IF JIMMY CARTER HAS LOST RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, HE’S LOST … well, upper Westchester County I suppose, but still, it’s good to see things like this in the Huffington Post: So why haven’t we done more to help the innocent people of North Korea who must live under fear and tyranny, and who suffer the specter of state-organized famines? Many will say that our hands are tied due to the fact that the North has nuclear weapons, which just reinforces...

CHINA DENIES selling missile transporters (TELs) to North Korea, but the U.N.’s sanctions committee will investigate. Look for China to block the report if it comes up with any evidence that China, yet again, violated UNSCR 1874, 1718, and 1695. That’s how China responded to a previous report that it helped North Korea sell missiles to Iran. Last year, it also blocked a U.N. report on North Korea’s uranium enrichment program. Look for them to do the same when the...

CHINA ‘PAUSES’ DEPORTATIONS? The AFP, citing the Yomiuri Shimbun, reports that China has temporarily stopped sending North Korean refugees back to Kim Jong Il’s firing squads and concentration camps to punish it for its latest misadventure in rocket science: The Yomiuri Shimbun quoted two Chinese officials as saying the long-standing policy of swiftly returning any North Korean who made it across the border and into China — despite the punishment they face — had been put on hold. “If refugees...

THERE, FIXED IT FOR YOU: “UN strongly [weakly] condemns North Korea rocket launch, warns of [no] further action if new nuclear test.” Seriously, guys, it’s a presidential statement — not even a resolution. It’s not just that, it’s the swiftness with which the U.N. collectively decided to imitate parody. ____________________________________ HOW TO REPORT FROM NORTH KOREA, from a critical consumer: It isn’t rocket science, really; just tell the reader what you saw and what you didn’t see, and if you...

YES, I HAVE YOUR ROCKET PORN: We’re apparently pretty close to North Korea’s missile satellite launch, judging by these pictures taken by an AFP photographer, this Reuters report, and this AP report, which ironically contains no visible input from the Pyongyang Bureau. You’ve probably heard by now that North Korea is already doing suspicious things around its nuclear test site at Mt. Mantap. Last night, a friend asked me when we could expect that nuke test. In the past, it’s...

TEAR DOWN THIS WALL: It’s too bad almost no one reported it at the time he said it: “The day all Koreans yearn for will not come easily or without great sacrifice, but make no mistake, it will come,” Obama said. “And when it does, when it does, change will unfold that once seemed impossible. And checkpoints will open, and watchtowers will stand empty, and families long separated will finally be reunited, and the Korean people at long last will...