So far, it floats like a trial balloon: A ruling Uri Party MP [Rep. Kim Sung-Gon] said he believes it is possible to bring about 1,000 troops home from Iraq as other countries are also considering downsizing their troop presence. “It is unavoidable to reduce the number of troops, considering the worsening public sentiment about the troop dispatch and the fact that other coalition nations, such as the United States and Britain, are also pushing for withdrawing or reducing troops,”...

Via a reliable source, to whom I will leave the option of identifying himself if he chooses, comes word that Norbert Vollertsen will be back in Korea for a few days this week to attend a meeting at which some new video recently smuggled out of North Korea will be shown. The significance of Norbert’s return depends on whether you considered his recent expulsion from Korea to be politically motivated, as he had claimed at the time, or the simple...

This is an updated post. With the news that the talks are now on again, apparently for September 13, the odds dim that substantial progress will result. Begin with this money quote on South Korea’s position: “South Korean officials are pinning their hopes on a U.S. concession.” That hope appears misplaced. The New York Times published some blunt comments from Reps. Jim Leach and Tom Lantos, who represent the moderate views of both parties in the House International Relations Committee,...

The Chosun Ilbo has printed a summary of a Financial Times story that may change your model of the North Korean economy, but not much. The story suggests that changes in economic policy in 2002 have in fact launched a limited number of small private businesses, and that those businesses are substantially enriching the people who run them. The World Food Program’s North Korea director Richard Ragan told the paper the wealthy are concentrated in five cities, including Pyongyang. They...

“The Blue House is preparing for an all-out war against false press coverage.” They’re looking for ways to use taxpayer funds to support to cost of suing newspapers for coverage they dispute.

How do you transform a raving moonbat into a respected dissident? Have the cops invoke the National Security Law on him, that’s how! It’s the prerogative of the university and the students who select their courses to decide whether the propogation of idiocy is the purpose of academia, but if they guy isn’t plotting violence, why not just let him blather on in the intellectual ignominy he has earned? Speaking of paying way too much attention to one silly person,...

Alexander Vershbow has been named as the new U.S. Ambassador to Korea. This story, which I linked when Vershbow’s name first made the papers, gives more background on him.

The number of charities is positively dizzying; too dizzying for me. Pick your size: small, medium, large, XXL. I’ll bump this post up by manipulating the time stamp. Please do what you can.

The Boston Globe reports: A South Korean man was sentenced to nearly three years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a scheme to buy military engines for Black Hawk helicopters and then divert them to China. Kwonhwan Park and his Malaysian company, SGS, claimed that the two engines were either for the Malaysian Army or the South Korean Army in an application to the State Department but the shipment actually was sent to China from Malaysia. U.S. District...

After days of firm denials that she would suffer the idea of a coalition with President Roh, opposition Grand National Party leader Park Geun-Hye has agreed to meet with Roh. Let’s hope she jams a rubber wedge into his mouth and feeds him his Paxil: President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday he thought about “ending the Roh era and starting a new era,” even if he had to retreat from the front line or end his term early. . . ....

Who says Roh Moo-Hyun has no love for America? His war on prostitution has it positively cascading into the United States, in this case, the Los Angeles area: A federal grand jury handed down indictments today charging 24 persons for their role in a sophisticated human smuggling scheme that allegedly brought hundreds of South Korean women into the United States to work as prostitutes. Named in the two multi-count indictments issued today are 23 individuals originally charged in the investigation...

Cool. The South Korean government will help Iraq set up an Internet infrastructure.

Chen Yonglin, the Chinese diplomat who recently defected in Australia, has a new interview out with the Washington Diplomat. If he’s right, the little grey men in the Forbidden City might want to reread the parts of The Communist Manifesto that talked about alienation and class warfare: In a series of interviews in the U.S. and Australian press, Chen repeatedly characterized the Chinese government as “evil” and described a vast network of secret Chinese spies who had infiltrated the United...

The New York Times has two articles of interest. The first is a detailed report on how U.S. force structure in Korea will change. It relies heavily on an interview with Gen. Leon LaPorte, the USFK Commanding General. The other discusses the North Korean decision not to return to the talks next week. Interestingly, North Korea uses the more transparent excuse of the annual US-ROK military exercises rather than focusing on Jay Lefkowitz’s appointment as Special Envoy for Human Rights....

Daily NK has published a Korean-language translation of my interview with Nicholas Eberstadt (who spells his name with a “b”). While you’re there, check out this refugee interview covering the current supply of food, education, housing, electricity, and other necessities of life.

Koreans Demonstrate for Democracy in Egypt: This must be the most interesting and unlikely connection to emerge from the Carnival of the Revolutions. Thanks to Freedom for Egyptians for the link.

Wow! I’m a moderate! Who knew?

China and North Korea have a new treaty on the processing of refugees . . . as something other than refugees. Thanks to Chinese concepts of open government, opaque writing from the Chosun Ilbo, and a generous ladle-full of South Korean government doublespeak, I have almost no idea what the agreement would actually do, which probably means, “nothing good.” _____________________ A new poll finds that 67% of people are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with President Roh Moo Hyun, who...