As a former immigrant, I revere America’s car culture. Automobile, to me, means freedom — to go where one wishes, rather than to be limited by the rail tracks or bus routes that the government determines. This freedom of mobility might increase in China as more Chinese buys cars, including foreign cars. This is […]
From Reuters:
North Korea’s number two leader is expected to sign trade and defence deals with Uganda where he is due to make a rare visit this month, Uganda’s international affairs minister said on Sunday. Kim Yong-nam, the president of the presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, is expected to start a three-day visit […]
North Korea and Russia have reached an agreement to renovate the 55 km Khasan-Rajin railway, which will link North Korea’s port city of Rajin (Najin) to Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railroad. Some reconstruction is required as the two countries use different rail gauges, and North Korea’s portion likely is in varying stages of disrepair.
Though it will […]
Late in 2007 Russia delivered “its most advanced long-range jet,” to North Korea’s Air Koryo (h/t GS). A variant of the Tupolev TU-204 twin-engined medium range Russian airliner was purchased, the TU-204-300:
It is a shortened, longer range and more efficient derivative of the Tu-204. It is about 6 meters (20 ft) shorter than the […]
If ever there was a time to drop the hammer on North Korea for habitually reneging on nuclear deals, now would be the time:
Speaking to reporters in Beijing Saturday, [Sigfried Hecker] said North Korean officials have told him they will not provide a full declaration of the country’s nuclear programs until other countries provide […]
The power of rumors should not be underestimated. Recently two rumors should be of great concern to the elites of the Kim regime. Last month there were reports that Kim Jong-il had ordered, “all of the regime’s institutions [to] reduce their bureaucracies and the number of senior officials by 30 percent.” Now we hear […]
Last Thursday, while addressing at the American Enterprise Institute, Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush’s Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, stated that, “North Korea is not serious about disarming in a timely manner,” and “It is increasingly likely that North Korea will have the same nuclear status one year from now that it […]
Update: Some timely comments on the problem of Roh and the effect on the U.S.-ROK alliance.
Original post: The Brookings Institution North Korea page has a new paper (h/t Kevin) on U.S.-ROK relations, “Looking Back and Looking Forward: North Korea, Northeast Asia and the ROK-U.S. Alliance,” (full paper-PDF) by Dr. Park Hyeong-jung, a Senior Fellow […]
The latest edition of the Military Review, a publication of the US Army’s Combined Arms Center located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has an excellent paper on, “Finding America’s Role in a Collapsed North Korean State.” (PDF) An excerpt:
American military and political thinkers today are focused on creating policies to govern stability operations, but this […]
About two years ago, I wrote about South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-Bak’s “student radical” days and how he came to get his chaebol job despite his prison record, on the now defunct blog The Korea Liberator (archived here).
This episode is fairly well-known in South Korea, but I reproduce much of the original post below […]
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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