How does a progressive young South Korean reporter react to a crackdown on dissent? You call it a reform, even if the spin is laughably transparent. Most of the alleged changes in the law–always suspect in a system that’s so arbitrary and (probably) corrupt–have to do with increasing punishments for dissent, public disturbances, and receiving foreign broadcasts. The North Koreans did criminalize some certain property crimes, such as copyright infringement. Those who will see this as proof that North Korea...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

It sounds a lot like a belated disavowal of regime change in Bush’s second term. Ominous, if true. The bright spot is the discussion of referring the matter to the U.N., although that will also prove fruitless in the long run, as it has with Iran. Indeed, Roh’s attempt to align himself with France shows just what he is seeking–a toothless deal that sidelines the U.S., along the EU-three model. Note to North Korea–get some oil, and put the U.N....

Well, this really blows. I’m having one of the busiest weeks ever at my job and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will come to the Dirksen Senate Office Building Thursday to report on his trip to Seoul and the evidence for the North Korean gas chambers. I’d obviously prefer to attend and blog this, but I just can’t. Can anyone else? Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004, 10 a.m. ““ 11 a.m., Dirksen-106. R.S.V.P. required to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org.

Fox is reporting that Roh is in Iraq visiting Korean troops. No one else is reporting this. Stay tuned.

It sounds a lot like a belated disavowal of regime change in Bush’s second term. Ominous, if true. The bright spot is the discussion of referring the matter to the U.N., although that will also prove fruitless in the long run, as it has with Iran. Indeed, Roh’s attempt to align himself with France shows just what he is seeking–a toothless deal that sidelines the U.S., along the EU-three model. Note to North Korea–get some oil, and put the U.N....

It sounds a lot like a belated disavowal of regime change in Bush’s second term. Ominous, if true. The bright spot is the discussion of referring the matter to the U.N., although that will also prove fruitless in the long run, as it has with Iran. Indeed, Roh’s attempt to align himself with France shows just what he is seeking–a toothless deal that sidelines the U.S., along the EU-three model. Note to North Korea–get some oil, and put the U.N....

Well, this really blows. I’m having one of the busiest weeks ever at my job and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will come to the Dirksen Senate Office Building Thursday to report on his trip to Seoul and the evidence for the North Korean gas chambers. I’d obviously prefer to attend and blog this, but I just can’t. Can anyone else? Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004, 10 a.m. ““ 11 a.m., Dirksen-106. R.S.V.P. required to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org.

There’s still a famine in North Korea. And the government still doesn’t care enough to let anyone feed the hungry. Paging Mr. Geldof.

Fox is reporting that Roh is in Iraq visiting Korean troops. No one else is reporting this. Stay tuned.

South Korea accepts 17 refugees from a non-Korean country.

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.

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...