Anju Links for 23 August 2008
NEXT SURRENDER, VERIFICATION? Sung Kim has been in talks with the North Koreans in New York to break the latest impasse, which could only mean one thing. I hope he brought enough lubricant.
HERE’S AUDIO OF ADRIAN HONG on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAM HAS ASKED South Korea to provide $60 million in emergency food aid. No word on when the U.N. will tender a similar request to the Ryugyong Hotel Building Fund.
IN 1997, NORTH KOREAN AGENTS MURDERED LEE HAN YOUNG, Kim Jong Il’s nephew, after Lee exposed the extravigance of his uncle’s lifestyle at the height of North Korea’s Great Famine. South Korean agents should have been protecting him. Lee’s widow has now won a judgment against the South Korean government for its failure to protect her husband.
I’M SEEING A PATTERN HERE: “Kim Hyun-sik [Kim Jong Il’s former tutor] says he was told that after he fled North Korea, his family in North Korea were sent to a labor camp and executed afterwards. He confesses to such great pain when he thinks of what Kim Jong-il did to his family that he frequently imagines killing him and then committing suicide.”
LEE MYUNG BAK CALLS FOR A STRONGER DEFENSE: I take it this will reverse Roh Moo Hyun’s plans to reduce the ROK military well below the levels that would be needed to deal with a North Korean collapse, or to defend South Korea without massive inputs from U.S. taxpayers.
IF YOU’RE ONE WHO BELIEVES THAT SPORTS have a significant role in diplomatic and defense policy, you’re probably astonished at how little the N.Y. Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang solved. If you’re skeptical of the entire idea, you’ll appreciate seeing the South Korean government showing a little gravitas for a change:
FIFA have moved next month’s World Cup qualifier between the two Koreas to Shanghai because the North had refused to play the anthem or fly the flag of its Cold War rival, South Korean football officials said on Thursday.
Experts have said North Korea will not allow patriotic displays from the South because they could undermine the messages from the communist state’s propaganda machine. [IHT]
THE FAMILIES OF AMERICAN MIA’S from the Korean War still cling to hope of seeing their loved ones again, and with the continuing escapes of South Korean POW’s, I can understand why.
BUT WE MUSTN’T POLITICIZE THE OLYMPICS: In China, you’re never too old to be reeducated or too peaceful to be arrested:
Some 77 applications were lodged to hold protests, none went ahead. Rights groups say the zones were just a way for the Chinese government to put on an appearance of complying with international standards. A handful who sought a permit to demonstrate was taken away by security officials, rights groups said. [AP, Audra Ang]
One world, one nightmare.