Category: Uncategorized

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.

Why can’t I manage to work myself into a lather over the “news” that North Korea has shut down Yongbyon–suggesting that it may be getting ready to reprocess more fuel rods? Part if it might be that Selig Harrison is one of the source, although he’s not the only one. I suspect it’s because every one of the players is about to feed us the same line of crap they’ve tried to feed us for the last half-decade or so....

Score another one for Claudia Rosett: NEW YORK — Maurice Strong, a prominent Canadian businessman and envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, acknowledged ties yesterday with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal. Mr. Strong, Mr. Annan’s special adviser for North Korea, said in a statement that Tongsun Park invested in an energy company with which he was associated in 1997, but denied any wrongdoing. “Ties,” being the key word. Does this mean that Strong was...

Lankov on the Great North Korean Soccer Riot: I’ve disagreed with Andrei at times, but you can’t ingore the views of someone with such an exceptional depth of experience in North Korea. Not given to alarmist conclusions, but limited as we all are to speculation, Lankov sees something very significant: Pyongyangites have demonstrated that they are able to fight with police over the outcome of a soccer match. But what will come next? Does this not mean that one day...

Score another one for Claudia Rosett: NEW YORK — Maurice Strong, a prominent Canadian businessman and envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, acknowledged ties yesterday with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal. Mr. Strong, Mr. Annan’s special adviser for North Korea, said in a statement that Tongsun Park invested in an energy company with which he was associated in 1997, but denied any wrongdoing. “Ties,” being the key word. Does this mean that Strong was...

Lankov on the Great North Korean Soccer Riot: I’ve disagreed with Andrei at times, but you can’t ingore the views of someone with such an exceptional depth of experience in North Korea. Not given to alarmist conclusions, but limited as we all are to speculation, Lankov sees something very significant: Pyongyangites have demonstrated that they are able to fight with police over the outcome of a soccer match. But what will come next? Does this not mean that one day...

Another fisherman-goes-North story, this one involving an abductee. It’s apparent that the man is under some form of extreme duress not to return to the South. And yes, he has relatives in the North. Updated post. Thanks, Hmmm.

Enough With the Textbooks, Already: Not quite. This is the first article I’ve read on the subject that isn’t steeped in the nationalism of one of the protagonists. Interesting. The Chosun Ilbo seized on one bit of criticism, which I think the Chosun blows out of proportion by taking as a slam against Korea rather than as a simple statement of the fact that on the distortion of history, everyone’s full of it: In South Korea, which democratized in the...

A hearty “welcome to the ring” to China’s favorite on-line sycophant, f-bomb thrower, and anti-Semite, Jing. Because there’s not enough of that kind of speech out there.

Another fisherman-goes-North story, this one involving an abductee. It’s apparent that the man is under some form of extreme duress not to return to the South. And yes, he has relatives in the North. Updated post. Thanks, Hmmm.

Enough With the Textbooks, Already: Not quite. This is the first article I’ve read on the subject that isn’t steeped in the nationalism of one of the protagonists. Interesting. The Chosun Ilbo seized on one bit of criticism, which I think the Chosun blows out of proportion by taking as a slam against Korea rather than as a simple statement of the fact that on the distortion of history, everyone’s full of it: In South Korea, which democratized in the...

A hearty “welcome to the ring” to China’s favorite on-line sycophant, f-bomb thrower, and anti-Semite, Jing. Because there’s not enough of that kind of speech out there.

Claudia Rosett and I have had an intermittent e-mail correspondence now for about a year. For those of you not familiar with Claudia’s work, she’s a columnist at the Wall Street Journal and the one person more responsible than any other for investigative reporting of Oil-for-Food–a fact that guaranteed that she’d be ignored by the Pulitzer committee. Claudia reported from the scene of the Tienanmen Massacre in 1989 and has also been one of the most outspoken writers on the...

Claudia Rosett and I have had an intermittent e-mail correspondence now for about a year. For those of you not familiar with Claudia’s work, she’s a columnist at the Wall Street Journal and the one person more responsible than any other for investigative reporting of Oil-for-Food–a fact that guaranteed that she’d be ignored by the Pulitzer committee. Claudia reported from the scene of the Tienanmen Massacre in 1989 and has also been one of the most outspoken writers on the...

Oops–Correction: We’re Number Three! We’re Number Three! I had originally missed the most significant part of the story–that a significantly larger percentage of South Koreans now considers North Korea to be a threat than the United States. Well, hope does spring eternal. Many Joni Mitchell was right. This could actually cause my head to explode. Original Post: In a stunning public relations victory for Washington, a new survey released today reports that Japan has surpassed the United States as the...

“I’m not anti-American, but . . .” In a meeting with Korean residents in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday, President Roh Moo-hyun said he found Koreans who are “more pro-American than the Americans” very hard to deal with. “They talk with not Korea but the United States at heart,” he said. “Koreans should think and judge like Koreans.” What, like this guy? Funny, I have yet to meet one of those Koreans Roh is talking about. For the most part, nearly...

Oops–Correction: We’re Number Three! We’re Number Three! I had originally missed the most significant part of the story–that a significantly larger percentage of South Koreans now considers North Korea to be a threat than the United States. Well, hope does spring eternal. Many Joni Mitchell was right. This could actually cause my head to explode. Original Post: In a stunning public relations victory for Washington, a new survey released today reports that Japan has surpassed the United States as the...