Best Commentary of the Week (But It’s Still Thursday)

Professor Sung-Yoon Lee, writing a lengthy Outlook piece for the American Enterprise Institute, predicts that history will be unkind to Kim Dae Jung (and if you read Don Kirk’s book, already is to a degree). I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but Lee is an all-time OFK favorite, and I’ve read enough to see that it’s up to Lee’s high standards of writing. What’s more, this article has fired up spittle-flecked fulmination from a lot of the right people — that is, people who are no doubt feeling the raw wound of having been discredited by the regime whose crimes they overlooked for so long. (It may be that Lee is less easily dismissed as a harmless crank than I am; to be thought of as dangerous is a high compliment I do not enjoy, sadly …). Lee’s argument is summarized thusly:

* The Sunshine Policy, an effort to engage North Korea initially implemented under South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, appears increasingly ineffective in light of North Korea’s continued nuclear threat and oppression of its people.

* Despite his work for human rights in South Korea, Kim Dae Jung chose not to address grievous human rights violations in the North in any meaningful way.

* In light of Kim Dae Jung’s failure to fight for basic human rights for North Koreans, future generations of Koreans are likely to see Kim Dae Jung and his Sunshine Policy in an increasingly negative light.

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Brian Myers catches us up on the latest North Korean propaganda messages.

Aidan Foster-Carter smells a cover-up of North Korea’s role in the Cheonan Incident. I think that conclusion is premature, but Foster’s piece is very interesting and well worth a read nonetheless.

Claudia Rosett talks about Bureau 39, sanctions, and nukes.