Category: Uncategorized

Score One for ‘Soft’ Power: The inside story of how Freedom House helped overthrow the Kyrgyz dictatorship is here. Freedom House is expected to announce the hiring of its new Director for North Korea Advocacy any day now, using $2 million in grant money that comes courtesy of Section 102 of the North Korea Human Rights Act. I have great respect for the work FH does, but I wonder if North Korea is a challenge for which they’re really prepared....

The New York Times has a very interesting article on the North-Korea Libya story today. Again, we almost delve into the question of how much evidence of guilt we demand in relation to deliberatively secretive regimes that create unbearable risks, and whether secretive regimes should be entitled to the benefits of doubts they cultivate. David Sanger misses the latter point entirely and indulges in plenty of gratuitous editorializing about Iraq. Put that aside, however, and he’s done a fine job...

So, just how hard it is to picture this brawl happening over something other than soccer? Well, so much for that highly ordered, robotically obedient society: Angry North Korean soccer fans in Pyongyang pelted visiting players and referees with bottles and cans on Wednesday evening, requiring the intervention of the police and providing seldom seen evidence of spontaneous violence in the tightly controlled stat Still, the story isn’t entirely amusing, as the BBC reports: A North Korean defector and former...

Score One for ‘Soft’ Power: The inside story of how Freedom House helped overthrow the Kyrgyz dictatorship is here. Freedom House is expected to announce the hiring of its new Director for North Korea Advocacy any day now, using $2 million in grant money that comes courtesy of Section 102 of the North Korea Human Rights Act. I have great respect for the work FH does, but I wonder if North Korea is a challenge for which they’re really prepared....

The New York Times has a very interesting article on the North-Korea Libya story today. Again, we almost delve into the question of how much evidence of guilt we demand in relation to deliberatively secretive regimes that create unbearable risks, and whether secretive regimes should be entitled to the benefits of doubts they cultivate. David Sanger misses the latter point entirely and indulges in plenty of gratuitous editorializing about Iraq. Put that aside, however, and he’s done a fine job...

The New York Times has a very interesting article on the North-Korea Libya story today. Again, we almost delve into the question of how much evidence of guilt we demand in relation to deliberatively secretive regimes that create unbearable risks, and whether secretive regimes should be entitled to the benefits of doubts they cultivate. David Sanger misses the latter point entirely and indulges in plenty of gratuitous editorializing about Iraq. Put that aside, however, and he’s done a fine job...

South Korea is making it official: A high official from the National Security Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, said during a discussion with reporters that, “Korea will break away from its Cold War-era ‘camp’ diplomacy.” By “camp diplomacy,” it appears he was referring to the structure of conflict between the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese “camp” and the North Korean, Chinese and Russian “camp.” . . . . Receiving a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday,...

South Korea is making it official: A high official from the National Security Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, said during a discussion with reporters that, “Korea will break away from its Cold War-era ‘camp’ diplomacy.” By “camp diplomacy,” it appears he was referring to the structure of conflict between the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese “camp” and the North Korean, Chinese and Russian “camp.” . . . . Receiving a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday,...

Thailand and Laos have now decided to work together to stop North Korean refugees from entering their countries. I suppose you could call that someone’s “quiet diplomacy,” but not in a direction that favors North Korean refugees. Given anti-Unification Minister “Chicken” Chong Dong-Young’s fugitive slave exclusion policy, there isn’t much question about South Korea’s message to the people of North Korea: Rot in hell. * * * * * And now for the cover-up the Washington Post will never put...

Thailand and Laos have now decided to work together to stop North Korean refugees from entering their countries. I suppose you could call that someone’s “quiet diplomacy,” but not in a direction that favors North Korean refugees. Given anti-Unification Minister “Chicken” Chong Dong-Young’s fugitive slave exclusion policy, there isn’t much question about South Korea’s message to the people of North Korea: Rot in hell. * * * * * And now for the cover-up the Washington Post will never put...

Thailand and Laos have now decided to work together to stop North Korean refugees from entering their countries. I suppose you could call that someone’s “quiet diplomacy,” but not in a direction that favors North Korean refugees. Given anti-Unification Minister “Chicken” Chong Dong-Young’s fugitive slave exclusion policy, there isn’t much question about South Korea’s message to the people of North Korea: Rot in hell. * * * * * And now for the cover-up the Washington Post will never put...

Asian dictatorships haven’t had an especially good record against the rash of new viruses lately. Now comes word that bird flu has made its way into North Korea, and that the starving nation, which depended on chicken for 13% of its meat supply (how does anyone know this?), has been slaughtering thousands of the birds and burning their carcasses. The latter may be a wise precaution in light of recent reports that starving North Koreans–the vast majority of whom probably...

Asian dictatorships haven’t had an especially good record against the rash of new viruses lately. Now comes word that bird flu has made its way into North Korea, and that the starving nation, which depended on chicken for 13% of its meat supply (how does anyone know this?), has been slaughtering thousands of the birds and burning their carcasses. The latter may be a wise precaution in light of recent reports that starving North Koreans–the vast majority of whom probably...

Hello? Metaphor Abuse Hotline? If truth is the first casualty of war, then grammar is the latest casualty of Operation Tokdo Freedom ©: To catch a tiger, we have entered the tiger’s dens. Having taken the plunge, all we can do is now firmly secure our sovereignty over Dokdo in an international political and publicity battle. No battle ensued. The tigers, having made the fatal error of building their dens at the bottom of a diving pool, drowned before they...

Hello? Metaphor Abuse Hotline? If truth is the first casualty of war, then grammar is the latest casualty of Operation Tokdo Freedom ©: To catch a tiger, we have entered the tiger’s dens. Having taken the plunge, all we can do is now firmly secure our sovereignty over Dokdo in an international political and publicity battle. No battle ensued. The tigers, having made the fatal error of building their dens at the bottom of a diving pool, drowned before they...

The New York Times has another report from the Chinese side of the North Korean border, which is probably the best we can expect under the circumstances. Read the whole thing and make up your own mind, but I don’t draw the same conclusions from the known facts as the Times, as I’ll explain in a moment (emphasis below mine): “The standard of living is improving, not just in Pyongyang, but throughout the country,” said another Chinese businessman who has...

Freedom Marches On: Courtesy of Publius Pundit, here are pictures and a write-up of the massive weekend demonstration against China’s war threats against Taiwan. You might sight a couple of protest babes, too, although IMHO, Taiwan has failed to reach its true potential in the use of this devastating missile-reprogramming weapon. Don’t miss his report on the large pro-democracy protest in Bahrain, either. One can’t help noticing how bellicose China has become about Taiwan since Taiwan began directly electing its...

Full text here. Since 2002, defectors among the flood of refugees from North Korea have detailed firsthand accounts of systematic starvation, torture and murder. Enemies of the state are used in experiments to develop new generations of chemical and biological weapons that threaten the world. A microcosm of these horrors is Camp 22, one of 12 concentration camps housing an estimated 200,000 political prisoners facing torture or execution for such “crimes” as being a Christian or a relative of someone...