Open Sources, July 25, 2014

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NK NEWS has an extensive report about H.R. 1771, the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act. Your correspondent is interviewed at length, as is Christine Hong, to provide an opposing view. I have to say, I’m rather pleased with that choice myself, because it gives me an opening to present a short list of the neocons who’ve co-sponsored H.R. 1771: Elliot Engel, Loretta Sanchez, Karen Bass, Linda Sanchez, Chaka Fattah, Gerry Connolly, Jim McDermott, Jim Moran, Tulsi Gabbard, Carol Shea-Porter, Marcy Kaptur, Colleen Hanabusa, Alcee Hastings, and Joseph P. Kennedy III. Seriously — does this woman ever do any research before opining?

The more legitimate criticism is that Congress will simply fail to move it, but then, there are rumors about town that the next Congress could be a more favorable environment for it, particularly as the President’s credibility on foreign policy continues to weaken among members of both parties..

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DEAR YONHAP REPORTERS: Please stop calling North Korea “an impoverished nation.” North Korea is undoubtedly a nation with many impoverished people, but the government of an impoverished nation wouldn’t be able afford an underwater hotel, a new ski resort, a new water park, a $1.3 billion-a-year ballistic missile program, nuclear weapons, and other things that cost far more than the cost of satisfying all of those international aid appeals.

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THE ASAN INSTITUTE HAS PUBLISHED a must-read comparison of human rights violations and sanctions against Syria and North Korea:

This paper compares the human rights violations and crimes against humanity in North Korea and Syria as described in the COI reports. It finds that the consistency, purpose, and scope of human rights violations in North Korea are worse than those during the early stages of the Syrian uprising before the situation deteriorated into a civil war. However, unlike the case of Syria, not a single US Presidential Executive Order, EU Council Regulation, or UN Security Council Resolution has dealt with human rights violations in North Korea. [Asan Institute]

And of course, both of these crimes dwarf Gaza, yet get a fraction of the attention … for some reason. Asan’s analysis is extensive, methodical, carefully documented, and even presented with graphs and charts. Read the whole thing, and don’t read me to conclude that sanctions against Syria are unwarranted — they’re warranted — read it to conclude that the absence of human rights sanctions against North Korea is inconsistent and indefensible.

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AT FOREIGN POLICY, an examination of North Korean-Iranian WMD cooperation:

One particular area of concern for the global powers negotiating with Iran is that North Korean technicians will provide Iran with advanced centrifuge technology. Pyongyang has apparently mastered production of the P-2 centrifuge. These are much more efficient than the P-1 centrifuges that Iran currently uses, and they are more proven than the IR-2m that Iran is trying to develop, apparently due to technical difficulties with making the P-2 type and shortages of key raw materials.

If North Korea was willing to build Syria a nuclear reactor, why wouldn’t it share centrifuge designs with Iran? Note that at least someone in the current administration shares the suspicion that these regimes are cooperating in their nuclear weapons development.

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A FEW OF YOU E-MAILED me this “exclusive” AP report by Eric Talmadge on agriculture in North Korea, and while I don’t see anything particularly novel or exclusive about the information it reports, I do credit Talmadge with skeptical and balanced reporting, questioning what he’s told, and introducing extrinsic facts to give his readers a clearer idea of the truth of the story. That’s probably the best we could ask for, with one important exception – readers should not be left to guess whether Talmadge drove himself to Changpyong-ri, or whether he was escorted there by government minders.

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SO NOW THAT 30% OF MY TRAFFIC is coming from Europe, does that mean I have to stop posting things like this? (h/t)

I’ve never had a visit from Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan. Does that mean I can start making fun of those places instead? Do you suppose people in Tajiks and Kyrgyz are good sports?

No, I suppose not.

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THE FAA HAS BANNED U.S. commercial flights over North Korea, although based on this regulation, it’s not clear to me why that alters the status quo. It may be that FAA issued an advisory, reminding operators of the existing rule.