Thank God for those moments when candor at least appears to leak through the diplomatic sieve: Kim’s lengthy tour of China’s boom cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen suggests that soliciting Chinese support for North Korean economic reform was also high on his agenda. A staff member of a Chinese think tank says on previous occasions when Kim visited developed areas in China, he presented relevant economic reform policies after returning home. However, a source in Beijing said the tour of...

The suit relates to people abducted during the war, which ended with an armistice (but no peace treaty) in 1953: [The plaintiffs] say the government failed to ascertain the whereabouts of a single South Korean abductee, nor were they allowed to meet their families during family reunions. “The government has deceived us, making it appear as if it was trying to solve the question of the abductees and prisoners of war while in reality only focusing on the 480 abducted...

The presidential advisor for science and technology Park Ky-young admitted Tuesday to a conflict of interest arising from W250 million (US$250,000) in research grants she received from the disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk. Park has already tendered her resignation. Watching MBC news last night, I also saw Chung Dong-Young trying to explain away his efforts to lure Hwang into the Uri party, although that by itself would be just politics as usual.

Finally, I can’t restrain my enthusiasm over this Korea Times column, which completely nails my own complaints about the Korean legal system. As someone who dealt regularly with the deficiencies that system on a regular basis while a JAG officer in Korea, its awfulness has been a favorite rant of mine since the early days of this blog (ht The Marmot). The context is the “Hong Kong Eleven,” a group of violent South Korean union thugs who went to Hong...

Iraq Watch. This week’s theme seems to be the state and the rule of law. Just as the rule of law disintegrates when the state is unresponsive to the will of the people, reestablishing the rule of law is essential to allowing the people to express their will peacefully. Sir Robert Thompson, the great British theorist of counterinsurgency, would likely have made the reconstitution of Iraq’s police the first priority, even before the army. The best organisation to be responsible...

[Updated; Scroll down.] If the military and the peasantry unite as one, then none on this earth could possibly subvert them. –MaoRural uprisings in China are becoming so frequent, it’s getting hard to keep track of them. BEIJING (Reuters) – China has sealed off a village in southern Guangdong province after days of protests over land grabs ended at the weekend in clashes with police that killed a teenage girl, two residents said on Monday. Last week’s protest came a...

Mystery Solved: Not that the speculation excited me much, but Kim Jong Il is in southern China. Frequent brief disappearances are de rigeur for this particular despot. The predictable triumph of exuberance over experience is the reporting that this time, he’s touring factories and learning about economic reform! Some people have been holding in that lungful of smoke for almost nine years now. The truth is that this horse has been led to that water before. . . .

Suicidal Gestures: Roh is talking of resigning from the Uri Party, probably to further cement its image as the party of destroying every institution it enters.

Paging Alex Trebek? The next time Congressmen Moran and Murtha are up for election, I hope someone has the sense to run this video clip in their respective districts. Ouch.

[Updated 15 Jan 06] I had meant to say something earlier about how South Korea’s culture of politics-by-thuggery has now touched even the U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow. The Flying Yangban’s observations have inspired me to add more, beyond the expression of my strong agreement with those observations. Finally, after years of watching U.S. ambassadors work the cocktail circuit while the propaganda war was lost in the streets below, a U.S. ambassador has the vision and guts to do...

ZAWAHIRI DEAD? Update: Alas, it seems not yet. Here’s wishing him a speedy journey to his place in the Shaitan’s harem.

That Was Predictable: South Korea’s war on prostitution isn’t ending prostitution.

Why Are We Hearing So Little About Afghanistan? Perhaps because stories like this one aren’t popular with editors. Between 80 and 90 percent of Afghans are optimistic, pro-U.S., and anti-Taliban.

The Washington Post has finally taken note of Hyundai’s troubles in North Korea, which continues to be a black hole for South Korean won: [S]ince South Korea opened up friendly relations with the North in the late 1990s, more than 1,000 South Korean firms have gone bankrupt or lost significant investments in North Korea, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Most were small, low-tech enterprises involved in textile-making and rudimentary housewares. But the problems at Hyundai have shown that the...

The Succession Race for U.N. General Secretary has begun, in case that sort of thing interests you. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, a key salesman for appeasing the North, wants the job, but this WaPo piece also notes that any of the five permanent members of the Security Council could block him, which I certainly hope we would. Asia think it’s its turn; John Bolton doesn’t agree. Update: I could support this candidate, although that’s probably too good...

Iraq Watch: More red-on-red fighting between terrorist groups. May Allah guide their bullets home until there are no more targets, and until the Saddamists give up and join the political process instead.

My acquaintance (heh) Ambassador DiTrani is headed for a high-level intel position covering North Korea: The former U.S. special envoy for North Korea Joseph DeTrani was on Wednesday appointed to the newly created post of “mission manager” for North Korea under the director for national intelligence, to whose office he was moved on Dec. 3. Intelligence Director John Negroponte outlined DeTrani’s duties as confirming intelligence reports on North Korea and filling in any gaps, and serving as a stand-in for...

The Washington Times on ‘Seoul Train’: A new documentary on the plight of tens of thousands of North Korean defectors, perhaps several hundred thousand, who have fled the communist dictatorship into China and other countries aired recently on PBS stations. The film, “Seoul Train,” is a dramatic expose of the plight of North Koreans and the handful of activists who are trying to help them reach freedom. The documentary shows how the communist government of China is helping the North...