Archive for January, 2005
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 11:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
For the uninitiated, Korea robotically answers questions about the unraveling of the U.S.-Korean alliance with the wierd cliche that the alliance is “forged in blood” and therefore, strong. Now the last thing I’d want is for any person–whether that person be an American, an Iraqi civilian, or a Korean soldier, in short, anyone but one of Michael Moore’s minutemen–to spill blood in Iraq. My point here is to compare the military value of South Korea’s deployment of 3,000 troops to Iraq to its efforts to bluntly extract a high price for sending them.
It’s apparently a useful fiction to some that our international coalition appear larger than it really is, which is fine if you think righteousness and consensus are the same thing (Hitler and Stalin once reached a consensus on Poland, too). If you think that coalitions matter because of their military advantages, then read on, because a new report tells us what we pretty much knew already, that the South Korean deployment to Iraq has added no apparent military value. The Korean troops themselves are all volunteers, and we owe them our personal appreciation for their courage. Not so the men who sent them there.
What risk did South Korea take to support the ally that lost 38,000 troops so that it could exist and has kept tens of thousands more on its soil ever since? Well, it had to put up with a lot of bitching, mainly from its supporters. The South Korean government finally answered our request for troops with great reluctance and much delay, and after taking great care to do so in a way that did more than minimize the risks; it pretty much eliminated them. The Korean troops sit behind barbed wire and concrete barriers in the safest Kurdish region in Iraq and never leave their fortress. Their contribution to the military and reconstruction efforts, as you might expect, is just north of zilch. It mainly consists of letting locals come into the camp for treatment using Western or “oriental” medicine.
At what price? First, the Koreans demanded that Colin Powell make concessions to North Korea in exchange for the deployment, which evidently pissed him off royally without achieving the desired effect. Later, the Pentagon announced that it was withdrawing a combat brigade from Korea for service in Iraq, and that the U.S. would cut its total force in Korea by a third in three years. The Koreans panicked and immediately agreed to send the long-delayed bulk of their promised Iraq contingent. Coincidentally, perhaps, the U.S. agreed to slow down the USFK withdrawal shortly thereafter.
Again, if you think it takes the approval of a coalition to make what you do right, then great, and thanks. Maybe it’s worth some kind of break on trade talks about rice, movie piracy, or computer chips, but it doesn’t put Korea in a position to make demands on issues where South Korea expects us to keep exposing American lives to the North Korean threat.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 10:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Ask and ye shall receive. A photo of the heir apparent is here, although it’s hardly recent. Other photos apparently exist, and I’d appreciate links. More info here. All I have to offer in exchange is this delectable bit of gossip:
Attention naturally turned to the elder of the two brothers, Kim Jong-chol, and Newsweek magazine published a dated and blurred black and white photograph of him during his school days in Switzerland. More recently, though, the emphasis has been on the younger brother, Kim Jong-un (also spelled Kim Jong-woon). The main proponent of this theory is Kim Jong-il’s former Japanese sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto (a pseudonym), who, in his memoir, published in Japan, stated that Kim regards Jong-chol as too effeminate, and Jong-un to be more like his father.
Does it seem quite right that a spartan, martial, patriarchial state would allow itself to be led by a guy who might be, umm, gay? Not that there’s anything wrong with that . . . unless you live in North Korea, that is.
Update 10/0/05: Correction: Nope, that’s out-of-favor Kim Jong Nam. There is no known photograph of Kim Jong Chol since age 13, and I’m still hunting for it.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 6:51 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Kreminology Update: Just after we hear fresh rumors that Kim Jong-Il may be safely locked away in a gilded cage comes fresh word that the North Korean radio is playing up the heredetary succession of Porky’s li’l sprout, Kim Jong-Chol, to lordship of the sty. It’s hard to know what to make of this, so here are several avenues of utterly unsubstantiated and wild speculation, all to be taken that their stated face value, which is very little:
1. Kim Jong Il really remains fully in control, and he’s actually chosen a successor. It’s sheer coincidence that recent rumors have suggested that he’s fallen from power, or perhaps this is intended to tamp down the rumors, which the government knows are spreading inside North Korea. In which case, you’d expect Porky to make a public appearance in the near future.
