Category: Uncategorized

What Not to Buy: Via the Nomad, Kaesong “peace pots” will be labelled “Made in DPRK.” Why am I so suspicious? This guy, in part.

New Link to the Video from North Korea: Readers have said that the link to the recent video smuggled out of North Korea no longer works. Try this, and please drop a comment to let me know if it works. UPDATE: OK, this works. Hat tip: Chris at freenorthkorea.net. Chris seems to have taken my pleas to heart; he’s blogging again, at least sporadically. No man has ever put anything online that Chris can’t get to and preserve on some...

Lantos Returns from P’yang: The Joongang Ilbo ‘s headline reassures, “Congressman: North Korea addressed nuclear issue,” but nothing in the story supports that conclusion. Read and decide for yourself, but to me it reads like, “yada yada yada productive discussions yada yada continued dialogue yada yada yada.” My original post regarding the trip is here.

Unmitigated Chutzpah: The South Korean government, which needs constant reassurance about the USFK’s monogamous dedication to Korea’s defense but unfailingly demands that U.S. taxpayers carry as much of the USFK’s cost as possible, is secretly cutting back its own military manpower. So much for the howls that the recent USFK withdrawal would create a window of vulnerability. Where, then, are Seoul’s highest budget priorities? If you’re a regular reader, you probably need read no further, but . . . South...

The Army has assigned Major Mike Holley, probably its best prosecutor, to the Abu Ghraib case. I should know. I supervised Mike during my last year in Korea, and he’s unquestionably the best courtroom attorney I’ve ever seen, myself included. The Army pulled Mike out of a plum assignment as a Criminal Law Instructor at the JAG School in Charlottesville, Virginia and sent him to Iraq to try these cases (I’d add that Mike has a very large family). Consider...

The Army has assigned Major Mike Holley, probably its best prosecutor, to the Abu Ghraib case. I should know. I supervised Mike during my last year in Korea, and he’s unquestionably the best courtroom attorney I’ve ever seen, myself included. The Army pulled Mike out of a plum assignment as a Criminal Law Instructor at the JAG School in Charlottesville, Virginia and sent him to Iraq to try these cases (I’d add that Mike has a very large family). Consider...

Lazarus rising: A former South Korean soldier captured by North Korea during the Korean War escaped to China and was arrested by Chinese police while seeking to enter South Korea, a Chinese source said Monday. . . . Another source familiar with North Korea said if South Korean POWs who escaped from the North were extradited to the communist country they were likely to be executed. Returning Han to Pyongyang would be tantamount to sending him to the scaffold, the...

The Korea Herald’s analysis, boiled down to its essentials: North Korea is stable–despite terrible conditions and the country’s dependence on outside aid, which isn’t coming–because its people are scared of the government. Just like they were in Albania, Romania, and East Germany. Prediction is a very dangerous business when the facts are out of your reach.

Anyone out there work for the U.S. Information Agency? I think I’ve solved America’s bad P.R. problem in South Korea. First, we need to take a tip from these boys to get more sympathetic TV coverage. Second, the student organizations on South Korean campuses have much to teach us about alternative printed media. You’re kidding me–Hanchongryon propogating the North Korean party line? Why, you could knock me over with a gnat’s wing right now. I’m all for letting South Koreans...

Lazarus rising: A former South Korean soldier captured by North Korea during the Korean War escaped to China and was arrested by Chinese police while seeking to enter South Korea, a Chinese source said Monday. . . . Another source familiar with North Korea said if South Korean POWs who escaped from the North were extradited to the communist country they were likely to be executed. Returning Han to Pyongyang would be tantamount to sending him to the scaffold, the...

The Korea Herald’s analysis, boiled down to its essentials: North Korea is stable–despite terrible conditions and the country’s dependence on outside aid, which isn’t coming–because its people are scared of the government. Just like they were in Albania, Romania, and East Germany. Prediction is a very dangerous business when the facts are out of your reach.

Anyone out there work for the U.S. Information Agency? I think I’ve solved America’s bad P.R. problem in South Korea. First, we need to take a tip from these boys to get more sympathetic TV coverage. Second, the student organizations on South Korean campuses have much to teach us about alternative printed media. You’re kidding me–Hanchongryon propogating the North Korean party line? Why, you could knock me over with a gnat’s wing right now. I’m all for letting South Koreans...

I kid you not. North Korea has declared war on long hair and politically incorrect clothing: Tidy attire “is important in repelling the enemies’ manoeuvres to infiltrate corrupt capitalist ideas and lifestyle and establishing the socialist lifestyle of the military-first era,” the radio says. . . . . “People who wear other’s style of dress and live in other’s style will become fools and that nation will come to ruin,” it says. Yep. I couldn’t have said it any better...

I finally banged out a response to Ralph Sato’s NKZone comment on the new video of the street children North Korea. My previous post on the subject is here. Please be nice to Ralph, because no matter how misguided I consider him to be, I think he’s an entirely better species of human being than, say, this guy.

OhMyNews recently ran an interview with Christine Ahn, a strong opponent of the North Korean Human Rights Act. As it turns out, there are a few things OhMyNews didn’t tell its readers about Ms. Ahn’s membership in a group called the Korean Solidarity Committee. You can see much, much more at this very long post. My apologies in advance; it took a week to research and write this. You have been warned. UPDATE: Dave at No Illusions has added much...

I kid you not. North Korea has declared war on long hair and politically incorrect clothing: Tidy attire “is important in repelling the enemies’ manoeuvres to infiltrate corrupt capitalist ideas and lifestyle and establishing the socialist lifestyle of the military-first era,” the radio says. . . . . “People who wear other’s style of dress and live in other’s style will become fools and that nation will come to ruin,” it says. Yep. I couldn’t have said it any better...

I kid you not. North Korea has declared war on long hair and politically incorrect clothing: Tidy attire “is important in repelling the enemies’ manoeuvres to infiltrate corrupt capitalist ideas and lifestyle and establishing the socialist lifestyle of the military-first era,” the radio says. . . . . “People who wear other’s style of dress and live in other’s style will become fools and that nation will come to ruin,” it says. Yep. I couldn’t have said it any better...

I finally banged out a response to Ralph Sato’s NKZone comment on the new video of the street children North Korea. My previous post on the subject is here. Please be nice to Ralph, because no matter how misguided I consider him to be, I think he’s an entirely better species of human being than, say, this guy.