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‘Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.’

Reports the Australian: An underground resistance movement in North Korea, capable of smuggling out videos of executions and staging violent acts of defiance, has emerged as the Kim Jong-il regime faces international sanctions for testing a nuclear bomb. Let’s contain our exuberance long enough to ask ourselves if it’s irrational. Break this down into its components. I do believe that organized networks of guerrilla cameras, missionaries, and people smugglers are operating; that they’re increasing their reach inside North Korea; and...

Resistance

‘Lips and Teeth’ No More?

You may recall the recent interview I did with Chuck Downs, in which Mr. Downs spoke of China’s efforts to court members of the North Korean military. Downs suggested that this was a key concern to Kim Jong Il, and may have motivated him to test his officers’ loyalty. According to this report, the North Koreans have just managed to roll up China’s spy network inside North Korea. CHINA’S People’s Liberation Army is pushing the Government to get tough with...

China & Korea

More Grim News on N. Korea’s Food Situation

New reports are predicting that things are looking bleak for North Korea’s food situation this winter. Millions of North Koreans are at risk of starvation this winter as humanitarian aid levels drop amid an international furore over the country’s nuclear bomb test. Aid agencies say much of the population is already surviving on basic rations and fear any further drop in food supplies could lead to a repeat of the 1990s famine that killed as many as two million people....

"United" Nations/China/China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid

OFK On FrontPageMag.com

Here, with co-author and friend Gordon Cucullu (permlink).

Uncategorized

86 More N. Koreans Vote With Their Feet

Update: Kyoto says the number is 91. They are in Thailand, a country that is unlikely to send them to North Korea. The same article also reports that 159 of the most recent defectors have been allowed to move on, probably to South Korea and the United States. If they’ve arrived here, then it’s a pretty well-kept secret. It looks like this could be another record year for defections.

Refugees/Southeast Asia

Proliferation Security Watch

* Hong Kong authorities have detained a North Korean ship “Kang Nam I, a 2,035-ton general cargo ship,” which had arrived from Shanghai. North Korean crew members and Hong Kong customs officials suggest that the inspection is related to a couple dozen safety violations, that the ship is empty, and that the inspections are not related to U.N.S.C.R. 1718. Crew members claim that the ship will sail again in two days. The Chosun Ilbo reports that the search didn’t...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Geopolitics/Money Laundering/Technology/Uncategorized/WMD

First Act, Last Laugh, Part 2

I have a message for whomever tried to stop “Yoduk Story” from playing in Seoul: read, weep, and know that you have failed. “Whomever,” according to producer Jung Sung-San and the daily Chosun Ilbo (which backed YS), is someone in the South Korean government. Eventually, the South Korean government got around to denying this. Personally, I wasn’t there. All I can say is that the accusation is consistent with other things the South Korean government has done to cover for...

Censorship/Human Rights/Korean Society

U.N. Envoy: N. Korea Sends Handicapped to Camps

[Update: Welcome Powerline readers!] Since I began blogging about North Korea, one of my core philosophies has been that nukes, diplomacy, and human rights aren’t logically separable. That’s because you deal with governments that possess a basic regard for human life differently from those that lack one. Governments in the first category share our desire to preserve life by avoiding war. Governments in the second category seek only to preserve and expand their own power; their motivations are not...

"United" Nations/Human Rights/The Camps

So Much for a Nuclear-Free Korea

Update: A well-informed reader says the Pentagon denies this story. This should get their attention in Beijing. As ye sow: Seoul and Washington will add use of nuclear arms by U.S. forces in response to North Korean atomic weapons in a joint operation strategy codenamed OPLAN 5027, sources said Thursday. That would mean the return of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea 15 years after they were pulled out in 1991. At the 28th Military Committee Meeting (MCM)...

An Alliance?/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD

Ban Ki-Moon’s Image Makeover?

Already, Ban can see that what was popular in Seoul won’t cut it in the General Assembly. In the rest of the world, North Korea is a pariah. Besides, the man is highly sensitive about what bloggers say about him. “Taking the advantage of the U.N. Secretary-general’s authority and the U.N.’s functions, I plan to make the utmost efforts to actually improve the human rights situation in North Korea,” he said. Citing reports from U.N. human rights envoys and related...

"United" Nations/Human Rights

October 22, 2006

Take the Ajumma Test

Maybe it takes a Korean to stereotype one. 1. Do you have a potbelly? 2. Do you carry a big handbag that looks like a diaper carrier? 3. Do you fail to keep your hair tidy? 4. Do you tuck your underwear in properly? 5. Do you throw your bag on an empty seat to secure it when you get on a bus or subway? 6. Do you talk loudly on the phone in public? They forgot to mention the...

Korean Society/WTF?

Dance, Little Piggy! (Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 14)

Most observers had speculated, since at least 1994 or so, that North Korea has the capacity to create a crude nuclear weapon. That appears to be exactly what they demonstrated recently, meaning that the only real news was our need to recalibrate Kim Jong Il’s brass-to-brains ratio. I didn’t guess whether he’d actually go through with it, but I did believe that he’d try to time it just before the U.S. election if he did. I also guessed that if...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/China & Korea/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea

Fractured Monolith

The quality and quantity of the Daily NK’s reports from inside the North just seem to get better. This week, two new reports fill in gaps in our knowledge about economic and social conditions; both are absolute must-reads. The first is filled with pictures of gritty scenes of daily life in the North. It’s astonishing to see the extent to which the blockade has eroded when pictures like these come out. On this day, the brawl began as 2 young...

Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Korean Society

Another MUST-READ: NYT on the Erosion of the Information Blockade

Many thanks to a reader for forwarding. The Times is on an absolute roll with its recent Korea reporting. Here, we learn more of the underground network that can sow dissent, and that could eventually form the foundation of a resistance movement. The increasing ease with which people are able to buy their way out of North Korea suggests that, beneath the images of goose-stepping soldiers in Pyongyang, the capital, the government’s still considerable ability to control its citizens is...

Refugees/Religion/Resistance