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Category: South Korea

June 21, 2006

Translation Error?

Just what exactly is the Chosun Ilbo suggesting here when it says that “[t]he people will have to take matters into their own hands,” in the context of [local] elections not resulting in their preferred [national]policies? The fact that the piece otherwise has no real point raises my suspicions. I mean, isn’t that one of the big downers of fixed terms of office, you know, when the other party gets elected to them?
Categories Korean Politics/Media Criticism
June 20, 2006

The End of Sunshine?

[Update 6/20: As predicted, the North Koreans aren’t taking this well.] “We have the right to speak.” — North Korean government official, talking about South Korean politics Has international pressure has finally forced South Korea to abandon years of official apathy about the phobocracy that is North Korea? Finally, South Korea declares, it will ask the North to treat the lives of its people with a modicum of respect.
Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 20, 2006

Shenyang Four Three Update

Several days ago, I reported that the Shenyang Four would be allowed to leave China safely. This latest report doesn’t directly contradict that, but … A diplomatic source in Seoul said yesterday the United States will accept three of four North Korean asylum-seekers now in the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang, China. The source said Washington had informed Seoul of the decision. The four North Koreans first entered the South Korean diplomatic premises in that city, but on May 6...
Categories China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. & Korea
June 19, 2006

Please, Please, Please Test It!

Plenty of people have asked me if Kim Jong Il will test a long-range Taepodong II missile, and really, I have no more idea that anyone else this side of the Taedong. On one hand, the North Koreans are desperate for some attention. They’re running out of money and friends, and they’ve added liquid fuel to a rocket, that’s corrosive to the fuel and oxidizer tanks and is thus more than an empty gesture. On the other hand, North Korea...
Categories NK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD
June 17, 2006

Why He Took Those Pictures

The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has paid a very public visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park, and the initial signs are good. Vershbow, a man who seeks the public debate his predecessors so often avoided, has not shied from stating some rather blunt views about North Korea. Thus, the fact that the North Koreans allowed his visit to go forward at all is surprising. Best of all, Vershbow snooped around, took pictures, and even seems to have...
Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/Technology/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/WMD
June 12, 2006

An Endorsement, of Sorts

As used in this chapter – (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that … (B) appear to be intended … (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; [or] (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion …. – Title 18, Section 2331, United States Code If North Korea’s latest were less laughable than a “threat” to cut off what must amount to billions in free money from South Korea, it might serve as one...
Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Korean Politics
June 10, 2006

Minister Lee, Call Your Lawyer!

I wonder if the UniFiction Ministry’s Kaesong brain trust — perhaps the same great minds that thought they could fill Wal-Mart shelves with Kaesong products — ever stumbled across these articles of the Republic of Korea Constitution: Article 32 (1) All citizens shall have the right to work. The State shall endeavor to promote the employment of workers and to guarantee optimum wages through social and economic means and shall enforce a minimum wage system under the conditions as prescribed...
Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Korean Law/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 8, 2006

Korea Diary, 8 Jun 06

Uri Death Watch: North Korea is preparing for life after conservatives return to power in South Korea. While it’s premature for anyone to presume, I suppose it’s prudent to prepare. What’s really disturbing, from the perspective of journalistic ethics, is how the Chosun Ilbo is engaging in its own private diplomacy with the North, which certainly implies more favorable coverage in exchange for something — such as access. Now, the American media have made the same faustian deals in both...
Categories Korean Politics/Media Criticism/NK Military/WMD
June 7, 2006

Yodok Story Coming to Washington

Confirmed by a reliable source: the U.S. debut for Yodok Story will be Wednesday, September 27th at the National Theater. There will be seven shows, through Sunday, and the plans (still not final) are to move to New York and the West Coast, probably L.A., after that. Freedom House and Sen. Sam Brownback both helped bring the production here. I had a chance to meet the director, very briefly, in April. My impression was that he’s physically very small, stylishly...
Categories Activism/Censorship/Human Rights/Korean Society
June 7, 2006

State Dep’t Applies the Term ‘Forced Labor’ to Kaesong

This new State Department report looks very bad for Kaesong products even getting into the United States, much less getting FTA status: The North Korean government may be pocketing most of the pay foreign employers pay North Korean workers, a U.S. report on human trafficking asserted. The report was released Monday by the State Department in Washington. …. Seoul wants, and Washington opposes, the designation of goods made there as domestic South Korean products. U.S. officials have criticized the labor...
Categories Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 5, 2006

Hypocrisy Illustrated

If you want an ideal illustration of why I believe the political tide is turning in Korea, you couldn’t do better than this picture of this anti-free trade demonstration in Washington (Yonhap, via the Joongang Ilbo, now Korea’s best daily). It’s a real Where’s Waldo of illogic and double standards rooted in vitriol, and I’m compelled to warn you that if you stare at this picture too long, you will get a brain aneurism. Before we zoom in on this...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 5, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 41

I don’t know how much deader you can get than this: In a seismic shift in an alliance that has held since the Korean War, the military plans to scrap Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command by 2012, it emerged Sunday. Wartime operational control of Korean forces will also return to the country, probably by 2011, since it now rests with the commander of the U.S.-led CFC. According to a military source, plans to abolish the CFC are clearly stated in the...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
June 3, 2006

Mercurial Politics, Part 1: The Center

Every Korean election year, the political parties’ festering grudges and tribal feuds, catalyzed by ambition, render the entire Korean political party system unstable. Parties shatter into mercurial gobs, collide, and reform. — OFK, 5 January 2006 The first test tube hit the laboratory floor today: Goh Kun made it clear on Thursday that he intended to run for the presidency, and the reaction in political circles has been swift. Especially with the Uri Party in disarray after its drubbing in...
Categories Korean Politics