September 7, 2006

‘Barrel of a Gun’ Redux

North Korean Army propaganda adds fuel to my pet theory: According to the article, North Korea developed nuclear weapon for the purpose of self-defense because “˜the vicious American gang leader Bush labeled us one of the axis of evil and rogue states, and declared not to have conversation with us unless his sinister conditions were met.’ The document says the United States bewildered after the North’s declaration of possession of nuclear weapon and then started to yield to Pyongyang. Therefore...
Categories Kremlinology/WMD
September 7, 2006

European Parliament Passes Resolution on N. Korean Refugees in Thailand

Let no one dispute the effectiveness of groups like Freedom House and Human Rights Without Frontiers. Their influence in Europe is growing, and that influence may preempt a source of cash, trade, and diplomatic support that has proven so useful to Iran. I agree with Nick Eberstadt and Jae Ku that Europe’s support for the North Korean people could shame South Koreans into action. Maybe there’s hope for Europe yet. Full text follows: ======================================== The Resolution was tabled by Hubert...
Categories Europe/Human Rights/Refugees
September 7, 2006

Kaplan Identifies the Problem. So How Do We Solve It?

[Updated; Updated again 9/6 regarding South Korea’s withdrawal from OPLAN 5029 planning last year.] First, I want to thank “a fellow blogger” for forwarding me this article. The Marmot has posted the entire text. Richardson and GI Korea have already preempted many of my comments on this piece. As with everything Kaplan writes, the article shows the author’s research; it’s approached with both depth and perspective. Inevitably for a piece that printed out to 12 pages, there were parts with...
Categories Reconstruction
September 7, 2006

Lugar Fails to Get Bolton Voted Through His Committee

Despite a second impressive success on Darfur at the U.N. Security Council, and following an even more impressive victory on the North Korea sanctions resolution — a resolution I predicted he’d never get — John Bolton has again been denied a vote before the full Senate. There is no honest basis to dispute the excellence of Bolton’s performance at carrying out the President’s policies. That is why George Voinovich and Chuck Hagel are supporting him, despite earlier reservations. Standing beside...
Categories "United" Nations/Washington Views
September 6, 2006

To Your Health!

[Updated] If there’s anything to a new report that Kim Jong Il’s liver is seizing up on him, I may have to admit that Madeleine Albright’s toast of a mass murderer contributed to the cause of world peace after all (the old soldiers’ rumor is that he just drinks colored water to extract cash from naive foreign diplomats). And although I don’t believe everything I hear from GNP lawmakers, I certainly hope we can get this rumor into circulation up...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
September 5, 2006

Busted: S. Korean Monitoring of Food Aid Exposed as a Sham

[Updates: English version here, and a small correction below.] “At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death.” ““ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, May 2, 2006 You may recall that just over a year ago, Marcus Noland and Stephen Haggard provoked controversy when they published a report called “Hunger and Human Rights.” In that report, the authors concluded that up to half of food aid deliveries to North Korea...
Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Resistance
September 5, 2006

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 8

Nigel Cowie, North Korea’s most “legitimate” banker, is selling out, and this time, that’s not just a moral judgment. Richardson links this piece, written by none other than Bradley K. Martin, indicating that he’s selling his Daedong Credit Bank to the British-based Koryo Group, but will stay on to help manage the bank. As for the issue of Daedong’s much-proclaimed legitimacy, Martin adds what strikes me as a highly salient fact: The minority owner of Daedong Credit is Korea Daesong...
Categories Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Drugs & N Korea/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WMD
September 5, 2006

Daily Anju (Updated)

On the Daily NK: A Korean version of my interview with Chuck Downs. Mr. Downs is traveling this week and isn’t able to respond to your questions yet. I’ll post an update when he gets a chance. Thanks for your patience. When You Hear “Uri Ttang,” Be Annoyed; When You Hear “Part of China,” Be Concerned: First Koguryeo, now Parhae. Will China-baiting be the politico-nationalist fad of 2007? It’s their turn, isn’t it? Interesting Report: If Kim Jong Il isn’t...
Categories News Links
September 4, 2006

Anti-Americans Head for Seattle; Anti-Anti-Americans Fill Void on Streets of Seoul

GI Korea points to an impressive turnout for an anti-anti-American demonstration in Seoul. Although it’s not clear whether 50,000 or 200,000 showed up, it was at least comparable to the turnout at the anti-American protests of 2002. There was word that early presidential front-runner Park Geun-Hye even planned to show up. The word I often use to describe the Korean street is “mercurial.” The America-hating left isn’t just going away, though, especially when it can count on local reinforcements …...
Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea
September 4, 2006

The Gates of Hell: 42.471N, 129.824E

These are the gates though which prisoners enter Camp 22 in North Hamgyeong province. Camp 22 is the largest and worst of North Korea’s prison camps, with some portions set aside as a “life imprisonment zone” for prisoners who will never leave. Escaped prisoners and guards report that prisoners are killed in a gas chamber in the camp’s administration area, approximately 8 miles down the road in the background (no high-resolution photograph of the administration area is available on Google...
Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/The Camps
September 4, 2006

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 7 (Updated)

[Update: My closing comment below about an expansion of our goals was an understatement: The U.S. Treasury Department, in a shift in its policy toward North Korea, has decided to treat all transactions involving the nation as suspect and subject to sanctions while dictator Kim Jong Il develops nuclear weapons. “Given the regime’s counterfeiting of U.S. currency, narcotics trafficking and use of accounts worldwide to conduct proliferation-related transactions, the line between illicit and licit North Korean money is nearly invisible,”...
Categories Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Economics
September 3, 2006

Breaking the Blockade

[Update: Andrei Lankov has a must-read piece on radio broadcasting in the Asia Times Online.] Where there is demand, there will be a supply, and the trickle of alternative information to North Korea, though small, shows signs of persistence and of having a receptive market. In addition to Radio Free NK and Open Radio for North Korea, there is now a Japan-based broadcaster, Shiokaze. The DailyNK interviews its director. Although their original focus is on sending messages to Japanese abductees,...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/Censorship/Democracy/Japan & Korea/Reconstruction/Refugees/Resistance/Uncategorized
September 2, 2006

Another Missile Test?

Yonhap reports: South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities have detected suspicious vehicle movements in and out of North Korea’s major missile test site, a government source here said Sunday. [….] “Military intelligence officials have spotted movements by several large vehicles in the North’s Gitdaeryeong area,” the source spoke on condition of anonymity. “They don’t rule out the possibility that it is part of preparations for additional missile tests.” Officials at South Korea’s foreign and defense ministries have said that...
Categories NK Military/WMD
September 1, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 49: The Perception Gap

[Update: The U.S. and Korean authorities are now denying that the Humphreys move is on hold. The Commanding General of the USFK admits that “minor adjustments” may be necessary, but that they can be “easily handled within the framework of the current plan.” H/t GI Korea] It begins with the apparent perception that Roh Moo Hyun could expect a state dinner or a 21-gun salute. I guess he perceived wrong: Unlike the incumbent, former presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military