Category: Uncategorized

As linked below, a North Korean has been arrested in China for murdering three people in Seoul in 2003. I don’t know whether the man is guilty, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised that some North Koreans turn to crime, given the fact that North Korea is a society that inculcates its citizens with violence and blurs the moral absolutes that protect individual rights. Given that a certain percentage of human beings are inherently evil, I suppose the conditioning...

Lebanon Update: Things are getting very interesting there. It’s all starting to take on a somewhat Ukrainian look, and the Syrians really don’t dare to suppress them violently at this point. What they might do is turn Hezbollah loose on the demonstrators, however. That would mean civil war, and it would be an opportunity to support the Lebanese who seek the extinction of Hezbollah as a political and military force. Nothing resembling victory in our own war against terrorists is...

Section 301 of the North Korean Human Rights Act required the State Department to submit a report on the conditions facing North Korean refugeess, and what we can do to help them. The report is out, and you can read it here. China takes some blunt frontal criticism for flagrantly violating the U.N. Refugee Convention, but the report is indefensibly soft on both South Korea and the UNHCR itself. Both are content to hide behind the Chinese police, hoping the...

Section 301 of the North Korean Human Rights Act required the State Department to submit a report on the conditions facing North Korean refugeess, and what we can do to help them. The report is out, and you can read it here. China takes some blunt frontal criticism for flagrantly violating the U.N. Refugee Convention, but the report is indefensibly soft on both South Korea and the UNHCR itself. Both are content to hide behind the Chinese police, hoping the...

Japan has successfully launched a satellite into space with a new rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads. Although the space program isn’t technically military, Japan intends to launch spy satellites to watch North Korea in the near future.

Japan has successfully launched a satellite into space with a new rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads. Although the space program isn’t technically military, Japan intends to launch spy satellites to watch North Korea in the near future.

Japan has successfully launched a satellite into space with a new rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads. Although the space program isn’t technically military, Japan intends to launch spy satellites to watch North Korea in the near future.

Rev. Doug Shin e-mailed this very interesting report today, and although the main subject matter is the visible unraveling of the regime from the border town of Dandong, China, here is the first thing that I thought would interest readers, and Doug himself is the source: From subtle rewordings in the state press and from reports Mr. Shin receives from a high-ranking North Korean official, he believes a band of military generals has already sidelined Mr. Kim. Most unusual, Mr....

Rev. Doug Shin e-mailed this very interesting report today, and although the main subject matter is the visible unraveling of the regime from the border town of Dandong, China, here is the first thing that I thought would interest readers, and Doug himself is the source: From subtle rewordings in the state press and from reports Mr. Shin receives from a high-ranking North Korean official, he believes a band of military generals has already sidelined Mr. Kim. Most unusual, Mr....

Lullaby Thought of the Day: The two countries whose nuclear programs have raised alarms of late may be cooperating more closely than previously known. North Korea agreed six years ago to stop flight-testing longer-range ballistic missiles, which could deliver nuclear or chemical warheads, in exchange for relief from U.S. economic sanctions. Pyongyang still claims it is sticking to the deal, but some Administration officials think it may be cheating by using Iran as its proxy. Sugarplums. Lollipops. Sunshine. Jimmy Carter....

Funny, but true . . . “We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn’t be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious,” said Ichita Yamamoto, a ruling party lawmaker. “He would ask, ‘Where are my melons?’” . . . . “North Korea is unlike other countries in that most of its trade is done by the party or the military,” said Shinzo Abe, the head of an LDP committee pushing hard for sanctions and...

As usual, Dave at No Illusions goes several levels deeper in researching and analyzing the story.

Lullaby Thought of the Day: The two countries whose nuclear programs have raised alarms of late may be cooperating more closely than previously known. North Korea agreed six years ago to stop flight-testing longer-range ballistic missiles, which could deliver nuclear or chemical warheads, in exchange for relief from U.S. economic sanctions. Pyongyang still claims it is sticking to the deal, but some Administration officials think it may be cheating by using Iran as its proxy. Sugarplums. Lollipops. Sunshine. Jimmy Carter....

Funny, but true . . . “We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn’t be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious,” said Ichita Yamamoto, a ruling party lawmaker. “He would ask, ‘Where are my melons?’” . . . . “North Korea is unlike other countries in that most of its trade is done by the party or the military,” said Shinzo Abe, the head of an LDP committee pushing hard for sanctions and...

As usual, Dave at No Illusions goes several levels deeper in researching and analyzing the story.

The 2002 candlight vigils were an exploitation of a terrible accident and two deaths for a repulsive political purpose. They harnessed racism, nationalism, hate, and xenophobia, goose-stepped in formation with mendacity, incitement to violence, the celebration of murder, and profaniganda, and were an effort to use the accidental deaths of two to shield the premeditating murderers of two million. This, the Korean ambassador to the U.S. assures us, was not anti-Americanism. The ambassador is a liar, but that alone doesn’t...

Just after the tsunami, I recall offering an open wager to anyone who was willing to bet against the widespread circulation of a belief that some American, Jewish, or Israeli conspiracy was to blame for it all. I’ve already collected my peppercorn from the highly intelligent readership of this site–which produced no takers–but let me crush any lingering doubts with this blunt object, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: At Sabah, a columnist last fall accused the U.S. ambassador to...

The 2002 candlight vigils were an exploitation of a terrible accident and two deaths for a repulsive political purpose. They harnessed racism, nationalism, hate, and xenophobia, goose-stepped in formation with mendacity, incitement to violence, the celebration of murder, and profaniganda, and were an effort to use the accidental deaths of two to shield the premeditating murderers of two million. This, the Korean ambassador to the U.S. assures us, was not anti-Americanism. The ambassador is a liar, but that alone doesn’t...