A Peek Inside North Korea...

Michael Malice is an American writer who was born in the Soviet Union, but came to the U.S. at the age of 2.  He visited North Korea as a tourist, partly on a quest to see a land that might give him a sense of what life in the Soviet Union was like for his parents.

He wrote about his week in North Korea for Reason.  He has some fascinating, sober, and insightful observations about the people there; well worth reading.  I continue to be impressed with the quality of the writing in Reason - one of only two magazines that I still subscribe to (the other is Science News).

A lot of observers who claim to be much better informed about what's going on inside of North Korea are convinced that the government there is about to collapse.  Nobody can be precise on the timing, of course – but the consensus seems to be that the intersection of a better-informed public (mainly through smuggled devices giving them access to Chinese media) and a disintegrating state apparatus (mainly because of its inability to pay, or even feed, its minions) makes a collapse inevitable.

That can't happen soon enough for the suffering people of North Korea.  But when the collapse does come, it will pose large problems for South Korea, and to a lesser extent, China.  South Korea will be in the same position as West Germany in 1991 – but with an even greater economic disparity, and with the enormous disadvantage of a relatively poorly educated and brainwashed North Korean population.  China will inevitably be taking in refugees and probably supplying humanitarian aid.  Even worse for them, however, will be losing the useful thorn in the West's side that North Korea has been for them...

Kim Jong-Il's Personal Sushi Chef...

A fascinating peek into the corrupt North Korean thugocracy...

Beloved Leader...

Via Jim M.:

Kim Jung Un had NO military experience whatsoever before Daddy made him a four-star general.  This snot-nosed twerp had never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership.   He hadn't even so much as led a Cub Scout troop, coached a sports team, or commanded a military platoon.   So he is made the "Beloved Leader" of North Korea.  Terrific!

Oh shoot!   I'm sorry.   I just remembered that we did the same thing.  We took an arrogant community organizer, who had never worn a uniform, and made him Commander-in-Chief.  A guy who had never had a real job, worked on a budget, or led anything more than an ACORN demonstration, and we made him President of the United States – TWICE!

I'm sorry I brought this up.   Never mind.

Escape from Camp 14...

This is one of the most intense non-fiction books I've read in years.  I've read a lot of history, which of course includes much about man's cruelty to man.  Only a few of the books I've read have the sheer emotional impact of this book.  Highly recommended, especially for anyone interested in current affairs.  You'll come away with a much better understanding of the cauldron of evil that is North Korea – and the reasons why it won't be easy to rid ourselves of it...

Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14 is the story of a North Korean man (Shin Dong-hyuk) who was born into what was intended to be a short, cruel life in the harshest of North Korea's slave labor/concentration camps.  For most of his life, he knew nothing of the world outside the camp.  He'd been taught to read and do basic arithmetic, but only so that he could perform the work in the camps.  His life was completely dominated by the daily struggle for food.  Though his parents were also in the camp, he knew nothing about familial love – his relatives were, basically, competitors for food.

The litany of what Shin endured in Camp 14 is mind-boggling: starved for years, recovered from injuries with no medical care, brutally punished frequently by guards and teachers for things like eating a few kernels of corn (or nothing at all), turned his mother and brother in for attempting escape – and then watched as both were brutally executed. 

After reading the book, what seemed even worse to me was Shin's making it all the way to adulthood in near-complete ignorance of the evilness of his context.  He had no idea that the world offered anything better, and no hope of ever obtaining better.  His dreams were of roast meat, as he knew nothing else to dream about...

On North Korea...

Yesterday, on his visit to South Korea, Obama said this (part of a larger comment):

North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations. Bad behavior will not be rewarded. There had been a pattern, I think, for decades in which North Korea thought if they had acted provocatively, then somehow they would be bribed into ceasing and desisting acting provocatively. What I've said to them consistently is rewarding bad behavior, turning a blind eye to deliberate provocations, trying to paper over these not just provocative words but extraordinarily provocative acts that violate international norms, that that's not obviously working.

This sounds like the right thing to say to the North Koreans. The trouble is that Obama's predecessors, all the way back to the Eisenhower administration, have said essentially the same thing, but behaved otherwise. The rest of the world, but most especially the U.S. and South Korea, keep telling the North Koreans that we will not reward them for bad behavior – and then we go ahead and reward them.  What passes for an upper class in North Korea has grown to be dependent on the food and other aid from the West.  Worst of all, they've learned (because we've trained them well) that if they do something outrageous (like, say, shelling a South Korean community), we'll respond with ... more aid.

I have no argument with Obama's rhetoric here; it remains to be seen whether he (unlike Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, or G.W. Bush) will break the pattern I just described.  I hope he will...

Kim Jong-Il is Dead...

Apparently of a heart attack at age 69.  His twenty-something son, Kim Jong-Un, is his annointed successor.

Kim Jong-Il's death means the fight for succession is on.  Kim Jong-Un, from everything I've read, is unlikely to be capable of holding onto power.  We should be cautious about such outsider assessments, though: I remember very similar things being said about Assad before he took over from his father.  Perhaps Kim Jong-Un will be similarly surprising.  If not, however, then we could be in for a stretch of ugly on the Korean peninsula.

The Onion already has its take on Kim Jong-Un...

North Korea: Tourist Destination?

