Japan is making progress–both legal and technological–toward being able to defend itself from North Korean missiles.

I guess it all depends on how it’s said–by North Korea, or by the reporter. It’s not much of a story to me yet, because North Korea has made that demand before, and because the reports I’ve seen on the story don’t mention North Korea offering to sign a formal peace treaty with South Korea or recognize its sovereignty. And of course, what it offers in exchange is to do what it promised to do when it signed the NPT...

There are two other accounts of the Freedom House conference, aside from my own. While I’m stuck in the details of what everyone said (I’ll stay stuck there because that’s the niche I’ve opted to fill), the other reports pan out for the wide-angle view. I recommend both. I can’t figure out what the deal is with cell phones in North Korea these days, but this report suggests that aside from senior officials and those who possess them illegally near...

Those who would prefer not to discuss what the North Korean regime is doing to its own people have sometimes advanced silly and sometimes fevered arguments that human rights advocacy is either a neocon (meaning Jewish) conspiracy or an evangelical enterprise. One author even managed to say both at once, focusing his attack on none other than Natan Sharansky: Who is Mr. Sharansky? He was a Jewish dissident in the former Soviet Union, which former President Ronald Reagan defined as...

Meanwhile, in China, someone is listening to Radio Free Asia’s message: [O]n Maban Mountain in the same province, another North Korean couple had also dug a hole to live in, concealing it with leaves. They hardly expected to remain there for the next seven years, according to another North Korean defector who visited them there. Neither husband nor wife wished to be identified even by a pseudonym. The defector, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Kim Myung-chul, said...

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! I started this blog after leaving the Army–including four years in Korea–to practice law in Washington. This blog exists to tell the story of what is happening to the North Korean people, and to remind America and the world of what happened the last time we paid Dane Geld to Kim Jong Il–North Korea walled out the world, squandered its treasury on weapons it had just agreed to give up, and intentionally starved two million of...

Two out of two Koreas agree–all of our disquieting talk about human rights is dashing the soaring hopes of fools on both sides of a great ocean that next week’s six-party talks will be different from all those held since 1993. If your reaction is “six party what?,” don’t feel ashamed. After all, North Korea forgot about them for thirteen months and suddenly agreed to return to them what, a week ago? SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Wednesday...

As before, LiNK is the youth, the heart, and much of the numerical strength of this small movement. Adrian Hong e-mailed with a link to some great pictures of both the conference and the LiNK protest at the ROK Embassy that afternoon. This picture gives a good idea of the scale of the conference. I might kibbitz with Adrian’s head count, but I don’t disagree that it was a strong success. It likely gave this issue essential momentum and media...

Meanwhile, in China, someone is listening to Radio Free Asia’s message: [O]n Maban Mountain in the same province, another North Korean couple had also dug a hole to live in, concealing it with leaves. They hardly expected to remain there for the next seven years, according to another North Korean defector who visited them there. Neither husband nor wife wished to be identified even by a pseudonym. The defector, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Kim Myung-chul, said...

This was a Q&A session moderated by Senator Sam Brownback, who can fairly be called North Korea’s most dangerous enemy in the U.S. Congress. Update: After watching this program on C-SPAN’s book TV, I caught a few errors and made corrections to that effect. Please do not mistake this for a verbatim transcript; it’s highly summarized . . . my best effort to be faithful to the ideas conveyed by the speakers. In the case of Mr. Sharansky, I cleaned...

Sharansky spoke three times–in an address to the group, in a Q&A forum beside Kang Chol-Hwan, and in a rather sparsely attended press conference (as always, watching the press turns out to be just as interesting than watching the speaker). Sharansky was introduced by Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, and his introduction contained two significant statements: first, that “a dissident movement in North Korea will come in [due] time;” and second, that “people with the moral...

I walked out of the conference with eleven pages of handwritten notes. Clearly, that exceeds the level of your own interest, so I’ll break the postings up over time, as I get the chance to write them. Overall, it ran like the Tokyo train system–on time, efficient, and more than able to accomodate the large crowds it attracted. There were between 300 and 500 people there, depending on the time of day, the peak being when Sharansky and Kang Chol...

Blogging will be light for the rest of the day while I’m at the Freedom House Conference. Meanwhile, LiNK has called a rally in front of the South Korean Embassy. Before you scroll down and read the full statement, check out this flyer, which is a much-improved version of my own prototype. Since I came up with that design, comparing South Korea’s policy to the old Fugitive Slave Act, Jasper Becker’s book has come out with a of a Chinese...

They can’t ignore our message anymore. In addition to the intense interest they’ve paid to today’s Freedom House Conference, they’re on the op-ed pages, too. Won Joon Choe e-mailed me (thanks) to point out this letter, published in yesterday’s New York Times, in response to this piece, again by Jasper Becker: “Dancing With the Dictator,” by Jasper Becker (Op-Ed, June 9), is an unwarranted criticism of South Korea’s policy toward North Korea. Mr. Becker alleges that “the government tries to...

For new readers, Won Joon-Choe and I are debating the future of the U.S.-Korea alliance. I generally favor a dramatic downsizing, but not the elimination, of the USFK. Mr. Choe favors keeping the alliance in it current form. The debate began with Mr. Choe’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. My response to the op-ed is here, and Mr. Choe’s counterpoint today is here (my apologies in advance for moving it off the main page due to its length;...

Our “allies” in Yemen have found a novel way to silence the opposition. The government security guard took over their headquarters. Did the government arrest him? Nope. It recognized him as the head of the party.

Between The American Enterprise Institute and Korea. Background.

James Chen has some thoughts on assisted suicide, a subject whose dreariness has probably deterred me from serious thought about it so far. I’m cringing at the thought of Kristof’s soft-ball treatment of North Korea in his next “exposee” column on how President Bush failed to take advantage of Kim Jong Il’s eagerness to engage.