I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2007!
Having just returned from a week at my parents farm in the Midwest for the Christmas holiday, my hope for the new year is that we are able to relocate far away from the rat race of the DC Metro area to someplace with a (much) lower […]
Catherine Field presents the classic (and mostly thoughtful) engagement argument in the International Herald Tribune. There isn’t anything original in the piece, but it nicely summarizes the core argument of the pro-engagement crowd:
Some argue that such handouts have not led to any improvement in the lives of North Koreans in the past, and that […]
With everything else going on this month, we’ve been late in putting this out there, but perhaps it can help you when you’re back at Borders on the 26th looking to trade in that book of cute kitten pictures that your Aunt Marge got you for some inexplicable reason.
Movies
North Korea: A Day In The […]
Kim Jong-Il is personally overseeing a drive to get karaoke machines to all the troops, citing a noticable improvement in morale amongst karaoke-enabled soldiers. No word yet on whether all machines are programmed with “Country Roads”
Below are photos of just a few of the items I recovered from WWII Japanese shipwrecks in the Pacific.
↑ That’s me, about 90’ down, around the mast of a cargo ship.
↑ A sake cup (front and back, from a set) with a poem on one side, and a crossed rake and broom on the […]
Both the U.S. and North Korea have not changed positions much, if any, since September 2005; North Korea insisted on receiving the benefits of disarming before beginning that process, and the U.S. demanded nuclear disarmament and compliance with former agreements before any aid is given or sanctions lifted. The Banco Delta and nuclear test […]
Being Japanese, ‘life’ could be 30-40 more years for this guy: “Prosecutors demanded. . . a life imprisonment for a gangster who allegedly played a leading role in smuggling. . . drugs into Japan from North Korea in 2002. . . [The defendant is] Atsunori Fukushima, 68, a senior member of a gang group […]
Rumsfeld and Roh agreed that North Korea is “not a threat,” but still missile defense is apparently too sexy to resist: “South Korea will seek to build an independent missile defense system amid growing security jitters sparked by North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests. . . South Korea will not join the United States […]
Yonhap: Talks extended amid signs of breakthrough
Chosun Ilbo: US Offers Compromise Over NK’s Dollar Forgeries
Bloomberg: US, NK Hold `Useful’ Talks, Extend Nuclear Negotiations
Kyodo: US, NK end financial talks, may meet again next month in NY
Reuters: North Korea says U.S. is plotting to harm it
Reuters: N.Korea nuclear talks to continue through Friday
Kyodo: Abe […]
This months talks are running into the same roadblocks that halted negotiations in September 2005 – the timing of CVID and LWR – but with the added bonus of North Korea petulantly demanding a) to be recognized as a nuclear power and, b) that Banco Delta sanctions be dropped. North Korea is once again […]
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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