September 9, 2014

Are South Koreans always the last to learn facts about North Korea or

… does it just seem that way? Years after Google Earth made North Korea’s gulags visible to any American with an internet connection, Daum is launching a Korean-language map service covering North Korea. It’s not clear what new information this will provide for English speakers, other than helping us with those pesky problems of spelling North Korean place names in English. Separately, South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission says “it plans to open a permanent exhibition hall on North Korea’s...

Categories Korean Politics/Korean Society
September 9, 2014

Former Obama Admin. official: Our N. Korea sanctions are weak and our policy is stuck

The Obama Administration’s North Korea team is stuck. Its thirst for fresh blood is so dire that it recently asked Keith Richards whether he still has the number of that secret clinic in Switzerland.* Don’t take my word for it. Last Friday, former Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as a friend and spy of mine was sitting in the audience (thank you). Campbell’s remarks are worth listening to in full, but the...

Categories Anju Links/Media Criticism/Sanctions/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views
September 8, 2014

U.N. Panel of Experts to investigate M/V Mu Du Mong

A U.N. panel that upholds sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is sending personnel to investigate a North Korean cargo ship moored at a Mexican port, U.N. diplomatic sources familiar with the matter told Kyodo News. [Yonhap] “Sending personnel” suggests that the POE will inspect the ship. The POE also sent personnel to inspect the M/V Chong Chon Gang after Panamanian authorities found it smuggling weapons last year. The travels of the M/V Mu Du Bong were first brought...

Categories "United" Nations/Sanctions
September 8, 2014

N. Koreans are bootlegging liquor in Muslim countries

Last week, NK News published a detailed report on a black market in alcohol run by North Korean diplomats in Pakistan. Almost simultaneously, The Daily NK also reported that two North Korean “chauffeurs,” dispatched by the regime to Qatar, and nominally working for private companies there, had been arrested for bootlegging. Two North Korean men are being detained in Qatar under suspicions of the distribution of illegal liquor; Voice of America [VOA] reported on September 4th, citing the Gulf Times, Qatar’s English language newspaper. The...

Categories Drugs & N Korea/Money Laundering
September 4, 2014

Just like France had an unparalleled defense wall on the German border in 1940

The spokesman said that the U.S. has instituted an “unparalleled international sanctions regime that has successfully impeded proliferation, constrained the growth of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, and driven up the cost Pyongyang’s misbehavior.” [Yonhap] What utter nonsense. It would be charitable to accuse him of lying. I doubt he has any idea what he’s even talking about.

Categories Sanctions
September 3, 2014

What if the capitalist North Korea is just as bad as the communist North Korea?

There are many reasons why the Sunshine Policy failed, most of them rooted in the character of the men who rule in Pyongyang, and in the character of the men in Seoul who conceived and executed it. And in that conception, the flaw that was obvious to some of us from the very beginning was that Sunshine — and its surviving derivatives — invested its monotheistic faith in economic reform, yet in practice (and to a large extent, in theory,...

Categories Capitalism/Engagement/NK Economics/Sunshine
September 2, 2014

Does this mean we’re paying for THAAD for South Korea?

The United States has wrapped up its survey of candidate sites for its advanced missile defense (MD) system to be deployed in South Korea, with a final decision likely to be made before their annual defense ministers’ meeting in October, sources said Monday. Washington has made no secret that it is considering deploying a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, an integral part of its MD system, to South Korea, citing evolving threats from North Korea. [Yonhap] Does the “it”...

Categories An Alliance?/Anju Links/Missiles/ROK Military
September 2, 2014

Left-wing priest justifies N. Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong-do

On Nov. 22, a day before the third anniversary of North Korea’s shelling of the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, the Rev. Park Chang-shin made comments during a Mass while criticizing President Park Geun-hye that it was natural for Pyongyang to attack the island because the South and the U.S. held military exercises near its sea border. [Yonhap] This was followed by a helping of Cheonan conspiracy theory. I don’t agree with summoning people for police questioning over political speech....

Categories The Fifth Column
September 1, 2014

Only terrorists make hostage videos, and North Korea just made a hostage video

… of three Americans it is holding for “crimes” that wouldn’t be cognizable as such anywhere else on earth.  All three men said they hope the U.S. government will send an envoy to North Korea to help get them out of their situations, similar to how former President Bill Clinton helped secure the release of two journalists in 2009. [CNN] At which point, Pyongyang will present its demands. Former President George W. Bush removed North Korea from the list of state...

Categories Foreigners in N. Korea/Six-Party Talks/Terrorism (NK)
August 31, 2014

Of fools and their money: Volvo sold North Korea 1,000 cars. On credit.

As a tool of economic isolation, North Korea’s business ethics have proven to be far more effective than U.N. sanctions. See also Yang Bin, Senator Robert Torricelli and David Chang, Chung Mong Hun, Nigel Cowie, Roh Jeong-Ho, Albert Yeung Sau Shing and the Emperor Group, the Xiyang Group, and Lloyd’s of London. There’s actually a whole market in North Korea’s defaulted sovereign debt “involving more than 100 banks from 17 countries” dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. And still,...

Categories Engagement