Yonhap reports that North Korea has shut down its casino along the Chinese border, as I predicted here two days ago. It’s simply amazing how reasonable Kim Jong Il can be when China starts fiddling with the valve on the fuel pipeline.

Cost-sharing negotiations between the U.S. and South Korea continue. Yes, that would be the sharing of the costs of defending South Korea with U.S. troops. Although the Pentagon will withdraw a third of its troops over the next few years, it’s not at all interested in continuing to bear the same burden of the cost for its wealthy host. South Korea is balking, and the negotiations have stalled. What this Korea Herald article does not mention is that although the...

Limited Reassurance: CNN reports that the Pentagon claims a “limited capability” to defend against North Korean missiles with its new interceptors.

Note: Video link fixed! Scroll down for updates. And a big welcome to all the readers from the Command Post and MSNBC! From the North Korean exile newspaper DailyNK, via Kommentariat, comes this remarkable video. The tape, which is the third to emerge from North Korea in two weeks, appears to be the first ever of an anti-government organization in North Korea. Those who made the tape would almost certainly have faced a firing squad had they been caught. Because...

Inauguration Sledding Day: My Election Day foray into politics was enough for me. Driven not so much by an affection for George Bush as my abject terror of a Kerry presidency (pretty well encapsulated in this image), I did it as one might crawl into a sewer to save a trapped child. Much showering followed later, until I used it my poll-watching stint as a way to con my way into one of the best seats in the Ronald Reagan...

Note: Video link fixed! Scroll down for updates. And a big welcome to all the readers from the Command Post and MSNBC! From the North Korean exile newspaper DailyNK, via Kommentariat, comes this remarkable video. The tape, which is the third to emerge from North Korea in two weeks, appears to be the first ever of an anti-government organization in North Korea. Those who made the tape would almost certainly have faced a firing squad had they been caught. Because...

Note: Video link fixed! Scroll down for updates. And a big welcome to all the readers from the Command Post and MSNBC! From the North Korean exile newspaper DailyNK, via Kommentariat, comes this remarkable video. The tape, which is the third to emerge from North Korea in two weeks, appears to be the first ever of an anti-government organization in North Korea. Those who made the tape would almost certainly have faced a firing squad had they been caught. Because...

Inauguration Sledding Day: My Election Day foray into politics was enough for me. Driven not so much by an affection for George Bush as my abject terror of a Kerry presidency (pretty well encapsulated in this image), I did it as one might crawl into a sewer to save a trapped child. Much showering followed later, until I used it my poll-watching stint as a way to con my way into one of the best seats in the Ronald Reagan...

Every man has a price; but mine is higher than this. What better way to mollify a blogger’s widow than a nice little check to cash, right? Yes, I spend plenty of time maintaining this site, and I wouldn’t normally see much of a moral conflict in accepting ads, but I drew slashed a deep line in the sand when I saw what one of the ads was selling–Kim Il Sung collectables! Not here, not ever, no way, and not...

Here’s a little social experiment for you. See if you can guess which of these acts the Korean left would not consider to be the slightest bit exploitive or morally reprehensible: 1. Lawn bowling with Marie Antoinette. 2. Box seats next to Uncle Adolf at the 1936 Olympics. 3. A golf tour of Kim Jong Il’s favorite courses while this is happening outside the city limits. Yep. You guessed it. Next week in OhMyNews–a tour of Dachau’s finest shuffleboard courts,...

Every man has a price; but mine is higher than this. What better way to mollify a blogger’s widow than a nice little check to cash, right? Yes, I spend plenty of time maintaining this site, and I wouldn’t normally see much of a moral conflict in accepting ads, but I drew slashed a deep line in the sand when I saw what one of the ads was selling–Kim Il Sung collectables! Not here, not ever, no way, and not...

Here’s a little social experiment for you. See if you can guess which of these acts the Korean left would not consider to be the slightest bit exploitive or morally reprehensible: 1. Lawn bowling with Marie Antoinette. 2. Box seats next to Uncle Adolf at the 1936 Olympics. 3. A golf tour of Kim Jong Il’s favorite courses while this is happening outside the city limits. Yep. You guessed it. Next week in OhMyNews–a tour of Dachau’s finest shuffleboard courts,...

I’ve posted some observations about United States v. Graner, the first Abu Ghraib case, here.

I’ve posted some observations about United States v. Graner, the first Abu Ghraib case, here.

Condi Rice’s comments on Korea contained no major surprises. We want talks; we have no intention of invading. A nice word in there about the South Korean deployment to a safe location guarded by Kurdish militia Iraq. All things you’d expect a diplomat to say. She was generally prepared, but even when she was, her answers sounded canned and tinny. My overall impression, however, was dissatisfaction that she didn’t really answer some of Babs Boxer’s tough questions on Iraq, but...

Whose Hostile Policy? According to one former North Korean intel agent, the regime kidnapped another 40 people from China between 1999 and 2001– most or all of them defectors–and dragged them back across the Tumen to the Workers’ Paradise. A few were Japanese nationals. UPDATE: The Chosun Ilbo accuses China of turning a blind eye to the North Korean kidnappers’ activities on their soil. As reprehensible as the Chinese are for intentionally repatriating thousands of North Koreans to the gulags...

Condi Rice’s comments on Korea contained no major surprises. We want talks; we have no intention of invading. A nice word in there about the South Korean deployment to a safe location guarded by Kurdish militia Iraq. All things you’d expect a diplomat to say. She was generally prepared, but even when she was, her answers sounded canned and tinny. My overall impression, however, was dissatisfaction that she didn’t really answer some of Babs Boxer’s tough questions on Iraq, but...

Whose Hostile Policy? According to one former North Korean intel agent, the regime kidnapped another 40 people from China between 1999 and 2001– most or all of them defectors–and dragged them back across the Tumen to the Workers’ Paradise. A few were Japanese nationals. UPDATE: The Chosun Ilbo accuses China of turning a blind eye to the North Korean kidnappers’ activities on their soil. As reprehensible as the Chinese are for intentionally repatriating thousands of North Koreans to the gulags...