Via Hankyoreh:
» North Korea’s foreign minister Baek Nam-sun casts his glance down at the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice passes before him. Kuala Lumpur (AP Yonhap News)
Via the Times: "The exhibition features 400 hand-painted posters dating from the peak of the Dear Leader Kim Sung Il's power in the 1950s to the present regime led by his son, Kim Jong Il." The article has only one image, but has several interesting propaganda quotes.
- #Young Korean Herrenvolk engaging in their version of Agoge, at least according to the New York Times. The two Korean schools mentioned in the article are similar to Exeter or Andover in the United States in someways (they are private academies that serve children of affluent parents). But my guess is that the studious atmosphere and intense regimen compare more to the likes of Stuyvesant (my alma mater) in NYC or T.J. in Virginia (both highly selective, but publicly-funded high schools).
- #North Korea claims that on 25 April 1932 the Korean People’s Army (KPA, 조선인민군/ Chosŏn inmin'gun) was formed. However, the more likely accurate date is 08 February 1948. It is celebrated as “Military Foundation Day” in Kimland.
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July 30th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
He’s obviously checking out her booty
I hope all his savings were in the Macau bank account that was shut down….
July 30th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
She’s a female, black, and neo-con - and the head of the US of A’s team — it’s got to burn his balls……..goodie…..
July 31st, 2006 at 12:11 am
he’s thinking:
‘baby got back’
- sir mix a lot
and he wants to tap it pretty badly.
July 31st, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Uh, I believe Baek said this - at least thru DPRK propaganda machine per Time Mag article below:
Pyongyang issued a statement calling U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a “political imbecile.”
Say WTF?
Hey good 1 james on “baby got back” song. It’s been running on my head for few hours and I gotta download it!
North Korea’s Mounting Troubles
Pyongyang’s neighbors are taking a firmer hand with the hermit state. But don’t count Kim Jong Il out yet
By JENNIFER VEALE
Sunday, Jul. 30, 2006
The last few weeks have been rough for North Korea. After the country provoked international ire by test-firing seven ballistic missiles, the United Nations Security Council voted to bar U.N. member states from trading missile-related technology and materials with the North. South Korea is holding back rice and fertilizer aid; Japan is preparing to impose its own economic sanctions including tough restrictions on high-tech exports to the North. Then Typhoon Ewiniar battered one-third of the country, leaving upward of 60,000 villagers homeless.
Even Pyongyang’s friends have proved fickle. Last week, South Korean newspapers reported that China, the North’s closest ally, largest trading partner and aid donor, had frozen North Korean assets held in the Macau branch of the Bank of China. Beijing’s clampdown, which took place last year, followed a similar freeze on about $24 million of Pyongyang’s cash in another Macau bank—Banco Delta Asia—which the U.S. claimed was funneling money the North earns from drug smuggling and counterfeiting.
Is China’s clampdown a sign that Beijing has tired of running interference for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and will back U.S. efforts to force Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons? Unlikely, says Alexandre Mansourov, a North Korea expert at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. China and North Korea have been at odds lately—Beijing warned against the missile tests—and there are “hurt feelings,” he says. But “fundamentally it is a very tight relationship.”
Certainly Pyongyang’s behavior hasn’t changed. At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit last week, appeals were made for the North to participate in talks on its missile and nuclear programs. They were spurned; Pyongyang issued a statement calling U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a “political imbecile.” Kim seems willing to defy anyone, even his benefactors in Beijing. Paul Carroll of the Ploughshares Fund, a San Francisco-based foundation working on non-proliferation, was in Pyongyang recently with U.S. scholars, where he met with officials including Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan. After the missile launch, Carroll says, Kim observed: “What I hear is big brothers saying to little brother, ‘Don’t do that,’ but we are not a little boy. We have nuclear weapons.”
July 31st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
duke….one other thing on top of that report written jennifer vale.
beijing let 3 NK’s fly directly from beijing to the US.
if and when China did let any refugee(s) to to SK or another country, the refugee(s) would have to go via 3rd country.
can someone vouch that this was 1st EVER?
beijing letting NK refugees fly directly from beijing to the US?
i think so….
and they knew it would piss off KJI.
July 31st, 2006 at 3:50 pm
That photo has “Who farted?” written all over it.
July 31st, 2006 at 8:54 pm
James,
Good observation!
“if and when China did let any refugee(s) to to SK or another country, the refugee(s) would have to go via 3rd country.
can someone vouch that this was 1st EVER?
beijing letting NK refugees fly directly from beijing to the US? ”
I guess in a way US is the “3rd” country of sort which happens to be the final destination. Once the words spreads all over DPRK let alone China that DPRK refugee can go straight to worst enemy USA, there may be mass exodus so grand PRC just cannot control the inflow.