NK Defector Walks into U.S. Consulate in Moscow

Hello everyone,

This article states that a NK defector walked into a U.S. Consulate in Moscow to seek refuge:

It has been confirmed that the man went to an influential local newspaper to ask for help, saying that he did not want to go back to North Korea, a week before he entered the U.S. Consulate. But the paper refused his request, after which he entered the Consulate. This is the first time that a North Korean has entered a foreign legation in Russia.

Some 12,000 NK workers in forestry, agriculture and construction across Russia are also seeking refuge, but are having a difficult time to do so:

[...] [I]t is not easy for them to seek refuge because they live in a systematically monitored group, are very loyal to their communist country and most of them have families in North Korea.

As evident, this leaves many NK refugees in a predicament, and at the same time, it is difficult to decide what it is that can be done to provide a solution to this issue.

End to North Korea Crisis

I found an article from The New York Times that according to a prominant former South Korean general, the North Korea crisis will not end with KIm Jung Il in power. Overall, this article is not too shocking and just restates everything we already know regarding the multi-party talks. It never continues to amaze me how little information the media actually publishes. It frustrates me that there is not more information published in these prominant news sources. The article also calls the Korean peninsula a "powder keg" which is very true and is very scary. I don't want the fuse to be lit in my lifetime, but like Dr. Quinones said, it's our generation's problem. Here is the address to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north-talks.html

South Korea's View on NK

During class on Thursday, we were discussing the South Korean government's view on the North Korean government, and how the movie JSA depicts the idea of neutrality when considering which side is to blame for Korea's division. As Professor Larsen indicated, this idea from the South Korean government and its people is revolutionary.

This is an article that conveys this idea. I have highlighted segments of the article and posted them below:

"Korea’s 2004 defense white paper will be published and distributed in mid-January next year, three months later than originally scheduled."

"The white paper is a low-level document on national security strategies, strongly hinting at the possibility of replacing the main enemy description."

"Presidential security adviser Kwon Jin-ho said at a parliamentary inspection on Oct. 22 that a definition of our main enemy narrowly means the North Korean leadership and its military
followers and that he wanted to define the North as a main threat, instead of as the main enemy."

Not North Korea related, but.....

Since we do talk about politics in class, you all should enjoy this site!

Exhaustive Confusion

So I've been reading North Korea Through the Looking Glass this evening, and it occured to me that the DPRK presented by Hassig/Oh is much different than the DPRK the news writes about. Apparently North Korea is a nation whose populous is constantly on the brink of starvation and malnurishment, a nation devoid of industry or services, a nation with a defunct administration that begs its enemies for foreign aid in order to maintain the status quo. How does this stack up against "nukular" North Korea? Not very well. Or at least I'm still having trouble digesting it all.

President Clinton has noted in both his novel and in recent speechs that North Korea became a cause for concern during the latter months of his second term. But North Korea was hardly on the map for our generation at the time of the 2000 Presidential debates. Today, though most people cannot locate North Korea on a map, many understand that this impoverished 4th world nation is one of the greatest threats to US interests today. How did this come to be? Why does it appear that neither Presidential candidates have addressed this problem?

President Bush tried to take a hard line against Kim Jong-il by working hard to maintain 20 months of no negotiations (hard work indeed). This policy failed by allowing North Korea to be all but a step away from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. So Bush foreign policy: No weapons (as in Iraq), invade; we think they have weapons (as in Korea), give them more time to develop them so that we can be sure?? What kind of foreign policy is this?

Senator Kerry provides few details on how exactly his foreign policy would differ besides his approach to negotiations. And to be quite honest, I have grown tired of trying to pin down his approach to any aspect of Asian foreign policy (not unusual, but certainly a pesterance).

So what is North Korea and if it is what we really say it is, why is nothing being done, and why is what is being done not enough? And finally, why haven't our leaders stepped forward to confront this problem? Some have suggested that our current policy is working. This is true to an extend, but a very limited extent. The current policy is not without its risks, and if these risks are as grave as the ever ghoulish Dick Cheney has proclaimed, then obviously our current policy is a long way from being satisfactory.

