Though the mechanics are obviously different than the Sino-Soviet Dispute, the outcome is similar enough to be compared; North Korea is in the middle of the re-emerging Chinese great power and the world’s only superpower (for a detailed explanation this, see Suh Dae-sook’s book). Bush’s change from a hard-line to La-La Land policy […]

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and U.S. lead in the Six-Party Talks has been awarded the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Gwanghwa Medal from South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) (h/t P). I have to admit that when I first read this news, I thought […]

Instead of pressuring North Korea where we know the regime can be influenced, the Bush administration is setting the stage for removing the DPRK from the list of terrorist sponsoring nations, and insulting our strongest ally in the region, Japan, in the process:
North Korea appears to have met the legal criteria to be taken […]

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 […]

On my drive home, I was listening to a radio program, in which Korea “experts” were discussing the Lee Myung-Bak victory. Someone from the audience asked the question to the effect of, “With which American presidential candidate would Lee be the most comfortable?”
Experts were stumped, beyond the usual “He will get along with George […]

The importance of the New York Philharmonic trip to Pyongyang is being vastly overstated. It will only add a feather to Kim Jong-il’s bouffant, and give the North Korean elite a treat, but nothing else:
The trip, at the invitation of North Korea, will be the first significant cultural visit by Americans to that country, […]

Yesterday, 25 November, a Reuters report indicated that the U.S. State Department had deployed a diplomat to North Korea ahead of establishing formal ties:
The United States has stationed a State Department employee in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for opening a permanent liaison office in North Korea. . . “A U.S. State Department diplomat […]

Is Roh insane or on drugs? It’s no longer just a rhetorical question as Roh recently made a string of comments that call into question either his grip on reality or experimentation with mind altering chemicals. And there is a huge difference between Roh and the gaffes made by Bush; Roh actually means what […]

While U.S. assistance to DPRK vessel in distress has nothing to do with a “symbol of cooperation” between the U.S. and North Korea – despite Hill’s comments, the U.S. would likely assist any ship in such circumstances – the sentiments expressed via the KCNA are nonetheless extremely unusual (h/t Steve). I’ll be watching related […]