2. Kim Jong Il has survived some kind of challenge to his power, and this is his way of showing everyone that he’s in charge. So go get some Chinese takeout and show your face, already.
3. Kim Jong Il really isn’t fully in control, and this is someone’s way of creating the appearance that all is perfectly ordinary. Kim III may be a puppet–a last emperor–who is being gradually eased into in place to prevent panic or power grabs. Porky continues to recede into (a) his collection of Daffy Duck cartoons and imported cognac, or (b) a shallow unmarked grave, and we continue seeing very little of him.
4. Insert own theory here.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 6:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Hmmmm. I wonder if we’ll ever find out just what this was all about:
Abruptly canceling his scheduled attendance at a South Korean prosecutors’ forum, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill is scheduled to return to the United States today. Mr. Hill was to give a lecture Thursday at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office about new U.S. law on North Korean human rights. The U.S. Embassy canceled the meeting yesterday, announcing Mr. Hill has to return to the United States for consultations, with no elaboration.
You’d think that if all was well, they’d have had a reassuring soundbite for the press.
UPDATE: This isn’t quite that, but it’s something:
I want to have the opportunity to brief [Secretary Rice] directly on some of the bilateral issues we’re interested in. Of course, we’re not just interested in bilateral issues, we’re interested in some regional issues, mainly the North Korean questions.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Kaesong Update: Will a South Korean-proposed “Kaesong clause” kill the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement? We can only hope so, although South Korea has already signalled that it’s not a deal-breaker (thus proving that they can sometimes be just as bad at negotiating with us as with the North Koreans). Why should we snatch the Axis of Evil from the jaws of death when it’s this intractible on nukes and human rights? As Uncle Vic says, “you wanna play, you gotta pay.”
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 6:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
For the uninitiated, Korea robotically answers questions about the unraveling of the U.S.-Korean alliance with the wierd cliche that the alliance is “forged in blood” and therefore, strong. Now the last thing I’d want is for any person–whether that person be an American, an Iraqi civilian, or a Korean soldier, in short, anyone but one of Michael Moore’s minutemen–to spill blood in Iraq. My point here is to compare the military value of South Korea’s deployment of 3,000 troops to Iraq to its efforts to bluntly extract a high price for sending them.
It’s apparently a useful fiction to some that our international coalition appear larger than it really is, which is fine if you think righteousness and consensus are the same thing (Hitler and Stalin once reached a consensus on Poland, too). If you think that coalitions matter because of their military advantages, then read on, because a new report tells us what we pretty much knew already, that the South Korean deployment to Iraq has added no apparent military value. The Korean troops themselves are all volunteers, and we owe them our personal appreciation for their courage. Not so the men who sent them there.
What risk did South Korea take to support the ally that lost 38,000 troops so that it could exist and has kept tens of thousands more on its soil ever since? Well, it had to put up with a lot of bitching, mainly from its supporters. The South Korean government finally answered our request for troops with great reluctance and much delay, and after taking great care to do so in a way that did more than minimize the risks; it pretty much eliminated them. The Korean troops sit behind barbed wire and concrete barriers in the safest Kurdish region in Iraq and never leave their fortress. Their contribution to the military and reconstruction efforts, as you might expect, is just north of zilch. It mainly consists of letting locals come into the camp for treatment using Western or “oriental” medicine.
At what price? First, the Koreans demanded that Colin Powell make concessions to North Korea in exchange for the deployment, which evidently pissed him off royally without achieving the desired effect. Later, the Pentagon announced that it was withdrawing a combat brigade from Korea for service in Iraq, and that the U.S. would cut its total force in Korea by a third in three years. The Koreans panicked and immediately agreed to send the long-delayed bulk of their promised Iraq contingent. Coincidentally, perhaps, the U.S. agreed to slow down the USFK withdrawal shortly thereafter.
