After sounding steadfast after his talks with China and South Korea, Colin Powell sounded decidedly wobbly on human rights in North Korea today, specifically regarding how aggressively he will comply with the North Korean Human Rights Act: Addressing a separate matter, Mr. Powell said that in response to a recently enacted Congressional resolution on North Korea, the Bush administration would press for human rights concerns there to be discussed “by the international community” but that no plans had been set...

I missed this Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal when it was new, but it’s still worth discussion. It argues persuasively that some form of engagement with North Korea modeled on the Helsinki framework could be effective at improving conditions there. The fact that the signatories include people like Michael Horowitz (major force behind the NKHRA) and Max Kampelman (veteran of negotiating with Gorbachev and Schevardnadze) makes me pause to consider it. Many of the ideas are well-reasoned and show...

Check out this interesting interview of Tarik Radwan, who is another important player in helping the North Korean people. I understand that he lives and teaches law in Seoul today. Now, I hate to make Mario Puzo references to a man as devout and sincere as Mr. Radwan obviously is, so I’ll just say that a good lawyer or two has enormous potential to do the North Korean regime economic damage.

Finally, Best of the Web links to this interesting story about a South Korean who defected North; Taranto calls him “Wrong Way Koreagan.” (chortle)

The BBC covered the story of China’s arrest of 65 North Koreans, which appears to be the start of a crackdown. Let’s hope it’s even less successful than the South Korean crackdown on prostitution appears to be. Please help these refugees by copying the sample letter here, pasting it into the congressional Web forms here and here, and hitting “send.” Then reach around and pat yourself on the back. Here is today’s illustration of why the leaders of China are...

After sounding steadfast after his talks with China and South Korea, Colin Powell sounded decidedly wobbly on human rights in North Korea today, specifically regarding how aggressively he will comply with the North Korean Human Rights Act: Addressing a separate matter, Mr. Powell said that in response to a recently enacted Congressional resolution on North Korea, the Bush administration would press for human rights concerns there to be discussed “by the international community” but that no plans had been set...

I missed this Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal when it was new, but it’s still worth discussion. It argues persuasively that some form of engagement with North Korea modeled on the Helsinki framework could be effective at improving conditions there. The fact that the signatories include people like Michael Horowitz (major force behind the NKHRA) and Max Kampelman (veteran of negotiating with Gorbachev and Schevardnadze) makes me pause to consider it. Many of the ideas are well-reasoned and show...

Check out this interesting interview of Tarik Radwan, who is another important player in helping the North Korean people. I understand that he lives and teaches law in Seoul today. Now, I hate to make Mario Puzo references to a man as devout and sincere as Mr. Radwan obviously is, so I’ll just say that a good lawyer or two has enormous potential to do the North Korean regime economic damage.

Finally, Best of the Web links to this interesting story about a South Korean who defected North; Taranto calls him “Wrong Way Koreagan.” (chortle)

Finally, Best of the Web links to this interesting story about a South Korean who defected North; Taranto calls him “Wrong Way Koreagan.” (chortle)

Suzanne Scholte of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea forwarded me this message today, via NK Gulag in Seoul. According to the report, on October 26th, Chinese police raided two locations on the outskirts of Beijing, arresting 65 North Korean refugees and South Korean activist workers working for NKGulag. Among the refugees arrested were 11 teenagers and one person who is over 70 years old. Defections to foreign embassies in Beijing appear to have spiked in the...

Suzanne Scholte of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea forwarded me this message today, via NK Gulag in Seoul. According to the report, on October 26th, Chinese police raided two locations on the outskirts of Beijing, arresting 65 North Korean refugees and South Korean activist workers working for NKGulag. Among the refugees arrested were 11 teenagers and one person who is over 70 years old. Defections to foreign embassies in Beijing appear to have spiked in the...

Suzanne Scholte of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea forwarded me this message today, via NK Gulag in Seoul. According to the report, on October 26th, Chinese police raided two locations on the outskirts of Beijing, arresting 65 North Korean refugees and South Korean activist workers working for NKGulag. Among the refugees arrested were 11 teenagers and one person who is over 70 years old. Defections to foreign embassies in Beijing appear to have spiked in the...

Whatever you call that particular body of water, interesting things are afloat on its troubled surface. James Brooke has this fascinating piece in the NYT, and it’s jam-packed with interesting tidbits about things that really matter: “We are sending a signal to everybody who wants to traffic weapons of mass destruction that we have zero tolerance for that, ” John R. Bolton, United States Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, told a group of 50 reporters standing...

Whatever you call that particular body of water, interesting things are afloat on its troubled surface. James Brooke has this fascinating piece in the NYT, and it’s jam-packed with interesting tidbits about things that really matter: “We are sending a signal to everybody who wants to traffic weapons of mass destruction that we have zero tolerance for that, ” John R. Bolton, United States Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, told a group of 50 reporters standing...

It has been almost a year since Chief Warrant Officer Sharon Swartworth was killed in Iraq. Chief, as we called her, was a person of high rank, and I was one of thousands of lowly JAG captains, but her warmth, compassion, and easygoing humanity belied her importance as the Army’s top JAG warrant officer. I will never forget the reception where she told myself and one other JAG lawyer the story of how she sneaked out of tiny Camp Colburn,...

Finally, some ink for the NKHRA in a major U.S. newspaper, even if it is buried inside a headline about Secretary Powell’s efforts to restart the futile six-way talks. All of this makes me speculate about how today’s Times crew would write the headline on the day the Soviet Union fell: Gorbachev Says Bush Stalling on Arms Control Summit . . . or the day the Russians took Berlin: No Progress in German Cease-Fire Talks As for the coverage itself,...

It has been almost a year since Chief Warrant Officer Sharon Swartworth was killed in Iraq. Chief, as we called her, was a person of high rank, and I was one of thousands of lowly JAG captains, but her warmth, compassion, and easygoing humanity belied her importance as the Army’s top JAG warrant officer. I will never forget the reception where she told myself and one other JAG lawyer the story of how she sneaked out of tiny Camp Colburn,...