Search Results for: perestroika

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL BACK a long-belated U.N. human rights probe of North Korea. *          *          * NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, North Korean defectors allege that the regime uses political prisoners to dig tunnels for its nuclear tests, and then executes them.  I found no evidence to support that charge in the imagery, but I couldn’t rule it out, either. *          *          *...

NORTH KOREA PERESTROIKA WATCH: Funny, as of 3 p.m. on Inauguration Day 2009, the Nobel Committee seemed so sure our enemies would all love the guy.  How could so many distinguished European humanitarians be so wrong? President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors on October 11, 2008 for verifiably dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, renouncing terrorism, making peace with South Korea, returning its Japanese abductees, and closing down its concentration camps.  Unlike President Obama, however, President...

NORTH KOREA, WHICH WAS REMOVED FROM THE LIST of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, has threatened South Korea with “final destruction,” … at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament.  I don’t have the original Korean, so I won’t opine on how similarly it translates to “endlossung.”  Discuss among yourselves. *          *          * GALLUCCI:  IT DIDN’T WORK: “The policy we have pursued over the last 20 years — engagement, containment, whatever...

UPDATE/BREAKING:  More nuke tests coming soon? *          *          * ALL OF YOU WHO BET that Park Geun Hye would tilt toward engagement — you know who you are — pay up: “No matter how many nuclear tests North Korea conducts to bolster its nuclear capabilities, it will eventually bring itself self-destruction by wasting its resources,” Ms. Park was quoted as saying by her office during a meeting with her national security and foreign...

NORTH KOREA PERESTROIKA WATCH:  First it was lipstick, now it’s bicycles.  Where are Christine Ahn and Christine Hong to defend North Korean women against sexism? *          *          * I’VE HAD A LOT TO SAY ABOUT NORTH KOREA’S METH PROBLEM, but this article on North Koreans smoking pot was interesting.  You wouldn’t think pot would catch on in a place without freely available snacks, and where being mellow is strictly forbidden.  *      ...

VIDEO:  A wooden boat with fading Korean characters painted on it washes up on Japan’s West Coast.  Aboard are the decomposing bodies of five men. ————————————————– WHERE HAS THE U.S.S. PUEBLO GONE? ————————————————– I, FOR ONE, FULLY SUPPORT THEIR DECISION:  North Korea to confiscate property from companies at Kaesong that fail to pay punitive taxes.  Good luck attracting more investment with that strategy! ————————————————– NORTH KOREAN PERESTROIKA WATCH:  According to an unverifiable report attributed to “sources,” North Korea has replaced...

SO PARK GEUN-HYE HAS WON THE NOMINATION, as we knew she would all along. I wish Ms. Park the best of luck. This isn’t because I’m an especially great fan; Ms. Park has shown an authoritarian mindset and a lack of vision about achieving unification, as opposed to maintaining deterrence. It’s because Ms. Park is smart, tough, and would be an effective executive if — if — she can resist the temptation to overreach, and because the alternatives are so...

NORTH KOREA THREATENS TO ‘PUNISH’ DEFECTORS and activists beyond its borders for criticizing its regime.  While I’ll tip my hat to the Chosun Ilbo for this one, I prefer KCNA’s original prose: In case the DPRK’s just demands are not met, there will follow corresponding measures including punishment of criminals involved in monstrous terrorism and other subversive and sabotage acts against the DPRK and the operations to lure and abduct its citizens. We declare that among the targets to be...

NORTH KOREA PERESTROIKA WATCH: State media claims that Kim Jong Eun could drive at age three, which is simply precious. Once, when my own son was three, he made a very spirited argument that I should let him drive us all home from Old Town Alexandria to Maryland. And to think that had I not restrained him so, he might have been the Last Emperor of some bleak and far-flung little puppet kingdom. Actually, I have more trouble with the...