yang Jiechi, Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of...

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.

This from the Korea Times: A U.S. senator has accused China of violating international law by continuing to repatriate North Korean refugees caught on its territory, expressing concern over the recent “warning” given by a Chinese diplomat in Seoul to a lawmaker engaged in an international campaign to help North Korean refugees in China, an aide to the legislator said Sunday. In a letter of protest sent to Yang Jiechi, Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of...

The New York Times needs to dig James Brooke out of the Hamptons and drop him in front of a computer. The Times picked up this A.P. story on South Korea’s new plan to defer defections but accepted the South Korean government’s version so uncritically, it missed the whole point of the new policy. First, the story fails to cover the real and admitted reason for the new policy–deterring everyone from defecting so that Kim Jong Il stays in power....

Don’t take that next sip of coffee yet. A last-minute entry appears to have locked up OneFreeKorea’s first annual Baghdad Bob award, awarded to the year’s most brazen, gut-bustingly laughable lump of state-sponsored b.s. The winner is . . . (sound of drums rolling) . . . South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon! Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that the current South Korea-U.S. alliance is stronger than ever.

Better late than never, but the Joongang Ilbo printed a small story about last Wednesday’s protests in front of the Chinese embassies.

The Yomiuri Shimbun has your sanctions juggernaut update right here.

Having had my share of clients who told horror stories about the Korean police, it’s nice to see the Korean press catching on and promoting serious reforms. The SOFA issue might not be so controversial if it weren’t currently an near impossibility to get a fair trial in a Korean court–which goes double for American soldiers.

The Winds of Change Korea briefing is up. Thanks to the Marmot for six–count em’–six frigging links to this blog. Wow.

The New York Times needs to dig James Brooke out of the Hamptons and drop him in front of a computer. The Times picked up this A.P. story on South Korea’s new plan to defer defections but accepted the South Korean government’s version so uncritically, it missed the whole point of the new policy. First, the story fails to cover the real and admitted reason for the new policy–deterring everyone from defecting so that Kim Jong Il stays in power....

Don’t take that next sip of coffee yet. A last-minute entry appears to have locked up OneFreeKorea’s first annual Baghdad Bob award, awarded to the year’s most brazen, gut-bustingly laughable lump of state-sponsored b.s. The winner is . . . (sound of drums rolling) . . . South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon! Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that the current South Korea-U.S. alliance is stronger than ever.

Better late than never, but the Joongang Ilbo printed a small story about last Wednesday’s protests in front of the Chinese embassies.

The Yomiuri Shimbun has your sanctions juggernaut update right here.

Having had my share of clients who told horror stories about the Korean police, it’s nice to see the Korean press catching on and promoting serious reforms. The SOFA issue might not be so controversial if it weren’t currently an near impossibility to get a fair trial in a Korean court–which goes double for American soldiers.

The Winds of Change Korea briefing is up. Thanks to the Marmot for six–count em’–six frigging links to this blog. Wow.

The Chosun Ilbo ran a very moving piece today, in which its journalists followed a group of North Korean defectors through China, trying to evade the police, but not always quite succeeding: At 3:40 a.m., a People’s Liberation Army soldier stopped the bus and announced he would conduct a search. The inside lights went on and everyone froze. The defectors, however, covered themselves up with blankets and didn’t move a finger, pretending to be lost in sleep. The press team,...

The Korean papers, already sensing that Korea has marginalized itself out of any meaningful role in solving the North Korea crisis, are expending much anxiety on what the United States now intends to do about North Korea, with or without their cooperation. I mostly agree with and recommend the Marmot’s analysis of Michael Horowitz’s statement that North Korea is certain to collapse within a year. Prediction is a dangerous business. I once had this, um, friend, who kept extending his...