September 18, 2006

Islamic Terror in South Korea?

That’s been my worry ever since I was there, and apparently, the South Korean authorities are worried, too. Generally, the “camp follower” subculture that grows up around a U.S. military installation is right outside the gate. In Seoul, that subculture is in Itaewon, several blocks away. Itaewon ended up being the most “foreigner-friendly” zone in Seoul, which attracted third-country nationals and eventually, a large mosque. Today, that mosque sits right on top of “hooker hill,” the, um, intercourse of the...
Categories Islam/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military
September 18, 2006

Uri Goes Wobbly

… on troop control. Twenty members of the Uri Party issued a statement Monday calling for flexibility in the handover of wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul. “There has to be a structure allowing for flexibility in the timetable, with respect to South-North relations, the North Korean nuclear issue, and the state of affairs in Northeast Asia including security on the peninsula,” they said. It was the first time ruling party voices have publicly called for linking the...
Categories An Alliance?/Korean Politics/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
September 18, 2006

Seven N. Korean Refugee Women Turn Themselves in to Thai Authorities

Update: Much more information below, courtesy of Human Rights Without Frontiers. Warning: it’s pretty disturbing stuff. Seven North Korean women have turned themselves in to Thai authorities in the Nong Khai of Northeastern Thailand (map). By my count, there are at least 289 North Koreans, almost all women and children, in Thai custody now. Thailand does not seem likely to deport them to China or North Korea, but you have to wonder what’s going on after all this time. Life...
Categories Refugees/Southeast Asia
September 16, 2006

There’s Nothing New About Korea’s “New” Anti-Americanism

How could the U.S.-Korea alliance ever survive another day with this tension between President Bush and President Roh, and what, with that nasty debate over wartime command? What if I said that I actually refer to George H.W. Bush and Roh Tae Woo? If you really want to track down the point at which the U.S.-Korean relationship went over the cliff, set your Wayback Machine for 1989 and a year of ferocious anti-American demonstrations — complete with fire-bombings — that...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea
September 16, 2006

Lantos Compares Yasukuni Criminals to Himmler and Göring

[Update: An elderly nurse has come forward to admit that she helped with the victims’ hasty burials as American occupation forces arrived. The apartments were built on the site later, which causes one to ask how the builders could have failed to notice the bones. The suspicion is that they’re linked to the infamous Unit 731.] With that crotchety old World War Two vet retiring, at last the American Congress can let bygones be bygones. [Democratic Rep. Tom] Lantos, a...
Categories Asia/Japan/Japan & Korea
September 16, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 51

First, TKL is privileged to print this exclusive photo of the Bush-Roh luncheon. The pomp and pageantry rolled out for America’s greatest ally since the Marquis de Lafayette does not end there. Roh and the poor ROK Ambassador, Lee Tae-Shik, adjourned to Blair House to meet with a real who’s-who of has-beens. Extra props to whoever invited Richard Armitage, who must be the least popular man in this city this week. Also present: Madeleine Albright, Don Oberdorfer, Donald Gregg, Thomas...
Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
September 15, 2006

Inside North Korea

From the invaluable Daily NK come two new reports. One is an account of flood damage from South Pyongan, and it sounds like it’s severe enough that it won’t be repaired anytime soon. They even have pictures, which shows impressive progress in the penetration of the Daily NK’s tentacles into the North Korean interior. According to another report, the North Korean authorities are punishing ordinary citizens for eating foreign food aid. Apparently, it’s considered property of the state. Read it...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK
September 15, 2006

Daily NK: Kim Jong Il’s Niece Commits Suicide in Paris

After life in Paris, I suppose even a gilded life in Pyongyang would seem less worth living. A niece of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il killed herself in Paris, probably because she did not want to return to her home in the reclusive state, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. Jang Keum-song, 29, died in Paris – where she was studying – because of what appeared to be an overdose of sleeping pills taken after drinking alcohol, Yonhap cited a...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Korean Society
September 15, 2006

Operation Ieodo Freedom© Begins!

You have got to be kidding me. This is Ieodo? It’s not even an island. Stll, the big, bold “Ieodo Korea” is a nice touch, and if that’s not enough to preserve Korea’s territorial integrity (such as it is), those crack VANK commandoes launched a bold pre-dawn raid — on the “Suyan Rock” Wikipedia page — and overwhelmed the sleeping red hordes to seize control of the smoldering, pock-marked moonscape that remains. According to that same Wiki page, Ieodo is...
Categories China & Korea/Unintended Humor
September 14, 2006

Yoduk Story Update

There is a change of date and location to report: The plans have now been finalized to bring Yoduk Story to the USA! Opening night will be 7:30 pm on Wednesday, October 4, 2006, at the Strathmore located in North Bethesda, Maryland. Performances will be held on October 4, 5, 6 at 7:30 pm, and we also hope to plan a special Friday, October 6 performance at 3 pm especially for students. Tickets will be available for sale beginning this...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society
September 14, 2006

Roh’s Tepid Welcome

Sure, you read it here first, but David Sanger has great White House sources, and his new story in the New York Times provides fairly solid confirmation: Mr. Bush is determined to squeeze North Korea with every financial sanction possible until it gives up its nuclear capacity and other illicit activities, or, some believe, until it collapses. I wonder how the Chosun Ilbo will react to this: In past meetings, Mr. Bush has done his best to paper over the...
Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea
September 14, 2006

Anti-Americanism Goes Freudian

This post by the Marmot is a must-read. As represented by USFK’s illegal release of formaldehyde into the Han River, the tragedy on the Korean Peninsula began with the unclean sperm of the United States fertilizing the egg of the Han River. The monster’s outrages and its eating of people shows the similar tyranny displayed by the United States toward the Korean Peninsula. Let me see if I can find just the right words for my reaction to this:
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea/WTF?
September 14, 2006

U-Ri-Ttang! U-Ri-Ttang! U-Ri-Ttang!

Open this one like a fine wine. China said Thursday it cannot recognize South Korea’s sovereignty over Ieo Island, a remote reef-islet in the waters between the Asian neighbors, after China announced it had conducted aerial surveillance on the islet last year. “Suyan Rock is a reef located below the waters in the northern part of the East China Sea, and we have never determined its ownership with South Korea,” said Qin Gang, a spokesman at Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, during...
Categories China & Korea
September 14, 2006

Kim Dae Jung: Neocons Made Up N. Korean Nuke Crisis

[Updated for your pleasure, and here’s one back at the Marmot, who has much more.] It’s a ruthless totalitarian regime with a history of selling WMD’s to terrorist backers, and its state ideology revels in violence against America. And if the fact that they have a few nukes worries you, it’s obviously all in your head, says ex-South Korean Prez and Nobel prize winner Kim Dae Jung: “How North Korea will do with its missiles and nuclear weapons… Those will...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Diplomacy/WMD/WTF?
September 14, 2006

Must-Read! ‘The Natural Death of N. Korean Stalinism’

[Updated] With “The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism,” Andrei Lankov, possibly the Western world’s single authentic North Korea expert, has just provided us with an impressive collection of empirical evidence to support his argument that the North Korean regime’s control apparatus is losing its grip (a big hat tip to Andy Jackson). Those whose interest in North Korea is inversely proportional to the availability of information about it will pore through this article, fascinated at the amount and quality...
Categories North Korea