My apologies to Richardson and the readers of this blog for months of silence (I will write an explanation at some point). But here is some good news from South Korea if you are a gun nut like I am:
South Korea’s defence ministry has announced plans to sell up to 86,000 M1 Garand rifles to [...]
After missile and nuclear tests and uranium enrichment, the U.S. sanctions North Korean firms while Pyongyang reverses, making overtures. It’s not an accident, it’s a pattern of strategic disengagement.
The Clan Records: Five Stories of Korea. Kajiyama Toshiyuki. University of Hawaii Press, 1995 (translated).
The Clan Records is a collection of five short stories by a Japanese author who was born in Seoul (then called Keijo) in 1930, where his father was a civil engineer, and grew up there until he was repatriated [...]
Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) programs don’t pop-up overnight, especially in third-world backwaters like North Korea. Yet North Korea has announced via state-run media that it is capable of the “final stage of uranium enrichment.”
How shocking! There were no clues! There was no way to know this!
Well, not really. All [...]
Erik van Ingen Schenau of the China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre has posted a collection of photos of vehicles manufactured in North Korea. A larger variety than I realized, and more than a few named Chollima (천리마).
After missile and nuclear tests and uranium enrichment, the U.S. sanctions North Korean firms while Pyongyang reverses, making overtures. It’s not an accident, it’s a pattern of strategic disengagement.
- #Vanity Fair, of all publications, has a lengthy article on North Korea’s counterfeiting operations, including Office 39. Well worth a read. (h/t NE Asia Matters)
- #The Chosun Ilbo has an article about a new book by Chang Jin-song (formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party) that details Kim Jong-il private life, including the inside scoop on all his lady friends. According to Chang, one unfortunate young lady to get Kim's attention was, "brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man."
- #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.
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