Vaclav Havel has been one of my two favorite Europeans of my lifetime (along with Margaret Thatcher) since I was a high school kid in who foresaw that the discontent of the oppressed would bring down the Iron Curtain. In 1990, with the few dollars I had earned working in a mine in South Africa (another land that was then enjoying its liberation) I went to Prague to see the aftermath of the revolution. The country had been free for...

The Palestinians, who reacted to 9/11 by dancing in the streets, tore up multiple proposals that would have brought them peace, a viable state, and half of Jerusalem. In their nihilistic and self-destructive fury (about which I blogged here a few days ago) they chose bus-bombings and the cold-blooded machine-gunning of civilians. Where did it get them? According to a column by Charles Krauthammer today, their terror campaign has been suffocated by the Israelis’ targeted killing of the terrorist leaders...

The Palestinians, who reacted to 9/11 by dancing in the streets, tore up multiple proposals that would have brought them peace, a viable state, and half of Jerusalem. In their nihilistic and self-destructive fury (about which I blogged here a few days ago) they chose bus-bombings and the cold-blooded machine-gunning of civilians. Where did it get them? According to a column by Charles Krauthammer today, their terror campaign has been suffocated by the Israelis’ targeted killing of the terrorist leaders...

It’s fair to notice that China is taking a modest beating in the Korean press today, a day after it announced the return of seven North Korean refugees to the loving arms of the rehabilitative labor directorate. Here’s the Chosun Ilbo version, and here’s the Korea Herald version. Both suggest that the seven who were repatriated were among the hunger strikers at the Tumen Camp, which brings us back to China’s statement on the subject yesterday: We learned that North...

Look what’s cookin’ in North Korea. You know you’re living in the land of suspended reality when they tell you that pine needles are yummy. Not that the Dear Leader himself would ever eat that stuff. Hat tip: James Taranto. Somehow, I don’t expect to see pine needles as the featured ingredient on Iron Chef any time soon.

It’s emotionally tempting and probably in America’s long-term political interests to pronounce the alliance over and draw up plans to withdraw everyone. For military and economic reasons, however, that’s probably unlikely, and I suspect that the current round of troop reductions (I’ll go out on a limb and predict another one this fall) is likely to remind everyone that a vastly reduced U.S. presence in Korea serves the interests of both countries as long as China continues its military buildup....

Norbert Vollertsen recently e-mailed from Rumor Control in Seoul and added a few splashes of 98 octane to the grill. Here are some unedited excerpts: – increasing talkings from North Korean intelligence officials about an surprise US preemptive attack… Yeah, as well as that come-from-behind win for Kucinich at the Democratic convention, swiftly followed by his surpise marriage to Angelina Jolie. Judgment: Not bloody likely. – There are some rumours among South Korean NIS-officilas here that even a surprise little...

Yesterday’s headlines about the 9/11 Commission hit the whole spectrum of awful journalism, but better reporting is starting to set the record straight. This AP report corrects the record about both President Bush’s pre-war claims and the Commission’s conclusions, and gives one the sense that the commissioners are backpedaling. Today, Kean and Hamilton are both saying that they don’t disagree with the administration’s view (there were contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda) which makes sense, given that the Commission concluded that...

It’s fair to notice that China is taking a modest beating in the Korean press today, a day after it announced the return of seven North Korean refugees to the loving arms of the rehabilitative labor directorate. Here’s the Chosun Ilbo version, and here’s the Korea Herald version. Both suggest that the seven who were repatriated were among the hunger strikers at the Tumen Camp, which brings us back to China’s statement on the subject yesterday: We learned that North...

Look what’s cookin’ in North Korea. You know you’re living in the land of suspended reality when they tell you that pine needles are yummy. Not that the Dear Leader himself would ever eat that stuff. Hat tip: James Taranto. Somehow, I don’t expect to see pine needles as the featured ingredient on Iron Chef any time soon.

It’s emotionally tempting and probably in America’s long-term political interests to pronounce the alliance over and draw up plans to withdraw everyone. For military and economic reasons, however, that’s probably unlikely, and I suspect that the current round of troop reductions (I’ll go out on a limb and predict another one this fall) is likely to remind everyone that a vastly reduced U.S. presence in Korea serves the interests of both countries as long as China continues its military buildup....

Norbert Vollertsen recently e-mailed from Rumor Control in Seoul and added a few splashes of 98 octane to the grill. Here are some unedited excerpts: – increasing talkings from North Korean intelligence officials about an surprise US preemptive attack… Yeah, as well as that come-from-behind win for Kucinich at the Democratic convention, swiftly followed by his surpise marriage to Angelina Jolie. Judgment: Not bloody likely. – There are some rumours among South Korean NIS-officilas here that even a surprise little...

Yesterday’s headlines about the 9/11 Commission hit the whole spectrum of awful journalism, but better reporting is starting to set the record straight. This AP report corrects the record about both President Bush’s pre-war claims and the Commission’s conclusions, and gives one the sense that the commissioners are backpedaling. Today, Kean and Hamilton are both saying that they don’t disagree with the administration’s view (there were contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda) which makes sense, given that the Commission concluded that...

All the news that’s unverified or fit for speculation is right here. Of course, in a land where people who report real news end up in unmarked graves, the circulation of rumors is news. So here’s the latest from NK Gulag: We have recently received information that Kim Jong Il was not on his private train which passed Dandung in China last April 22. According to an officer of the Guard Headquarter under the National Defense in connection with NKGulag,...

Today, China sent seven North Korean refugees back to the death camps below the Yalu–er, make that, to the loving arms of their families–in its latest violation of the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees. China, of course, holds a Wonka golden ticket to the U.N. Security Council, giving it the power to confer international legitimacy and define righteousness itself. What exhausts you the most about this story is the sheer lying fecklessness of the diplomats who are supposed to have...

It doesn’t get much more official than this. First, the Korean verion; then, the U.S. version. Alliances are based on common values and interests. It’s pretty obvious that the U.S. and South Korea can’t even agree on the facts. The Korea Herald must have worked pretty hard to find an American toady to support its “the U.S. needs Korea” delusion; I can’t find anyone of like mind in this entire town. The greatest gulf in U.S. and Korean realities seems...

Meanwhile, and still off the subject, the NYT has stuck its fork into Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of last week’s Tet Offensive. Now he’s still not on trial, and his followers are dispersing, but the general uprising that the NYT and others were ready to declare in April has gone out with a whimper. Fallujah still looks pretty dangerous, and Sistanti still has us by the ‘nads. It’s questionable whether either the U.S. public or the Iraq government will have the...

All the news that’s unverified or fit for speculation is right here. Of course, in a land where people who report real news end up in unmarked graves, the circulation of rumors is news. So here’s the latest from NK Gulag: We have recently received information that Kim Jong Il was not on his private train which passed Dandung in China last April 22. According to an officer of the Guard Headquarter under the National Defense in connection with NKGulag,...