Search Results for “barrel of a gun”

November 23, 2006

Score One for the ‘Barrel of a Gun’ Theory

Look what the Partei is telling the proles: At a people’s meeting in Hoiryeong, citizens were educated on the justice of North Korea’s nuke experiment and the economic aftereffects of the nuke experiment. An organizer of the people’s meeting in Hoiryeong said “The nuclear experiment has broken all of U.S. North Korea pressure policies and we have successfully shown the whole world that our socialism is good. Now, beginning from the nations of the six-party talks, countries around the world...

Inside NK/Kremlinology

September 7, 2006

‘Barrel of a Gun’ Redux

North Korean Army propaganda adds fuel to my pet theory: According to the article, North Korea developed nuclear weapon for the purpose of self-defense because “˜the vicious American gang leader Bush labeled us one of the axis of evil and rogue states, and declared not to have conversation with us unless his sinister conditions were met.’ The document says the United States bewildered after the North’s declaration of possession of nuclear weapon and then started to yield to Pyongyang. Therefore...

Kremlinology/WMD

April 30, 2006

‘Barrel of a Gun’

During my recent trip to Korea, I was fortunate to have dinner and moderate quantities of alcohol with several other K-bloggers, including The Marmot, The Flying Yangban, Oranckay, The Drambuie Man (also a S. Dakota native), and Professor Andrei Lankov, who is working on a book on the Korean War, based on material from old Soviet archives. Oranckay picked a restaurant where I had some of the best kalbi I’ve ever eaten, and Robert knew of a beautifully restored old...

Diplomacy/Inside NK/Korean Society/North Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD

July 7, 2016

The designation of His Corpulency for human rights abuses is symbolic. Powerfully symbolic.

About a week later than my prediction in this post and a full decade after it should have done so, the Treasury Department has finally designated His Porcine Majesty, ten of his worst henchmen, and nine government agencies for human rights abuses. “Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture,” said Adam J. Szubin, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence....

Human Rights/Sanctions

June 28, 2010

You Say That Like It’s a Bad Thing: “China Hand” Fears Treasury Sanctions

I’m apparently not the only one who cocked an eyebrow at the refusal of a State Department spokesman recently to rule out applying new sanctions to be directed at North Korea to third-country entities. The United States Wednesday did not preclude the possibility of freezing North Korean assets in foreign banks to effectively cut off resources for the North’s development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. “I’m not going to predict any particular step that we’re contemplating, but these...

China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Fiskings/Money Laundering/Sanctions

August 13, 2009

China Finally Enforcing N. Korea Sanctions, Kinda?

To say the very least, I remain deeply skeptical that China’s effort will be sustained, complete, or in good faith, but here are two stories that suggest to some degree, China is restricting trade with North Korea. The first (as the reader who sent the link notes) comes directly from the ChiCom state media, so take it with a tablespoon of salt. Shan, who has run the corporation for 16 years, said he has forged close relations with officials in...

"United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology/Sanctions

October 29, 2007

There Is Such a Thing as ‘Good’ Engagement

If you’re reading this, you’re bearing with me despite the light blogging of late. Thank you. I make a habit of not talking about my work here, but suffice to say that it carries significant responsibilities that sometimes leave no time and energy for other things. At times like these, when there is very little time left over, I owe that time to my family. Thank you again for your understanding, for continuing to stop by, and for your e-mails. ...

Deprogramming/Six-Party Talks

September 24, 2007

The Rangoon Autumn

Updates below: 9/21: Original post, background of the protests. 9/22: Monks march to Aung San Suu Syi’s home in record downpour; 10,000 protest in Mandalay. 9/23: Protests hit 8 cities; Rangoon turnout at 20,000; World leaders speak out against use of force to quell protests, but the U.N. is silent. 9/24: Rangoon protests draw 100,000; Their hold on power seriously threatened, junta generals threaten to use force; Bush to announce new sanctions before U.N. General Assembly; Burmese entertainers join the opposition....

Democracy/Southeast Asia

July 9, 2007

All Quid, No Quo

If Andrei Lankov is right and most North Koreans secretly know that they don’t really live in an earthly paradise, these must be confusing times. Any of them who mull the oddities of the wider world in the privacy of their own minds must be asking themselves: “Why do they pay us?” If North Korea has few natural resources and a dwindling population of a few million, why does it seem that everyone on earth lines up to pay tribute...

