Former President Kim Dae-jung (김대중) died today at age 83 (85 by Korean reckoning) of complications related to pneumonia. Kim was the Republic of Korea present from 1998 to 2003.
Although Kim had a long political career as an opposition leader – not an easy thing in Korea at the time – he [...]

“Kimjongilia” [김정일화] is a documentary the depicts why the defectors fled, describes their escapes, and recounts the dangers they faced in China, hunted by Chinese police as well as North Korean intelligence services.
The director, N.C. Heikin, felt she must do something to expose the human rights disaster that North Korea is after hearing of Kang [...]

In 1999 the news on North Korea was both alarmist over North Korean antics and naively hopeful of peace suddenly breaking out. A decade later the news is still often alarmist - North Korea did test a nuclear device in 2006 after all - but less naive after decade of reneging on agreements and [...]

There was a time when German soldiery was feared for its vaunted combat effectiveness. The Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, who later achieved immortality as the prophet of military transformation (The Transformation of War) made his early reputation as a combat historian with an insightful comparative study of WWII German and American combat effectiveness [...]

Tutor to young Kim Jong-il from 1959, Kim Hyun-sik (76) defected in 1991 and is now a research professor at George Mason University in Virginia. After his defection, Prof. Kim’s entire family was executed via the gulag.
Prof. Kim’s memoir published in South Korea last year, “A 21st Century Ideological Nomad” (Korean), is the basis [...]

15 August is the 63rd anniversary of Victory over Japan (V-J) Day, or Liberation Day in North and South Korea. It’s hard to imagine how the North Koreans could explain the significance of the day without mentioning the U.S. doing the heavy lifting, but they still manage to do so.

Andrei Lankov’s latest at the Korea Times deals with the introduction of beer to Korea, which, “only began at earnest in the 1890s, when Japanese merchants introduced the Sapporo brand to Korea.” (h/t Zen Kimchi)

Update: Probably it would have been better to get these answers *before* announcing plans to delist North Korea and remove other trade barriers, as that is what the agreements actually called for:
North Korea did not answer U.S. suspicions of enriching uranium and proliferating technology when it released an inventory of its nuclear plans this [...]

GI Korea has an excellent and lengthy post on the background, events, and aftermath of the 2002 accident where a U.S. armored vehicle killed to schoolgirls. I arrived in Korea a few days after the accident, but things didn’t start to heat up until two months later, as I was returning to the States.

As part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month there was a small conference at Bolling AFB, DC yesterday, which I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. The three speakers and guests of honor;
Terry Shima – Mr. Shima was drafted into the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 1944 and arrived in Europe on [...]