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No one exceeds Kim Jong Il at the production of belligerent and grandiose theater.  So exactly what sort of kind of theater is he putting on for international monitors at Yongbyon?  That may depend on what you’d rather believe.  Do you remember a time, back when Roh Moo Hyun and George W. Bush were still the presidents of their respective nations, when South Korean leaks always cast the Americans as too suspicious and inflexible?  My, how times have changed. North...

Things are busy at work, and that means my blogging time is being used for work stuff.  Hopefully, normal service will be restored in a few days.

CONDI RICE, COMMENTING ON THE FAILURE of the bilateral nuclear talks in Switzerland last week, confirms that “substantive differences remain” with North Korea, and that “she does not expect any immediate breakthrough.” Not even Chris Hill can deny it: Top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill indicated Sunday that North Korea has, for now, responded unfavorably to U.S. proposals he presented to his North Korean counterpart to resolve a snag in the six-party process for denuclearizing the country. But the U.S....

[Update:   Digg it here] [Update 2:   A reader points out that Reuben F. Johnson is the source of both the Weekly Standard and Jane’s stories.  I admit that I’m not familiar with Johnson’s work, but  when  a story comes with specifics, it’s more persuasive than when it comes without.]   Kim Jong-Il’s regime could collapse within six months, bringing chaos to North Korea, observers and intelligence sources in Asia have told Jane’s. [. . . .] I know,...

SOMETHING MIGHTY SUSPICIOUS IS GOING ON HERE,  and  I’m not just talking about the shadowy movements of spies and emissaries across the DMZ, either: A top North Korean official paid a secret visit to Seoul on Sept. 26 last year, immediately before the second inter-Korean summit in early October, it was emerged on Thursday. [Chosun Ilbo] National Intelligence Service Chief Kim Man-bok made a secret visit to Pyongyang on Dec. 18, the day before South Korea’s presidential election, it was...

Submitted by a reader at my invitation, and unedited:

[This page is no longer being maintained] This page is a group effort.  If you spot a new report of a dangerous Chinese-made  product, please drop a link in the comments below, and don’t forget to click  here to  “Digg” and spread the word. The CPSC has started getting deeply involved in this, and now, they’ve demanded and gotten an agreement from Chinese regulators to do a better job of policing themselves.  Whether the Chinese are (a) willing and (b)...

Update:   This story says the report below is  “not credible.”    If we’d just  run away from  Iraq and Afghanistan  — and everywhere else — this war would end!   End, I say! Fort [Huachuca, Arizona] officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The...

There are some things that should be too obvious to be missed by nearly everyone, and here is one of them:  the only villains of the Afghan hostage crisis are the Taliban.  It may be human nature to seek out demons, heroes, and martyrs, including phantom ones.  South Korea’s masters of public manipulation have certainly offered the South Korean people a wide choice of villains, and that  choice occasionally even includes the Taliban.  As for heroes, I certainly don’t see...

The UN has released the results of a preliminary audit report on the UN Development Program’s operations in North Korea.  Those operations were shut down  following revelations that the UN gave the  regime  cash with few conditions and little accountability, and essentially became its “ATM machine.”  Among the juicy revelations is that the UN  was keeping a large sum of counterfeit “supernotes” in a UN safe.  The UN now concedes that the UNDP violated UN rules: A statement by UN...