Economist (December 31)
To die naturally without pain, Kim Jong Il was luckier than he deserved, given the pain and suffering he inflicted on an entire country. “The whole country was his movie set, where he could play God and have the people revere him.” Now his son looks set to become the new movie director. The show must not go on. Change mus be encouraged. “The regrettable truth is that not just China but also America (fearful of another global crisis), South Korea (fearful of the costs of adopting a country that seems alien to many young Koreans) and Japan (fearful of a united Korea) have propped up a murderous regime.”
Tags: China, Japan, Kim Jong Il, North Korea, South Korea
Boston Globe (December 20)
“The passing of Kim Jong Il…could provide a glimmer of hope for the North Korean people.” The Globe urges President Obama to send “a carefully worded message to the North Korean people acknowledging their leader’s passing.” The good will of this gesture and “the transition to a new leadership gives a small chance for a new beginning.”
Tags: Kim Jong Il, North Korea, Obama, Transition
Los Angeles Times (December 8)
North Korea’s hope of “strategic partnership with the United States has run its course. In its place, the focus of Pyongyang’s policies has decisively shifted to Beijing.” In less than a year, Kim Jong Il made three trips to China. Both countries appear to want a stable 2012. In exchange for aid, China has extracted promises of no new turmoil from Kim. “We believe that this pivot toward Beijing is no routine oscillation in North Korean policy…. we expect the North in the near to medium term to make far less overt trouble.”
Tags: 2012, China, North Korea, Trouble, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (June 26)
When North Korea opened fire sixty-one years ago, a war began that claimed 33,000 U.S. soldiers, 100,000 Chinese and 2 million Koreans. Today, relations remain in disarray. 2010 marked the deadliest year since the armistice. Six-party talks have little chance of restarting after the North’s recent fatal attacks on a South Korean submarine and villagers on Yeonpyeong Island. Senator John Kerry writes, “The U.S. response to all of this has been measured but firm. It has also been inadequate.” The Senator believes the U.S. needs to unilaterally “engage North Korea directly,” even if this is on a limited basis. The process will be slow, but it needs to begin.
Tags: North Korea, Six-party talks, South Korea, U.S.
Reuters (February 15)
China has endorsed Kim Jong-il’s succession plans. China’s public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, publicly congratulated Kim’s youngest son Jong-un on his recent promotion to vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. China’s endorsement of the North Korean dynasty appears to spring from “worries that any regime change in the North could cause a flood of refugees to cross its border, precipitate reunification of the peninsula on the South’s terms and bring American influence right up to its border.”
Tags: China, Jong-un, Kim Jong Il, North Korea, Succession
Economist (November 25)
“How do you solve a problem like Korea?” The Economist answers with what’s becoming a familiar refrain. The world must persuade China to act. Only China has the leverage to make the North comply. Bigger question: How do you make “China see that a tinderbox it has long regarded as a strategic asset has become an appalling liability?”
Tags: China, North Korea
New York Times (November 23)
North Korea’s recent “outbursts are almost certainly tied to the struggle over replacing the ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.” China needs to step up and pull North Korea back from this “very risky game.” China, however, is “still in denial.” Given the difficulty of knowing what is actually going on in North Korea, there might even be more enrichment facilities than the one North Korea has admitted. The world, with China in the lead, must prevent North Korea from becoming armed with nuclear weapons. The latter would be a recipe for instability.
Tags: China, North Korea, Nuclear weapons
Washington Post (October 18)
Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria writes that the U.S., China and South Korea need to think hard about “the collapse of North Korea.” The extensive measures Kim Jong Il is taking to shore up his son as successor suggest instability. In addition to a bad economy, food shortages and famine, North Koreans are “beginning to learn more and more about the outside world.” With South Koreans earning $28,100 versus each North Korean’s $1,900, it is only a matter of time before “North Koreans are going to start moving south, to jobs, money, opportunity and freedom.” Unless plans are made now, there will be chaos with potential for “serious geopolitical instability.”
Tags: China, Instability, Kim Jong Il, North Korea, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (August 30)
If the Earth is ever invaded by aliens from another planet, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter would be the ideal negotiator. Carter negotiated the release of an American citizen with North Korea, making him “well-equipped to try to decipher the motives of strange aliens who do not behave according to our ideas of rationality.” This was not Carter’s first negotiation with North Korea. The strange thing this time was that Carter was invited by Kim Jong Il, who bizarrely travelled to China during Carter’s visit. Go figure…or rather don’t even try.
If the Earth is ever invaded by aliens from another planet, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter would be the ideal negotiator. Carter just negotiated the release of an American citizen with North Korea, making him “well-equipped to try to decipher the motives of strange aliens who do not behave according to our ideas of rationality.” This was not Carter’s first negotiation with North Korea. The strange thing this time was that Carter was invited by Kim Jong Il, who bizarrely travelled to China during Carter’s visit. Go figure…or rather don’t even try.
Tags: Carter, Kim Jong Il, North Korea
Time (August 13)
Was the sinking of the Cheonan staged by South Korea? Opposition politicians have speculated that the Cheonan simply ran ashore or hit an old mine. Then the government planted evidence to make the sinking look like a North Korean torpedo attack. This would have boosted the ruling party’s popularity in an upcoming election. Time, however, has seen the still secret government report and finds it convincing. The report addresses the likelihood of other scenarios (nil) and makes a conclusive case that nothing other than a torpedo could have been the cause. To silence the conspiracy claims, the government of President Lee Myung Bak now promises to release the full report to the public.
Tags: Cheonan, North Korea, South Korea
