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Yes, I think the triumphalism is premature, but optimism is another thing entirely. There are growing signs of uppitiness among the once-silent majority of the world’s ordinary people–those not represented in the coffeehouses of Brussels or in the General Assembly. There is nothing inevitable about the success of a revolution; the tyrants can delay the realization of those trends as long as they control the guns. But oppression inevitably breeds discontent and systemic inefficiencies. End caveat; pan to reality. Bloggers...

Yes, I think the triumphalism is premature, but optimism is another thing entirely. There are growing signs of uppitiness among the once-silent majority of the world’s ordinary people–those not represented in the coffeehouses of Brussels or in the General Assembly. There is nothing inevitable about the success of a revolution; the tyrants can delay the realization of those trends as long as they control the guns. But oppression inevitably breeds discontent and systemic inefficiencies. End caveat; pan to reality. Bloggers...

Do you suppose I’m the only commentator struggling with the loss of the words “fallout” and “bombshell” to describe North Korea’s nuclear declaration? Times like these certainly have a way of separating those who can live without their toolbox of cliches and those who cannot. * * * * * The Korean Left Calls for Its Smelling Salts I confess that I love running around tossing frags into the chat rooms at OhMyNews, whose journalistic incompetence, easily-exposed errors and biases,...

Do you suppose I’m the only commentator struggling with the loss of the words “fallout” and “bombshell” to describe North Korea’s nuclear declaration? Times like these certainly have a way of separating those who can live without their toolbox of cliches and those who cannot. * * * * * The Korean Left Calls for Its Smelling Salts I confess that I love running around tossing frags into the chat rooms at OhMyNews, whose journalistic incompetence, easily-exposed errors and biases,...

Has South Korea’s new fugitive slave law cost its first life? The Reverend Jeffrey Park is a U.S. citizen and Durihana activist (English language article on them here). A few weeks ago, he was trying to help a group of North Korean refugees get from Jilin, China to South Korea via Burma. The ROK embassy in Rangoon refused to help, so Reverend Park found himself wandering back to China through the dangerous mountains of Laos in the middle of the...

Has South Korea’s new fugitive slave law cost its first life? The Reverend Jeffrey Park is a U.S. citizen and Durihana activist (English language article on them here). A few weeks ago, he was trying to help a group of North Korean refugees get from Jilin, China to South Korea via Burma. The ROK embassy in Rangoon refused to help, so Reverend Park found himself wandering back to China through the dangerous mountains of Laos in the middle of the...

Barry Briggs has a fascinating post up at NKZone, quoting a reprint of a Der Spiegel article in the New York Times. I’ve long believed that the solution to the North Korean nuclear and humanitarian crises must come in the form of North Koreans themselves terminating the Kim dynasty, whether through a coup, a protracted guerrilla campain, or a combination of both with U.S. support. This article is a tantalizing new piece of evidence to support the fragmentary reports of...

Barry Briggs has a fascinating post up at NKZone, quoting a reprint of a Der Spiegel article in the New York Times. I’ve long believed that the solution to the North Korean nuclear and humanitarian crises must come in the form of North Koreans themselves terminating the Kim dynasty, whether through a coup, a protracted guerrilla campain, or a combination of both with U.S. support. This article is a tantalizing new piece of evidence to support the fragmentary reports of...

After 9/11, there were two kinds of Americans—media nebbishes who would agonize, “Why do they hate us?” and the rest of us, who would just shake our heads and ask, “What the f*ck is wrong with those people?” I’ve been a member of the latter group since oh, mid-August of 1990, when I visited the Middle East for the first and last time until someone deploys or abducts me. Sure I love world travel, but I’m no masochist. I’m not...

After 9/11, there were two kinds of Americans—media nebbishes who would agonize, “Why do they hate us?” and the rest of us, who would just shake our heads and ask, “What the f*ck is wrong with those people?” I’ve been a member of the latter group since oh, mid-August of 1990, when I visited the Middle East for the first and last time until someone deploys or abducts me. Sure I love world travel, but I’m no masochist. I’m not...

From Norbert Vollertsen, some mixed news from Beijing. The good news is that five defectors got in. An American and a South Korean ran the operation together. The bad news is that they refused to let in a sixth, refusing to accept his ID papers as proof of his North Korean nationality. One wonders who else would want shelter in a German school in Beijing. Does anyone else see some stupendous historical irony there? Norbert also included some interesting biographical...

From Norbert Vollertsen, some mixed news from Beijing. The good news is that five defectors got in. An American and a South Korean ran the operation together. The bad news is that they refused to let in a sixth, refusing to accept his ID papers as proof of his North Korean nationality. One wonders who else would want shelter in a German school in Beijing. Does anyone else see some stupendous historical irony there? Norbert also included some interesting biographical...

Dear readers, Today this site, still in its infancy, had the highest one-day readership so far. Those are not Andrew Sullivan numbers, to be sure, but great things have small beginnings, particularly in the context of all of the fine sites out there talking about this issue (freenorthkorea.net and chosunjournal.com in particular).* Please feel free to purloin, modify, and make use of the following sample letter to Congress. Just make sure you send it! Time is of the essence. This...

Dear readers, Today this site, still in its infancy, had the highest one-day readership so far. Those are not Andrew Sullivan numbers, to be sure, but great things have small beginnings, particularly in the context of all of the fine sites out there talking about this issue (freenorthkorea.net and chosunjournal.com in particular).* Please feel free to purloin, modify, and make use of the following sample letter to Congress. Just make sure you send it! Time is of the essence. This...

OFK: Please tell us about your background–where you grew up, and what people, ideas, and philosophies influenced the shaping of your character. Jae Ku: I lived in Korea during my first eight years. I have two older brothers and a sister, so there were six of us. I grew up in Midwest, but mostly in Kansas. I spent most of my childhood in the town of Salina. I voted for the first time in 1988, for Mike Michael Dukakis. My...

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...

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...