"United" Nations

April 25, 2007

Anju Links for 25 April 2007: The Children of Arirang, Questions About Treasury’s WMD Sanctions, and More Blackmail Boasts from Pyongyang

* Arirang, Child Exploitation Tourism: Haven’t you ever wondered about how such young children are taught such precise choreography, and why those robotic smiles are frozen on their little faces? The reality of Arirang is different however, according to vivid testimony of the parents whose children participate in the performance. Their children’s eyes are tense after robust mechanical drilling by their director. The training period for the Arirang is over 6 months. Particularly delicate dancing or movement may require training...

"United" Nations/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/WMD

April 15, 2007

Anju Links for 15 April 2007

* We’ve Lost the True Meaning of Kim Il Sung’s Birthday. It’s another OFK exclusive — I have the first video of North Korea’s Kim Il Sung Day parade. In North Korea, where devotion comes from the barrel of a gun, the object of this devotion is now a side of preserved meat; thus, I urge everyone to pay their respects with a feast appropriate for the occasion. If only the people of North Korea were fortunate enough...

Abductions/Anju Links/Appeasement/Korean War/Refugees

February 23, 2007

The Administration’s North Korea Strategy: Pop Smoke

[Update: A friend just sent me John O’Sullivan’s must-read criticism of the deal on National Review Online (thanks!), and it’s an absolute direct hit. O’Sullivan actually attributed Bush’s new policy to Jimmy Carter (ouch!). Safe to say, conservatives pretty much all want this deal euthanized. I could swear I’d seen the Kipling reference before somewhere.] [Update 2: More “Barrel of a Gun” spin from Pyongyang: In another sense, North Korean authorities seem to be trying to re-integrate the disparity of...

"United" Nations/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/WMD

January 7, 2007

You Can’t Eat Plutonium

The Daily NK previously reported that Pyongyang’s patrician class had swallowed the whole “barrel of a gun” spin after North Korea’s nuclear test. It didn’t surprise me to hear that. I’d even predicted it. I’m equally unsurprised that North Korea’s proles, and some of its urban youth, are less impressed and seem completely disillusioned with the course of things. Young adults in Pyongyang commonly call Kim Jong Il as “that guy,” whereas in the province of Hamkyung, Kim Jong Il...

Deprogramming/Inside NK/Resistance

September 8, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 50: Alternative Realities and Real Alternatives

I suppose everyone is entitled a theory on why Kim Jong Il decided to launch a round of missiles on July 4th, thereby drawing the wrong kind of attention from the U.N. Security Council, Japan, China, and the U.S. Treasury Department. This blog has been lukewarm on the conventional “extortion” theory, and has recently hosted discussions of the Strategic Disengagement Theory, the “Barrel of a Gun” Theory, The Loyalty Test Theory, and most recently, the Robert Kaplan Theory. All of...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD

August 26, 2006

Is He Crazy After All?

A big welcome to the new readers from Gateway Pundit, and as always, many thanks to Jim for his link and his support. All of us who wonder why Kim Jong Il has does some of the bone-headed things he’s done lately have shared a few common assumptions about him as we engaged in this speculative parlor game of ours: * He is sane, rational, calculating, and reasonably well informed about his foes’ thought processes (some, however, would also argue...

Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology/WMD

July 22, 2006

Now What? Part 2

Right after North Korea launched its round of missiles, I outlined a series of options, mostly financial, that the U.S. and other countries could take in response. Two weeks later, several aspects of that forecast are holding up well. What looked at first like another U.N. farce, then a modestly successful sanctions effort (by U.N. standards, anyway), now looks to be an important and hard-won component of a coordinated effort to tighten the squeeze on the regime-sustaining half of North...

Appeasement/Counterfeiting/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/WMD

July 12, 2006

An Offer They Can’t Refuse

A few days ago, I offered a possible explanation for why North Korea launched seven missiles, despite the likely result that it would ultimately bring down an adverse response from the U.S., Japan, and other nations. According to my “Barrel of a Gun” Theory ©, North Korea launched those missiles to save face, to disguise an impending supplication as extortion for its domestic audience. And sure enough, North Korea is now demanding “protection” aid: North Korea’s Senior Cabinet Counselor Kwon...

Appeasement/North Korea/Unintended Humor/WMD/WTF?

July 7, 2006

I May Have Figured This Out…

Why North Korea willfully pissed off the whole world by launching a rocket, that is. It’s a wrinkle on the “domestic consumption” theory: The regime is in desperate shape and is about to make some kind of face-losing concession, such as asking for food aid or agreeing to give up some weapon or activity. Kim Jong Il needed a garish display of belligerence to save face — to tell his people that any aid is really an extortion payment, or...

Famine & Food Aid/Kremlinology/WMD

Search Results for: barrel of a gun