Assistant Secretary of State Christopher “The Bad Cop” Hill appears to be moving away from a constraint on our previous diplomacy with North Korea–the idea that the nuclear question should be discussed in strict isolation from the more fundamental problem of North Korea’s closed society. And while the North Korean Human Rights Act threw human rights into the mix by force of law, the State Department hasn’t exactly shown enthusiasm for that. This, then, is a hopeful sign: WASHINGTON –...

Not All Global Connectivity Advances Peace–Exhibit A: The police, under direct orders from Didymus Mutasa, the head of the secret police (Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organization), have brutally removed any competition to Chinese traders whose shops have sprung up around the capital over the past few years. Mutasa said law and order had to be preserved and Harare’s Police Chief, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, said 9,653 people were arrested in the five-day blitz on street vendors, flea market stalls, and other informal...

On the Virtues of Being Feared, Rather than Loved. The latter is nice, but if the cost is prohibitive, the former will do just fine: Syria has arrested more than 1,200 people trying to cross the border into Iraq in recent weeks and sent many back to their home countries because of suspicions they were trying to join the insurgency, Syria’s U.N. ambassador said. . . . . Mekdad said Syria suspected that those arrested — mostly foreigners — intended...

Scroll down for updates. Most of it is true and needed to be said–at least privately–but exactly whose idea was it for a Japanese politician to take the lead in criticizing South Korea’s new shift from U.S. ally to “regional balancer?” And in public, no less? Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi reportedly had harsh words for Korea during a recent visit of Korean lawmakers. He said Seoul had been neglecting its alliance with Washington although unity between South Korea,...

The New York Times reports: Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday chose António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, to become high commissioner for refugees, replacing Ruud Lubbers, who quit in February after being accused of sexual harassment. . . . Mr. Guterres beat out a field of seven other candidates. Among them were Bernard Kouchner, a former French minister of health and a founder of Doctors Without Borders; Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister; and Soren Jessen-Petersen of...

Uzbekistan. Where does a ruthless tyrant go for support after shooting hundreds of protestors dead in the streets? Where do you think?

Scroll down for updates. Most of it is true and needed to be said–at least privately–but exactly whose idea was it for a Japanese politician to take the lead in criticizing South Korea’s new shift from U.S. ally to “regional balancer?” And in public, no less? Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi reportedly had harsh words for Korea during a recent visit of Korean lawmakers. He said Seoul had been neglecting its alliance with Washington although unity between South Korea,...

The New York Times reports: Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday chose António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, to become high commissioner for refugees, replacing Ruud Lubbers, who quit in February after being accused of sexual harassment. . . . Mr. Guterres beat out a field of seven other candidates. Among them were Bernard Kouchner, a former French minister of health and a founder of Doctors Without Borders; Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister; and Soren Jessen-Petersen of...

Uzbekistan. Where does a ruthless tyrant go for support after shooting hundreds of protestors dead in the streets? Where do you think?

I’m deeply ambivalent about cutting food aid to starve out North Korea or force it back to the talks because I don’t believe in starving innocent people for political reasons, and because I want the North Korean people to be empowered to challenge their government–something starving people never are. Both Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland have made this point, but there aren’t any political philosophers I consider more insightful than Eric Hoffer, who said: The poor on the borderline of...

Roh Will Visit the White House on June 1oth to discuss North Korea. Details.

I’m deeply ambivalent about cutting food aid to starve out North Korea or force it back to the talks because I don’t believe in starving innocent people for political reasons, and because I want the North Korean people to be empowered to challenge their government–something starving people never are. Both Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland have made this point, but there aren’t any political philosophers I consider more insightful than Eric Hoffer, who said: The poor on the borderline of...

I’m deeply ambivalent about cutting food aid to starve out North Korea or force it back to the talks because I don’t believe in starving innocent people for political reasons, and because I want the North Korean people to be empowered to challenge their government–something starving people never are. Both Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland have made this point, but there aren’t any political philosophers I consider more insightful than Eric Hoffer, who said: The poor on the borderline of...

The L.A. Times’s Barbara Demick, who was fiercely criticized for some of her past coverage of North Korea, has a new piece out about the North Korean dissent video that emerged in January. She even located an interviewed the person who made the tape. Links, partial translation, and some more interesting info here, at my original post. Translation of a longer excerpt here. For new viewers who are interested in some of the videos that have emerged from North Korea...

Hangchonryon, the violent anti-American and pro-North Korean group whose rhetoric and actions caused a spate of violent assaults on American soldiers, has just received permission to book a group tour to North Korea, along with a few hundred, umm, fellow travelers. And of course, I mean that term in the strictly literal sense. Presumably, the visit will include filing past North Korea’s largest stockpile of preserved meat, formerly known as “Kim Il Sung.” Don’t laugh. Some slightly more substantial food...

Roh Will Visit the White House on June 1oth to discuss North Korea. Details.

The L.A. Times’s Barbara Demick, who was fiercely criticized for some of her past coverage of North Korea, has a new piece out about the North Korean dissent video that emerged in January. She even located an interviewed the person who made the tape. Links, partial translation, and some more interesting info here, at my original post. Translation of a longer excerpt here. For new viewers who are interested in some of the videos that have emerged from North Korea...

Hangchonryon, the violent anti-American and pro-North Korean group whose rhetoric and actions caused a spate of violent assaults on American soldiers, has just received permission to book a group tour to North Korea, along with a few hundred, umm, fellow travelers. And of course, I mean that term in the strictly literal sense. Presumably, the visit will include filing past North Korea’s largest stockpile of preserved meat, formerly known as “Kim Il Sung.” Don’t laugh. Some slightly more substantial food...