About the show on North Korean food:
I don’t see what the big deal is. They are talking about food that traditionally comes from north of the 38th parallel. You know this food came about PRIOR to the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party! They’re just talking about the food that just happens to be FROM that PART of Korea, not about how wonderful Kim Jong-il’s personal cooks are! My God, get a grip!

PING:
TITLE: Next Up: We Cover Pyongyang’s Presidential Debates
BLOG NAME: Barry Talks!
Now here is a truly amazing story (via Marmot ): a South Korean actress is going to North Korea to do a TV special on North Korean cuisine .

PING:
TITLE: Gourmets in the Land of the Walking Dead.
BLOG NAME: Tasty Manatees
People are starving in North Korea while gourmet shows showcase local delicacies. Thanks to the Marmot for pointing out this amazingly inappropriate show….

Right. Like this one from Walter Duranty? I understand it must have taken a lot of effort to set up the guided tour for the diplomat and get that disgusting propaganda out, but if it were my handiwork, I wouldn’t urge people to pay much attention to it. Thanks anyways, though, for the heads-up! I, for one, will make sure to keep an eye out for more.

Pretty much every other source on earth that’s not on the payroll agrees that North Korea is facing another purposefully deadly famine. Here’s just a few:Amnesty International, Washington Times, Chosun Journal.

Where are you posting from, “haisan”, Pyongyang or Berkeley?

More identity theft (check the IP address on that short “Kevin Kim” comment, and you’ll see it’s probably our dickless guy in Beijing).

The Dad quote is in fact something my Dad said (it’s taken way out of context here). The rest of that post is made up. The clue: the idiot writes “Iraqi’s,” not “Iraqis.” I’m much more anal-retentive about my spelling than this bungwipe. And any reader of my blog knows better than to believe I’d write that crap.

Hey, lux bearer– having fun sniffing my dingleberries? I swear, you follow me around like a puppy. It’s touching.

Kevin Kim

‘the un is a foreign policy tool of the us.’ condaleeza rice

The UN is a foreign policy tool for ALL its member nations. Almost every foreign ministry on the planet has made similar statements. BTW, if you would’t mind, I like some context to that Condy quote — I couldn’t seem to find it after running a Google search.

While I won’t go too much into the details of the Iraq sanctions (although I find it odd that you’d condemn the United States alone for those sanctions while giving a pass to the other four permanent members of the UNSC, all of whom vetoed or threatened to vetoe changes in the sanctions program at one time or the other. Hey, even the Iraqi government, for that matter, at one point threatened to stop selling oil through the UN oil-for-food program, apparently because dead children made for good PR), I will point out that your criticism of the Iraq sanctions (and in particular, the manner in which you are making them) is a two-edged sword. Since, apparently, tear count is important, did YOU cry when the world slapped sanctions on apartheid South Africa during the 80s and white-ruled Rhodesia through most of the 60s and 70s? My guess is, probably not — you probably felt good putting a stop to all that evil Republican trade with and investment in two racist, right-wing garrison states. Of course, much like in Iraq, those sanctions in South Africa and Rhodesia hit the poorest segments of society the hardest (i.e., the black people whom the sanctions were designed to help), but that didn’t seem to matter much at the time to the Left — it was “the right thing to do,” I was told, and evil right-wingers like myself (with our even eviler theories of “constructive engagement” and the like) were condemned as apartheid-enablers for opposing sanctions. It’s not that hard to find other examples of the (often anti-American) Left supporting crippling sanctions on particular regimes that didn’t fit their Workers’ Paradise profiles.

Besides, if we Americans are guilty of mass-murder because of those sanctions, guess who’s guilty of accessory to mass murder? That’s right — South Korea! South Korea faithfully (for the most part) applied those sanctions to Iraq, it certainly never complained about the application of said sanctions (except when it hurt Korean business interests), and we won’t even discuss South Korea’s participation in both Iraq wars. I could go on, but that would be neither polite nor constructive. I only wish to say that I’d think long and hard before I make a statement like “i’ll take being [insert nationality] over being someone like you anyday, sir” (which is all very fine and good) on account of my nation’s supposedly blood-free hands.

‘the un is a foreign policy tool of the us.’ condaleeza rice

it is the us that insisted on continuing sanctions on iraq. but it’s nice for you to be able to say that it was the un. that way, you don’t have to look at yourself in the mirror the truth that the us has been responsible for the deaths of not thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but MILLIONS. and that’s in just the last 15 years! i’ll take being korean over being someone like you anyday, sir.

let me ask you something, mr. ariwong, mr right-and-wrong, mr. i-tolerate-no-wrong:

does the us have a right to initiate a war on the korean peninsula without the consent of the south korean people?

my answer would be in almost all cases, a resounding no! the only exceptions i’d make are,
if one, it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that north korea transferred an atomic bomb to terrorists or two, north korea attacks south korea or japan. now, let me ask you again, mr. moral-clarity:

does the us have a right to initiate a war on the korean peninsula without the consent of the south korean people?

you need not respond; i already know the answer.
and you call yourself civilized?

i think not.

Helping to starve others by GIVING food aid to North Korea, for example? … and, of course (unlike the recent war and current occupation) Iraqi sanctions were imposed by the U.N. not the U.S. … but don’t let facts and logic get in the way of your argument since that’s not the Korean way …

please do not use a different standard with me. the others here did not keep their comments to just the cooking show.

shin