October 6, 2006

Marcus Noland on the Economic Implications of Nuke Test

[Update:   link fixed, thanks!]   Last night, just before “Yoduk Story” (my not-a-review  post here), I met several of the people often quoted and cited in these pages, including Ambassadors Vershbow and Lefkowitz, but also the scholar and economist Marcus Noland, someone whose work I’ve long admired for its rigor, research, and objectivity.  This morning, Mr. Noland kindly forwarded two of his recent articles:  “The Economic Implications of a North Korean Nuclear Test,” and “The Economic Implications of a...
Categories NK Economics/WMD
October 5, 2006

Yoduk Story: A Roundup, Not a Review

I expected to hate it, because until last night, I’ve never not hated a musical. Actually, it held my interest and entertained me for three entire hours, and this from a man who is officially diagnosed with ADD. At times, I was quite moved, and I saw plenty of people in the audience crying. I didn’t “enjoy” it, any more than I “enjoyed” Schindler’s List. This wasn’t “Schindler’s List,” but it looked like good art to me, and a credible,...
Categories The Camps
October 4, 2006

I Am Not a Theater Critic

Just want to clarify a point: I will attend Yoduk Story tonight, but I will do so entirely for political reasons. I’ve never been to a musical in my life, never even watched one end-to-end on TV (unless you count The Blues Brothers, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail). I am not qualified to review the play, so I won’t. I’ll just report anything unusual or interesting from a political perspective, which is possible, since the guest list is...
Categories Uncategorized
October 3, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 54

Last week, sitting barely more than arm’s length from Deputy Undersecretary of Richard Lawless, I detected a veiled threat to reduce the U.S. military presence in Korea if Korea doesn’t increase its contribution to cost sharing. The veil is now off. Richard Lawless, the deputy undersecretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters that the administration may have to make cuts in Korea — in personnel or in other areas — if the 38 percent share of...
Categories Uncategorized
October 3, 2006

Speaker Hyde?

To me, this one is simple: any member of Congress who knew that Rep. Mark Foley was molesting underage boys, and who did not report what he knew to law enforcement, must resign. These statements look pretty incriminating to me, although they don’t exclude the possibility of reporting to the police. An issue I have yet to see anyone raise: that would also apply to any Democrats who knew the same facts, but decided to wait until late September to...
Categories Uncategorized
October 3, 2006

Too Late to Stop Ban Ki-Moon

Unfortunately, it looks like he has the Secretary General position all locked up. Sadly, he seems to have bought a significant amount of the support the made the difference. One wonders whether the U.N.’s next scandal will be the story of Ban’s accession.  Sadder still, he did it with the support of our own State Department, which smells (my raw suspicion; no evidence asserted) like a behind-the-back handshake between the “pro-engagement” faction and  the U.N.  This means that when it...
Categories "United" Nations
October 3, 2006

Too Late to Stop Ban Ki-Moon

Unfortunately, it looks like he has the Secretary General position all locked up. Sadly, he seems to have bought a significant amount of the support the made the difference. One wonders whether the U.N.’s next scandal will be the story of Ban’s accession. Sadder still, he did it with the support of our own State Department, which smells (my raw suspicion; no evidence asserted) like a behind-the-back handshake between the “pro-engagement” faction and the U.N. This means that when it...
Categories Uncategorized
October 1, 2006

Is the Bush Administration Backing Ban Ki-Moon?