Okay, I've digressed. I'm still baffled by how this 4th world nation, and I use the term fourth world because I cannot think of any 3rd world nations with many similarities, can pose such a great risk and remain unconfronted by the world's leading superpower, especially considering the current administrations neoconservative/"pre-emptive" approach to foreign policy. Slowly I've come to reconcile this image of Korea. although it has not been easy. So where does this leave us? How will Senator Kerry tackle the challenges presented by a "nukular" North Korea as President? I can feel a headache coming on... I'll continue to clarify my rant tomorrow.

North Korean Refugees Arrested in China

Reports say Chinese police have raided two safe houses in Beijing, arresting 60 North Korean refugees preparing to seek asylum.
The raid came as Beijing condemned an upsurge in large-scale asylum bids by North Koreans fleeing food shortages and repression in their homeland. China's has vowed a zero tolerance approach to North Korean asylum seekers. These raids could be the first indication of what that might mean. A local newspaper said around 60 illegal immigrants were arrested east of Beijing, as well as two South Koreans. The South Korean news agency Yonhap said the group was believed to be planning to enter a foreign mission, or school, in Beijing.

In the latest of such attempts, 14 North Koreans on Monday tried to scale the walls of the South Korean consulate in Beijing, but 11 were stopped by Chinese guards, one of whom was filmed hitting them with an electric cattle prod. In the past two months, more than 100 North Koreans have sought asylum in foreign missions and schools in Beijing. They are now waiting to be given safe passage to South Korea. Beijing has called such attempts "serious violations of Chinese law". It has urged foreign embassies to stop providing refuge to North Koreans, whom it sees as illegal immigrants.

naval drill near korea

Apparently a couple of days ago, the Japanese, with U.S. supervision, staged a practice interception of a boat relatively close to North Korea. As the article describes, the Japanese and Americans were practicing intercepting boats carrying weapons of mass destruction. The Japanese are apparently worried that boats may be used to transport nuclear weapons or materials either in or out of North Korea and also possibly that a North Korean boat loaded with a WMD could be driven into a Japanese bay and detonated, as Professor Larsen mentioned in class. It probably was also meant as a message to the DPRK that the Japanese are prepared for an attack and are militarily capable, though the Japanese deny this (that it was a message). What I think is interesting is, since the U.S. was involved in the exercise, that the exercise really encapsulates the Bush administration's approach to the DPRK, which is the opposite of the relatively non-confrontational stance taken by earlier administrations. Bush has rejected appeasement and instead is trying to send a clear message to North Korea not to mess around. This strategy sounds nice, but it doesn't appear to be working any better than the aid-for-talks strategy. I think if we try to flex our muscles, Kim will simply escalate the situation and it will get to the point that Kim will only back down if we take a step we might not be prepared to take (like airstrikes). For example, shortly after this naval exercise, increased activity around missile sites was reported and there were rumors that the DPRK was preparing to test a rocket. What do you all think?

Simpson '04

Well, the mood's been quite tense over the past few days with talk of nuclear proliferation, holes in fences, possible infiltrators, and diplomatic stalemate, so I thought I'd lighten the blog a little bit....

According to a poll of U.K. television viewers, Homer J. Simpson should succeed George W. Bush as President of the United States. Read the article here. Worth a chuckle or two. Can you picture it? "Mmmmmmm.........pork barrel legislation." "No WMD'S? Doh!" If Dubya gave us some interesting sound bites, imagine Homer talking to reporters about the nukular situation in North Korea.

Anyway good thing our candidates atleast are of flesh and blood, even if they lack brains or personalities. Happy one-week-before-the-election day!

More on The Hole

Hello everyone,

Contrary to Chris and Lauren's articles, this article from a Korean newspaper is stating that it is highly likely that it was a South Korean civilian defecting North!

This is what the Joint Chiefs of Staff Head of Operations Brig. General HWANG Jung Seon of the DPRK said in a press conference:

Considering how the holes in the fence were square-shaped and were opened South to North and footprints and handprints at the scene were imprinted from the South to the North, there were no particular signs related to an infiltration attempt, and it is judged that an unknown individual went to the North.

Interesting contradiction from both sides. I am excited to see how this will play out.

Hole in the Fence

Here's another article about the new hole in the fence on the South Korean side of the DMZ. I'm curious as to why so little attention has been paid to the possibility that the hole was cut by civilian defectors as opposed to North Korean troops. Additionally, what do people think about the fact that this occurred during Colin Powell's southeast-Asian journey? Just a question to think about...

