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 [...]

In July 2006, I wrote about the potential for an East Asian arms race. One possibility mentioned at that time was of Japan also going nuclear if a reunified Korea chose that option. A recent Congressional Research Service report, “Japan’s Nuclear Future: Policy Debate, Prospects, and U.S. Interests,” (PDF) 19 February 2009, has [...]

Yesterday I linked to nostalgic Korean tunes from the 70’s. The third one I linked was Cho Yong-Pil’s “Come Back to Pusan Port.” While I was looking for some more video material on Korea, I found the following, which is certainly a different performance of that song:

Yes, that is an African-American expatriate (”Jero”) in Japan, dressed [...]

Predicting the future is a chancy business at best and rarely rewards either the prognosticator or the consumers of the fortunetelling. Nonetheless, I offer the following thoughts as a conversation-starter.
With the recent speculation of Kim Jong-Il’s ill health, incapacitation and perhaps death, it might be useful to conceptualize the political shape of the Korean Peninsula [...]

The book by Charles Jenkins detailing his time as a U.S. defector in North Korea, “Kokuhaku” (To Tell the Truth, in Japanese), will be released in English, 3 March 2008 under the title, “The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea.” (h/t Sam) The 238 page book is going for only [...]

From the Japan Times: “The Sea of Japan will remain the term of reference for the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan despite efforts by North and South Korea to have the name changed. . . the ninth conference on the standardization of geographical names [decided] Monday.” [h/t Occidentalism]

According to the article, “Kim Is Squeezed as North Koreans in Japan Switch Citizenship,” about 1,200 North Korean citizens living in Japan change their citizenship to South Korea each year, and the rate is increasing:
Kim Jong Il no longer supports the government of North Korea.
Kim is a 66-year-old businessman who owns a shoe factory in [...]

There is probably no better way to muddy Japanese accusations that North Korea kidnapped numerous Japanese citizens than to produce a counter accusation that can’t be proved, which is far more proactive than mere denial.
The sad truth here is that a woman defected to Japan but was almost certainly faced with the prospect of having [...]

Update: Also see Joshua’s post on this.
Original post: Japan continues to keep pressure on North Korea in yet another move that will stifle the flow of currency and goods from Japan to North Korea. The Chosun Soren clearly brought this upon themselves:
The de facto embassy of North Korea in Japan may lose its headquarters after [...]

In an update to this post, several stories offer various bits of information that begin to create a more solid picture of the family’s motivations and the circumstances of their trip. Probably the relatives they left behind, if any, will be easily identities and may pay the price. From the Yomiuri Shimbun:
Four North Korean defectors [...]