Is it possible for something to collapse gradually? Or do we just call that “sagging?” Umm, no, Mr. Hwang. Extreme dictatorships don’t sag. They implode. But then again, we can stop all of this speculative nonsense once and for all. South Korea’s unification minister tells us there is “almost no possibility” of that happening. Nope, nothing unusual at all here. What looks deceptively like a purge of Kim Jong Il loyalists (I told you here to watch for this) is...

The IAEA says North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is expanding. They’re as ahead of the curve as ever.

Roh has had a busy day marginalizing his country on the question of North Korea. The fact that he’s saying this from Paris isn’t even the worst part. This is: The reason that we are more attracted to the French is that the country is different from the United States in terms of culture and values . . . . It is true that Korea has been influenced by the United States since World War II. But the development of...

Remember that criticism of bilateral talks with North Korea? Forget you ever heard it.

Remember that criticism of bilateral talks with North Korea? Forget you ever heard it.

A few days ago, I blogged here that a careful listener would hear secondary explosions near the Blue House during the visit of the mercurial neocon sage Michael Horowitz to Seoul. And without further ado . . . ka-BOOM! Horowitz once advocated changing North Korea through a process like the old Helsinki process, one that I consider hopelessly naive in the North Korean context. Since then, however, Horowitz has joined the militant wing, and Norbert Vollertsen sticks close to Horowitz...

Charles Robert Jenkins, now released and off to live out his remaining years in what he hoped would be obscurity, says that North Korea had designs on his daughters that began with intensive language training: [The North Korean authorities] wanted us to have children so they could use them later. . . . I knew what they were trying to do. . . . They wanted to turn them into spies. My daughters, they could pass as South Korea. There...

Not a Vegas act, but the name of a loose collection of North Korean guerrillas who fought against Kim Il Sung, and whom everyone–North Koreans, Chinese, South Koreans, and Americans–conveniently swept aside after the signing of the 1953 armistace. For a while, of course, they were useful to us: Unconventional warfare operations began Jan. 8, 1951, with a South Korean navy ship patrolling near the Yalu River. The ship discovered more than 10,000 North Korean guerrillas fighting the North Korean...

Not a Vegas act, but the name of a loose collection of North Korean guerrillas who fought against Kim Il Sung, and whom everyone–North Koreans, Chinese, South Koreans, and Americans–conveniently swept aside after the signing of the 1953 armistace. For a while, of course, they were useful to us: Unconventional warfare operations began Jan. 8, 1951, with a South Korean navy ship patrolling near the Yalu River. The ship discovered more than 10,000 North Korean guerrillas fighting the North Korean...

When I was a kid, what attracted me the most about liberalism was its tolerance of views with which it disagreed. Want to lead a parade of Illinois Nazis through Skokie? Well, I’m from the ACLU, I hold your views in contempt, and I’m here to defend your right to march anyway. This sort of thing, however, suggests that at the very least, there’s a crisis of tolerance within liberalism. And then there’s this, which is just plain repellent. And...

When I was a kid, what attracted me the most about liberalism was its tolerance of views with which it disagreed. Want to lead a parade of Illinois Nazis through Skokie? Well, I’m from the ACLU, I hold your views in contempt, and I’m here to defend your right to march anyway. This sort of thing, however, suggests that at the very least, there’s a crisis of tolerance within liberalism. And then there’s this, which is just plain repellent. And...

Unhappy with the Chinese government? Be kind to the next Falun Gong activist you see. You don’t have to share their beliefs to support their right to practice them. Not direct enough for you? Then you could decide to attend a worldwide protest in front of Chinese Embassies and consulates worldwide on December 22nd. Our specific grievance is the Chinese government’s repatriations of North Korean refugees back to North Korea, where they face a grim fate. All of the protests...

My name is 635.

Unhappy with the Chinese government? Be kind to the next Falun Gong activist you see. You don’t have to share their beliefs to support their right to practice them. Not direct enough for you? Then you could decide to attend a worldwide protest in front of Chinese Embassies and consulates worldwide on December 22nd. Our specific grievance is the Chinese government’s repatriations of North Korean refugees back to North Korea, where they face a grim fate. All of the protests...

Unhappy with the Chinese government? Be kind to the next Falun Gong activist you see. You don’t have to share their beliefs to support their right to practice them. Not direct enough for you? Then you could decide to attend a worldwide protest in front of Chinese Embassies and consulates worldwide on December 22nd. Our specific grievance is the Chinese government’s repatriations of North Korean refugees back to North Korea, where they face a grim fate. All of the protests...

Who knew? It turns out that my sister-in law is a talented photographer with an extraordinary sense of detail. Each photograph is a pixel of life in Korea; taken together, they form a surprisingly revealing picture of how it feels to live there. More here–look for the blue tabs to the right of the winter scene, click the third one down, and start scrolling. There must be hundreds of them. I intend to make a weekend tradition of putting the...

My name is 635.

My name is 635.