The Economist (August 11)
How much has changed in North Korea? “If the young Kim really is his country’s Gorbachev, then the West should seize every opportunity to help him go further. If it is merely another charade, then more pressure needs to be applied to the world’s ugliest regime. So far there seems to be room for (very) limited encouragement.”
How much has changed in North Korea? “If the young Kim really is his country’s Gorbachev, then the West should seize every opportunity to help him go further. If it is merely another charade, then more pressure needs to be applied to the world’s ugliest regime. So far there seems to be room for (very) limited encouragement.”
Tags: Change, Gorbachev, Kim, North Korea, Regime
Los Angeles Times (August 3)
North Korea is much more difficult to understand than the old Soviet regime. “Kremlin watching” was an “inexact science,” but it brought some understanding of the government. “In North Korea today, it’s nearly impossible even to discover where the government and its new leader, Kim Jong Un, operate.”
North Korea is much more difficult to understand than the old Soviet regime. “Kremlin watching” was an “inexact science,” but it brought some understanding of the government. “In North Korea today, it’s nearly impossible even to discover where the government and its new leader, Kim Jong Un, operate.”
Tags: Kim Jong Un, Kremlin, North Korea, Soviet Union
Wall Street Journal (May 18)
“South Korean President Lee Myung-bak deserves praise for one accomplishment above all others: He has put human rights in North Korea on the world’s agenda.” North Korea’s network of labor camps has been exposed. The suffering of the approximately 200,000 political prisoners should convince other nations against trying to improve North Korea through engagement. “Sustaining Pyongyang with aid only extends the misery of those imprisoned in the North’s gulag.”
“South Korean President Lee Myung-bak deserves praise for one accomplishment above all others: He has put human rights in North Korea on the world’s agenda.” North Korea’s network of labor camps has been exposed. The suffering of the approximately 200,000 political prisoners should convince other nations against trying to improve North Korea through engagement. “Sustaining Pyongyang with aid only extends the misery of those imprisoned in the North’s gulag.”
Wall Street Journal (April 15)
North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong Eun addressed the public for the first time in a speech lasting 20 minutes. “The speech stuck close to the hard-line orthodoxy of the Kim family regime, which has controlled North Korea since its founding in 1948, that is built around extreme race-based nationalism, Confucian hierarchy and a nominal embrace of socialism.” Military might remains top priority.
Tags: Hard line, Kim Jong Eun, Military, North Korea
Reuters (April 13)
North Korea’s “highly unusual” admission over state TV of today’s launch failure raises many questions. Will embarrassment lead to a nuclear test? Does it instead signal a new openness? Nobody knows. “Although North Korea is one of the most tightly controlled states on earth, with no free media and a tight grip on its population, such a high profile failure could trigger a backlash among the country’s elite.”
Tags: Embarassment, Failure, Launch, North Korea, Nuclear text, TV
Wall Street Journal (April 5)
If North Korea’s test missile flies over Japan, “the U.S. should do everything it can to help Japan follow through” by shooting down the missile. “The Taepodong 2 has a range of 6,000 kilometers, so a successful test could put Alaska at risk. Previous tests may have been duds, but nobody should treat them as jokes.”
If North Korea’s test missile flies over Japan, “the U.S. should do everything it can to help Japan follow through” by shooting down the missile. “The Taepodong 2 has a range of 6,000 kilometers, so a successful test could put Alaska at risk. Previous tests may have been duds, but nobody should treat them as jokes.”
Tags: Alaska, Japan, Missile test, North Korea, Taepodong 2, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (April 4)
Where is the outrage? “In North Korea, children are bred like livestock in labor camps. They are taught to betray their parents. They are worked to death.” Three generations of the Kim dynasty have now “presided over this human rights catastrophe.” Six labor camps house 200,000 inmates who “do hard labor while subsisting on a starvation diet…. They usually die of hunger-related illness before turning 50.” Still America takes little notice.
Where is the outrage? “In North Korea, children are bred like livestock in labor camps. They are taught to betray their parents. They are worked to death.” Three generations of the Kim dynasty have now “presided over this human rights catastrophe.” Six labor camps house 200,000 inmates who “do hard labor while subsisting on a starvation diet…. They usually die of hunger-related illness before turning 50.” Still America takes little notice.
Tags: Human rights, Hunger, Kim, Labor camps, North Korea, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (March 21)
“The pace of world events keeps speeding up, and that includes the rapidity with which North Korean dictators break their promises.” North Korea has announced plans for a missile launch. This is less than three weeks since reaching a food aid agreement with the U.S. “The only message the North’s dynastic junta will understand is if the West now cuts off the food aid. Even better if the U.S.—or preferably, Japan—blows the missile out of the sky.”
“The pace of world events keeps speeding up, and that includes the rapidity with which North Korean dictators break their promises.” North Korea has announced plans for a missile launch. This is less than three weeks since reaching a food aid agreement with the U.S. “The only message the North’s dynastic junta will understand is if the West now cuts off the food aid. Even better if the U.S.—or preferably, Japan—blows the missile out of the sky.”
Tags: Food aid, Japan, Missile, North Korea, U.S.
The Economist (March 3, 2012)
North Korea will suspend uranium enrichment at Yongbyon, admit International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, and halt weapon and long-range missile testing. The U.S. will provide 240,000 tonnes of food aid, organize cultural exchanges, and support six-nation talks. “Despite North Korea’s record of caprice and outright deceit, this is a good deal for America. It could even turn out to be a great one.”
Chicago Tribune (February 22, 2012)
“This planet is a more dangerous place now that the isolated and dictatorial government of North Korea has perhaps a dozen nuclear bombs. That danger will multiply if the belligerent and theocratic government of Iran, too, develops nukes. Either nation, with launchable nuclear bombs, qualifies as an existential threat to U.S. allies, including Israel and South Korea. What’s more, the prospect of Tehran or Pyongyang slipping small nukes to anti-U.S. terror networks is too unnerving for many among us to contemplate.”
Tags: Iran, Israel, North Korea, Nuclear bombs, South Korea, Terror networks, U.S.
