You don�t have to read pieces like this to know that Korea is in a funk . . . just call your Korean friends and family and ask them.  The economy is gloomy; the new transportation system is gloomy; the news is gloomy; even the weather is gloomy.    The mildly encouraging side of this, however, is the sense of political realism that lies beneath the xenophobic veneer.  Korea is beginning to realize that the American empire is voluntary, but...

It looks like Charles Robert Jenkins is about to defect again.  How?  I can only offer two guesses:    1.  It was part of the deal Koizumi made on his last visit to the Emerald City. 2.  Events spun out of North Korea�s control once he landed in Indonesia.   I rather think it was the former.  North Korea would never have let this guy leave the country and talk to his American family if it had the slightest expectation...

This is absolutely, positively, the funniest thing I have seen all year.  Even if you’re a Democrat. 

So they cleared him and then reprimanded him.  Nice to know that the U.N. is showing the principled consistency we�ve come to expect of them.  And after all, it was Ruud Lubbers, head of the UNHCR, who best exemplified those qualities when he gave China a total pass on North Korean refugees.    Whatever he did, I hope it gave him an outbreak of painful lesions, the spineless oxygen thief.

OK, now this is just plain scary.  When people who are demonstrably spies not only dare to surface, but do so right in the middle of the very government they attempted to undermine, you have a very big problem.  You have an enormous problem when they have lawful authority to intimidate the news media and opposition politicians.    This is starting to look like a paranoid John Birch conspiracy come to life.  And after all, even paranoid people have enemies...

You don�t have to read pieces like this to know that Korea is in a funk . . . just call your Korean friends and family and ask them.  The economy is gloomy; the new transportation system is gloomy; the news is gloomy; even the weather is gloomy.    The mildly encouraging side of this, however, is the sense of political realism that lies beneath the xenophobic veneer.  Korea is beginning to realize that the American empire is voluntary, but...

It looks like Charles Robert Jenkins is about to defect again.  How?  I can only offer two guesses:    1.  It was part of the deal Koizumi made on his last visit to the Emerald City. 2.  Events spun out of North Korea�s control once he landed in Indonesia.   I rather think it was the former.  North Korea would never have let this guy leave the country and talk to his American family if it had the slightest expectation...

This is absolutely, positively, the funniest thing I have seen all year.  Even if you’re a Democrat. 

This is absolutely, positively, the funniest thing I have seen all year.  Even if you’re a Democrat. 

So they cleared him and then reprimanded him.  Nice to know that the U.N. is showing the principled consistency we�ve come to expect of them.  And after all, it was Ruud Lubbers, head of the UNHCR, who best exemplified those qualities when he gave China a total pass on North Korean refugees.    Whatever he did, I hope it gave him an outbreak of painful lesions, the spineless oxygen thief.

Blogger’s Note: The Pull-It Surprise is awarded to outstanding examples of demonstrable falsehood disseminated as “journalism.”

As predicted here.

Admit it. You laughed, too. Still not as funny as this, though.

One wonders how Roh will try to deny this unpleasant reality—what looks a lot like a North Korean hacker cell based in China is spying on Seoul. The Chosun doesn’t jump to that conclusion, which seems responsible enough, but the fact that the hackers are well-organized Korean-speakers certainly suggests it. North Korea is notorious for extorting cooperation out of Japanese-Koreans using their family members in the North. All the easier with the ethnic Korean population in China. On the other...

Even if you only have time to read a few choice portions, take a few minutes to actually read the Senate Intel Committee’s report on pre-Iraq intel for yourself. Then compare it the way “news” stories filter it. William Safire—a columnist, not a reporter—does the best job of analyzing its meaning. Most importantly, he preserves the integrity of his logic by admitting the unknowables, of which there are many when you’re dealing with secretive regimes, shadowy terrorists, and their deepest...

Kofi Annan’s own office signed off on dozens of oil-for-food contracts that patently hadn’t the slightest thing to do with food. This is what the U.N. is reduced to—a bagman for the corruption of the entire world. What else can you say about deals in which crooked members of the U.N.’s board of directors sell tyrants the blessing of legitimacy, a license to violate every principle embodied here? At least Enron didn’t claim the moral authority to pass resolutions. You...

I’m sure there is some perfectly good reason why this is happening now, after 60 years.

If you had any doubts about China’s agenda for using North Korea at the expense of Taiwan’s independence and Hong Kong’s freedom, this transparent bit of extortion ought to remove all doubt. “The important thing is for the United States to honor its commitments,” [the Chinese Embassy’s spokesman] said, calling the situation across the Taiwan Strait “severely tested.” Otherwise, he warned, it would harm bilateral relations and affect China’s cooperation on such issues as the North Korean nuclear crisis. Indeed,...