Asia Times: Redesigning a historic alliance (Don Kirk)
AFP: SKorea, US finalise plan for new military alliance: ministry
Chosun Ilbo: Bell Hints Eighth U.S. Army May Be Disbanded
Dong-a Ilbo: Wartime Operational Control, to be Transferred by 2009 as Scheduled
VoA: New Effort Under Way to Revive North Korea Nuclear Talks
AFP: Chinese, SKorean envoys meet on [...]
WaPo’s take on Ban Ki-Moon, now the leading candidate to replace the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan:
Rivals have privately grumbled that South Korea, which has the world’s 11th-largest economy, has wielded its economic might to generate support for his candidacy. [Snip]
Ban said the insinuations are “groundless”… “I am a man of integrity.”
I don’t know, [...]
Former GNP representative Park Geun-hye spoke with high ranking NATO officials concerning issues relating to the handover of operational control (OPCON) of wartime command. She was basically told that a) having two allied commanders can be dangerous on the battlefield, and that b) giving up OPCON to the U.S. is not viewed as a sovereignty [...]
If you can make it to next months Pusan Film Festival you can see the premiere:
A US soldier who defected to communist North Korea more than 40 years ago will finally get to tell his story to the world in an upcoming film, executives said.
“Crossing the Line” covers the stories of four US army defectors [...]
AP: N.Korea receives nuclear talk proposal
AP: S. Korea ‘frustrated’ over nuclear talks
Reuters: China to send nuclear talks envoy to Seoul
AFP: US warns against North Korea nuclear test
Reuters: U.S. says N. Korea process at crucial phase
Yonhap: S. Korea says there is no alternative to six-way talks
AFP: North Korea to replace deputy [...]
Yikes!
China’s controversial one-child policy continues to widen the gender disparity in newborn babies, according to a new report.
In 2004, 121 boys were born in China for every 100 girls, according to the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). That is up from 2000, when the ratio was 117 boys to 100 girls. [Snip]
In 1982, [...]
I wrote briefly about the new Japanese Prime Minister Abe earlier. Now comes the report of some intra-party discussions that may serve as an indicator of things to come in the Japanese government:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe altered his choices for the Cabinet and ruling party executive lineup after calls for unity by a politician whose [...]
One path turns out to be the same as in the West, although with a drastically smaller chance of success; sports!* From Reuters, Kim Jong-il lavishes gifts on women:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lavished luxury cars and apartments on female footballers who won the recent under-20 world championship, according to the country’s media.
North Korea’s [...]
This week Richard Armitage, United States Deputy Secretary of State until 2004, made a few public statements about what he thinks North Korea will do in the months ahead:
“I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il is going to try muddle through, notwithstanding the horror it brings to his own [...]
NYT: In Book, Musharraf Expands on North Korean Nuclear Link
India Times: A Q Khan sold tonnes of N-parts, admits Mush
Korea Times: Dollarization of NK Economy (Andrei Lankov)
IHT: For a better life, North Koreans turn ‘traitor’
Asia Times: NK and the Politics of Famine: PART 4: A matter of policy
AFP: Rice gives NK nuclear talks [...]
Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
- #Missed it on the 30th as I was working late, but it's now been four years since DPRK Studies has been in blog format.
- #From the Japan Times: "Yasushi Chimura and his wife, Fukie, abducted by North Korea in 1978 but repatriated in 2002, expressed relief Friday that their children [now ages 27, 25, and 21] are adapting smoothly to Japanese life as they marked the fifth anniversary of their arrival in Japan."
- #Via the NYT: "Former President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, who had been under criminal investigation for corruption, died on Saturday from a fall while hiking on a hill near his retirement home... it was unclear whether the fall was accidental or whether Mr. Roh had committed suicide ... Roh left a will, indicating that the death might have been a suicide." While the man never should have been president, it's sad to see what likely was a suicide.
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