Search Results for: border

Soon Ok-Lee has a new Web site up. This one is a must-see. Beautifully presented, tasteful, moving. Check it out.

For now, check out this story in the NYT. Everyone seems to have concluded that diplomacy is failing to defang Iran and North Korea. The usual gang of Clinton holdovers is blaming us for not offering enough protection money. The Bush administration is now thinking covert action. Uh, good timing, guys. The basic premise is undeniable. Of course, to read anything in the Times these days you have to put up with plenty of completely gratuitous swipes at Bush and...

For now, check out this story in the NYT. Everyone seems to have concluded that diplomacy is failing to defang Iran and North Korea. The usual gang of Clinton holdovers is blaming us for not offering enough protection money. The Bush administration is now thinking covert action. Uh, good timing, guys. The basic premise is undeniable. Of course, to read anything in the Times these days you have to put up with plenty of completely gratuitous swipes at Bush and...

It’s probably too early to compare this to the mass exodus that brought down East Germany in 1989, but it has to make the power structures in both Koreas pretty nervous.   Four hundred North Korean defectors are coming to Seoul from an undisclosed country in Southeast Asia.  South Korea apparently decided it was worth going to some effort to strike this deal. This is good news in itself. While I give the South Koreans credit for making the right decision–regardless of their motivation–the...

It’s probably too early to compare this to the mass exodus that brought down East Germany in 1989, but it has to make the power structures in both Koreas pretty nervous.   Four hundred North Korean defectors are coming to Seoul from an undisclosed country in Southeast Asia.  South Korea apparently decided it was worth going to some effort to strike this deal. This is good news in itself. While I give the South Koreans credit for making the right decision–regardless of their motivation–the...

I�ve always considered myself a free trader, believing that markets do a much better job than regulations when it comes to determining wages and prices. Thirty years ago, there were 40 or 50 wars raging across the world, and famines and plagues in China and India would kill tens of thousands of people. The world, for all its problems, is much better than that today, and I attribute most of that change to two things: the end of Soviet support...

It doesn’t get much more official than this. First, the Korean verion; then, the U.S. version. Alliances are based on common values and interests. It’s pretty obvious that the U.S. and South Korea can’t even agree on the facts. The Korea Herald must have worked pretty hard to find an American toady to support its “the U.S. needs Korea” delusion; I can’t find anyone of like mind in this entire town. The greatest gulf in U.S. and Korean realities seems...

It doesn’t get much more official than this. First, the Korean verion; then, the U.S. version. Alliances are based on common values and interests. It’s pretty obvious that the U.S. and South Korea can’t even agree on the facts. The Korea Herald must have worked pretty hard to find an American toady to support its “the U.S. needs Korea” delusion; I can’t find anyone of like mind in this entire town. The greatest gulf in U.S. and Korean realities seems...

NK Gulag may have better info about life inside North Korea than any other NGO or media organization. They have sent me some interesting updates on goings-on inside the Land of Oz. First, they discuss recent reports that the Nork border guards have built up the fences along the border, and even added tiger traps: North Korea recently ordered the construction of a two-meter high wooden fence along 393 kilometers of its border with China. This area is largely mountainous...

NK Gulag may have better info about life inside North Korea than any other NGO or media organization. They have sent me some interesting updates on goings-on inside the Land of Oz. First, they discuss recent reports that the Nork border guards have built up the fences along the border, and even added tiger traps: North Korea recently ordered the construction of a two-meter high wooden fence along 393 kilometers of its border with China. This area is largely mountainous...

Rebecca has posted the newest permutation of Kerry’s North Korea policy on NKZone. It has attracted the usual mix of comments, including the usual ratio of scary ones that appear to have been texted in from Phish concerts. If Kerry scared you before when he talked about carrying on with one-on-one AND five-on-one talks and paying all kinds of blackmail, Kerry’s statement today contained some encouraging contact with reality, such as, “The North Koreans have made it clear to the...

Rebecca has posted the newest permutation of Kerry’s North Korea policy on NKZone. It has attracted the usual mix of comments, including the usual ratio of scary ones that appear to have been texted in from Phish concerts. If Kerry scared you before when he talked about carrying on with one-on-one AND five-on-one talks and paying all kinds of blackmail, Kerry’s statement today contained some encouraging contact with reality, such as, “The North Koreans have made it clear to the...

Rebecca has posted the newest permutation of Kerry’s North Korea policy on NKZone. It has attracted the usual mix of comments, including the usual ratio of scary ones that appear to have been texted in from Phish concerts. If Kerry scared you before when he talked about carrying on with one-on-one AND five-on-one talks and paying all kinds of blackmail, Kerry’s statement today contained some encouraging contact with reality, such as, “The North Koreans have made it clear to the...

It’s come to this–Kang Chol-Hwan tells us that North Korea is building a border fence and tiger traps to kill and maim refugees. If there were a futures market on North Korea, I’d be indicted for insider trading. As you heard me speculate here, the NK secret police suspect an assassination attempt by “rebellious forces” was behind the Ryongchon explosion; they’re in full purge mode and are confiscating every cell phone they can find. The Korea Herald may be onto...

It’s come to this–Kang Chol-Hwan tells us that North Korea is building a border fence and tiger traps to kill and maim refugees. If there were a futures market on North Korea, I’d be indicted for insider trading. As you heard me speculate here, the NK secret police suspect an assassination attempt by “rebellious forces” was behind the Ryongchon explosion; they’re in full purge mode and are confiscating every cell phone they can find. The Korea Herald may be onto...

Like many of you, I have been puzzled at the selective outrage of OhMyNews, Hankyoreh, and other lefist / anti-American media in Korea about Iraqi prisoners forced to wear leashes and panties, a matter which I hope to put in its proper context, not to downplay. At the same time, those “news” sources seldom or never mention the 4 million North Koreans currently living on the brink of starvation, the 2 million already culled through engineered famine, the uncounted scores...

Like many of you, I have been puzzled at the selective outrage of OhMyNews, Hankyoreh, and other lefist / anti-American media in Korea about Iraqi prisoners forced to wear leashes and panties, a matter which I hope to put in its proper context, not to downplay. At the same time, those “news” sources seldom or never mention the 4 million North Koreans currently living on the brink of starvation, the 2 million already culled through engineered famine, the uncounted scores...

At this moment, as you read this, young children in Ryongchon and Sinuiju are dying prolonged, agonized deaths. Their parents sit beside their kids in helplessness and despair, watching them die. And what are their government’s leaders doing to respond to the crisis and ease their suffering? They’re all at the theater, watching creepy mass games. Meanwhile, truckloads of aid and busloads of doctors and nurses are blocked at the border. The risk of political infection is apparently a greater...