Category: Anju Links

Why does Marxist criticism seem to apply so much better to North Korea than to, you know, capitalist societies? To the Gypsy Scholar’s observation, I’d like to add this example: Wovon Lebt Der Mensch. It plays during the opening credits of The Threepenny Opera, a blunt instrument of 1920’s German Communist propaganda whose Brecht-Weill score still contained some good gritty, gripping songs that have outlasted the film. ___________________________ In the op-ed pages of Wall Street Journal, Melanie Kirkpatrick reports on...

This is how we seize defeat from the jaws of victory: Anxiety is rising on both sides of the Pacific that tightened sanctions and joint military exercises – what U.S. officials have called “strategic patience” – could, if continued indefinitely, embolden hard-line factions in the North to strike out against South Korea or to redouble efforts to proliferate weapons of mass destruction. [WaPo, John Pomfret] It’s not the talking that worries me. It’s what always follows the talking. __________________________ Had...

As I mentioned previously, there isn’t going to be much blogging time this month, given the convergence of some personal and professional projects. Some of you have been sending me links in the meantime. That’s great, and I appreciate it, but don’t expect much in the way of reaction. Unfortunately, it will probably be old news before I even find the time to read it. Instead, why not share them with everyone else in the comments here? Give us a...

This month, a few professional and personal projects are converging, and I won’t have much time for anything else. Here are some links of interest (to me) in the meantime. __________________________ Evan Ramstad of the Wall Street Journal talks to North Koreans in China about their morale. __________________________ The Heritage Foundation criticizes U.N. programs in North Korea. __________________________ The Christian Science Monitor thinks that sanctions against North Korea are also aimed at China. __________________________ And finally, for those who haven’t...

A North Korean family of three on its way to South Korea has disappeared in China. The obvious suspicion is that they were arrested and are about to be repatriated to North Korea. Because one member of the family had already made it to South Korea, the family’s punishment is certain to be severe. In related news, North Korea is reporting giving longer prison camp terms to repatriated defectors in camps like Cheongo-Ri, where the odds of surviving a year...

I’m glad Aijalon Gomes is coming home, and I’m bracing myself for all of the addlebrained things Carter will now have an excuse to say on CNN between now and Sunday night. For now, I’ll just note the ingratitude of Kim Jong Il’s calculated snub by choosing this occasion to visit China. I predicted the other day that North Korea wouldn’t snub such a valuable enabler. I regret the error, as this was obviously an intentional snub. No doubt, the...

North Korea is on Twitter … unless you happen to be a North Korean, of course. ___________________________ The Washington Post looks at Jang Song Thaek’s emerging role as svengali to Kim Jong Eun. ___________________________ “I have a sneaking suspicion that Kim Jong-il’s son, who wants to take over, has to earn his stripes with the North Korean military,” Gates said at the U.S. Marines’ Memorial Club in San Francisco. “My worry is that that is behind the provocation like the...

Washington seems to believe that North Korea will return to the six party talks and stop its belligerent behavior if its sources of overseas funding are cut off. If that’s what “Washington” actually does believe, I think it’s wrong about that, but I do think that sanctions will do several other very useful things, like destabilize the power structure during the succession process, slow North Korea’s progress at proliferation, and break up the financial and logistical infrastructure of its proliferation...

The demographics of defection are shifting: since the currency reform, more middle-class North Koreans have been fleeing the North, a South Korean security official speculated. A North Korean source on Tuesday said the currency reform alienated many people from the regime, and the spread of South Korean pop culture through videos and CDs clandestinely circulated in the North has also encouraged some middle and higher-class North Koreans to flee. In recent days, many people who lost their savings due to...

North Korea has executed three leaders of a house church it raided in North Pyongan Province, and sent the remaining members to a labor camp. The report comes via North Korean Intellectuals’ Solidarity: According to the sources, the arrests and executions were carried out in mid-May. “At that time, right after the disastrous currency reform, police discovered 23 Christians in Kuwal-dong, Pyungsung County, in Pyongan Province, who met at an underground church. After their arrest, they were interrogated at length....

North Korea raised the stakes in its face-off with the United States and South Korea on Saturday, threatening to use nuclear weapons if Washington and Seoul go ahead with military exercises planned for regional waters this summer. [WaPo] President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008 to reward it for giving up its nuclear weapons, and as of June 23, 2010, President Obama saw no particular reason to disturb that decision....

My God, how I would love to attend one of these: Around 150 people gathered at a park at Imjingak near the border to release ten giant balloons carrying some 100,000 leaflets, 300 DVDs and 1,000 one-US-dollar notes. An activist shouting ‘Down with Kim Jong Il’ ripped up a North Korean flag with a knife. Another wore a traditional Korean funeral hat with the message ‘Congratulations, Kim Jong Il’s death’. The leaflets and DVDs criticised Pyongyang’s human rights record and...

Claudia Rosett proposes to kick North Korea out of the U.N.  This strikes me as a perfectly sound idea in theory and one that stands no chance of coming to pass in practice.  North Korea’s presence at the U.N. hasn’t contributed to peace or development; after all, U.N. membership isn’t a sine qua non for WFP aid, and most the focus of  diplomacy is on the six-party talks, an opera that alternates between long intermissions and broken crystal.  The fact...

Just what does a psychotic despot have to do to get on the list of state sponsors of terrorism?  Since President Obama’s inauguration, Kim Jong Il has — been caught twice shipping weapons — reportedly including man-portable surface-to-air missiles — to Iran, apparently for the use of its terrorist clients; sent a hit squad to assassinate a prominent defector in South Korea; threatened civilian air traffic to and from South Korea; threatened to turn the capitals of various neighboring states...

Good Friends serves up the irony — that, or disinformation — in its penultimate update: This past June 1st, the Pyongsung City police succeeded in arresting 7 people involved in a professional counterfeiting operation. 4 out of 7 were women. Working out of a hidden location within the city, they were counterfeiting travel documents, Pyongyang residency proofs, Renminbi, dollars, and the new North Korean currency. Among those arrested included an employee of the Pyongsung currency printing press. After searching through...

A Fond “Good Riddance” to Chris Hill: “The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and former envoy to South Korea Christopher Hill will retire from public service and become dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver from September.” If Hill had departed so soon after being nominated by a President the news media liked less, I have a feeling we’d hear a lot more media speculation — or even actual reporting — about why he’s...