Did Kim Jong Il Have a U.S. Visa? In my native South Dakota, it’s not uncommon to pick up a few choice Lakota words, particularly since my dad grew up next to a reservation and speaks the language fairly well. Lakota can be a very expressive language, and one of my favorite words is kaeyapi, a mass noun that translates roughly to a jumble of unsubstantiated rumor. I’m not sure how unsubstantiated this is, but it sounds very suspect, so...

Remember the Korean Multipurpose Helicopter project? This was supposed to Korea’s great leap toward weaning itself from dependence on U.S. arms–a rather dubious proposal given that (1) it would inevitably have used 80% U.S. components; (2) development costs would still have been astronomical while the defense budget shrinks and comes under the strain of USFK reductions; and (3) many have tried to combine a large, fat bulky cargo chopper with a small, fast, nimble attack helicopter, and for obvious reasons...

Zhao Ziyang, a man who might have really reformed China, has died. The septuagenarians who run the country clearly fear that any gatherings for a funeral or memorials could turn into demonstrations, so they have gotten around to convening an emergency meeting. What’s telling about this is that Zhao was clearly on his deathbed for the last several days. So is the leadership incompetent, hopelessly ossified, gridlocked, too afraid of bringing up unpleasantries to face them, or a combination of...

Zhao Ziyang, a man who might have really reformed China, has died. The septuagenarians who run the country clearly fear that any gatherings for a funeral or memorials could turn into demonstrations, so they have gotten around to convening an emergency meeting. What’s telling about this is that Zhao was clearly on his deathbed for the last several days. So is the leadership incompetent, hopelessly ossified, gridlocked, too afraid of bringing up unpleasantries to face them, or a combination of...

Oops. Lost my Internet connection all day yesterday. Hope to have some updates soon. Spent much of the morning on the phone with HP technicians in Bombay Mumbai, India. They never like telling you where they are, for some reason, even if it’s painfully obvious that it’s somewhere between Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Given that Comcast completely failed to deliver (as usual), it was nice to get some effective help finally, even if it took two tries. What does one...

Oops. Lost my Internet connection all day yesterday. Hope to have some updates soon. Spent much of the morning on the phone with HP technicians in Bombay Mumbai, India. They never like telling you where they are, for some reason, even if it’s painfully obvious that it’s somewhere between Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Given that Comcast completely failed to deliver (as usual), it was nice to get some effective help finally, even if it took two tries. What does one...

North Korea’s information blockade continues to leak a steady stream of pixels. This week, a video of prison life in North Korea has emerged. It shows male and female prisoners forced to carry large, heavy logs and sing songs praising Kim Il Sung. Click here to see a menu; the link to the new video is called “MBC-MoosanPrisonCamp;” another file, entitled “North Korea,” shows the previously released video of the street children and the roadside prostitution trial. The usual caution...

North Korea’s information blockade continues to leak a steady stream of pixels. This week, a video of prison life in North Korea has emerged. It shows male and female prisoners forced to carry large, heavy logs and sing songs praising Kim Il Sung. Click here to see a menu; the link to the new video is called “MBC-MoosanPrisonCamp;” another file, entitled “North Korea,” shows the previously released video of the street children and the roadside prostitution trial. The usual caution...

Sanctions Update: This is absolutely the wrong approach for Japan to take if it ever wants to see its citizens alive again. Remains, you say? Why, I’m sure we can arrange that . . . .

If you’re following the diplomatic maneuverings leading up to the next (and possibly, last) round of six-party talks, here’s the latest. Regular readers know that I find the talks useful only to the extent that everyone sees that we’ve shown up and been reasonable, and because it usefully disguises the fact that we probably reached an impasse over the insurmountable issues of inspection and verification many months ago. Of course, even keeping up appearances is of little use when China...

Would thisMaybe I should just stop there, and that goes for you, too. Umm, this is a hoax, right? But you absolutely must see this to believe it’s actually a story on BBC.com. UPDATE: I heard on television (can’t find a link, sorry) that this idea never went further than the back of a bar napkin and somehow got just as far as a cursory description in a Pentagon report. Based on early descriptions of this, the BBC reported that...

Korea’s “Private diplomats?” Hypersensitive cyber-punks would be more like it. Since we’ve already discussed the pitfalls of private diplomacy this week, might I instead suggest these people grow up and find some more productive way to enhance their nation’s image?

Well, in retrospect, it may have been a mistake for China to piss these guys off. The folks at Reporters Without Borders are journalists who advocate for other journalists, which means that if you mess with them, they’re going to smear you with a lot of very black ink. That’s exactly what’s happening: Washington Post L.A. Times Washington Times New York Times I especially recommend the WaPo story. The lesson? If you really want to give someone a royal P.R....

Here’s the latest message from Norbert with the Korean Medical Association volunteers in Aceh, Indonesia. Scroll down for previous entries and information about Dr. Vollertsen’s sometimes controversial (and in my view, effective) activism for human rights in North Korea. You can see more on the Korean team’s activities here and here. The second KEMAT left Jakarta on a Garuda Indonesia flight at 7:30 this morning and arrived at Banda Aceh airport at 11 AM. It looks like the air-transportation bottleneck...

Sanctions Update: This is absolutely the wrong approach for Japan to take if it ever wants to see its citizens alive again. Remains, you say? Why, I’m sure we can arrange that . . . .

If you’re following the diplomatic maneuverings leading up to the next (and possibly, last) round of six-party talks, here’s the latest. Regular readers know that I find the talks useful only to the extent that everyone sees that we’ve shown up and been reasonable, and because it usefully disguises the fact that we probably reached an impasse over the insurmountable issues of inspection and verification many months ago. Of course, even keeping up appearances is of little use when China...

Would thisMaybe I should just stop there, and that goes for you, too. Umm, this is a hoax, right? But you absolutely must see this to believe it’s actually a story on BBC.com. UPDATE: I heard on television (can’t find a link, sorry) that this idea never went further than the back of a bar napkin and somehow got just as far as a cursory description in a Pentagon report. Based on early descriptions of this, the BBC reported that...

Would thisMaybe I should just stop there, and that goes for you, too. Umm, this is a hoax, right? But you absolutely must see this to believe it’s actually a story on BBC.com. UPDATE: I heard on television (can’t find a link, sorry) that this idea never went further than the back of a bar napkin and somehow got just as far as a cursory description in a Pentagon report. Based on early descriptions of this, the BBC reported that...