Monthly Archive: May, 2004

It’s come to this–Kang Chol-Hwan tells us that North Korea is building a border fence and tiger traps to kill and maim refugees. If there were a futures market on North Korea, I’d be indicted for insider trading. As you heard me speculate here, the NK secret police suspect an assassination attempt by “rebellious forces” was behind the Ryongchon explosion; they’re in full purge mode and are confiscating every cell phone they can find. The Korea Herald may be onto...

It’s come to this–Kang Chol-Hwan tells us that North Korea is building a border fence and tiger traps to kill and maim refugees. If there were a futures market on North Korea, I’d be indicted for insider trading. As you heard me speculate here, the NK secret police suspect an assassination attempt by “rebellious forces” was behind the Ryongchon explosion; they’re in full purge mode and are confiscating every cell phone they can find. The Korea Herald may be onto...

We haven’t heard from that chorus much since the war in Iraq started, but Rebecca at NKZone posts a warmed-over blog post to that effect. I posted a partial response in the comments. Here is my response in full: I would first offer my congratulations to the Lightweight for managing to contradict himself in his very first paragraph. So is North Korea really “a meaningful military threat to its neighbors, who are our allies/trading partners” or “too impoverished to invade...

We haven’t heard from that chorus much since the war in Iraq started, but Rebecca at NKZone posts a warmed-over blog post to that effect. I posted a partial response in the comments. Here is my response in full: I would first offer my congratulations to the Lightweight for managing to contradict himself in his very first paragraph. So is North Korea really “a meaningful military threat to its neighbors, who are our allies/trading partners” or “too impoverished to invade...

Like many of you, I have been puzzled at the selective outrage of OhMyNews, Hankyoreh, and other lefist / anti-American media in Korea about Iraqi prisoners forced to wear leashes and panties, a matter which I hope to put in its proper context, not to downplay. At the same time, those “news” sources seldom or never mention the 4 million North Koreans currently living on the brink of starvation, the 2 million already culled through engineered famine, the uncounted scores...

This time, the media is the circus. It’s election season in Washington. How can I tell? The Washington Post’s headlines were full of non-news “news analysis” of gloomy views about Iraq. Here is today’s cartoon from the Post, and here is today’s front-page picture of John Kerry from the Washington Times. I could use many of the same words to describe both–unfair, distorted, cheap, and blatantly partisan. No wonder people are defecting to blogs for their news. Yesterday’s media burial...

Like many of you, I have been puzzled at the selective outrage of OhMyNews, Hankyoreh, and other lefist / anti-American media in Korea about Iraqi prisoners forced to wear leashes and panties, a matter which I hope to put in its proper context, not to downplay. At the same time, those “news” sources seldom or never mention the 4 million North Koreans currently living on the brink of starvation, the 2 million already culled through engineered famine, the uncounted scores...

This time, the media is the circus. It’s election season in Washington. How can I tell? The Washington Post’s headlines were full of non-news “news analysis” of gloomy views about Iraq. Here is today’s cartoon from the Post, and here is today’s front-page picture of John Kerry from the Washington Times. I could use many of the same words to describe both–unfair, distorted, cheap, and blatantly partisan. No wonder people are defecting to blogs for their news. Yesterday’s media burial...

NKZone is noting that there’s a small panic brewing in South Korea over the planned U.S. troop reductions. Disbelief has shattered the complacent confidency that America was in Korea for its own reasons–that Uncle Sugar would never leave. My logical reaction is that this move is good for U.S. strategic flexibility, good for the war effort in Iraq, and good for South Korea, which will finally have its “independence.” Keeping that independence will require some sober maturity in its foreign...

Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has been accused of sexual harassment by an American woman who has worked for the agency for 20 years. Given Lubbers’ pathetic performance of his duties–especially when it comes to North Koreans in China–it’s tempting to presume the truth of the accusations and hound him into retirement for the good of all humanity. If it’s true, it suggests one way China might have corrupted him. Having investigated, prosecuted, and defended dozens of...

NKZone is noting that there’s a small panic brewing in South Korea over the planned U.S. troop reductions. Disbelief has shattered the complacent confidency that America was in Korea for its own reasons–that Uncle Sugar would never leave. My logical reaction is that this move is good for U.S. strategic flexibility, good for the war effort in Iraq, and good for South Korea, which will finally have its “independence.” Keeping that independence will require some sober maturity in its foreign...

NKZone is noting that there’s a small panic brewing in South Korea over the planned U.S. troop reductions. Disbelief has shattered the complacent confidency that America was in Korea for its own reasons–that Uncle Sugar would never leave. My logical reaction is that this move is good for U.S. strategic flexibility, good for the war effort in Iraq, and good for South Korea, which will finally have its “independence.” Keeping that independence will require some sober maturity in its foreign...

Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has been accused of sexual harassment by an American woman who has worked for the agency for 20 years. Given Lubbers’ pathetic performance of his duties–especially when it comes to North Koreans in China–it’s tempting to presume the truth of the accusations and hound him into retirement for the good of all humanity. If it’s true, it suggests one way China might have corrupted him. Having investigated, prosecuted, and defended dozens of...

Everyone really ought to stop hyperventilating (ok, please forgive me for that one) . . . in a political sense, I mean. It doesn’t sound very certain that it is sarin, and if it is, it’s just one shell that may not have had any markings. Has everyone on either side of the political spectrum forgotten that there are more important questions than who looks bad because of this? Our first concern ought to be getting those weapons out of...

The Pentagon just confirmed that it won’t replace the brigade that it will withdraw from Korea. It also says that the number to be reduced is 3,600, not 4,000. As stated before, however, that doesn’t include thousands more whose function had been to provide their combat support, medical, dental, legal, commo, etc. Aidan Foster-Carter has a must-read denunciation of the thugs who may succeed in shutting down FreeNK, the effort of a few North Korean defectors to broadcast into their...

Everyone really ought to stop hyperventilating (ok, please forgive me for that one) . . . in a political sense, I mean. It doesn’t sound very certain that it is sarin, and if it is, it’s just one shell that may not have had any markings. Has everyone on either side of the political spectrum forgotten that there are more important questions than who looks bad because of this? Our first concern ought to be getting those weapons out of...

. . . but you probably made the same guess yourself. Rummy will indeed take troops from Korea to send them to Iraq, just as I’ve been suggesting. The diplomatic significance of the U.S. Army taking half of its infantry strength–a whole brigade of 4,000 troops–is hard to overstate. This is an earthquake. Here are just a few of the angles from which one can analyze this. US Force Restructuring It marks a dramatic escalation of the agreed timetable for...

The Pentagon just confirmed that it won’t replace the brigade that it will withdraw from Korea. It also says that the number to be reduced is 3,600, not 4,000. As stated before, however, that doesn’t include thousands more whose function had been to provide their combat support, medical, dental, legal, commo, etc. Aidan Foster-Carter has a must-read denunciation of the thugs who may succeed in shutting down FreeNK, the effort of a few North Korean defectors to broadcast into their...