Jim Hoagland thinks so, and he thinks we may regret that: That warning of the dangers of answered prayers applies particularly to President Bush and his support for Ban Ki Moon, South Korea’s reliably stolid foreign minister, in the highly competitive race to succeed Kofi Annan at year’s end. Bush — pilloried by Third World radicals at last week’s General Assembly opening — may be picking up a lightning rod instead of a shield. Hoagland isn’t very clear in his...
Categories "United" Nations/U.S. & Korea
October 1, 2006

La Place Des Miserables: 39.713N, 126.895E

This is one district, called Pyongchang-ri, of the infamous Camp 15, now known worldwide as Yodok. Here, according to survivors, children labor, starve, sicken, and die beside their parents — thousands of them each year. The entire camp is massive, and not all of it is within Google Earth’s high-resolution coverage. This picture gives a partial overview; you can see another photograph of this district here, and more photos here.  Yodok was the place Kang Chol-Hwan documented in “The Aquariums...
Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Society/The Camps
October 1, 2006

Sucking Sound

Not a R.A.I.N. concert.  Even worse:  capital flight. The government is seeking to prevent massive capital flight led by U.K. and U.S. investors. In all, US$9.264 billion foreign investors had in stocks, bonds and dividends here left the country between the beginning of this year and Aug. 11, the most since the stock market was opened to foreign investors in 1992. This is especially worrisome as the foreign funds are fleeing the country for good without re-investing here after they...
Categories NK Economics
October 1, 2006

South Korean Companies Accused of Trying to Sell Missile-Making Equipment to the North

It’s a good illustration of why South Korea needs to exercise “vigilance” in its trade with the North: Two South Korean companies made failed attempts to export military-purpose materials to North Korea last year, an opposition lawmaker claimed Sunday. Citing data from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE), Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon of the Grand National Party said a South Korean company signed a contract in August with a North Korean firm for the sale of an air-pressing machine...
Categories Appeasement
October 1, 2006

Everybody Riot!

This week, U.S. forces picked up or put down (I use the term in the veterinary sense) 20 members of an al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad.  It’s always unfortunate when terrorists choose to take shelter in civilian neighborhoods; worse yet when some inhabitants choose to shelter them, thus endangering their families and their neighbors.  As a consequence, a woman and child who didn’t have to die, died.  Observe the reaction of some: Angry men at the scene held up a color...
Categories Censorship/Terrorism/Iraq/Unintended Humor/WTF?
October 1, 2006

Chief Justice Lee Yong-Hyun Is Right About Reforming the Courts

Finally, the process of raising the wreck of Korea’s judical system is off to a halting start. But the first effect of the reforms has been to elucidate just how awful the system really is. For example, prosecutors are just starting to submit written arraignments. In the past, they’d simply presented the courts with reports of police investigations with exhibits, long before the defense had an opportunity to present anything. It’s little wonder, then, why the conviction rate was, and...
Categories Korean Law
September 30, 2006

Fifth Column Watch: The USFK, Free Speech, and Subversion

Nothing really surprising here: North Korea on Tuesday criticized the U.S. military for giving American names to certain areas in South Korea, arguing that it is part of a ploy to “permanently Americanize South Korea.” Americanize South Korea? Perhaps you can be forgiven for suggesting that if you live in an oppressed, suffocated, isolated tyranny where reading up on current events can get you killed. Since we’re on the subject, where has the U.S. military given an American name to...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
September 30, 2006

Guild of Liars, Part 2: North Korean Refugees Expose the Lies of the National Lawyers’ Guild

[Updated]   Kudos to the Bar Assocation for doing what the cowardly and  politicized National  Human Rights Commission won’t. The report included testimony similar to that in papers issued by Amnesty International and other rights groups, describing forced abortions and infanticide in North Korea’s political prisons. The bar association report was the first of its kind, although the group issues annual reports on human rights in the South. It was issued against a backdrop of criticism by rights activists of...
Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Law
September 29, 2006

Ban Ki-Moon: He’s Already Screwing Up the U.N.!

If it’s still possible, that is.  Add corruption to the list of U.N.’s fatal  flaws and  despotic  tendencies,  of which Ban Ki Moon is already an accomplished practitioner. The Times said Friday the Korean government “has pledged millions of dollars in aid and offered other incentives to members of the United Nations Security Council to secure its candidate as the next UN secretary-general. Under the sardonic headline, “Millions of dollars and a piano may put Korean in UN’s top job”...
Categories "United" Nations/Uncategorized