The Guardian reports that “European policymakers have been advised to prepare for “sudden change” in North Korea amid growing speculation among diplomats and observers that Kim Jong-il is losing his grip on power.” As with all of these recent reports, however, you need to sift carefully to find any hard facts: Since the summer Pyongyang residents have reported a security crackdown, with extra checkpoints and ID inspections. Even Chinese academics – usually cautious in criticising North Korea – say there...

One good way is to clamp limits on foreign investment, especially if you have an export-based economy. Maybe this is just noise, but it seems to be working. Still, it’s always a pleasure to see George Soros take a beating.

Well, this doesn’t sound very diplomatic, does it? Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on a visit to China Thursday that recent statements from U.S. administration figures concerning the collapse or modification of the North Korean regime diverged greatly from the position held by Seoul. During a discussion with reporters in Shanghai on Thursday, Chung explained that in the future, South Korea would deal with the North Korean nuclear issue in accordance with its own needs rather than American ideas. ....

Japan Today is reporting that 82% of Japanese Diet members favor economic sanctions against North Korea as soon as possible. All 721 were surveyed.

UPDATED Dec. 23rd; scroll down for more pictures. Adrian Hong promises to post pictures from today’s rallies soon. He has special thanks for two particular groups: I want to particularly commend the 30 folks in Houston that stood out in the pouring, pouring rain for more than an hour, and the Chinese American fraternity brothers from Rutgers University came out in force to the NYC protest, and helped us for the first time to shout slogans in accurate Chinese! Rev....

UPDATED Dec. 23rd; scroll down for more pictures. Adrian Hong promises to post pictures from today’s rallies soon. He has special thanks for two particular groups: I want to particularly commend the 30 folks in Houston that stood out in the pouring, pouring rain for more than an hour, and the Chinese American fraternity brothers from Rutgers University came out in force to the NYC protest, and helped us for the first time to shout slogans in accurate Chinese! Rev....

More on tomorrow’s LiNK protests at Chinese consulates here on NKZone.

It seems the best South Korea’s “conservative” GNP can offer as an alternative to the Uri’s Sunshine Policy toward North Korea is something that looks a lot like “Sunshine Lite.” Either you believe this bunch in Pyongyang can be changed by bribes, inducements, and sweet nothings, or you don’t. Apparently, the GNP does.

If Kim Jong Il had any hope to exploit the famous internecine divisions between the State Department and the Pentagon, that hope seems to have dimmed with this summary of the state of the six-party talks from the realist wing at Foggy Bottom: In its “Performance and Accountability Report” for the financial year 2004, the U.S. State Department said that if no progress is made on the North Korean nuclear issue and the stalemate continues, it could call into question...

More on tomorrow’s LiNK protests at Chinese consulates here on NKZone.

It seems the best South Korea’s “conservative” GNP can offer as an alternative to the Uri’s Sunshine Policy toward North Korea is something that looks a lot like “Sunshine Lite.” Either you believe this bunch in Pyongyang can be changed by bribes, inducements, and sweet nothings, or you don’t. Apparently, the GNP does.

If Kim Jong Il had any hope to exploit the famous internecine divisions between the State Department and the Pentagon, that hope seems to have dimmed with this summary of the state of the six-party talks from the realist wing at Foggy Bottom: In its “Performance and Accountability Report” for the financial year 2004, the U.S. State Department said that if no progress is made on the North Korean nuclear issue and the stalemate continues, it could call into question...

Just when you’d think a prudent South Korean government would be preparing for a quick and orderly restoration of law and order up North, they’re dismantling the political structure needed to do exactly that. What’s more, they’re doing it to appease a government which hasn’t exactly extended them the same courtesy. If reunification is as tough economically and even militarily as I expect it to be, this move will impose severe costs on South Korean taxpayers, and in all likelihood,...

What happens to repatriated North Korean refugees? Our best information, such as it is, points to a grim fate. North Korea could dispel our “misconceptions” by showing live, healthy bodies. Yet, strangely, it doesn’t. Seoul isn’t asking questions like these before slamming the door in their faces.

Japan is still mulling over sanctions against North Korea, but its own debate appears to be moving in a more productive direction: human rights legislation. As I previously explained here, this would represent a major shift in Japanese politics and in international momentum against North Korea. South Korea, for its part, is allowing North Korea’s latest round of atrocious behavior to damage its relations with Japan. Meanwhile, the Korea Herald is clucking its tongue over saving the six-party talks and...

Those who believe in schemes to turn North Korea’s slave labor into the next gold mine for global capital’s deviant moral fringe should take note of this TimeAsia report: Doing business in Burma has often cost American companies p.r. points: Pepsi, Apple Computer and Levi Strauss are just a few of the U.S. firms that pulled out of the military-ruled state after being pressured by human-rights groups. Now, however, doing business with regimes like the one in Rangoon may cost...

Just when you’d think a prudent South Korean government would be preparing for a quick and orderly restoration of law and order up North, they’re dismantling the political structure needed to do exactly that. What’s more, they’re doing it to appease a government which hasn’t exactly extended them the same courtesy. If reunification is as tough economically and even militarily as I expect it to be, this move will impose severe costs on South Korean taxpayers, and in all likelihood,...

What happens to repatriated North Korean refugees? Our best information, such as it is, points to a grim fate. North Korea could dispel our “misconceptions” by showing live, healthy bodies. Yet, strangely, it doesn’t. Seoul isn’t asking questions like these before slamming the door in their faces.