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Introducing Talon, the UCV that’s about to start patrolling with Stryker in Iraq. More pictures and info here and here (video, too!). Among their many advantages, robots don’t get homesick, stay out past curfew, or try to date your sister. That may explain why Korea is also getting in on the act: The Defense Ministry said yesterday that it would install armed robots to guard the country’s border with North Korea. The machines, a ministry official contended, would enable an...

Reader Brendan Brown forwards this message for a worthy cause. I hope you’ll stop by if you’re in that part of the world: You are invited to a charity concert to raise funds and awareness for the plight of North Korean Refugees, sponsored by Helping Hands Korea and featuring Francois le Roux (from South Africa), also known as the HA! MAN, followed by Ma Mi Ok, playing the kayaguem. Excerpts of award-winning documentary “Seoul Train” will also be shown. Silent...

I have a post up on NKZone about South Korea’s abstention from the U.N. Resolution. Most of it will be familiar to you, although there’s some new discussion of the U.N. Special Rapporteur’s report. The report itself is nothing special; it tells us many things we already know. In many places, it suffers from a predictable lack of specifics, imprecise language, U.N. gobbledygook, and lame efforts to show the “bright side” of hell on earth. There is one important exception,...

Introducing Talon, the UCV that’s about to start patrolling with Stryker in Iraq. More pictures and info here and here (video, too!). Among their many advantages, robots don’t get homesick, stay out past curfew, or try to date your sister. That may explain why Korea is also getting in on the act: The Defense Ministry said yesterday that it would install armed robots to guard the country’s border with North Korea. The machines, a ministry official contended, would enable an...

A Korean twist on frivolous litigation. Given the near-total absence of talented and dedicated lawyers for those accused of crimes in Korea, this waste of legal talent just makes me cringe.

With the Bush administration on the verge of giving up on diplomacy with North Korea and pursuing economic strangulation instead, one would suspect that China might finally engage in some serious diplomacy of its own to force North Korea back to the talks. Not so. Once again, the Chinese have sent emissaries to Pyongyang, and still North Korea refuses to engage in serious diplomacy. And how has China responded? Several officials and diplomats noted that, while Mr. Pak was in...

From the New York Times: His name, he told Edith, was Karol Wojtyla. Although she took him for a priest, he was still a seminarian who would not be ordained until the next year. Thirty-three more years would pass before he became Pope John Paul II and embarked on a papacy that would help break the Communist hold on Central Europe and so transform the world. What moved this young seminarian to save the life of a lost Jewish girl...

A Korean twist on frivolous litigation. Given the near-total absence of talented and dedicated lawyers for those accused of crimes in Korea, this waste of legal talent just makes me cringe.

With the Bush administration on the verge of giving up on diplomacy with North Korea and pursuing economic strangulation instead, one would suspect that China might finally engage in some serious diplomacy of its own to force North Korea back to the talks. Not so. Once again, the Chinese have sent emissaries to Pyongyang, and still North Korea refuses to engage in serious diplomacy. And how has China responded? Several officials and diplomats noted that, while Mr. Pak was in...

With the Bush administration on the verge of giving up on diplomacy with North Korea and pursuing economic strangulation instead, one would suspect that China might finally engage in some serious diplomacy of its own to force North Korea back to the talks. Not so. Once again, the Chinese have sent emissaries to Pyongyang, and still North Korea refuses to engage in serious diplomacy. And how has China responded? Several officials and diplomats noted that, while Mr. Pak was in...

From the New York Times: His name, he told Edith, was Karol Wojtyla. Although she took him for a priest, he was still a seminarian who would not be ordained until the next year. Thirty-three more years would pass before he became Pope John Paul II and embarked on a papacy that would help break the Communist hold on Central Europe and so transform the world. What moved this young seminarian to save the life of a lost Jewish girl...

From the New York Times: His name, he told Edith, was Karol Wojtyla. Although she took him for a priest, he was still a seminarian who would not be ordained until the next year. Thirty-three more years would pass before he became Pope John Paul II and embarked on a papacy that would help break the Communist hold on Central Europe and so transform the world. What moved this young seminarian to save the life of a lost Jewish girl...

North Korea wants help with its bird flu outbreak, and the South should grant it. The United States should offer help, too.

Someone tell me he’s kidding: Mr. Roh also said that in regard to a future unification of the Koreas, Germany’s model is inappropriate because the economic gap between the North and South is too great. “In order to resolve the conflict and social division from such a disparity, great ability would be needed,” said the president, who suggested that a confederation-type of government similar to the European Union would be a more feasible first step for the two Koreas prior...

One word: Ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

Congratulations to my fellow NKZone bloggers on our nomination for Reporters San Frontieres’s Freedom Blog Award. NKZone and The Command Post have become the depositories for more refined compilations of my posts at this blog (this one swelled my head, too, considering the competition). Vote here, if you’re so inclined, and thank you in advance. My congratulations to Chris Beaumont at FreeNorthKorea, as well. I’m certainly glad he took my advice and didn’t quit blogging. Chris, if you’re reading this,...

North Korea wants help with its bird flu outbreak, and the South should grant it. The United States should offer help, too.

Someone tell me he’s kidding: Mr. Roh also said that in regard to a future unification of the Koreas, Germany’s model is inappropriate because the economic gap between the North and South is too great. “In order to resolve the conflict and social division from such a disparity, great ability would be needed,” said the president, who suggested that a confederation-type of government similar to the European Union would be a more feasible first step for the two Koreas prior...