Washington Views

November 8, 2006

Wobble Watch: Robert Gates on North Korea

A few links that may interest (or depress) you. In 2004, Gates teamed up with Zbigniew Brzezinski to call for direct bilateral talks with Iran. Procedurally, you can’t say that we gain much by letting the Europeans do it for us, since we certainly don’t share a common set of interests or base beliefs with Europe. Substantively, I don’t see what you can gain by talking to a man as hell-bent as Ahmedinejad. Especially if we show weakness in Iraq,...

Diplomacy/U.S. Military/Washington Views

November 8, 2006

Rumsfeld Resigns

[Update: More on Robert Gates here, and some clues to how he thinks here and .] It was probably inevitable, and if it might have been the only way to preserve any kind of bipartisan consensus on Iraq. I agree with Robert’s analysis, as it concerns Korea policy. Rumsfeld has managed the downsizing of the alliance creditably, confronting, rather than denying, the effect of the political trends there. Much of what Rumsfeld did right in Korea is owed...

An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Washington Views

November 6, 2006

What’s Joe Di Trani doing these days?

You may recall that before he resigned from the six-party negotiations team, Di Trani was one half of the New York Channel, along with Han Song Ryol (Han, who is a real bastard, has also moved on). Those were the bilateral talks that the State Department was pretending not to have while the Democrats and some Republicans were demanding we have them. Di Trani, who was at the CIA previously, went to the Directorate of National Intelligence. Now (via Richardson)...

Diplomacy/North Korea/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD

November 6, 2006

Why Talk?

Some people are wondering just what we expect to get from talking to the North Koreans. But Ms. Rice is coming under increased fire inside and outside the administration from officials and experts who are skeptical about what diplomacy can achieve in this case, and who argue that there is no chance a new round of nuclear talks with North Korea will succeed. “What’s a good description? Fantasy? Dreamworld?” said Nicholas Eberstadt [OFK interview here], a North Korea expert with...

Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views

November 5, 2006

Wobble Watch: Treasury Won’t Lift Sanctions on Kim Jong Il’s Macau Accounts

New press reports link the bank accounts that mean so much to Kim Jong Il with his nuclear and other WMD programs. North Korea used its accounts at a Macau-based bank, suspected of having served as a base for the North’s alleged illicit activities, to pay for devices that could be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons, a Japanese daily reported Saturday. Quoting unidentified sources, Yomiuri Shimbun said China froze North Korean accounts worth US$24 million...

Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD

November 3, 2006

Wobble Watch: Condi Rice Talks Tough, the Pentagon Talks Scary Tough

The Administration is trying to sound tough with the North Koreans, but I’m inherently distrustful of tough talk that comes the week before an election: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday the United States wanted “concrete action” when six-party talks resume on North Korea’s nuclear program. Rice said the starting point for the talks, which North Korea has boycotted since last November in protest at U.S. financial restrictions, would be to seek implementation of an agreement signed with...

An Alliance?/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Washington Views/WMD

October 30, 2006

‘Contain and Transcend’

Eric Sayers of the Center for Security Policy has produced a very interesting paper called “Contain and Transcend: A Strategy for Regime Change in North Korea.” Eric doesn’t think we can or should actually promote democracy or encourage dissent inside North Korea — I think we can and should — but he gets the essential formula right: starve the regime, reach out to the people. This one is a must-read think piece. Eric also keeps a fine blog, The Neo-Reaganite.

Appeasement/Geopolitics/Washington Views

October 26, 2006

Where Is That Other Shoe?

[Update: A State Department official who asked not to be identified said the sanctions authority, bearing the name of Senator John Glenn, who sponsored it in the Congress, is open-ended in the range of sanctions available. That official predicted that all financial and economic transactions with North Korea would be ended, except for humanitarian aid. ] We’ve all been waiting for othe other shoe to drop — for the U.S. to announce what sanctions it will impose — since North...

