So when I read last week that according to an anonymous “senior South Korean official,” a North Korean admission that it sank the Cheonan and an apology for shelling of Yeonpyeong Island would not be “a precondition to the resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks,” I decided to wait for the clarification before concluding that the Lee Administration had been neutered. Those clarifications haven’t really cleared much up. One one hand, there’s the newly hard-line Unification Minstry: Unification Minister...

I cringed when I saw that someone at The Washington Post let Glenn Kessler fact-check President Obama’s SOTU mention of North Korea, given how many corrections Kessler still owes his readers: President Obama: “Because of a diplomatic effort to insist that Iran meet its obligations, the Iranian government now faces tougher and tighter sanctions than ever before. And on the Korean peninsula, we stand with our ally South Korea, and insist that North Korea keeps its commitment to abandon nuclear...

Among reporters who aren’t terribly experienced as North Korea watchers, there’s been much recent excitement about the prospect of North Korea and South Korea talking again. I see little harm and some good in working-level talks between generals, but I think the exuberance of these cub reporters is misplaced. Look more closely, and all of the obstacles to Agreed Framework III are still in place. South Korea is still demanding that North Korea apologize for sinking the Cheonan and shelling...

Open News has published a whole series of articles about the conditions at Camp 12, Chongo-Ri, based in part on interviews with a newly escaped female prisoner: – Female prisoners at the camp make wigs and false eyelashes for export. – Visitation rights afforded to prisoners. – How prisoners are stripped of their dignity. – How prisoners are prepared for release. I believe these are images of Camp 12, although the lack of a perimeter fence surprises me, and it’s...

“In the order, the party stressed that soldiers standing guard over the border are surviving on canned cornmeal porridge and threatened to assess the amount of donations by individual entity,” the RFA said, adding the North failed to attain its goal of securing 1.6 million tons in provisions for the military last year.” [Yonhap] Whoever can smuggle food into North Korea now can trade it for information, the use of a truck, weapons, or ammunition. Just use your imagination. __________________________________...

Did North Korea cheat, you ask? North Korea has been developing a uranium enrichment programme — a potential second way to make nuclear bombs — since the late 1990s, a senior defector was Wednesday quoted as saying. The defector, quoted by South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, said centrifuges for the programme are being made at the city of Heechon, 57 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon. [AFP] More here. Selig Harrison was unavailable for comment....

The Obama Administration’s China policy has come full circle from its deferential beginnings.____________________________________ President Lee wants to bring North Korea to the Security Council over its uranium enrichment program.____________________________________ Well, this story is rich in revelations. Apparently, Iran has sent payments to North Korea from the previously sanctioned Hong Kong Electronics to the Seoul branch of Iran’s Bank Mellat. Less shocking are more reports of China’s assistance to North Korea’s ballistic missile program. If you’re keeping count, that would violate...