Q: So whatever happened with the planned demonstration at the Arirang Festival? Just nature: The Kashmir earthquake – and some medical emergency call[s] – but maybe the timing will be even better during the APEC summit. Q: What is your latest word on the food situation in North Korea? Kim Jong-Il is using food as a weapon against his own people – there is enough food in North Korea for the elite – there is no need for hunger in...

I’d like to thank my friend Suzanne Scholte for forwarding the full text of her keynote address at Freedom House’s North Korean Human Rights Conference in Seoul. Keynote Speech for Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea Remarks by Suzanne Scholte . . . December 8, 2005 I am deeply honored to be a part of this Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and thank the Organizing Committee and Freedom House for asking me to be one...

The president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, is calling for a historical reappraisal of one of the last century’s darkest events: Yushchenko was addressing a candlelight ceremony marking the 1932-33 famine induced by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s orders to requisition grain and break the spirit of Ukraine’s “kurkuly” farmers who resisted his drive to collectivise agriculture. The day had been chosen as the official commemoration day for the famine that was never recognised by the Soviet Union. The president told...

20th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE COUNCIL ON U.S.-KOREA SECURITY STUDIES Changing Dynamics on the Korean Peninsula: Implications for the U.S.-ROK Alliance October 7, 2005 The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE Washington, DC Paper: The Trojan Horse: Pyongyang’s Successful Propaganda Campaign to Win the Hearts of South Koreans and Undermine the U.S.-ROK Alliance by Dennis P. Halpin Professional Staff, House International Relations Committee This paper reflects my own views and not necessarily, except where explicitly stated, the views of Chairman...

[Update 7/2006: There are signs of a modest improvement — possibly more of a backlash against the violence of the radical left — although these results hardly indicate a groundswell, nor are the questions worded in such a way as to make the data comparable to what is posted below.] Here is a listing of some of the recent relevant polling data on anti-Americanism in South Korea, with a particular emphasis on the views of younger voters: June 2003–Pew Global...

[Update 7/2006: There are signs of a modest improvement — possibly more of a backlash against the violence of the radical left — although these results hardly indicate a groundswell, nor are the questions worded in such a way as to make the data comparable to what is posted below.] Here is a listing of some of the recent relevant polling data on anti-Americanism in South Korea, with a particular emphasis on the views of younger voters: June 2003–Pew Global...

Here is a listing of some of the recent relevant polling data on anti-Americanism in South Korea, with a particular emphasis on the views of younger voters: June 2003–Pew Global Attitudes Project / Gallup Korea. 719 adults, face-to-face. Margin of error, 3.7%. 58% of South Koreans were disappointed that the Iraqi Army did not fight harder outside Baghdad, more than twice the number (26%) who said they were “happy” with the quick Iraqi collapse. This result was within the “moderate”...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – – On Monday, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA-40) participated in a general meeting of the International Parliamentarians’ Coalition for the North Korea Refugees and Human Rights. The event was held in Tokyo and was attended by parliamentarians from the United States, South Korea, Japan and Mongolia. As a co-chairman of the group, Royce issued the following opening statement at the event: “I would like to thank our Japanese hosts, Representative Shu Watanabe, Representative Yoshihide Suga, Representative Akihisa...

They did not reactivate the reactor until George W Bush unwisely terminated the AF in 2002. The reactor remained intact and fully able to resume reprocessing whenever N. Korea declared itself sufficiently provoked, which it did when North Korea admitted violating the Agreed Framework (which called for North Korea’s complete denuclearization) and Bush refused to simply tolerate it and keep paying up. Meanwhile, N. Korea was perfecting a massive chemical arsenal by testing it on prisoners, lobbing missiles over Japan,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – – On Monday, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA-40) participated in a general meeting of the International Parliamentarians’ Coalition for the North Korea Refugees and Human Rights. The event was held in Tokyo and was attended by parliamentarians from the United States, South Korea, Japan and Mongolia. As a co-chairman of the group, Royce issued the following opening statement at the event: “I would like to thank our Japanese hosts, Representative Shu Watanabe, Representative Yoshihide Suga, Representative Akihisa...

They did not reactivate the reactor until George W Bush unwisely terminated the AF in 2002. The reactor remained intact and fully able to resume reprocessing whenever N. Korea declared itself sufficiently provoked, which it did when North Korea admitted violating the Agreed Framework (which called for North Korea’s complete denuclearization) and Bush refused to simply tolerate it and keep paying up. Meanwhile, N. Korea was perfecting a massive chemical arsenal by testing it on prisoners, lobbing missiles over Japan,...

Dear Joshua, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to write such a provocative response to my op-ed and also apologize for my own rather tardy response. While I had planned to respond earlier, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and they do so with ever greater frequency when you are taking care of a sick mother. Be that as it may, as should be the case whenever thoughtful men engage in a dialogue,...

Dear Joshua, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to write such a provocative response to my op-ed and also apologize for my own rather tardy response. While I had planned to respond earlier, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and they do so with ever greater frequency when you are taking care of a sick mother. Be that as it may, as should be the case whenever thoughtful men engage in a dialogue,...

FREEDOM HOUSE CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON NORTH KOREA HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2005 — North Korea’s horrific human rights crisis will be the focus of a first-ever international conference, to be held July 19, 2005 in Washington, DC, Freedom House announced today. The conference, titled “Freedom for All Koreans,” will feature Kang Chol Hwan, a defector to South Korea and author of “The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag,” and Natan Sharansky, former...

FREEDOM HOUSE CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON NORTH KOREA HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2005 — North Korea’s horrific human rights crisis will be the focus of a first-ever international conference, to be held July 19, 2005 in Washington, DC, Freedom House announced today. The conference, titled “Freedom for All Koreans,” will feature Kang Chol Hwan, a defector to South Korea and author of “The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag,” and Natan Sharansky, former...

Excerpts from The American Enterprise, July/August 2005 To read the articles in full, buy your own here. Just seven bucks. If you found this article interesting, consider that it caused South Korea to pull its funding for AEI (scroll down). I’m renewing my AEI membership as a small token of my disapproval of any foreign government trying to control what I read, especially this one, and also because the magazine is always interesting reading and well worth a hundred bucks...