Category: Uncategorized

Good News in Afghanistan: As a high school kid, I taught English to Afghan refugees, leading to some friendships that have lasted to this day, so Afghanistan never ceased to be a place of great interest to me. In the days of the Soviet-Afghan War, I probably followed the news from there as closely as I do events in North Korea today, so stories like this one are heartening: KABUL (Reuters) – Two senior members of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime...

The (anti-)Unification Ministry, hereafter known as the Ministry of Silly Talks ©, appears to be going into the foreign policy business, but forgot to tell the Foreign Ministry. Meanwhile, the United States is sending signals that it may press for U.N. sanctions even over Seoul’s opposition. April 21, 2005 ã…¡ Mixed messages regarding the six-party talks came out of Seoul yesterday, with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon refusing to rule out referring the North Korean nuclear issue to the...

Good News in Afghanistan: As a high school kid, I taught English to Afghan refugees, leading to some friendships that have lasted to this day, so Afghanistan never ceased to be a place of great interest to me. In the days of the Soviet-Afghan War, I probably followed the news from there as closely as I do events in North Korea today, so stories like this one are heartening: KABUL (Reuters) – Two senior members of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime...

Roh Moo-Hyun’s official mouthpiece, Cho Ki-sook, isn’t happy about all that media disinformation about trouble in the U.S.-Korea alliance. “It is totally improper to argue that President Roh Moo-hyun has been attempting to divide the nation between forces supporting the U.S. and opposing it,” Cho said during a media briefing at Chong Wa Dae. Cho made the remark amid mounting criticism by major papers over President Roh’s statement on relations between Seoul and Washington while he was making a state...

Thanks to an anonymous source for referring this: Canadian Maurice Strong, an influential entrepreneur, withdrew as U.N. envoy for Korea on Wednesday while investigators probed his ties to a lobbyist suspected of bribing U.N. officials with Iraqi funds. Strong, who has served in a variety of U.N. posts since 1947, was a part-time adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.” He is suspending himself with the secretary-general’s...

Europe Has a Conscience After All: BERLIN, April 14 – Europe seemed farther away than ever from lifting its 16-year-old arms embargo on China on Thursday, after statements by the German foreign minister and a vote in the European Parliament, both of which urged linking the embargo question to human rights.

Roh Moo-Hyun’s official mouthpiece, Cho Ki-sook, isn’t happy about all that media disinformation about trouble in the U.S.-Korea alliance. “It is totally improper to argue that President Roh Moo-hyun has been attempting to divide the nation between forces supporting the U.S. and opposing it,” Cho said during a media briefing at Chong Wa Dae. Cho made the remark amid mounting criticism by major papers over President Roh’s statement on relations between Seoul and Washington while he was making a state...

Roh Moo-Hyun’s official mouthpiece, Cho Ki-sook, isn’t happy about all that media disinformation about trouble in the U.S.-Korea alliance. “It is totally improper to argue that President Roh Moo-hyun has been attempting to divide the nation between forces supporting the U.S. and opposing it,” Cho said during a media briefing at Chong Wa Dae. Cho made the remark amid mounting criticism by major papers over President Roh’s statement on relations between Seoul and Washington while he was making a state...

“Elephants Rampage Through South Korea”

Thanks to an anonymous source for referring this: Canadian Maurice Strong, an influential entrepreneur, withdrew as U.N. envoy for Korea on Wednesday while investigators probed his ties to a lobbyist suspected of bribing U.N. officials with Iraqi funds. Strong, who has served in a variety of U.N. posts since 1947, was a part-time adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.” He is suspending himself with the secretary-general’s...

Bolton Update: Michelle Malkin has assembled most of the important developments, or links to them. I’m frankly surprised that anyone sees an issue here, at least as advertised. I mean, take a look at what the New York Times parses as “what Democrats portrayed as troubling new accusations that cast doubt on Mr. Bolton’s temperament and credibility”: Among those highlighted by Mr. Biden was a statement from Melody Townsel of Dallas, a former contract worker for the Agency for International...

Europe Has a Conscience After All: BERLIN, April 14 – Europe seemed farther away than ever from lifting its 16-year-old arms embargo on China on Thursday, after statements by the German foreign minister and a vote in the European Parliament, both of which urged linking the embargo question to human rights.

Claudia Rosett has another column in today’s Wall Street Journal. The information I was hoping to see, but didn’t, was more about this tantalizing excerpt in another one of her recent columns: [Maurice] Strong is a Canadian tycoon with extensive experience at the United Nations, where he has served as secretary-general of the 1992 Earth Summit, as chief architect of the Kyoto Treaty, and as the world body’s guru of governance in the 1990s. Mr. Strong also has abundant connections...

Ministry of Bad Timing. Inflaming already tense relations with China, Japanese lawmakers said yesterday they plan to visit a shrine that glorifies Japan’s militarist past . . . . No, state-sponsored thuggery hasn’t inspired the right reaction in Japan after all. Everyone in East Asia now appears to be completely stoned on testosterone, a drug best known for suppressing all capacity for introspection. Legitimate grievances are being devoured by a snarling pack of illegitimate tyrants and cynical politicians.

“Elephants Rampage Through South Korea”

Bolton Update: Michelle Malkin has assembled most of the important developments, or links to them. I’m frankly surprised that anyone sees an issue here, at least as advertised. I mean, take a look at what the New York Times parses as “what Democrats portrayed as troubling new accusations that cast doubt on Mr. Bolton’s temperament and credibility”: Among those highlighted by Mr. Biden was a statement from Melody Townsel of Dallas, a former contract worker for the Agency for International...

Claudia Rosett has another column in today’s Wall Street Journal. The information I was hoping to see, but didn’t, was more about this tantalizing excerpt in another one of her recent columns: [Maurice] Strong is a Canadian tycoon with extensive experience at the United Nations, where he has served as secretary-general of the 1992 Earth Summit, as chief architect of the Kyoto Treaty, and as the world body’s guru of governance in the 1990s. Mr. Strong also has abundant connections...