Alienated Allies Update: Canada is doubling the number of its troops in Afghanistan to 1,100. That’s a more significant contribution that it may seem, since Canada’s small army is nearly maxed out on deployments. Is Canada our ally again yet? Those in other nations who opposed Bush’s reelection are learning to live with it. I’m not so sure about Bush’s opponents in this country.

Ayatollah Sistani’s favored party did not get a majority, which is good news. It means everyone will need to sit down and hammer out a compromise, and that everyone of electoral significance will (at least initially) bind itself to living with it. Prime Minister Allawi’s Iraqi list is in talks with President Ghazi Al-Yawar’s moderate Sunnis and with the Communist Party, trying to form a large enough bloc of secular votes in the Parliament to check the power of clerical...

China is not happy with North Korea. Semi-official views are coming from Chinese scholars, and now there are some official statements from the Chinese government. Don’t be particularly encouraged by any of this. What China (and Russia) want is the status quo ante, with North Korea keeping up its churlish behavior and tying down part of the U.S. military in Northeast Asia. Neither Russia nor China wants to face the threat of a unified, democratic, and economically resurgent Korea that...

Heard him on Fox News Sunday a few minute ago. Major points he made: There is no military option; North Korea could destroy half of Seoul with “conventional” weapons (I agree that invasion is not an option, and that strikes might not be worth the risk that they’d trigger war. I continue to believe that a naval blockade is an option, although it’s probably not our first choice. The best military option is to arm the people of North Korea...

Dr. Vollertsen wrote in today to announce that the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights will hold a conference called “North Korean Human Rights and North Korean Refugees: The Key to Get[ting] Rid of North Korean Nukes” at the St. Ignatius House at Sogang University in Seoul from February 14th to 16th. The event appears to be affiliated with the Sixth International Conference on North Korea Human Rights, about which I blogged here the other day. Vaclav Havel, one...

Dr. Vollertsen wrote in today to announce that the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights will hold a conference called “North Korean Human Rights and North Korean Refugees: The Key to Get[ting] Rid of North Korean Nukes” at the St. Ignatius House at Sogang University in Seoul from February 14th to 16th. The event appears to be affiliated with the Sixth International Conference on North Korea Human Rights, about which I blogged here the other day. Vaclav Havel, one...

Today, a new report tells us how North Korea deals with those China sends back across the border: North Korea has executed about 70 refugees who were captured in China and sent home, a South Korean group that helps North Korean refugees said yesterday, citing informants in China. The Commission to Help North Korean Refugees, a private group in Seoul, said about eight or nine of the 70 executed last month were put to death in public to discourage others...

Do you suppose I’m the only commentator struggling with the loss of the words “fallout” and “bombshell” to describe North Korea’s nuclear declaration? Times like these certainly have a way of separating those who can live without their toolbox of cliches and those who cannot. * * * * * The Korean Left Calls for Its Smelling Salts I confess that I love running around tossing frags into the chat rooms at OhMyNews, whose journalistic incompetence, easily-exposed errors and biases,...

Today, a new report tells us how North Korea deals with those China sends back across the border: North Korea has executed about 70 refugees who were captured in China and sent home, a South Korean group that helps North Korean refugees said yesterday, citing informants in China. The Commission to Help North Korean Refugees, a private group in Seoul, said about eight or nine of the 70 executed last month were put to death in public to discourage others...

I have one final comment on today’s Washington Post story about North Korea, regarding a quotation from a Chinese academic. Bear in mind that in China, academics are often the voice of government policy and its internal debates. China’s rulers don’t discuss such matters through leaks to the media. In China, the media are smothered, the masses are powerless, and party leaders tend to be survivors of years of purges which have rendered their Darwinian selects into paranoid septuagenarian troglodytes...

Do you suppose I’m the only commentator struggling with the loss of the words “fallout” and “bombshell” to describe North Korea’s nuclear declaration? Times like these certainly have a way of separating those who can live without their toolbox of cliches and those who cannot. * * * * * The Korean Left Calls for Its Smelling Salts I confess that I love running around tossing frags into the chat rooms at OhMyNews, whose journalistic incompetence, easily-exposed errors and biases,...

I have one final comment on today’s Washington Post story about North Korea, regarding a quotation from a Chinese academic. Bear in mind that in China, academics are often the voice of government policy and its internal debates. China’s rulers don’t discuss such matters through leaks to the media. In China, the media are smothered, the masses are powerless, and party leaders tend to be survivors of years of purges which have rendered their Darwinian selects into paranoid septuagenarian troglodytes...

For the past several years, these conferences has been held in other places, mainly Europe, which says much about the woeful Korean apathy about these issues. Here’s Claudia Rosett’s of last year’s conference, which took place near enough to Auschwitz to evoke an emotionally powerful comparison, something that should be required reading for all South Koreans who, in years hence, will try to say that they, too, did not know. This year’s conference is next Monday to Wednesday. Full details,...

GNP Finding Its Voice? A hopeful sign here. It’s at least possible for the GNP to agree on pushing human rights issues with the North Koreans and Chinese.

For the past several years, these conferences has been held in other places, mainly Europe, which says much about the woeful Korean apathy about these issues. Here’s Claudia Rosett’s of last year’s conference, which took place near enough to Auschwitz to evoke an emotionally powerful comparison, something that should be required reading for all South Koreans who, in years hence, will try to say that they, too, did not know. This year’s conference is next Monday to Wednesday. Full details,...

GNP Finding Its Voice? A hopeful sign here. It’s at least possible for the GNP to agree on pushing human rights issues with the North Koreans and Chinese.

On behalf of hard-liners everywhere, I would like to thank Kim Jong Il for making this day possible, for this is the day George W. Bush will make the decisions that will send Kim Jong Il off to the ash heap of history. Today, we get this double-whammy from Porky, starting in order of greatest significance: North Korea on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear arms . . . saying it needs the weapons as protection...

That’s the claim about the letter I print below, via Suzanne Scholte (scroll down) of the Defense Forum Foundation. It requires no explanation, only the obvious caveats that (1) there’s simply no way to verify the source, (2) that this could very easily be something other than what it purports to be, and (3) the contents of the letter clearly serve the interests of those (like myself) who seek to destroy the North Korean one-party regime through increased economic pressure...