Again, if you think it takes the approval of a coalition to make what you do right, then great, and thanks. Maybe it’s worth some kind of break on trade talks about rice, movie piracy, or computer chips, but it doesn’t put Korea in a position to make demands on issues where South Korea expects us to keep exposing American lives to the North Korean threat.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 6:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Seen on CafeUSA: Somehow, I think the entertainment value is mostly going to be inadvertent. CafeUSA is the public affairs blog of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and to be fair, most of the pictures are at least somewhat better.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 5:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Ask and ye shall receive. A photo of the heir apparent is here, although it’s hardly recent. Other photos apparently exist, and I’d appreciate links. More info here. All I have to offer in exchange is this delectable bit of gossip:
Attention naturally turned to the elder of the two brothers, Kim Jong-chol, and Newsweek magazine published a dated and blurred black and white photograph of him during his school days in Switzerland. More recently, though, the emphasis has been on the younger brother, Kim Jong-un (also spelled Kim Jong-woon). The main proponent of this theory is Kim Jong-il’s former Japanese sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto (a pseudonym), who, in his memoir, published in Japan, stated that Kim regards Jong-chol as too effeminate, and Jong-un to be more like his father.
Does it seem quite right that a spartan, martial, patriarchial state would allow itself to be led by a guy who might be, umm, gay? Not that there’s anything wrong with that . . . unless you live in North Korea, that is.
Update 10/0/05: Correction: Nope, that’s out-of-favor Kim Jong Nam. There is no known photograph of Kim Jong Chol since age 13, and I’m still hunting for it.
Posted by Joshua Stanton on January 31, 2005 at 2:31 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Supporters of South Korea’s leftist President Roh-Moo Hyun have announced a fresh campaign to persuade citizens to cancel their subscriptions to the often-critical Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, and to subscribe instead to the pro-government Kyunghang Sinmun and Hankyoreh Sinmun. The latter newspapers both strongly support the Roh administration’s policy of appeasing North Korea and assuming a more neutral role toward the United States, which maintains 34,000 troops in Korea for that nation’s defense.
The group, known as Nosamo, or people who love Roh Moo-Hyun (”Roh” is actually pronounced “Noh” in Korean) represents the core of the president’s Internet-savvy supporters, and would presumably not engage in a significant public campaign were the group’s namesake to express his opposition.
Since the elevation of the left-center Kim Dae Jung to the presidency in 1997, the government has feuded with both the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, primarily over North Korea policy and the President’s stalled initiative to move South Korea’s capital out of Seoul. The Korean National Assembly, in which the President’s party holds a narrow majority, recently passed legislation restricting media companies to a market share to 30%, or a cumulative 60% for the top three companies. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has yet to release its 2004 annual report on South Korea, criticized the law in a letter to the ruling party, saying that the law “looks more like ideological revenge that an attempt to regulate the news sector.” RSF also praised the government for lifting decriminalizing news coverage the government perceived as favorable to the North Korean regime.
Previous government measures against opposition newspapers have included tax law prosecutions, libel suits, and vitriolic statements against both papers. The International Press Institute has suggested that the tax prosecutions were a politically motivated effort to silence the opposition media and noted with concern that three editors who were being prosecuted for tax evasion were jailed before they were tried. The Coordinating Committee for Press Freedom Organizations has stated that it is “no coincidence that the media companies most skeptical of President Kim and his sunshine policy of engagement with communist North Korea have been among those hardest hit by the audits.” A recent book by a former Hankyoreh reporter claims that the tax enforcement actions were part of a government-orchestrated plan to muzzle the opposition media.
Last October, Prime Minister Lee Hai-Chan made the following statements after drinking whiskey-beer boilermakers at a social function during an official visit to Berlin, Germany, at which members of the press were present:
Chosun, Dong-A, don’t plot against history. Don’t play with this administration. Both President Roh and I will fight you to the end. . . . The Chosun is behind the times. The Chosun and Dong-A are in my hand. . . . Don’t think you yourselves can take and shake this nation. Don’t pretend you have power, and don’t distort history. . . . Do you know how much the Dong-A Ilbo has attacked me? I read the Chosun Ilbo every morning, but the Chosun has never written anything that accords with the flow of history. . . . In the flow of history, the Joongang Ilbo seems to be finding the middle. . . . I will never forgive the Chosun Ilbo. Even if the Chosun makes unreasonable remarks, I won’t pay attention.
Other officials present at the event later expressed regret for the comments.
