Category: Uncategorized

China and North Korea have a new treaty on the processing of refugees . . . as something other than refugees. Thanks to Chinese concepts of open government, opaque writing from the Chosun Ilbo, and a generous ladle-full of South Korean government doublespeak, I have almost no idea what the agreement would actually do, which probably means, “nothing good.” _____________________ A new poll finds that 67% of people are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with President Roh Moo Hyun, who...

Errrrrrrrrm . . . . I can already taste the lemon grass. Succulent.

Welcome to the Carnival of the Revolutions edition for August 29th. Hosting next week’s edition (Sept. 5) will be Thinking-East; next up (Sept. 12) is Quid Nimis. Updates added, typos fixed. East Asia and the Pacific Rim Burma: Did the government’s army use chemical weapons against Karen rebels earlier this year? The Jubilee Campaign, a Christian human rights NGO, prints an editorial by Lord David Alton, a member of the British House of Lords. Publius reports on new rumors of...

My August 8th e-mail to South Korea’s Human Rights Commission was a two-parter–a complaint, and at the bottom of the letter, a question. Let’s take them in inverse order, because a week ago, the HRC did in fact respond to my request for clarification of one point, about its allegedly delayed report on Human Rights in North Korea (scroll down): Our committee didn’t intented not to open this results [to the public]. The media misunderstood that as not [making the...

The other part of my e-mail to the Human Rights Committee was a complaint. You’d think it subject matter would have been obvious enough from the subject line: Complaint–discrimination based on race and national origin Here, in relevant part, is what it said: I am [my bad; should have said was] an American soldier who spent four years defending your human rights. Today, I am an activist for withdrawing US forces from Korea, and for promoting human rights for North...

I’m hosting, so if you have submissions, send your links to onefreekorea(at)yahoo(dot)com. My arbitrary and capricious deadline is Sunday morning . . . before I crawl to the computer. The earlier you send it, the better the odds I’ll include it.

One of my main criticisms of the South Korean view of engagement is that it’s seldom permitted to include the people of North Korea. It often reaches the South Korean people, of course, but only with a carefully scripted portrayal of the North as benign and neighborly. Most engagement with the North thus far has been South Korean state welfare for the North’s government and government-owned industries. See through the schmaltzy emotionalism of this report of a South Korean singer’s...

In response to an earlier comment, I went and dug up the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and did some analysis. The answer is yes, but with strict conditions that North Korea has not met. I thought the comment worthy of a post on the main page, so I reproduce it, slightly edited, here. ________________ First, I place very little value on what the NPT does and does not allow in a case like this one. What can you say about the...

Take everything you read in this post with extra skepticism, because the reports this week are even less consistent than usual. The main questions this week surround Pyongyang’s claim on a right to “peaceful” nuclear programs. Amid recent signs that the U.S. was ready to cave on that and other issues in the wake of Anti-Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young publicly taking Pyongyang’s side, the U.S. and South Korean positions aren’t exactly manifest. The Chosun Ilbo reports on South Korean Foreign...

Don’t let the entertainment value fool you. This one appears to have been a bust of major significance, which the feds claim “decapitated” one of the largest crime syndicates operating in the United States: The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City. They ended up in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring. Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides...

The EU appears to have given up on negotiating a defiant Iran out of its nukes. Someone tell Dafna Lizner. It’s not the first time Lizner’s anti-Bush drumbeat has been undermined by the Times.

Breakthrough or Cave-In? The AP, via the N.Y. Times, is reporting rumors that all six nations may be prepared to agree in principle on a path toward an eventual peace treaty with North Korea. Even North Korea’s demand for “peaceful” nuclear power–a demand no doubt emboldened by the statements of our former South Korean ally–is described by Chris Hill as “not a show-stopper.” If so–and it’s not so yet–it’s disturbing. One wonders how well we would bear up under similar...

Original Post: “Seoul Asks Pyongyang to Confirm Fate of POWs.” Well, at least they’re finally asking. Update: James Chen e-mails a link to this must-read James Brooke report in the NY Times. Until recently, the former Southern soldiers, bent with age and hard labor in Northern coal mines, were forgotten human footnotes in a deeply divided peninsula. After the end of the Korea War, North Korea tried to ease a labor shortage by secretly holding back thousands of South Korean...

Do Pat Robertson and I actually agree on something? Not yet. Hugo Chavez is clearly a thug, an anachronism, a supporter of terrorists (principally, in Colombia), and a first-class S.O.B. This fall, Gordon Cucullu will publish a book alleging that Chavez is retailing North Korean heroin. That said, I see a vast gulf between how our government should deal with elected leaders and unelected ones. If there is a sanctifying event at which a government becomes legitimate, it’s called “election.”...

Roh will visit Central America in early September, after which he will head North to address the U.N. General Assembly Summit in New York. LiNK will be waiting for him: PROTEST! Roh Moo Hyun and South Korea’s official policy of negligence and silence on North Korea’s vast human rights abuses! South Korea’s President Roh Moo Hyun will be attending a special dinner with President George HW Bush (41) here in New York City. Let’s show the Korean government we do...

Michael Yon’s blog is of greater value in understanding what’s going on in the Iraq battlefield than the aggregate of all other news sources combined. The same goes for my level of interest in his reports and photos, versus the ground-up, churned-out, salted-down press releases that pass for news elsewhere: But then, without even giving the leaders at Deuce Four a head’s up, a typically entralling military press release went out to major, mainstream, media outlets. We all learned of...

Yesterday, a scant five days before his third birthday, my son made a first fateful step that can only lead to a life of elbow-patched tweed jackets, gently used Volvo wagons, and NPR tote bags. ewwwww. Me, to my wife: There’s a mosquito the room. My son, to me: I don’t yike mosquitoes. Me, to my son: I don’t like them either. They bite. My son, to me: I don’t yike mosquito bite. Me, to my son: I’m going to...

NK Siezes Chinese Fishing Boat? Sure, it could be as reported. Then again, there have already been two sea-borne defections near Baekyrong Island this year.