Earlier this week former U.S. president Bill Clinton went to North Korea to obtain the release of two American journalists who foolishly strayed into that country five months earlier and became pawns in a larger – and largely futile – diplomatic game. Clinton’s visit was portrayed as unofficial and that of a private citizen, [...]
Hillary Clinton, speaking at a graduation ceremony at Barnard College in New York City, displayed an amazing degree of naiveté:
“We have two young women journalists right now imprisoned in North Korea and you can get busy on the Internet and let the North Koreans know that we find that absolutely unacceptable,” Clinton told the [...]
The Taepo Dong 2 (TD-2) (대포동 2호) missile launch(es) North Korea likely is preparing for, and recent voiding of all political-military deals with South Korea, are part of Pyongyang’s long-term strategy of regime survival. While these actions also have less important near-terms goals – expressing displeasure with ROK President Lee Myung-bak’s relatively hard-line approach [...]
A good number of South Koreans seem to confuse democracy with truly mindless mass protesting based on blatantly false information that could easily be debunked but rarely is, at least by South Koreans themselves. The uproar, this time, ostensibly began over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as Mad Cow Disease, which causes a [...]
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.
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.
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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