Diplomacy/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD

October 19, 2006

Interview: L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director, Mansfield Foundation

Gordon Flake (bio) is two things that make his opinions interesting and valuable to me. First, he’s a fluent Korean speaker, and those of us who aren’t are always at some disadvantage to those who do when we are gathering the facts we process into our views. Second — and Gordon may not agree with this characterization — his views strike me as classically liberal. His views are probably more independent and less jaundiced by partisan bias or ambitions than...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Famine & Food Aid/Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society/Media Criticism/NK Economics/Proliferation/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

October 15, 2006

Curt Weldon Under FBI Investigation

He’s North Korea’s favorite Republican Congressman, whose guest, “Ambassador” Hang Song-Ryol, played the starring role in the “Bastardgate” incident in the halls of the U.S. Congress. Weldon took Han’s side and engaged in a public swearing contest against my friend, Suzanne Scholte, and several eyewitnesses whose Korean language skills no doubt exceed Weldon’s. At the time, I dug up evidence of the current allegations against Weldon, so they’re nothing new. Old news has a way of becoming big news in...

Diplomacy/Washington Views

October 12, 2006

MUST-READ: Key U.S. Policy-Maker Calls China Out for Double-Dealing

David Asher, who recently led the Illicit Activities Initiative, is probably the architect of our tough new financial strategy against North Korea’s counterfeiting, smuggling, and money laundering. He is also one of Washington’s clearest thinkers on North Korea. Asher didn’t know that North Korea would actually test a nuke when he delivered this address to the Heritage Foundation in September, and really, it deserved more media and blog attention than it got. Asher, to say the least, doesn’t think China...

China/China & Korea/Money Laundering/Washington Views/WMD

September 29, 2006

Quote of the Week

“As a matter of fact, the average Washington memoir ought to be subtitled ‘If only they listened to me….’” — Tony Snow

Uncategorized/Washington Views

September 27, 2006

My Testimony at the House International Relations Committee

[Update: For some strange reason, the document was coming up as a previous, incomplete draft. Sorry for any who saw that one; you should be able to see the final version now.] [Update 1/2007: , including my verbal testimony, written statement, and photographic exhibits, at pages 59-94 (pdf). Other witnesses that day were Amb. Chris Hill, Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless, and Korea experts Balbina Hwang and Gordon Flake.] Well, I can’t thank Rep. Henry Hyde’s staff enough for...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

September 19, 2006

Kim Jong Il’s Man in Washington

The Washington Times has published another excerpt from Bill Gertz’s book, “Enemies: How America’s Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets — And How We Let It Happen.” Today’s installment is about John Joungwoong Yai, who was arrested for spying for North Korea in 2003 and charged with violating the Foreign Agents’ Registration Act. Yai’s sole occupation seems to have been some rather amateurish efforts to plant a spy with a security clearance inside the U.S. government. Yai appears to have targeted...

North Korea/Washington Views

September 16, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 51

First, TKL is privileged to print this exclusive photo of the Bush-Roh luncheon. The pomp and pageantry rolled out for America’s greatest ally since the Marquis de Lafayette does not end there. Roh and the poor ROK Ambassador, Lee Tae-Shik, adjourned to Blair House to meet with a real who’s-who of has-beens. Extra props to whoever invited Richard Armitage, who must be the least popular man in this city this week. Also present: Madeleine Albright, Don Oberdorfer, Donald Gregg, Thomas...

An Alliance?/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

September 11, 2006

Mystery Solved

We can put to rest any speculation as to why John Bolton was not voted through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, facing a tough re-election fight in Rhode Island, apparently asked Chairman Lugar delay the vote. Lugar complied. The strategy may be to hold the confirmation vote during a lame duck session.

"United" Nations/Washington Views

September 7, 2006

Lugar Fails to Get Bolton Voted Through His Committee

Despite a second impressive success on Darfur at the U.N. Security Council, and following an even more impressive victory on the North Korea sanctions resolution — a resolution I predicted he’d never get — John Bolton has again been denied a vote before the full Senate. There is no honest basis to dispute the excellence of Bolton’s performance at carrying out the President’s policies. That is why George Voinovich and Chuck Hagel are supporting him, despite earlier reservations. Standing beside...