The efforts are reminiscent of the measures Russian President Vladimir Putin used to silence opposition media in Russia.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Kreminology Update: Just after we hear fresh rumors that Kim Jong-Il may be safely locked away in a gilded cage comes fresh word that the North Korean radio is playing up the heredetary succession of Porky’s li’l sprout, Kim Jong-Chol, to lordship of the sty. It’s hard to know what to make of this, so here are several avenues of utterly unsubstantiated and wild speculation, all to be taken that their stated face value, which is very little:
1. Kim Jong Il really remains fully in control, and he’s actually chosen a successor. It’s sheer coincidence that recent rumors have suggested that he’s fallen from power, or perhaps this is intended to tamp down the rumors, which the government knows are spreading inside North Korea. In which case, you’d expect Porky to make a public appearance in the near future.
2. Kim Jong Il has survived some kind of challenge to his power, and this is his way of showing everyone that he’s in charge. So go get some Chinese takeout and show your face, already.
3. Kim Jong Il really isn’t fully in control, and this is someone’s way of creating the appearance that all is perfectly ordinary. Kim III may be a puppet–a last emperor–who is being gradually eased into in place to prevent panic or power grabs. Porky continues to recede into (a) his collection of Daffy Duck cartoons and imported cognac, or (b) a shallow unmarked grave, and we continue seeing very little of him.
4. Insert own theory here.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 1:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Hmmmm. I wonder if we’ll ever find out just what this was all about:
Abruptly canceling his scheduled attendance at a South Korean prosecutors’ forum, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill is scheduled to return to the United States today. Mr. Hill was to give a lecture Thursday at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office about new U.S. law on North Korean human rights. The U.S. Embassy canceled the meeting yesterday, announcing Mr. Hill has to return to the United States for consultations, with no elaboration.
You’d think that if all was well, they’d have had a reassuring soundbite for the press.
UPDATE: This isn’t quite that, but it’s something:
I want to have the opportunity to brief [Secretary Rice] directly on some of the bilateral issues we’re interested in. Of course, we’re not just interested in bilateral issues, we’re interested in some regional issues, mainly the North Korean questions.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 1:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Kaesong Update: Will a South Korean-proposed “Kaesong clause” kill the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement? We can only hope so, although South Korea has already signalled that it’s not a deal-breaker (thus proving that they can sometimes be just as bad at negotiating with us as with the North Koreans). Why should we snatch the Axis of Evil from the jaws of death when it’s this intractible on nukes and human rights? As Uncle Vic says, “you wanna play, you gotta pay.”
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Seen on CafeUSA: Somehow, I think the entertainment value is mostly going to be inadvertent. CafeUSA is the public affairs blog of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and to be fair, most of the pictures are at least somewhat better.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 9:31 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Supporters of South Korea’s leftist President Roh-Moo Hyun have announced a fresh campaign to persuade citizens to cancel their subscriptions to the often-critical Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, and to subscribe instead to the pro-government Kyunghang Sinmun and Hankyoreh Sinmun. The latter newspapers both strongly support the Roh administration’s policy of appeasing North Korea and assuming a more neutral role toward the United States, which maintains 34,000 troops in Korea for that nation’s defense.
The group, known as Nosamo, or people who love Roh Moo-Hyun (”Roh” is actually pronounced “Noh” in Korean) represents the core of the president’s Internet-savvy supporters, and would presumably not engage in a significant public campaign were the group’s namesake to express his opposition.
Since the elevation of the left-center Kim Dae Jung to the presidency in 1997, the government has feuded with both the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, primarily over North Korea policy and the President’s stalled initiative to move South Korea’s capital out of Seoul. The Korean National Assembly, in which the President’s party holds a narrow majority, recently passed legislation restricting media companies to a market share to 30%, or a cumulative 60% for the top three companies. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has yet to release its 2004 annual report on South Korea, criticized the law in a letter to the ruling party, saying that the law “looks more like ideological revenge that an attempt to regulate the news sector.” RSF also praised the government for lifting decriminalizing news coverage the government perceived as favorable to the North Korean regime.
Previous government measures against opposition newspapers have included tax law prosecutions, libel suits, and vitriolic statements against both papers. The International Press Institute has suggested that the tax prosecutions were a politically motivated effort to silence the opposition media and noted with concern that three editors who were being prosecuted for tax evasion were jailed before they were tried. The Coordinating Committee for Press Freedom Organizations has stated that it is “no coincidence that the media companies most skeptical of President Kim and his sunshine policy of engagement with communist North Korea have been among those hardest hit by the audits.” A recent book by a former Hankyoreh reporter claims that the tax enforcement actions were part of a government-orchestrated plan to muzzle the opposition media.