South Korean Border Breach?

According to this article, the South Korean border may have been breached by North Korean guerillas. All they've found is a hole in the fence for now, but the Korean news should be quite interesting for the next couple of days.

Korean War

I was just watching a program on the history channel. (narrated by chuck heston interestingly) It said that initially Chinese troops that came into Korea did so disguised as North Koreans. I had never heard of anything like this. The program also talked about how Russians were involved in the air war.

Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones

I thought it was quite amazing that such a person like Dr. Quinones was able to speak to our class. It was great to speak with someone who has been to North Korea and who still presently goes. It was also interesting that he spoke with the very famous leaders of North Korea and was able to share some of his stories with our class. He was a very entertain individual and I was very interested in all of his stories. I probably could have spoken with him on North Korea for hours.

North Korea Apple Tree Project

Rememer the story that Dr. Quinones told us about bringing the apple trees to North Korea? Here is an article that talks about it.

It is actions like those that will bring the world closer to peace. I loved when Dr. Quinones talked about the little things that helped bridge our two peoples--Like getting to know the waitress who hated him at first, or showing the Ambassador's family around Washington DC. Perhaps we could take a lesson or two in how to deal with Iraq and the Middle East from this.

More on Powell's Visit to the DPRK

Hello everyone,

You can find a little more information about Powell's visit here. The general focus seems to be on the fact that Powell will not accept North Korean conditions for resuming six-party talks.

North Korea may be waiting for the result of the upcoming presidential election in the U.S., but he does not think that the North would see changes in the framework of the six-way talks regardless of the outcome of the election.

It is interesting how accurate Dr. Quinones was on his speculation about multilateral talks with NK.

Here is some more about Powell and North Korea. Evidently North Korea's newest threat is to double the size of its "nuclear deterent." I think it's interesting and even sometimes amusing to observe North Korea's threats. They seem to come up with more and more unique threats everyday.

Powell

I just saw on MSNBC that Colin Powell is in the region around North Korea. He evidently said that the United States does not know the extent of North Korea's weapons program. He is going in the area to discuss the possibility of 6 party talks about nuclear weapons in North Korea.

The Election and the news

I have noticed lately that it is really hard to find any news articles regarding North Korea or any other country for that matter on mainstream news websites because of the constant stream of articles relating to the presidential election. Everything is a Kerry said/Bush said type article. One I found today on cnn.com was particularly amusing to me. This article is basically about how Condoleeza Rice has been making speeches in swing states. The only mention of any issues that voters should be focused on in the race was found in one quote in the last paragraph of the article.

"For all its fear mongering on the war on terror, this White House has a greater commitment to its political security than to our national security," Edwards said in Canton, Ohio. "The fact is that the violence in Iraq is spiraling out of control, Osama bin Laden remains at large and North Korea and Iran have increased their nuclear capabilities. With all this going on, Condi Rice shouldn't take the time to go on a campaign trip for George Bush."

The rest of the article can be found at this website (again I apologize that I can't hyperlink):
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/20/condoleezza.campaign.criticism.ap/index.html

Today's Class

I enjoyed Dr. Quinones' visit to the class, thought it was quite interesting. Good to see a liberal that is willing to listen to somebody else's point of view (his coauthor). Brought up interesting points, saying that 6 party talks are not the way to go, none of the other 4 countries want in, also said bilateral wouldnt be very effective either though (it's slipped my mind as to what he supported...)

I was also interested to hear about KJL's health.. especially with this incident with Fidel Castro today.. funny that they say he can come back from this without a problem, even at 78?? Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait to see what comes of both of their health issues...

Plans scratched for new ROK capital

From BBC - "South Korea's constitutional court has blocked a government plan to move the capital from Seoul to a new site."

There goes the speculation on that subject, which apparently was a huge part of Roh Moo-hyun's presidential campaign. The article cites poor planning and high cost as reasons for blocking the plan, as well as the need for a consitutional amendment or national referendum. Beyond that, I also think that if the issue of concern is Seoul's proximity to the DMZ, then moving the capital south might protect the structure of government in case of attack, but it would do nothing for the twenty million people living in or around the current capital. Any thoughts?