Asia Times: Korean hostage crisis pressures US, Karzai (Don Kirk)
Asia Times: Peace or appeasement with Pyongyang?
Reuters: Nuclear inspectors say North Korea cooperating
Reuters: North Korea demands more action from U.S., allies
AFP: US diplomat hands North Korean a snub
AFP: North Korea blasts Japan at Asia meet
AFP: US officials upbeat on NKorea talks
Reuters: North Korea and hostage […]
After almost three weeks of nearly no blogging, we’ve figured out enough of a new schedule and have begun to overcome exhaustion enough to seek some normality - or at least select parts of the old normality. The little guy is doing very good, gaining weight on schedule, and doing all the right things. […]
North Korea’s “…Central Election Guidance Committee, said 99.82% of all registered voters turned out to elect deputies to provincial, city and county people’s assemblies. Some 27,390 “officials, workers, farmers and intellectuals” were elected deputies after receiving all possible votes.”
Via RIAN: “Russia’s envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program said Thursday that although Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles are technically backward, Moscow is nevertheless concerned over the country’s missile test firings.” Smooth.
From Gizmodo: “Korean Air has just won the “World’s Best Economy Class” award in the Skytrax 2006/7 World Airline Awards. Yes, these pictures are from coach. What the hell.” Go to Gizmodo for the pics.
In an article at the Asia Times, Riddles and enigmas from North Korea, Andrei Lankov speculates on how governments get intelligence from inside North Korea, and lists some of the other valuable sources of information from the country.
- #From Mainichi and via the Chosun Bimbo, "In his first reported appearance following news of his hospitalization, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lost his temper while watching a college soccer match, denouncing several players' long hair as "disgusting," according to a source close to the North Korean government. The outburst was followed by a nationwide ban on long hair for men." We'll all be watching the next soccer match to see if it's so.
- #Outward Bound, an international non-profit outdoor education program, is offering fully funded (including transportation to/from sites) outdoor adventure excursions to all OEF/OIF veterans. It doesn't matter what your current military status is (active, inactive, discharged, retired) - you're eligible to attend as long as you deployed in support of OEF/OIF combat operations while in the military.
- #Via AFP: “South Korea has lifted an overseas travel ban on Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector ever to come here and a harsh critic of the Pyongyang regime. . . Hwang, former secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and an ex-tutor of Kim Jong-Il, defected during a trip to Beijing in 1997.” His travel restriction was due to 10 years of pro-North ROK leadership, now over.
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