May 20, 2011

Close Kaesong, Then Pass the FTA

I’m a fan of the Heritage Foundation’s Bruce Klingner, consider him a friend, and can’t remember the last time I disagreed with him about anything, but when he writes, using unusually strong language, that the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement won’t help North Korea, I continue to harbor doubts. First, North Korea has become adept at selling its products under false labels. Second, some South Koreans — including some who could end up governing South Korea after the 2013 elections...

Categories NK Economics/Sanctions/U.S. & Korea
May 18, 2011

Open Sources: The Rodney Dangerfield of American Politics

That would be Jimmy Carter, who having recently snubbed by Kim Jong Il and Lee Myung Bak, gets no respect from Hillary Clinton. _____________________________________ So, the North Koreans are unhappy with Fox News for reporting that North Korea is growing more dope than ever, and we get to witness a case study of how North Korea strong-arms foreign journalists (I use the term loosely). Personally, I’m a little hesitant to endorse the conclusion that North Korea is increasing the production...

Categories Anju Links
May 16, 2011

U.N. Report Implicates China in N. Korea-Iran Missile Transfers; China Tries to Block Said Report

If Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are an Axis of Evil, then China must be the Limited-Slip Differential of the Axis of Evil: North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missile technology in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a confidential U.N. report obtained by Reuters on Saturday. The report said the illicit technology transfers had “trans-shipment through a neighboring third country.” That country was China, several diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. [Reuters] China...

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China/Missiles/Proliferation/WMD
May 10, 2011

Committee for Human Rights in N. Korea to Release Report on Abductions

I’ll simply post the press release and let it speak for itself: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 1725 Eye (I) Street, NW “¢ Suite 300 “¢ Washington, DC 20006 “¢ (202) 349-3830 www.hrnk.org PRESS RELEASE ****For Immediate Release**** On Thursday, the Washington-based bipartisan Committee for Human Rights in North Korea will release an extraordinary report, “TAKEN! North Korea’s Criminal Abduction of Citizens of Other Countries. The report, three years in the making, is based on numerous sources never...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Anju Links/Human Rights
May 9, 2011

See, kids? I told you marijuana was bad for you!

There’s no audio, so you can’t hear him singing along to “Sugar Magnolia” and barking at his wives for more potato chips: At the risk of starting a global conspiracy theory here and now, this video looks like it could have been made at a homeless shelter in Oakland. OK, maybe none of the neighbors really did know they were living next to the world’s most wanted mass murderer, but anyone who got a look at this dude ought to...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq
May 7, 2011

Too Little, Too Late, But Better than Nothing: Amnesty International on North Korea’s Political Prison Camps

Six years after it breathlessly declared Guantanamo Bay “the gulag of our time,” Amnesty International has gotten around to concluding that North Korea “can no longer deny the undeniable:” “These are places out of sight of the rest of the world, where almost the entire range of human rights protections that international law has tried to set up for last 60 years are ignored. “As North Korea seems to be moving towards a new leader in Kim Jong-un and a...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Camps
May 3, 2011

Learn about North Korean Human Rights Crisis at JFNK Volunteer Orientation

For those of you in Korea, if you don’t know much about the human rights crisis that is North Korea (and spilling into China and South Korea) and/or if you want to learn how to get involved, there’s a great opportunity for you this Saturday in English or next Saturday in Korean (please encourage your Korean friends. coworkers, students to attend!). I volunteer with Justice for North Korea, and we’re holding our third round of informational orientation sessions for volunteers...

Categories Activism/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
May 2, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Thread

Just a few observations: 1. It’s particularly satisfying in some evil way to think of Osama bin Laden not as “elusive” or “shadowy,” but as “shark food.” 2. I don’t think the location where bin Laden was hiding leaves any question that Pakistan was sheltering him. This wasn’t some mountain cave in the tribal territories that the Pakistani government doesn’t control. It was a house near a military academy in a town right near Islamabad. I was on the fence...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq
May 1, 2011

Announcing the Jimmy Carter-Kim Jong Il Habitat Foundation*

Hello, Jimmy Carter here. Some of you may remember me for my successful negotiations that preceded the freeing of American hostages from our embassy in Iran, brought peace to the Middle East and free elections to China, and secured the peaceful nuclear disarmament of North Korea. But of course, you say, I’m remembered for something else, too — for my tireless campaigning on behalf of the downtrodden and oppressed everywhere from 1973 to 1975, and since 1983. As my covenant...

