December 9, 2006

South Korea’s Influence Machine

The Donga Ilbo has an excellent piece on how South Korea lobbies Congress.  Well worth reading in its entirety. Related:  how it tries to influence the American  press. Also related:   Felony violations  of the Foreign Agents’ Registration Act  are now classified as Specified Unlawful Activity  under 18 U.S.C. sec. 1956, meaning the transactions of unregistered agents are considered money laundering.
Categories Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
December 8, 2006

Which ‘Major Government Offices’ Contained N. Korean Moles?

Update:   The Chosun Ilbo thinks the investigation’s recent lack of progress is suspicious. A court has issued five indictments, including one against U.S. citizen, former soldier, and current traitor, Jang Min Ho. In the Korean judicial system, those who are indicted are virtually always convicted, so these fellows are looking at some time. Prosecutors also said the group delivered secret information to Pyongyang under direct or e-mail directives from a North Korean spy operative. The information provided was mostly...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea
December 8, 2006

Arrest Galloper, Part 2

Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over. We finally have closure in a terrible tragedy in which  innocent Korean  pedestrians were cut down by  a reckless foreigner,  who managed to evade local justice and (the outrage!) face a quickie trial and light punishment  in his home country’s courts.  Remember the protests and the vigils?  No?  Probably because the driver was a drunk South Korean Hyundai Asan  employee, and the victims were North Korean soldiers.  Two were injured, one...
Categories Korean Law/Korean Society/UCMJ & SOFA/Uncategorized
December 8, 2006

Kim Jong Il Glimpses His ‘Pleasure Squad’ in the Afterlife

The Korea Economic Institute was kind enough to send me what turned out to be one of the most interesting and readable papers  I’ve ever read on North Korea — a psychological study of Kim Jong Il.  The bad news is that KEI has not released the full text yet, but the good news is that if you follow the previous link, the author will participate in a public discussion of his paper at the National War College on December...
Categories Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Kim Jong Il/Unintended Humor
December 7, 2006

Six Party Talks: Off Again?

A North Korean diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency Wednesday that six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear program cannot restart this year or in the foreseeable future due to ”unacceptable” conditions the United States had set.  The demands the United States put forward at talks among the heads of delegations to the six-way talks in Beijing on Nov. 28 and 29, are ”unacceptable for North Korea,” the source reportedly said.  [link] We have now been trying to  lure North...
Categories Diplomacy/Geopolitics/Six-Party Talks
December 7, 2006

‘Abduction’ Film Update

I’ve been somewhat derelict in plugging the run of the film “Abduction” as it plays in Washington.  The film looks to be having great success here; the producers e-mail me to say that  it’s been held over for a third consecutive week.    I’ve only seen  some extended excerpts  of the film, but the imagery, score, and production values are truly something to behold.  You can tell that two true professionals — National Geographic alumni — created this film.  It’s...
Categories Abductions
December 6, 2006

Just Wondering…

Does the National Human Rights Commission make a distinction between peaceful protest and violent protest?  On the one hand, it’s pretty obvious that the South Korean government is trying to censor both peaceful and violent opposition to the proposed Free Trade Agreement (and it’s such a dead issue, all you can do is wonder why anyone bothers).  On the other hand, when protestors get through the police blockades, things like this happen.  Another 20 injured today.  Gee, I wonder if...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Society/The Fifth Column
December 6, 2006

A Billion for Tribute, But Not One More Cent for Defense!

Update:   Guess what?  GI Korea had it exactly right all along.    All hail GI Korea!   Wow.  Talk about nailing it. Let’s compare the $780 million dollar cost sharing agreement to the amount of money Seoul sends to North Korea.   While North Korea was busy creating international stability with their ballistic missile and nuclear bomb tests, the South Korean government was busy sending them a record amount of humanitarian aid.   The South Korean government sent $227...
Categories An Alliance?/NK Economics/U.S. Military/Washington Views
December 6, 2006

South Korea’s ‘Hostile’ Class

Leaving no stone unturned in its quest to emulate North Korean concepts of social justice, South Korea has announced the first official list of 100  Japanese collaborators whose blood, we can suppose,  will hereby stain three generations of class enemies (from way back in 1904, in some cases!).  Just to make sure the new songbun designations become nice and official, the government sent notices to  said descendants.  Depending on whose report you believe, there are either about 400, about 800,...
Categories History/Japan & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/WTF?
December 6, 2006

Three Cheers for Silvestre Reyes

You may recall my previous post on Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrat  picked  to lead the House Intel Committee.  Reyes is now setting a new standard for “realism” worthy of  the name.  Reyes, whom news reports then described as an “Iraq war opponent,” has called for putting more troops into Iraq.   In the process, he’s given the sort of that I’ve been waiting in vain to hear from President Bush, and he begged the questions that the escapists can’t answer:...
Categories Diplomacy/Uncategorized
December 6, 2006

Just the Latest Juche Idiocy from the Korean Teachers’ Union

The students went up on stage and told participants they had distributed anti-war badges around the nation in protest against the Iraq war and said they felt unifying the two Koreas was a way to create “a world without wars. They also joined the former communist guerrillas in the shouting of their old slogans against “imperialist Yankee soldiers” and the “puppet regime of Syngman Rhee. Kim, who also instructed his students to operate an online group that opposes the U.S.-led...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Education/The Fifth Column
December 5, 2006

Robert Gates Gets It (Mostly) Right on Korea

Consider that:  how often do bloggers, who live to bite ankles, find no fault with the pronouncements of those who make policy?  I begin my observation of Gates as SecDef as a skeptic.  And indeed, nothing that Gates could say about Korea could make me a fan if he prescribes Surrender Lite in Iraq or “learning to live with” an Iranian bomb.  But listen carefully to his views on the Koreas, from his confirmation hearings.  Begin in 1994, back when...
Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Washington Views
December 5, 2006

The Cons Are Running the Prison: Why Is S. Korea Subsidizing Violence?

[Updated and bumped up]   To the astonishment of absolutely no one, union goons  affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions  are (yet again)  unleashing a wave of  violence: We saw 47 arson and vandalism cases around the nation suspected to have been committed by Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union members,” Lee Taek-soon, head of the National Police Agency, said yesterday. “Thirteen cases were reported in North Gyeongsang province, seven in Ulsan and six in Busan.” It would surprise...
Categories Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column
December 5, 2006

Kremlinology, Luxury Goods, and Stolen Rice

I don’t expect Resolution 1718’s luxury goods ban to have much of a  short-term impact on North Korea, beyond focusing attention  on all of the frivolous things Kim Jong Il would rather buy than rice.   For the longer term, however, Korea watcher Ken Gause, in what is probably the definitive work of North Korean Kremlinology (ht) did a pretty good job before-the-fact of explaining the gradual trends we seem to be hoping we can advance (Gause actually  spends almost none...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/Korean Politics/Kremlinology