The Chosun Ilbo reports that South Korea has known for years that its food aid to North Korea was being diverted to front-line North Korean military units manning the DMZ, but said nothing about it:
South Korean military authorities have known since 2003, when the Roh Moo-hyun administration was inaugurated, that North Korea has transported rice [...]
An article in Defense News examines the possibility that the North Koreans may have diverted oil aid for military purposes.
South Korean and U.S. Intelligence authorities are analyzing the background of the “sharp increase” in North Korea’s military maneuvers involving armored vehicles and fighter jets in recent months, a report said Feb. 10.
The increased military maneuvers by the North [...]
Might LMB finally stick a fork in the Unification Ministry? From Reuters:
South Korea’s new president could ditch the ministry that has long handled relations with North Korea, heralding what may be a major shift in the way Seoul deals with its prickly neighbour, aides were quoted as saying.
The Unification Ministry has been at the centre [...]
So far, it seems North Korea has been doing its best not to antagonize South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak. Lee’s North Korea advisor, meanwhile, said Lee would prioritize the implementation of intra-Korean economic aid cooperation projects agreed upon during last year’s Roh-KJI summit based on feasibility. It’ll be interesting to see how Pyongyang reacts to [...]
Some links for your reading enjoyment:
In the WaPo, Nick Eberstadt wonders whether the Bush foreign policy team will be adept enough to seize the opportunity presented by the defeat of the 북한퍼주기당 in South Korea’s presidential elections. I, on the other hand, wonder if there’s any real opportunity at all. Unlike Dr. Eberstadt, I’m not [...]
According to the Washington Post(sorry I’m not a subscriber, so I’m linking a Korean news article), U.S. scientists have found traces of enriched uranium in North Korean aluminum tubing.
Pres. Roh has sent a letter to Kim Jong-il, expressing his gratitude for North Korea’s Yeosu vote during the recent Bureau of International Exposition conference in Paris. That’s nice, but one wonders how much that vote cost S. Korea.
In the Asia Times, Dr. Lankov has penned one of the best pieces on Korean reunification I’ve ever read. Period.
Be sure to read it. Be sure to read it NOW.
Among the points:
Don’t hold you’re breath for “Chinese-style” economic reform in the North. It won’t happen.
Despite resistance to reform, North Korea is crumbling from below. The [...]
According to former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Japan voted against Ban Ki-moon during the UN General Secretary elections, but later changed its mind after some lobbying by the US Ambassador.
The former ambassador said he personally suspected that the “discourage” vote against Ban had come from Japan and persuaded Tokyo’s envoy, Kenzo Oshima, [...]
Jon B. Wolfstahl, a Senior Fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS), has written a piece on the supposed state of the Yongbyon nuke facility.
Few Americans have been to the remote and heavily guarded complex. I was one of a group of Department of Energy employees that served as on-site monitors at Yongbyon. And [...]
It’s even worse when overseas Koreans start bad-mouthing you, too:
After her husband was killed [in the 2002 West Coast naval skirmish between North and South Korea], Kim organized a memorial society for the servicemen who died in the battle. But she was frustrated by the South Korean government’s downplaying and minimizing of the battle in [...]
President Roh said today that he has no intention to ask North Korea for an apology for invading the South in 1950, since such a demand would be “unrealistic.”
From Yonhap:
Roh said inter-Korean relations should now change, and a South Korean request for an apology from the North would hinder the two countries’ efforts to establish [...]
My piece on the human rights for Myanmar protests in South Korea is finally out, almost two weeks after it was news. It took me a few days to write it and the Times another week to run it.
Here is the required blurb:
While Im [Jong-in] and his allies’ concern for the plight of the Burmese people is certainly [...]
Just when you thought things are getting quiet. Here are some of Roh’s latest remarks.
First on the NLL;
That line is an operational limit line for our military (Navy). If you call it a territorial border line, then you are misleading the public.
A ceasefire line is something that is drawn by both parties of a [...]
Yonhap reports that as per North Korean request (or, technically, a comment by President Roh following the North Korean request), the words “reform” and “opening” have been erased from the Kaesong section of the Unification Ministry’s homepage.
No, I’m not suggesting you defecate on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Instead, I refer to new items pertaining to North Korea.
In the IHT, Richard Bernstein suggest the US deal with North Korea was a “compromise.” Gee, you think? But more importantly, it looks at the Bush administration’s switch from refusing to even talk to [...]
More summit notes. Because there’s just so much crap out there.
Is Kim Jong-il hitting the sauce again? Novelist Jo “We Koreans Suffered 10 Times More than the Jews” Jung-rae (I really need to stop making fun of him for that, lest readers forget he’s actually a really good novelist, regardless of his politics), who was [...]
Just jotting down some notes after a glance at today’s news.
So, Who’ll Be Talking?
Debate is expected over who, exactly, will comprise the “three or four” parties that will discuss bringing the Korean War to its official conclusion, reports Yonhap. US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Oct 2 that the relevant parties would [...]
I literally spit cranberry juice all over my monitor when I saw this photo:
Taken from here.
You’ll no doubt recognize some of this cast of characters, including DLP lawmaker (and Marmot’s Hole favorite) Noh Hoe-chan and the grim-faced dude, second from the left, that you see at just about every anti-American protest.
This was following a press [...]
Just some observations from the day:
The two Koreas will be making a “Peace and Prosperity Declaration for the Development of Intra-Korean Relations” at 1:00pm. Be there or be square. Yonhap News, citing a high-ranking South Korean official, said the declaration will include new and specific economic cooperation projects, with analysts believing the declaration will include [...]
Korea News via Google