Search Results for “burma”

July 22, 2009

John Kerry Tries, Fails to Stop Amendment Calling for N. Korea to be Re-Listed as Terror Sponsor (Update: Dems Defeat Amendment, 54-43)

Progress on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is always tenuous and remains incomplete. But the regime’s nuclear declaration is the latest reminder that, despite President Bush’s once bellicose rhetoric, engaging our enemies can pay dividends…. Now the president must not prematurely close the books on North Korea’s alleged uranium enrichment activities and nuclear exports. We must ensure there are credible verification and monitoring procedures to ensure North Korea is out of the nuclear business for the long term. —...

Appeasement/Ling/Lee Incident/Sanctions/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics

July 20, 2009

Sanctions Upates

The big headline this week is the U.N.’s agreement on a list of entities to be sanctioned under UNSCR 1718 and 1874 (see links on my sidebar for the texts). Frankly, I think that’s a story that’s getting a great deal more attention than it merits. The sanctioned entities have largely been sanctioned under Executive Order 13,382 for years. I doubt that the U.N. imprimatur is going to fend off many of North Korea’s WMD clients that the Treasury Department’s...

"United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China/Missiles/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD

July 11, 2009

Burmese Dissidents Worry About Junta’s Purchases of North Korean Weapons

The Burmese diaspora has become one of our best sources of information: One of the first signs of warming relations was a barter agreement between the two countries that lasted from 2000 to 2006 and saw Burma receive between 12 and 16 M-46 field guns and as many as 20 million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition from North Korea, according to defense analyst Andrew Selth of Griffith University in Australia. In exchange, Burma bartered food and rice. [….] The two...

Proliferation/Southeast Asia

July 2, 2009

Sanctions Update

Japanese police have arrested three men for trying to buy missile parts for Burma. There’s a North Korean connection: Police believe North Korea was attempting to help Myanmar gain missile technologies, the report said. North Korea is suspected of having ordered the device through a Hong Kong-based trading company that it controls, the report said. [Bloomberg]

Japan/Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/Southeast Asia

July 1, 2009

How China Helps North Korea Proliferate

Who still thinks the Chinese want to help us make North Korea play nicely? But tighter controls by the international community of weapons of mass destruction and restraints on the North’s arms industry meant Pyongyang had to look for more devious ways. For instance, the North took a roundabout land route via China and Russia, which is harder to trace, or used transport planes at night. It also exported weapons by building assembly factories in importing countries. To circumvent an...

China/Proliferation/Uncategorized

June 30, 2009

Kang Nam I Turns Around, Heads North

U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back in the direction it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons. The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kana Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution? [AP, Pauline Jelinek] The ship apparently turned around last...

"United" Nations/Proliferation/Sanctions

June 29, 2009

WaPo on China’s Trade with North Korea, and Its Rulers’ Darkest Fears

China, which the unmitigated chutzpah we’ve come to expect of it, reassures us that it is “deeply committed” to the enforcement of UNSCR 1874. Today, Blaine Harden of the Washington Post reports the facts that shatter that mendacious claim. In a new report, he provides fresh evidence of China’s economic colonization of North Korea, which fits neatly with its agenda of undermining U.N. sanctions against the North. It’s a must-read, but here’s a money quote: As U.N. sanctions mount and...

China/NK Economics/NK Military/Proliferation/WMD

June 29, 2009

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Navy Tracks “Multiple” Suspicious N. Korean Ships It Won’t Actually Stop

The United States said it was monitoring “multiple” North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons and that it would discuss with its allies what to do with one suspect vessel it is tracking.While the United States has been tracking the Kang Nam since last week, the Pentagon said it is closely monitoring several other North Korean ships allegedly carrying weapons. “We have been interested in this one ship [the Kang Nam], but we’ve been interested in, frankly, multiple ships,” Pentagon...

"United" Nations/Proliferation

June 26, 2009

U.S. Won’t Board Suspected N. Korean Arms Ship

The North Korean ship Kang Nam I may be carrying missiles to Burma, and then again, it may be headed for a stopover in Burma as it transits to points west. And then again, it may merely be carrying “small” arms and bullets for shooting dissidents and uppity monks (for which their next of kin will be duly billed). The official Burmese version is that they aren’t expecting the Kang Nam I in any of their ports. For some reason,...

