Search Results for: Lankov

Highly Recommended: The one modest blessing of being sick is that it gave me time to finish Gordon Cucullu’s book, Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin. By now, I consider Gordon a personal friend, so I approach a critique of his work with some discomfort–and a need to disclaim that discomfort openly to readers who might mistake me for an objective reviewer. The real strength of Separated at Birth is its description of South Korea, not...

Lankov on the Great North Korean Soccer Riot: I’ve disagreed with Andrei at times, but you can’t ingore the views of someone with such an exceptional depth of experience in North Korea. Not given to alarmist conclusions, but limited as we all are to speculation, Lankov sees something very significant: Pyongyangites have demonstrated that they are able to fight with police over the outcome of a soccer match. But what will come next? Does this not mean that one day...

Lankov on the Great North Korean Soccer Riot: I’ve disagreed with Andrei at times, but you can’t ingore the views of someone with such an exceptional depth of experience in North Korea. Not given to alarmist conclusions, but limited as we all are to speculation, Lankov sees something very significant: Pyongyangites have demonstrated that they are able to fight with police over the outcome of a soccer match. But what will come next? Does this not mean that one day...

UPDATE: Looks like I was wrong. It appears to be the act of a lone drunk who opted for the Workers’ Paradise. That’s going to be some hangover. ORIGINAL POST: The Chosun Ilbo calls it a defection, but without knowing more than what’s in the article, I’d say a more likely theory is that some North Korean infiltrators were on their way home. South Korean coastal border guards fired some 20 warning shots from a 60 mm mortar, 106 mm...

UPDATE: Looks like I was wrong. It appears to be the act of a lone drunk who opted for the Workers’ Paradise. That’s going to be some hangover. ORIGINAL POST: The Chosun Ilbo calls it a defection, but without knowing more than what’s in the article, I’d say a more likely theory is that some North Korean infiltrators were on their way home. South Korean coastal border guards fired some 20 warning shots from a 60 mm mortar, 106 mm...

Congratulations to my fellow NKZone bloggers on our nomination for Reporters San Frontieres’s Freedom Blog Award. NKZone and The Command Post have become the depositories for more refined compilations of my posts at this blog (this one swelled my head, too, considering the competition). Vote here, if you’re so inclined, and thank you in advance. My congratulations to Chris Beaumont at FreeNorthKorea, as well. I’m certainly glad he took my advice and didn’t quit blogging. Chris, if you’re reading this,...

Congratulations to my fellow NKZone bloggers on our nomination for Reporters San Frontieres’s Freedom Blog Award. NKZone and The Command Post have become the depositories for more refined compilations of my posts at this blog (this one swelled my head, too, considering the competition). Vote here, if you’re so inclined, and thank you in advance. My congratulations to Chris Beaumont at FreeNorthKorea, as well. I’m certainly glad he took my advice and didn’t quit blogging. Chris, if you’re reading this,...

It’s a sad state of affairs when Ban Ki-Moon is the most realistic person in your cabinet: Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Friday held out little hope for the success of six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program after the Stalinist country said the talks must deal with the disarmament of all participants. If the six-party talks collapse as Ban expects, the U.S. is likely to take the dispute to the U.N. Security Council immediately, where it was already on...

It’s a sad state of affairs when Ban Ki-Moon is the most realistic person in your cabinet: Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Friday held out little hope for the success of six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program after the Stalinist country said the talks must deal with the disarmament of all participants. If the six-party talks collapse as Ban expects, the U.S. is likely to take the dispute to the U.N. Security Council immediately, where it was already on...

Before you read the story I link below, I strongly recommend you read Dr. Andrei Lankov’s overview of the North Korean food distribution and rationing system. I disagree with some of Dr. Lankov’s policy recommendations, but he is an invaluable source of knowledge about the North Korean government, such as it was when he was there, at least. The essential point to take from his article is that food rations have been a practical non-entity for everyone except the elite...

Before you read the story I link below, I strongly recommend you read Dr. Andrei Lankov’s overview of the North Korean food distribution and rationing system. I disagree with some of Dr. Lankov’s policy recommendations, but he is an invaluable source of knowledge about the North Korean government, such as it was when he was there, at least. The essential point to take from his article is that food rations have been a practical non-entity for everyone except the elite...

Amnesty for Kim Jong Il? I wholeheartedly endorse the Marmot’s response to Prof. Andrei Lankov’s proposal to offer Kim Jong Il amnesty. The promise, of course, would be illusory even if it were advisable to throw away the deterrent value of a potential prosecution, even if that value may pale in comparison to the countervailing deterrent of the lynch mob he most fears. In a sense, the reasoning mirrors the debate on giving terrorists full POW status, something to which...

Amnesty for Kim Jong Il? I wholeheartedly endorse the Marmot’s response to Prof. Andrei Lankov’s proposal to offer Kim Jong Il amnesty. The promise, of course, would be illusory even if it were advisable to throw away the deterrent value of a potential prosecution, even if that value may pale in comparison to the countervailing deterrent of the lynch mob he most fears. In a sense, the reasoning mirrors the debate on giving terrorists full POW status, something to which...

. . . but I’d bet someone a cup of coffee that before the end of January, we’ll hear that the real cause of the tsunami was secret U.S. nuclear testing, or some other equally goofy blood-in-the-matzo conspiracy theory. Takers? Americans–The New Jews! UPDATE: Umm, I think I’ll call this guy crazy instead. Another Korea blogger no less–the seeing eye blog–is angling to win me my year’s supply of macchiato. I’d never actually read his blog, but what a hoot,...

. . . but I’d bet someone a cup of coffee that before the end of January, we’ll hear that the real cause of the tsunami was secret U.S. nuclear testing, or some other equally goofy blood-in-the-matzo conspiracy theory. Takers? Americans–The New Jews! UPDATE: Umm, I think I’ll call this guy crazy instead. Another Korea blogger no less–the seeing eye blog–is angling to win me my year’s supply of macchiato. I’d never actually read his blog, but what a hoot,...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

This is a story that should start with a description of how it ended. Other than a few well-connected activists, most of those in the room had been a select group–congressional staffers, think-tankers, diplomats, attaches from embassies . . . even Nelson Mandela’s nephew, a pleasant enough man, now wearing the uniform of a general. Before the event had even begun, one bored staffer had whined to another, “I’m sooooooo ready for the weekend. When the two men we had...