August 28, 2009

Great, Just What We Needed: Japan’s Own Roh Moo Hyun.

Judging by this, Kim Jong Il may have found the weak link he’s been looking for. I wouldn’t advise reading this less than two hours after a full meal. How should Japan maintain its political and economic independence and protect its national interest when caught between the United States, which is fighting to retain its position as the world’s dominant power, and China, which is seeking ways to become dominant? This is a question of concern not only to Japan...
Categories Japan
August 28, 2009

Attorney General Kills Indictment of Bill Richardson

A Justice Department investigation into “Kim Jong Bill” Richardson for a pay to play scandal has reportedly been “killed in Washington,” which I infer to mean killed by Eric Holder. The decision comes shortly after Richardson’s former Secretary of State was indicted for her efforts “cover up a vast money laundering and embezzlement scheme.” I haven’t seen the prosecutors’ case against Richardson, of course. How low must your moral stature must be if you ever find yourself arranging the chair...
Categories Appeasement/Sanctions
August 28, 2009

DJ Was No Peacemaker

Kim Dae Jung may have been brave and statesmanlike as a dissident, but when a politician dies — particularly a liberal one — too many journalists are overcome by the temptation to deify. Let’s not be. DJ’s accomplishments as a dissident, related here vividly by Seth Lipsky, remind us of his courage and vision before he attained power. But what they didn’t do is make him an effective peacemaker or president. But then, when in history has anyone who seemed...
Categories North-South/Sunshine
August 27, 2009

Preventing Another “Three Kingdoms” Era

In The National Interest, Michael Green, the NSC’s primary Asia advisor during President Bush’s first term outlines a series of scary stages that he thinks are approaching rapidly as Kim Jong Il withers away and North Korea dies with him. The lines of fracture in such an opaque regime are extremely difficult to predict, of course, but most of Green’s analysis makes sense to me. First, Green says the current regime can’t be stabilized in the long term, and that...
Categories Kremlinology/Reconstruction/Regime Change
August 26, 2009

For Chinese, Hard Questions About North Korea Hit Close to Home

And it’s dangerous for Chinese to ask hard questions that hit close to home. But why would Chinese find the nostalgia of visiting North Korea sufficiently rewarding to pay money for that dubious privilege? Maybe because human beings have a natural obsession with the things they fear the most, and because for many Chinese, the fear persists: I have spoken with many of these Chinese travelers and have always been struck by how seldom their accounts dwell on the stark...
Categories China & Korea
August 26, 2009

Must Read: On N. Korean Counterfeiting

We’ve seen much first-rate reporting on North Korea’s “supernote’ counterfeiting recently, and here’s one via The Independent that frankly outdoes all of them in its scope and detail, and fills in many missing details. I’m not going to even try to quote just one part of this. Just go and read. The comments are edifying in their own way. The British left is fond of saying that it isn’t really anti-American, just anti-Bush. And yet nothing seems to have changed...
Categories Counterfeiting
August 25, 2009

We Have Lift-Off

I didn’t think President Lee would actually go through with this. Although I’m not sure this launch is a wise move in the broader context of attempts to disarm the North Koreans — who will seize on this to justify their own banned program — it’s almost gratifying to see a South Korean president so unconcerned about what North Korea says. And while I reject most of the comparisons to the North Korean Taepodong II launch last spring, both launches...
Categories Missiles
August 24, 2009

Wow. Those Hostages Eat a Lot.

I didn’t say much about Yu Song Jin during his 137 days as a guest of Kim Jong Il, mainly because I really didn’t care that much about the predicament in which he placed himself. Yu, a South Korean employee at the Kaesong Industrial Park, was accused of attempting to infect one of the hand-picked North Korean factory slaves with his thoughtcrimes — an offense that, if true, might have endangered her life. I’m no great fan of North Korea...
Categories North-South/Sunshine
August 24, 2009

Lisa Ling’s Husband Expresses Concern for Refugees; Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee Remain Silent

The Wall Street Journal has published its own report on the scandal that is becoming a serious threat to (among other things) Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s public image as newsworthy victims. The Journal’s story adds fuel to suspicions that Ling, Lee, and producer Mitch Koss recklessly endangered the lives of refugees and activists by carrying video of them into North Korean territory, or otherwise failed to take measures to prevent that video from falling into Chinese and North Korean...
Categories China & Korea/Ling/Lee Incident/Media Criticism
August 24, 2009

N Korea Charm Offensive Not Working

One for the archives: By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) – North Korea is waxing conciliatory after months of military provocations — but experts say now is no time for the United States to relent on sanctions aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programs. North Korea has lowered tensions with several gestures from releasing two jailed U.S. journalists and freeing a detained South Korean businessman to offering to reopen frozen North-South business and tourism ventures. A high ranking...
Categories Sanctions
August 23, 2009

Easing of Tensions Amid Intensifying Sanctions Confounds Diplomats, “Peace Studies” Majors

Funny thing is, it was just yesterday that Selig Harrison was telling us that sanctions would make the North Koreans so mad they’d stomp away and not talk to us. And then I read this: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has sent word that he wants to hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the latest sign of easing tensions between the divided nations, news reports said Monday. Kim’s envoy proposed the summit during a rare...
Categories Diplomacy/North-South/Sanctions
August 22, 2009

Take the OFK Challenge: Name One Time Selig Harrison Was Right About North Korea

The AP’s Foster Klug interviews North Korean tool Selig Harrison, and catches him in this Kanye West moment: Harrison, addressing his critics, says: “Everything I’ve ever said about North Korea since 1972 has seemed at the time like screaming into the wilderness, and everything I’ve ever advocated has come to pass.” [AP, Foster Klug] If Harrison means that he consistently called for the U.S. to cave and it always did, Harrison is correct. Never overestimate the U.S. Department of State....
Categories Media Criticism/Washington Views
August 20, 2009

The Blood of Children on Their Hands (Updated)

[Update: Someone I trust tells me that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are anguished by the blog posts and news stories going around about this aspect of their story. Obviously, we’d love to hear Ling and Lee’s side of it, but according to my friend, they’re under a great deal of pressure from Current TV (among others) not to talk. Expect Ling and Lee to say more in the next few days about the precautions they took to prevent incriminating...
Categories China & Korea/Human Trafficking/Media Criticism/Refugees