"United" Nations/China/Proliferation

June 16, 2009

Poll: Obama Too Soft on North Korea

Admittedly, I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand, I’ve noted signs that Obama’s North Korea policy is headed in the right direction — a far better one than Bush’s, if carried out in a sustained and comprehensive way — although I think Obama will probably do a Chris Hill and buy the same horse all over again the minute North Korea offers to sign Agreed Framework III. Still, my idea of “loyal opposition” extends an elected president and its...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

June 16, 2009

Great Iran Demo Photos

The Boston Globe has some terrific pictures of the protests in Iran, of the regime’s fascist thugs beating men and women in the streets, and of the victims of that violence. Like most of you, I’ve been watching events in Iran with great interest. Many other bloggers, including some who are getting camera phone pics and twitter updates straight from Tehran, are saturating that topic far better than I could, so I won’t wade into that field. Because of well-armed...

Uncategorized

March 31, 2009

31 March 2009

THE SENATE Foreign Relations Committee is expected to approve Christopher Hill’s confirmation today, but tabloid rumors notwithstanding, that isn’t the final “confirmation” vote. THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION has adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea’s human rights record and reappointing Vitit Muntarbhorn for another year. The resolution was adopted despite the opposing votes of China and Russia: The UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday adopted the European Union-led resolution on a 26-6 vote with 15 abstentions at a meeting at...

Anju Links

February 24, 2009

Dear Mrs. Clinton: Pyongyang Will Not Be Triangulated

For a moment, leave aside what we think Hillary Clinton’s goals for her recent Asia visit should have been. For most of us, that is just an exercise in catharsis anyway. Ask yourself what Mrs. Clinton’s subjective goals were. One certainly must have been to improve our frayed alliances with South Korea (frayed by Roh Moo Hyun’s America-bashing populism) and Japan (frayed by George W. Bush’s betrayal on the abduction issue), and to show both nations that America is a...

Diplomacy

February 5, 2009

Rising Traffic on the Underground Railroad

NOW THAT THE OLYMPICS ARE OVER, the flow of North Korean defectors into Thailand is on the rise once again. Thai police statistics quoted by the Japanese daily show a mere 140 North Koreans arrested there between January and August last year. But in the period from September to November after the Beijing Olympics, 250 North Koreans were arrested in 14 areas in northern and northeastern Thailand bordering Burma and Laos. The number of North Koreans arrested in December and...

Refugees/Southeast Asia

January 6, 2009

Conscience in Unlikely Places

The Myanmar junta released 19 North Korean defectors into Thailand on Wednesday following their arrest in December, a diplomat said Thursday. The 19 North Koreans, including 15 women and a 7-year-old boy, were arrested at the Myanmar-Thai border town of Tarchilek on Dec. 2 while trying to cross into Thailand en route to South Korea, the same source said. [Kyodo News] It’s hard to understand why that regime, with its bizarre reliance on numerology, does anything. I suspect this doesn’t...

Refugees/Southeast Asia

November 10, 2008

More Light Blogging for a While Longer

Things have been busy at work, and weekends and holidays have become rare and valuable time to spend with my family, so I’m going to slow the tempo here for a while. How long? Depends on events, I suppose, but at time when everyone’s attention is on other events here at home seems like a good time for that. The kids are young. They won’t be young forever. We had a great weekend out seeing things together. One interesting story...

China

September 23, 2008

Anju Links for 24 Sept 08

YOU DON’T SAY! (Pt. 1): “Nuke Deal Not Likely by End of Bush Term.” The interesting take away from Nicholas Kralev’s piece is that the North Korean efforts to reconstitute their plutonium program are not focused on the old 5-MW reactor, but on the fuel fabrication plant. That would be consistent with my pet theory that the North Koreans are content to retire the old 5-MW model and start up the new 50-MW reactor instead. This also provided some amusement:...