Sure, it’s fun to watch Uri split itself into feuding factions, but is this really anything out of the ordinary for Korean politics? Following across-the-board losses in last Saturday’s by-elections, a squabble has broken out among members of the governing Uri Party over who should take responsibility for the defeat. Party members posted hundreds of messages on the party’s Web site yesterday, saying the party’s chairman, Moon Hee-sang, and lawmaker Yum Dong-yun, who holds a leadership role, should resign over...

Chung Dong-Young, call your office: A Japanese professor, after a meeting with a senior North Korean official last week, quoted the official as saying that a nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang was unavoidable. Yasuhiko Yoshida, a professor at the Osaka University of Economics and Law, told the JoongAng Ilbo that Pak Hyon-jae, deputy head of the North’s Institute for Disarmament and Peace, told a Japanese delegation on a visit to Pyongyang that “a plutonium-based nuclear test is unavoidable” and that...

Foreigners Voting in Korea? It won’t cost you your U.S. citizenship, in case you wondered, but I’m struggling with whether this is a good idea. Yes, Korea could stand to show more respect for the basic human dignity of non-Koreans, but in some ways, so could this country and many others. That doesn’t mean that giving people the vote is the only way to ensure that. Nor would the voting right apply to national elections, as it indeed shouldn’t. Korean...

Sure, it’s fun to watch Uri split itself into feuding factions, but is this really anything out of the ordinary for Korean politics? Following across-the-board losses in last Saturday’s by-elections, a squabble has broken out among members of the governing Uri Party over who should take responsibility for the defeat. Party members posted hundreds of messages on the party’s Web site yesterday, saying the party’s chairman, Moon Hee-sang, and lawmaker Yum Dong-yun, who holds a leadership role, should resign over...

Chung Dong-Young, call your office: A Japanese professor, after a meeting with a senior North Korean official last week, quoted the official as saying that a nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang was unavoidable. Yasuhiko Yoshida, a professor at the Osaka University of Economics and Law, told the JoongAng Ilbo that Pak Hyon-jae, deputy head of the North’s Institute for Disarmament and Peace, told a Japanese delegation on a visit to Pyongyang that “a plutonium-based nuclear test is unavoidable” and that...

Foreigners Voting in Korea? It won’t cost you your U.S. citizenship, in case you wondered, but I’m struggling with whether this is a good idea. Yes, Korea could stand to show more respect for the basic human dignity of non-Koreans, but in some ways, so could this country and many others. That doesn’t mean that giving people the vote is the only way to ensure that. Nor would the voting right apply to national elections, as it indeed shouldn’t. Korean...

Spot the Evil Cult: Radio Free Asia reports that China is back in the business of arresting priests.

I don’t have much to offer on the various theories about whether the North Koreans are really about to test a nuke, for two excellent reasons. The first of these is that the mother of my two children (also my wife, in case you were going to ask) had the temerity to expect me to pry myself away from the computer over Mother’s Day weekend. We ended up spending most of the weekend eating out, taking long drives in the...

Spot the Evil Cult: Radio Free Asia reports that China is back in the business of arresting priests.

I don’t have much to offer on the various theories about whether the North Koreans are really about to test a nuke, for two excellent reasons. The first of these is that the mother of my two children (also my wife, in case you were going to ask) had the temerity to expect me to pry myself away from the computer over Mother’s Day weekend. We ended up spending most of the weekend eating out, taking long drives in the...

I had to reach out to reader Brendan Brown, who teaches English to dozens of young North Korean refugees, on what they think of Hwang Jang-Yop’s Exile Committee for North Korean Democracy. It’s a small sample of a small sample to be sure, but the initial result is an overwhelming vote of no confidence: We had a discussion in my class about Hwang late last year and the class feeling was unanimous that he was tainted by his previous position...

I had to reach out to reader Brendan Brown, who teaches English to dozens of young North Korean refugees, on what they think of Hwang Jang-Yop’s Exile Committee for North Korean Democracy. It’s a small sample of a small sample to be sure, but the initial result is an overwhelming vote of no confidence: We had a discussion in my class about Hwang late last year and the class feeling was unanimous that he was tainted by his previous position...

As you may recall, the North Korean Human Rights Act (specifically, section 107) created a new position of Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea. As of last week, none of my impeccable sources knew who this person would be–one heard the rumor yesterday–so this does appear to be a very new development. And he appears to be an excellent choice, judging by the panic in the South Korean press: Officials connected with the North Korean human rights movement...

Before and After: A nice photo montage. I especially like the last one.

As you may recall, the North Korean Human Rights Act (specifically, section 107) created a new position of Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea. As of last week, none of my impeccable sources knew who this person would be–one heard the rumor yesterday–so this does appear to be a very new development. And he appears to be an excellent choice, judging by the panic in the South Korean press: Officials connected with the North Korean human rights movement...

Before and After: A nice photo montage. I especially like the last one.

Not Good: North Korea’s most recent missile launch turns out to have been a real missile–a Soviet SS-21 of relatively recent 1974-vintage. I paid the story little attention initially, thinking that it was another Silkworm or Sunburn anti-ship missile. Since large numbers of short-range missiles of this type could target cities and military bases in the South, and because their low trajectory makes them harder to intercept, it’s a more significant provocation. Update: More here.

Joseph DiTrani has warned North Korea that “the international community has ‘a very strong position’ on the possible export of nuclear materials by Pyongyang.” Everyone from the South Korean Foreign Ministry to Congress and the White House are showing signs that their patience with North Korea’s b.s. has expired at last. So exactly what has this guy been smoking? Earlier this month, Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, told reporters in Beijing...