Last October, Prime Minister Lee Hai-Chan made the following statements after drinking whiskey-beer boilermakers at a social function during an official visit to Berlin, Germany, at which members of the press were present:
Chosun, Dong-A, don’t plot against history. Don’t play with this administration. Both President Roh and I will fight you to the end. . . . The Chosun is behind the times. The Chosun and Dong-A are in my hand. . . . Don’t think you yourselves can take and shake this nation. Don’t pretend you have power, and don’t distort history. . . . Do you know how much the Dong-A Ilbo has attacked me? I read the Chosun Ilbo every morning, but the Chosun has never written anything that accords with the flow of history. . . . In the flow of history, the Joongang Ilbo seems to be finding the middle. . . . I will never forgive the Chosun Ilbo. Even if the Chosun makes unreasonable remarks, I won’t pay attention.
Other officials present at the event later expressed regret for the comments.
The efforts are reminiscent of the measures Russian President Vladimir Putin used to silence opposition media in Russia.
Posted by joshua on January 31, 2005 at 9:31 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Supporters of South Korea’s leftist President Roh-Moo Hyun have announced a fresh campaign to persuade citizens to cancel their subscriptions to the often-critical Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, and to subscribe instead to the pro-government Kyunghang Sinmun and Hankyoreh Sinmun. The latter newspapers both strongly support the Roh administration’s policy of appeasing North Korea and assuming a more neutral role toward the United States, which maintains 34,000 troops in Korea for that nation’s defense.
The group, known as Nosamo, or people who love Roh Moo-Hyun (”Roh” is actually pronounced “Noh” in Korean) represents the core of the president’s Internet-savvy supporters, and would presumably not engage in a significant public campaign were the group’s namesake to express his opposition.
Since the elevation of the left-center Kim Dae Jung to the presidency in 1997, the government has feuded with both the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, primarily over North Korea policy and the President’s stalled initiative to move South Korea’s capital out of Seoul. The Korean National Assembly, in which the President’s party holds a narrow majority, recently passed legislation restricting media companies to a market share to 30%, or a cumulative 60% for the top three companies. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has yet to release its 2004 annual report on South Korea, criticized the law in a letter to the ruling party, saying that the law “looks more like ideological revenge that an attempt to regulate the news sector.” RSF also praised the government for lifting decriminalizing news coverage the government perceived as favorable to the North Korean regime.
Previous government measures against opposition newspapers have included tax law prosecutions, libel suits, and vitriolic statements against both papers. The International Press Institute has suggested that the tax prosecutions were a politically motivated effort to silence the opposition media and noted with concern that three editors who were being prosecuted for tax evasion were jailed before they were tried. The Coordinating Committee for Press Freedom Organizations has stated that it is “no coincidence that the media companies most skeptical of President Kim and his sunshine policy of engagement with communist North Korea have been among those hardest hit by the audits.” A recent book by a former Hankyoreh reporter claims that the tax enforcement actions were part of a government-orchestrated plan to muzzle the opposition media.
Last October, Prime Minister Lee Hai-Chan made the following statements after drinking whiskey-beer boilermakers at a social function during an official visit to Berlin, Germany, at which members of the press were present:
Chosun, Dong-A, don’t plot against history. Don’t play with this administration. Both President Roh and I will fight you to the end. . . . The Chosun is behind the times. The Chosun and Dong-A are in my hand. . . . Don’t think you yourselves can take and shake this nation. Don’t pretend you have power, and don’t distort history. . . . Do you know how much the Dong-A Ilbo has attacked me? I read the Chosun Ilbo every morning, but the Chosun has never written anything that accords with the flow of history. . . . In the flow of history, the Joongang Ilbo seems to be finding the middle. . . . I will never forgive the Chosun Ilbo. Even if the Chosun makes unreasonable remarks, I won’t pay attention.
Other officials present at the event later expressed regret for the comments.
The efforts are reminiscent of the measures Russian President Vladimir Putin used to silence opposition media in Russia.
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