June 22, 2010

22 June 2010

The Chinese are blocking U.N. action against their North Korean clients for sinking the Cheonan, and the Russians are playing dumb and stalling, but I’m sure that President Lee takes comfort that he has the full moral backing of the European Parliament and Central America. The Europarl resolution also “expressed disappointment with China and Russia for failing to take a clear position on the issue.” ___________________ South Korea will expand its role in the Proliferation Security Initiative: “We have decided...
Categories Anju Links
June 21, 2010

Kim Jong Il’s on-the-spot guidance does for North Korean soccer what it did for North Korean agriculture and industry

At last, something interesting has happened at the World Cup after all. The North Korean team was crushed by Portugal in the most lopsided World Cup score in eight years, eliminating North Korea from the competition, and greatly advancing my personal objective of ignoring the rest of the World Cup. The question on everyone’s lips now is whether the North Korean players or their families will face retribution for this loss. I really don’t know the answer to that, and...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Sports/WTF?
June 21, 2010

South Korea Detects Radioactive Xenon Gas After N. Korea Fusion Boast

“Oh, you all laughed at me then!” he hissed, diabolically: Abnormal radiation was detected near the inter-Korean border days after North Korea claimed last month to have achieved a nuclear technology breakthrough, South Korea’s Science Ministry said Monday. [AP, Hyung-Jin Kim] The radiation detected was in the form of xenon gas, in levels eight times higher than normal. Given that none of North Korea’s known nuclear sites is near the DMZ, you have to assume that the plume dissipated considerably...
Categories Proliferation/WMD
June 21, 2010

These Are Not Your Father’s North Korean Terrorists

Those North Korean spies sent to assassinate Hwang Jang Yop have appeared in open court to plead guilty: They stayed tight-lipped during the 30-minute hearing but for just a couple of questions when the judge addressed them directly. They briefly replied – “Yes” or “Yes that’s true.” During the hearing, they frequently gazed at the ceiling of the courtroom and at the prosecutors sitting on the opposite side, but never turned their eyes to the judge or toward the guest...
Categories Korean Law/Terrorism (NK)
June 19, 2010

Is the Obama Administration Ready for Plan B at Last?

Well, finally! The Obama administration is considering going after the assets of North Korean entities and individuals to punish Pyongyang after the sinking of a South Korean warship, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. Freezing offshore assets would be the first tangible U.S. action to make North Korea pay a price for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan corvette in which 46 South Korean sailors died. Pyongyang has denied responsibility for the incident. While there have been...
Categories "United" Nations/Cheonan Incident/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/Sanctions
June 19, 2010

WaPo: North Korea Lifts Market Restrictions

In Part Three of my capitalist manifesto, I’d documented North Korea’s efforts throughout 2009 to destroy the markets on which most of the North Korean people had come to rely on for their survival. The efforts included with bans on imported goods, the closure of large markets, the imposition of restrictions on who could sell in others, and finally, the Great Confiscation, which wiped out the savings of millions of families, along with the working capital of the traders who...
Categories Capitalism/Famine & Food Aid
June 19, 2010

Lankov and Foster-Carter on the Pyongyang Purges

Lankov, writing in the Asia Times, helps to educate our suspicions about the untimely death of one senior North Korean leader: The car incident that killed Yi Che-kang was also timely for Jang Song-taek. Yi was widely believed to be a rival of Jang. Now, with Yi dead, Jang seems to have no serious rivals left. The recent assembly session also appointed a new head of the North Korean cabinet. In North Korea, the prime minister is essentially a top...
Categories Kremlinology
June 18, 2010

18 June 2010

You know, it’s as if Michael Gerson reads this blog or something: There are limits to the policy of isolation. Given that North Koreans did not revolt when millions were dying of starvation in the mid-1990s, it is difficult to imagine that economic pressure alone will bring down a committed, completely ruthless regime that cares nothing for the opinion of the world or the lives of its own people. The most fragile thing about the North Korean regime is the...
Categories Anju Links
June 18, 2010

Sage Advice from Michael Breen: Ignore These Fools

This made me want to stand up and cheer: The political activist who last weekend violated a travel ban to go to North Korea claimed that he “risked his life” for the sake of peace and unification. If the government applies the full force of the law against him on his return, he may be right. And that would be unfortunate because people who try to upstage the democratic South by embracing the Nazi North need to be seen for...
Categories The Fifth Column/Useful Idiocy
June 18, 2010

Could North Koreans get wireless internet through the power grid?

Until I saw this linked at Instapundit, I had no idea that it was possible to plug a router into an electrical socket, tap into the electrical grid, and get wireless internet service in areas where the signal is usually weak. Exploring a bit more, I found this customer review, which gives some idea of the performance capabilities: I loved my network-able Blue-ray player I purchased, but I hated the wireless adapter which left me always praying my Netflix or...
Categories Deprogramming/Technology
June 17, 2010

The World Cup: Shut Up Already.

What would it take to get me to watch a World Cup match? Easy. Hold in it Glasgow, pipe free gin into the stands, and issue kilts. That way, there’s at least an even chance of something more entertaining than the scoreless ennui of soccer breaking out, like say, the cry of a thousand slurred brogues rising from a chundering mass of corpulent, bottle-swinging hooligans. There are several reasons why I’ve found the coverage of the World Cup especially tedious...
Categories Media Criticism/Useful Idiocy
June 17, 2010

Friends With Benefits: Another Silly, Tired “Engagement” Debate

My general impression of the new North Korea blog 38 North is that it’s mostly the same old crap from the same old people who’ve been proposing the same demonstrably failed approaches to North Korea for the last 20 years. They’ve finally published one thing of interest to me, however, a response to John Feffer by Roberta Cohen of the liberal Brookings Institute. If anyone can show me that anyone to the right of Cohen has ever been published on...
Categories Useful Idiocy/Washington Views
June 16, 2010

A Nation in Denial: On South Korea’s Mid-Terms

I’ve taken a good long while to chew on the results of South Korea’s recent election, and while I’m ready to offer some unscientific speculation about what it didn’t mean, I really wish that I had some good, reliable polling numbers to give me a more concrete idea of what motivated people to vote, and what didn’t. With that said, my main interest in the results (below the fold for the winners) is the media consensus that it was rebuke...
Categories Cheonan Incident/Korean Politics
June 15, 2010

15 June 2010

Here’s more on that report of a ration cut in North Korea, which is sourced to Good Friends: The chairman of the Good Friends organization, based in South Korea, Pomnyun Sunim, says this is taking place because the North Korean government can no longer keep its citizens from starving. The Buddhist monk says the ruling communist party issued a directive May 26th that work units and individuals should fend for themselves. He says this can be understood as either a...
Categories Anju Links
June 14, 2010

Hard Times in the North

Report: North Korea cuts state rations, forced to lift market restrictions after China fails to deliver on aid. Assuming this report is accurate, my guess is that those who suffer most from this will be the enlisted ranks in less-favored military units and lower-ranking state workers. Most people are already cut out of the ration system and dependent on the markets, and the regime always seems to find enough food for the Inner Party, the officers, the internal security services,...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Refugees
June 14, 2010

Psyops Updates

Kim Jung-Wook, the Joongang Ilbo’s Washington Correspondent, thinks that the Cheonan Incident has revived the U.S.-Korea alliance, but frankly, the end result may well be the exact opposite. No, the incident didn’t raise tensions in a way that makes obvious the many conflicts in the two states’ interests, and yes, President Obama has shown more backbone than the North Koreans probably expected. The problem with this theory is that so far, there has been no significant response to the attack...
Categories Deprogramming/North-South/Propaganda/Subversion/The Fifth Column