Category: Uncategorized

The Washington Post has finally taken note of Hyundai’s troubles in North Korea, which continues to be a black hole for South Korean won: [S]ince South Korea opened up friendly relations with the North in the late 1990s, more than 1,000 South Korean firms have gone bankrupt or lost significant investments in North Korea, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Most were small, low-tech enterprises involved in textile-making and rudimentary housewares. But the problems at Hyundai have shown that the...

The Succession Race for U.N. General Secretary has begun, in case that sort of thing interests you. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, a key salesman for appeasing the North, wants the job, but this WaPo piece also notes that any of the five permanent members of the Security Council could block him, which I certainly hope we would. Asia think it’s its turn; John Bolton doesn’t agree. Update: I could support this candidate, although that’s probably too good...

Iraq Watch: More red-on-red fighting between terrorist groups. May Allah guide their bullets home until there are no more targets, and until the Saddamists give up and join the political process instead.

My acquaintance (heh) Ambassador DiTrani is headed for a high-level intel position covering North Korea: The former U.S. special envoy for North Korea Joseph DeTrani was on Wednesday appointed to the newly created post of “mission manager” for North Korea under the director for national intelligence, to whose office he was moved on Dec. 3. Intelligence Director John Negroponte outlined DeTrani’s duties as confirming intelligence reports on North Korea and filling in any gaps, and serving as a stand-in for...

The Washington Times on ‘Seoul Train’: A new documentary on the plight of tens of thousands of North Korean defectors, perhaps several hundred thousand, who have fled the communist dictatorship into China and other countries aired recently on PBS stations. The film, “Seoul Train,” is a dramatic expose of the plight of North Koreans and the handful of activists who are trying to help them reach freedom. The documentary shows how the communist government of China is helping the North...

The Washington Times reports that while Burns is not one of Secretary Rice’s inner circle from her NSC tenure, Burns is an accomplished survivor despite political changes in Washington. Mr. Burns, the department’s third-ranking official after Miss Rice and her deputy, Robert B. Zoellick, is the only career Foreign Service officer among the undersecretaries. Even though Mr. Burns, whose ability to please both Republican and Democratic administrations has taken him far and high, is considered the star of the top...

“How could any good Korean dare question him?” As little as the stem cell / Dr. Hwang story interested me, the exposure and chastening of blind Korean nationalism does interest me. “Our society has been overwhelmed with the principle of focusing on outcome instead of procedure, and we forgot that ends cannot justify the means,” Chung Un Chan, president of Seoul National University, where most of Hwang’s work was conducted, said in an apology to the nation Wednesday. “Most of...

The Joongang Ilbo has an excellent profile of him, including a long and detailed bio. The executive summary: he’s much smarter than Chung–which I realize isn’t saying much–and is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist academic and key theoritician behind Korea’s new neutralist policy, one that ironically depends on the presence of a large U.S. military contingent. His nomination was not well received in Washington. While I think that the significance of his lack of familiarity with the United States may be overstated,...

The Joongang Ilbo has an excellent profile of him, including a long and detailed bio. The executive summary: he’s much smarter than Chung–which I realize isn’t saying much–and is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist academic and key theoritician behind Korea’s new neutralist policy, one that ironically depends on the presence of a large U.S. military contingent. His nomination was not well received in Washington. While I think that the significance of his lack of familiarity with the United States may be overstated,...

Update: Welcome Mudville Gazette readers! Please after you’ve wiped your feet on the welcome mat and gotten cozy, catch up on the latest events the Koreas here, at the main page. I served in Korea with the Army from 1998 to 2002; today, I blog from Washington, and the site you’re reading now is also a daily read inside the State Department, Congress and big media. The agenda here is freedom for the people of North Korea, a world that...

Tongsun Park–Arrested in Mexico? That certainly suggests a much higher level of U.S. interest in what he knows, as well as a much lower interest by Park in cooperating. Of course, he ratted everyone out after his Koreagate indictment. Let’s hope the pattern holds up. Update: . . . and on his way from Canada, home of Liberal Party supporter and Oil-For-Food co-suspect Maurice Strong, to God-knows-where, on the very eve of the Canadian national election. If this proves to...

I haven’t been terribly interested in this story, but this caught my attention: The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday. . . . . In hindsight, analysts say, it is clear that a hard-driven researcher used – and was...

I haven’t been terribly interested in this story, but this caught my attention: The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday. . . . . In hindsight, analysts say, it is clear that a hard-driven researcher used – and was...

The knives are out! And the Joongang Ilbo is following the glint of the blades. Chung Dong-yung, the former unification minister, fired a broadside yesterday at his main rival for the leadership of the governing Uri Party, Kim Geun-tae, the former health minister. Mr. Chung and Mr. Kim quit their cabinet posts to run for the Uri Party chairmanship, in hopes it would lead to becoming that party’s presidential candidate. Mr. Chung said, “I suspect the innocence of those who...

They Love Us, They Love Us Not. A bit insecure, are we?

I can’t quite figure what to make of this: A three-month investigation by China of accusations that North Korea used a Macau bank to launder gains from currency forgery has confirmed the suspicions, Korean diplomatic sources said Wednesday. The revelation comes amid reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is on a spur-of-the-moment trip to China, which some speculate may be linked to the finding. . . . . [Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister] Wu [Dawei] also met with his North...

The “Arrest Galloper” saga continues, thus far without a hint of street demonstrations in either Seoul or Pyongyang (oddly enough). North Korean military authorities are reportedly demanding US$1 million in compensation for the death of a soldier and injury of two others when a car driven by a South Korean ploughed into them in the North’s Mt. Kumgang resort last month. The driver worked for a subcontractor of Hyundai Asan, the South Korean firm that exclusively organizes package tours to...

I can’t even begin to scratch the detail that Ms. Rosett has added to our knowledge of the Korean Connection with her most recent Oil-For-Food article. For some time, my interest in Oil-For-Food has focused in on Tongsun Park, who was born in North Korea, and Maurice Strong, Kofi Annan’s former Special Envoy to North Korea. Strong resigned from that position last May, after news reports named him as the possible recipient of some of Saddam Hussein’s bribe money, conveyed...