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 of any particular crop (in this case, opium) solely based on satellite imagery of crop patterns in one area; I’d like to see a little more corroboration from other sources. I don’t think there’s any question that the North Korea government has long manufactured and exported illicit drugs as a matter of state policy — and still does — but most recent evidence suggests that North Korea’s dope industry has suffered from the country’s general industrial decline, and that increasingly, the expertise and materials needed to manufacture drugs are being diverted into the markets, like almost every other salable commodity.
Today, reports about drugs in North Korea are usually about the rise of drug addiction as a domestic social problem, and the regime’s periodic crackdowns on drug use and trafficking.
There are now 21,000 North Korean defectors in the South. But I have something far more jarring to show you today — this chart, showing the number of North Koreans arrested as illegal aliens in Thailand in recent years:
You know the end must be near when even North Koreans learn to laugh at their own government.
Joshua says, ‘journalists (I use the term loosely).’ Does he mean that Greta Van Susteren is not a journalist? At the Fox link about poppy growing, Ed Barnes writes about Bruce Klingner ‘He also said that because the United States has cut diplomatic relations with North Korea …’ When did we cut, heck, when did we have diplomatic relations with North Korea?
KJU in northeastern China, another sign of the Manchurianization of North Korea?
Not KJU…KJI!
YTN just confirmed it.
So, KJI heads to China for the third time in a year after a meeting with the head of Russia’s intelligence agency.
Something smells like rotten Kimchi.
milton, I noted the change in what the NK watchers are now saying, but, as far as I’m concerned, what it means is still the same.
Maybe both Kims went to China. Jong-il could be introducing Jong-un and showing him around.
Let me remind everybody that when Kim Jong-il goes to China he always uses a train and the Chinese asked Kim Jong Un to take a chartered plane. This is the best opportunity to assasinate them both on Chiense soil, as the USS Carl Vinson is conveneniently parked in Hong Kong rady for the next sea burial.
Yet another strange Chinese “welcome” for the Kims. On May 19, Huanqiu Shibao reports (in a TV segment, no less) that North Korea has 30,000 state-employed hackers. Is that some kind of weird endorsement of Kim Jong Eun’s “CNC” style? I really don’t get it.
http://v.huanqiu.com/news/201105/20110519204320.shtml
On a slightly different note, I wonder if Kim Jong Eun hasn’t commissioned a full biographical study of Bashir Assad.
Yonhap reports that Premier Wen Jiabao—currently attending a summit with President Lee Myung-bak and Prime Minister Naoto Kan (note the titles)—confirmed that KJI was indeed in China and is currently visiting a special economic region in Yangzhou way down the coast near Shanghai.
Do take note of the fact that the Chinese president personally receives the leader of North Korea while concurrently Beijing sends the number two guy to meet the leaders of South Korea and Japan.
This was not a coincidence.
President Hu Jintao has not gone to Yangzhou yet. Maybe he will meet Kim Jong-il at the projected next stop in Shanghai, but it was the Vice President (Xi Jinping) who met Kim Jong-il at the Yangzhou train station.
Wen Jiabao might not be the “President” of the PRC, but he is certainly not a small player in the Chinese government. Hu’s title of President is actually only one of several hats that he wears, alongside his roles as Chairman of the Central Military Commission and General Secretary of the Communist party, all separate positions of power. While Hu by virtue of his positions is very much the head of state and the man on top, Wen is the head of government just like a prime minister and has represented China in that capacity all over the world. If anything the Vice President who greeted Kim Jong Il on his arrival in China holds far less importance than Wen Jiabo. Here in Japan his recent visit to the Tohoku region along with Lee Myung-bak has been very well received, and I have to say has been a pleasant break from the bickering back and forth between China and Japan that has been dominant recently.