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February 23, 2006

Caught in the Act!

I wonder what Roh Moo-Hyun will say this time. Rogue diplomats? North Korean diplomats were caught attempting to smuggle US$1 million and 200 million yen into Mongolia on Tuesday, the Mongolian press reported. Reports said the North Koreans told Mongolian authorities they were planning to put the money in a Mongolian bank account, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The paper said that it was unclear whether the money was counterfeit or not, and what measures the Mongolian authorities will take....
Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Japan/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 15, 2006

NK ‘Spokesman’: We Have ICBMs!

Today’s WTF headline is this piece of work by Kim Myong Chol, North Korea’s unofficial and unmedicated spokesman in Japan.  The real torment of this piece is the difficulty of deciding which of the choicest cuts to serve you: Three factors make North Korea unique. The first is possession of a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing retaliatory nuclear strikes on the US mainland. Second, the North Koreans still torment the Americans as a result of their...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Asia/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WTF?
February 15, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction: The Pyongyang Charm School

Everyone is ashamed of something in his past.  High on my own list is the time my brother persuaded me to read “The Charm School,” a Nelson Demille spy novel.  The plot premise was that  Moscow took custody American MIA’s from North Viet Nam to create a “charm school,” an exact replica of an  American  neighborhood, complete with American residents.  The idea was to immerse Soviet sleeper agents into their next work assignments. Unlike some other aspects of life in...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Japan/Japan & Korea/North Korea/Southeast Asia/WTF?
October 30, 2005

U.S. troop reduction in Japan

It may at first seem counterintuitive that an increased threat from North Korea has resulted in a reduction of U.S. troops in the region. North Korean nuclear antics, although not solely responsible, have helped Japan embrace constitutional changes that will allow it to take a more active role in regional security. One result, and again this is an issue with more than one side, is that 7,000 U.S. Marines will be leaving Okinawa, Japan. UPDATE, 30 October: The U.S.-Japan agreement...
Categories Japan/Uncategorized
January 6, 2005

The Problem with Yasukuni

[Update: Some of this post’s links to the pictures of the displays and plaques at Yasukuni have gone dead. That’s unfortunate. This and this should give you some of the flavor.] You may be one of those who wonder what the big deal is all about. So was I, once. Japan, after all, has become a good citizen in Asia, so why dwell on the past? Why the fury, even today? Then I visited the place myself, tacking on some...
Categories History/Japan/Korean History