Categories Humor/Satire/Useful Idiocy
April 29, 2011

North Koreans Hard at Work on New Uranium Reactor

Images published yesterday by ISIS show fresh construction adjacent to North Korea’s old 5-megawatt reactor, the one that eventually became the exclusive focus of two failed agreed frameworks. For comparison, here’s an image of the same reactor from February 17, 2007, coincidentally just days after the second agreed framework was signed. The cooling tower in the image was blown up in ceremonial spectacle for the media, and some of the equipment inside the main reactor building (on the right) was...

Categories Anju Links/Proliferation/WMD
April 28, 2011

North Korea Sort-of Admits Cheonan Sinking?

Buried within the latest AP report on Jimmy Carter’s visit to North Korea was this wonderful morsel: Carter said North Korean officials expressed deep regret for the deaths on the South Korean warship Cheonan and for the civilians killed in the island shelling. But, he said, it was clear that “they will not publicly apologize and admit culpability for the Cheonan incident.” North Korea denies sinking the ship, despite an South Korea-led international investigation that blamed the country. It says...

Categories Cheonan Incident/Useful Idiocy
April 25, 2011

Even the North Koreans think Jimmy Carter is a tool.

I seldom find myself agreeing with the North Koreans on much, but it gives me strange comfort to find that they share my contempt for America’s worst ex-president: In a memoir about her months as a prisoner in North Korea, Ling records that North Korean officials were infuriated by her suggestion that Carter be enlisted as the high-profile American to come retrieve her. They viewed Carter as washed-up and out of office for too long — a retread unfit to...

Categories Anju Links/Famine & Food Aid/Useful Idiocy
April 21, 2011

Robert Park Op-Ed in the Washington Post

Despite my rather complex views of Mr. Park, one can say that keeping these issues in the public eye means something good coming of his ill-advised actions.  At least now, people should disregard that televised “confession” of his.  Speaking of North Korea and hostage negotiations, don’t miss Claudia Rosett’s revelations about what the North Koreans really think of Jimmy Carter. Oh, and a Japanese newspaper is reporting that the North Koreans have arrested two Japanese on drug charges. Seriously.  What...

Categories Robert Park
April 21, 2011

North Korea Freedom Week Schedule: April 24 – May 1, 2011

Updated:   Updated the schedule and fixed a link below. For those of you who haven’t been checking the NK Freedom Coalition website on a near daily basis of late to get the greatly updated schedule for North Korea Freedom Week, it’s finally out! One thing that’s very interesting, and I’ll leave it to Joshua or Chris to comment on, the list of sponsors: The Ministry of Unification; the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; the City of Seoul; various newspapers...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
April 19, 2011

Kucinich Is the One on the Right

I briefly interrupt my hiatus to give you this to gawk upon: The Daily Show – Dennis Kucinich’s Improbable SuccessTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Kucinich, the Congressgnome from Middle Earth, has made a few appearances in this blog for being the main congressional backer of Christine Ahn’s National Campaign to End the Korean War. Anyway, it disappoints me to see Kucinich nudged out of Congress by non-democratic means, whether those means involve...

Categories Useful Idiocy/WTF?
April 13, 2011

North Korea Gets Another Free Chip

While we don’t know any of the details, and so  my resigned sigh might turn out to have been unfair,  I cannot say  it  surprised  me this morning to learn  that there are still American citizens capable of getting themselves arrested in and around North Korea despite this, this and this, not to mention this, and it will surprise  me even less  should I  find that the North Koreans use it  as a way to try and undercut the ongoing...

Categories Anju Links