August 7, 2007

Buddhist NGO Warns of Return of Famine in North Korea

The South Korean NGO Good Friends, which has been well connected inside North Korea since the Great Famine, says that North Koreans are again starving to death in significant numbers, although the numbers do not (yet?) approach the death tolls of the 1990’s. Good Friends, an organization helping North Korea opened a media information session on the 2nd about the North Korean food shortage and said that immediate food support was necessary as “around 10 people per city and county...
Categories Famine & Food Aid
August 6, 2007

Pew: Anti-Americanism Declined in South Korea (But Read the Fine Print)

According to this year’s Pew Global attitudes report, anti-Americanism has declined significantly in South Korea, from  46% favorable  in 2003 to 58% favorable last year.  Pew says that the “U.S. image has improved dramatically” there, and while  this result suggests  a significant and positive change,  Pew’s  enthusiasm is overstated, because Pew is comparing two extremes that may overstate the actual situation. Pew’s first point of comparison is 2003, when anti-Americanism  was at its fevered peak, when  no South Korean politician...
Categories Anti-Americanism
August 4, 2007

Beyond the Drum Circle: Stopping Genocide in the Real World

There is within us some hidden power, mysterious and secret, which keeps us going, keeps us alive, despite the natural law. If we cannot live on what is permitted, we live on what is forbidden. That is no disgrace for us. What is permitted is no more than an agreement, and what is forbidden derives from the same agreement. If we do not accept the agreement, it is not binding on us. And particularly where this forbidden and permitted comes...
Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights/U.S. Law
August 3, 2007

Newsweek: Seoul Paid Ransom to Fake Kidnappers

First, a few updates.  A representative for the hostages’ families has rejected invitations  from radical groups to turn this into the next anti-American election year  issue: The families of the Korean hostages spoke out against a movement to hold the U.S. responsible for the unresolved crisis, saying anti-American demonstrations could put the hostages’ lives at greater risk. The families turned down an offer by some anti-American organizations to stage a candlelight rally. Lee Jeong-hoon, a representative of the families, said...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq
August 2, 2007

Double Extortion

Yesterday’s report that a hostage  rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan turned out to be premature, but spin operations in Seoul  are sharply accelerating.  In a South Korean election year, it couldn’t be more predicatable that its unpopular  and desperate leftist government, far-left “civic” groups, and certain media are looking for a way to make the  Taliban’s  kidnapping and murder of 23 Korean hostages  America’s fault.  It remains to be seen whether the greater  South Korean public will buy this....
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Terrorism/Iraq
August 1, 2007

Links for Today

*    As I write, the news is breaking on TV that the Afghan Army  has launched a rescue operation to save the  remaining Korean hostages.  By the  time I get home, I’ll know how things went.  If you’re practiced at prayer, this would be a good time.  *   The press is mostly talking about North Korea’s cooperation with the U.N. at Yongbyon, while failing to mention a shocking new report.  Chris Hill is making an impromptu visit to...
Categories Anju Links
July 31, 2007

Ransom Is Not a Countermeasure

The Taliban have now murdered a second South Korean hostage.  I don’t know what I can say about the Taliban that I haven’t already said, other than that the odds are good they can be tracked down for their trials and whatever appropriately miserable  fate awaits them in Pol-e-Charki Prison.  There have been a lot of stories recently  reporting that  dozens of their fighters have been killed.  Stories like this may or may not indicate a more significant trend.  Insurgencies...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq
July 30, 2007

A Basket of Ants

It’s not an uncommon event for  South Korean political parties to split and re-unite during election years, and as you may recall,  Kim  Dae Jung’s Millenium Democratic Party looked hopelessly split this time five years ago (before it successfully capitalized on anti-Americanism to  eke out  a narrow win).  It’s anyone’s guess what this hopelessly confusing picture will look like next week, so instead of wasting time on analysis that will be meaningless tomorrow, here’s a brief chronology of what’s happening:...
Categories Korean Politics
July 28, 2007

Not Ready

I have resigned myself to a Lee Myung Bak presidency in Korea, something I can do without much difficulty because (a) there will be much amusement, hilarity, scandal, and great blog material,  and  (b) because I’m not South Korean [Update:   or North Korean].  Superficially, Lee is the furthest “right” of the major candidates, and while  South Korea’s idea of “right” may  not be my thing, it’s  the linear opposite of South Korea’s idea of  “left,” which I unreservedly  despise.  Concepts...
Categories Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
July 27, 2007

Watching You

I wanted to alk-tay about ina-Chay, but as it turns out, they’re listening to everything we say here.  China’s intelligence services are gearing up for next year’s Beijing Olympics, gathering information on foreigners who might mount protests and spoil the nation’s moment in the spotlight. Government spy agencies and think tanks are compiling lists of potentially troublesome foreign organizations, looking beyond the human rights groups long critical of Beijing, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said. They...
Categories Censorship/China
July 26, 2007

South Korea: No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy

By now you’ve heard that the Taliban have murdered their first Korean hostage, and so Korea has now wheeled as one  in spontaneous rage at the Taliban, as though they’d  issued postage stamps with images of  Tokdo, right?  Well, not exactly.  There are many things I could say about the reactions of Roh Moo Hyun, his government, and his country’s media, but Robert Kohler has pretty much already said those things, and a few others.  Two lessons bears repeating:  first,...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/Religion/Terrorism/Iraq
July 25, 2007

LiNK Seeking Resettlement Volunteers for North Korean Refugees in the United States

This is from LiNK‘s latest newsletter:  As the number of North Korean refugees arriving in the US for resettlement increases, we can also expect increasing numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors (children or teenagers), many of them orphaned entirely, and all who will be starting new lives in America. We are seeking families to become foster families for these children that can help to serve as a bridge between two very different cultures. Families with a Korean-American background or Korean-speaking ability...
Categories Activism/Refugees
July 24, 2007

Forgetting Someone?

The Korean War Abductees Research Institute (KWARI) will hold a press conference next  Thursday, July 26, 2007, at  2 p.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club in Washington.  The subject will be  whether the return of abducted South Koreas should be a prerequisite to a North-South peace treaty.  It’s  a question you can hardly believe anyone would have to ask — isn’t the first prerequisite to peace  that  each nation ends its continuing  offenses against the other...
Categories Abductions/Activism
July 22, 2007

What I’m Reading: Andrei Lankov, ‘North of the DMZ’

Back in the 1980s, one of my Russian friends who was then in her early 20s, worked as an interpreter at a joint venture between North Korea and the Soviet Union. She was by no means a prude herself …, but she was somewhat shocked by the amount of sexual banter which her female North Korean colleagues engaged in. For the entire summer when the girls were on their own, they tried to learn as much as possible about the...
Categories Books & Films/Deprogramming/Korean Society
July 21, 2007

‘Pyongyang Soju’ Importer Arrested

A Korean American businessman has been arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of hiding his activities as a spy for the South Korean government, AP reported Thursday. According to court documents obtained by the wire agency, Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, was a legal resident in the U.S. for the past 20 years and conducted business with North Korea. Park provided information he obtained from his frequent trips to North Korea to the South...
Categories Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. Law
July 21, 2007

The Next Deadlock

The irony of North Korea calling another nation “fascist” can’t be appreciated by those who are missing that gene, confined  within North Korea, or both.  Maybe this is an f-bomb that could only be built  in a place where abductees are no more hostages than their captors.  It’s probable that the author’s irony  was completely unintentional —  that he was  oblivious to  what Earthlings would think when they read his words: The search [of Chongryon headquarters] was part of an...
Categories Abductions/Six-Party Talks/WMD