Well, that's what their tourist bureau thinks.  Here's their advertising video to tell you all about it:




My first reaction on viewing this: it reminded me of the grainy black-and-white movies I saw as kid, showing the Soviet's May Day “celebrations” in Moscow...

North Korea...

The situation on the Korean peninsula looks very precarious to me (and to many other observers).  There's the classic, oft-repeated political tension caused by the provactive acts of one party – politicians are lining up either in the appeasement camp (though of course they describe it as “caution” or some other positive word) and the stomp 'em into the ground camp (couched of course as “consequences” or some such).  But however they word it, the choices are essentially between appeasement and attack. 

A middle ground seems impossible on this: if one country is blatantly attacked by another, causing deaths and the destruction of property, there really are only two choices: either one responds or one does not.  Both choices have consequences.

Personally, I lean toward “attack”, though not necessarily in the military sense.  I can see at least two different responses that might work: either economic sanctions of the effective variety (very difficult to achieve unless China reverses its policies toward North Korea), or an obvious retaliatory military action (say, sinking the entire North Korean fleet, which I think consists of about 12 vessels).  Both of these actions carry the possibility (perhaps even the probability) that North Korea will escalate the conflict by attacking South Korea.  We know that in the long run North Korea would lose such a conflict, but in the short run the damage to South Korea might be considerable. 

This is exactly the sort of threat that every penny-ante dictator uses as his real weapon, with the real objective of short-term benefit from his adversary's appeasement.  We're decades down that road with North Korea; none of our appeasing moves have brought tensions down one whit.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I think it's time for action.

Then there's the political reality of America's current administration.  It seems most unlikely that they could ever rouse themselves to effective retaliatory action, or even effective backing of our South Korean ally (other than through words).  If I were in the South Korean government, I'd be quite nervous about this...

Humor, NK-Style...

Here's a series of North Korean jokes, compiled by interviewing North Korean defectors.

Sheesh...

The Cheonan...

Can you say “uh oh”? 

Last week the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan exploded and sank with considerable loss of life.  After an investigation, the South Korean government is now saying they think it was a North Korean mine.  Story and analysis.

The Korean peninsula is one of the least stable and most dangerous places on earth right now.  There's the potential for a human disaster of very large proportions there, and the paths to a peaceful resolution all seem improbable...

North Korea's at it Again...

North Korea has exploded a second nuclear warhead, this time much larger than the previous one (and roughly equivalent to Trinity, the first test done by the U.S. in World War II). This test simply reconfirms (for the umpteenth time) the intransigence of the North Korean regime and the utter futility of the past decade's worth of negotiations, deals, and other elements of diplomacy. From the Wall Street Journal's article:

President Barack Obama, in a statement, called the action a "matter of grave concern to all nations" and said North Korea was undermining stability in northeast Asia. "It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery," he said.

The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon New York time to discuss the North's actions.

But it's unclear whether the U.S. and others will be able to muster a response strong enough to move Pyongyang from its stated goal of becoming recognized as a nuclear-weapons state.

Surely I'm not the only one to whom these diplomatic maneuvers seem like some kind of a comedy routine. At the very least, I'm certain the North Korean regime shares my view – they've been spectacularly successful at manipulating the world's diplomats and the U.N., reaping all sorts of goodies for themselves along the way. They must be rolling in the aisles in Pyongyang, clutching their bellies in pain from their howls of laughter at the unbelievably stupid democratic nations of the world.

Somehow I don't think Obama's statement has them even slightly worried, much less considering adjusting their strategic course:

North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programs pose a great threat to the peace and security of the world and I strongly condemn their reckless action. North Korea's actions endanger the people of Northeast Asia, they are a blatant violation of international law, and they contradict North Korea's own prior commitments.

Now, the United States and the international community must take action in response. The record is clear: North Korea has previously committed to abandoning its nuclear program. Instead of following through on that commitment it has chosen to ignore that commitment. These actions have also flown in the face of United Nations resolutions. As a result North Korea is not only deepening its own isolation, it's also inviting stronger international pressure -- that's evident overnight, as Russia and China, as well a our traditional allies of South Korea and Japan, have all come to the same conclusion: North Korea will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons.

We will work with our friends and our allies to stand up to this behavior and we will redouble our efforts toward a more robust international nonproliferation regime that all countries have responsibilities to meet.
In this effort the United States will never waiver from our determination to protect our people and the peace and security of the world.

Not exactly shiver-inducing rhetoric, that.

I'd suggest something slightly more direct, such as:

Either you shut down your nuclear weapons facilities and open them for international verification inspections, or we will start bombing what little viable infrastructure you have. Our bombing objective will be to cause as much pain to the ruling regime as possible. Oh, and that smoking crater where your television studios used to be? That was just to demonstrate our capability.

I can dream, can't I?

We Are Terrorists!!!

You just can't make this stuff up. This is a quote from the North Korean Foreign Ministry:

“The DPRK (North Korea) neither wishes to be delisted as a 'state sponsor of terrorism' nor expects such a thing to happen.”

The left claims to believe that any disagreements we might have with people like this can be negotiated away. Me, I think the only “negotiating” one can do with people like this is the kind of negotiating that involves aiming weapons of terrorist destruction (i.e., U.S. Marines, JDAMs, cruise missiles, etc.) directly at their heads.