In the spirit of South Korea’s spirited netizens, I decided to spend a few minutes tossing grenades over at OhMyNews tonight. One woman, embittered by the election result, wants to boycott products from red states. Helpfully, I suggested food. Another suggests that those who voted differently than he did were closed-minded, a unifying and winning message for the red states if I ever saw one. I commented on Kim Dae-Jung’s concern for the gap between rich and poor everywhere except...

That is, the South Korean ones. Almost everyone seems to have forgotten them.

The South Korean government issues an arrest warrant for a policeman who posted anti-Roh messages on the Web. Then they fire him. Would the Korean right do this if it were in power? Given the authoritarian instincts they showed during the Roh impeachment fiasco, I’d say “yes,” but for the most part, they aren’t in power, and after all, Uri is the party that claims to be different from the others because it’s open and free. Now, I can understand...

ITAR-TASS has this interesting report from an ambassador from the inside of the North Korean embassy in Moscow: “A light rectangular spot and a nail in the wall were the only things that remained in the place where Kim Jong Il’s portrait had hung,” the agency cited the diplomat as saying. Other diplomats said nothing had changed, and ITAR-TASS isn’t what I’d call the most reliable source. Still, the significance of those pictures in North Korean officialdom can’t be understated....

ITAR-TASS has this interesting report from an ambassador from the inside of the North Korean embassy in Moscow: “A light rectangular spot and a nail in the wall were the only things that remained in the place where Kim Jong Il’s portrait had hung,” the agency cited the diplomat as saying. Other diplomats said nothing had changed, and ITAR-TASS isn’t what I’d call the most reliable source. Still, the significance of those pictures in North Korean officialdom can’t be understated....

ITAR-TASS has this interesting report from an ambassador from the inside of the North Korean embassy in Moscow: “A light rectangular spot and a nail in the wall were the only things that remained in the place where Kim Jong Il’s portrait had hung,” the agency cited the diplomat as saying. Other diplomats said nothing had changed, and ITAR-TASS isn’t what I’d call the most reliable source. Still, the significance of those pictures in North Korean officialdom can’t be understated....

According to this article in the Chosun Ilbo, as originally outed by one Mr. Yoo, an official with the National Assembly. I’ll let him describe it: If you exclude the fact that Park’s writing doesn’t explicitly mention the ‘theory of the Leader,’ other than that, it’s almost precisely identical to North Korea’s Juche ideology and strategy of encouraging revolution in the South.” Specifically, he pointed out that pages 69-71 of the union’s educational material was an unadulterated version of the...

Midwest LiNK Symposium Saturday, November 13, 2004 Amerding Lecture Hall, Wheaton College, Chicago Session I – North Korea Awareness Session, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 3:00 – Session I begins 3:20 – Jack Rendler – Chair of US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea – Presentation on North Korean society 4:30 – Helie Lee ““ author of In The Absence of Sun, Board Member of US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 5:30 – one...

Midwest LiNK Symposium Saturday, November 13, 2004 Amerding Lecture Hall, Wheaton College, Chicago Session I – North Korea Awareness Session, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 3:00 – Session I begins 3:20 – Jack Rendler – Chair of US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea – Presentation on North Korean society 4:30 – Helie Lee ““ author of In The Absence of Sun, Board Member of US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 5:30 – one...

Just got this press release from LiNK; more info on other activites to follow soon. On Friday, November 12th at 2:00 pm EST leading human rights groups for North Korea will rally in New York City and Los Angeles in front of the permanent Chinese mission to the UN and the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, at the second rally in two weeks organized by Liberation in North Korea (LiNK). They will be protesting China’s arrest and repatriation of 70...

Just got this press release from LiNK; more info on other activites to follow soon. On Friday, November 12th at 2:00 pm EST leading human rights groups for North Korea will rally in New York City and Los Angeles in front of the permanent Chinese mission to the UN and the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, at the second rally in two weeks organized by Liberation in North Korea (LiNK). They will be protesting China’s arrest and repatriation of 70...

The Marmot has a fascinating piece up about interviews with Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland, two authors whose words probably tell us a great deal about what the Bush Administration plans for its next term. The emerging headline is that they will give the six-party talks one more chance. What’s not clearly stated is what will follow.

The Marmot has a fascinating piece up about interviews with Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland, two authors whose words probably tell us a great deal about what the Bush Administration plans for its next term. The emerging headline is that they will give the six-party talks one more chance. What’s not clearly stated is what will follow.

The Marmot has a fascinating piece up about interviews with Nicholas Eberstadt and Marcus Noland, two authors whose words probably tell us a great deal about what the Bush Administration plans for its next term. The emerging headline is that they will give the six-party talks one more chance. What’s not clearly stated is what will follow.

Just one week after the reelection of President Bush, Japan is moving toward a much harder line that threatens to isolate North Korea economically and South Korea diplomatically. Today’s Yomiuri Shimbun directly quotes Japan’s Foreign Minister threatening to impose sanctions against North Korea: In a meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Saturday in Seoul, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura suggested he was considering measures to put pressure on North Korea, including economic sanctions, if there was no progress...

The bad press, for what it’s worth, is really rolling down on China for repatriating 62 refugees to North Korea. The BBC prominently covered the story, including this quote: ‘China knows that they will be executed or they will be put in political prisoner camps for the crime of leaving the country,’ said Suzanne Scholte, president of the human rights group the Defense Forum Foundation, on Tuesday. Suzanne was apparently interviewed in Seoul, where she’s currently attending the North Korean...

James Brooke has written the first worthwhile analysis of the NKHRA in a major U.S. newspaper. The context is interesting, too–the first North Korean has entered the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok. The North Koreans rented out to Russia had been a nice little source of income for Kim Jong Il, even serving as a useful cover for North Korean heroin dealing. Today, those workers even dare to tell foreign reporters how much they despise their own government. Now that regime...

Just one week after the reelection of President Bush, Japan is moving toward a much harder line that threatens to isolate North Korea economically and South Korea diplomatically. Today’s Yomiuri Shimbun directly quotes Japan’s Foreign Minister threatening to impose sanctions against North Korea: In a meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Saturday in Seoul, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura suggested he was considering measures to put pressure on North Korea, including economic sanctions, if there was no progress...