Going commando in North Korea:Daily Kor for Wednesday, May 30, 2012

GI Joe is there! GI Joe is not there!

The top story (#1) is this delicious piece, an example where the news itself makes news. Some story in the Japan-based journal The Diplomat started with the revelation that American commandos were parachuting into North Korea to spy on the North's secretive facilities, rendering them not so secretive:

U.S. Special Forces have been parachuting into North Korea to spy on Pyongyang’s extensive network of underground military facilities. That surprising disclosure, by a top U.S. commando officer, is a reminder of America’s continuing involvement in the “cold war” on the Korean peninsula – and of North Korea’s extensive preparations for the conflict turning hot.

Well, that's got to be having the Nork defense ministry lighting up in pants-crapping terror. It turns out that it's not true or, at least, it has been emphatically denied. Which of course the US would have to do. Even if it were true. (The Diplomat offers an explanation of sorts, while Joshua at One Free Korea takes a close look at the claims and denials.)

And truthfully, I truly hope it is true. But even if it's not, there's value in the North Koreans thinking it's true (though I suspect they've always thought something like this is going on, since they themselves send their folks to the South).

1. Claiming key officer was misquoted, Washington denies report in Asia-Pacific affairs journal that US military commandos have been sent into North Korea to spy on underground facilities (NPR, WaPo, UPI, Yonhap, Joongang Daily)
• Kushibo: Well of course they'd deny it
• AFP story on original news here
2. US State Department says it is concerned about North Koreans' wellbeing in light of reports of drought in DPRK, but says food aid is off the table unless Pyongyang can demonstrate fair and transparent distribution (Yonhap, Korea Herald)
3. United Nations report says family of South Korean Oh Kilnam, who fled North Korea in 1986 after defecting to the DPRK a year earlier, is being forcibly detained (Joongang Daily, Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo)
4. South Korea strongly condemns Syria over massacre of one hundred civilians, by artillery shelling and close-range shots, in village of Houla (Yonhap)
5. Samsung quickly launching Galaxy smartphone in Europe in order to beat iPhone to the punch (AP via WaPo)
6. Korean won rebounds from seven-month low as fears over Greece recede (Bloomberg)
• South Korea's current account surplus shrinks from $2.97 billion in March to $1.78 billion in April (Yonhap)
7. Korean Air denies government antitrust watchdog claims that it colluded with Miat Mongolian Air on Incheon-Ulan Bator route (WSJ, Chosun Ilbo)
8. Seoul National University, KAIST, and POSTECH among the top ten universities in Asia in new ranking (Chosun Ilbo)
9. Raleigh residents celebrate defeat of same-sex marriage in North Carolina with first annual Straight Pride Parade (CNN)

...

Daily Kor for Friday, July 1, 2011

And the award for lamest headline of the week goes to the Wall Street Journal, for this one: "South Koreans Still Unbowed" (it's about archery's 2011 World Championships in Torino on Sunday).

And the non-story of the day is North Korea temporarily presiding over the UN's nuclear disarmament body (#4). It's for a term that's just a matter of weeks, determined by well-known system of rotation, but it's being used as a pretext for "getting the US out of the UN" (or getting the UN out of the US). In fact, the UN is an important organization that, though flawed, does a lot of crucial stuff (HT to hoju_saram for link).

If the problem is that a country like the DPRK which has violated UN regulations on nuclear disarmament should not be in charge of the UN organization whose regulations it thumbed its nose at, then go ahead and push for rules that prevent that type of occurrence. This is not the first time this type of thing has happened (I seem to recall Libya chairing a UN group dealing with human rights a few years aback), so let's go solve it. Baby. Bathwater. Throw out. Bad.

Meanwhile, the Joongang Daily is reporting on the AP bureau opening in Pyongyang, which I consider a major story even though it has gotten very little coverage elsewhere.

1. Republican boycott over jobs protection add-on forces US Senate Finance Committee to postpone action on free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama (AP via WaPo, WaPo) 
2. Samsung Electronics files complaint with US International Trade Commission, asking the United States to prohibit Apple from importing into United States key products, including the latest iPhone and iPad devices amid an escalating patent dispute (AP via WaPo, WSJ)
3. National Assembly passes disputed judicial reform bill that would give more investigatory powers to police (Yonhap, Joongang Daily)
• President Lee asks prosecutors to "respond maturely" (Yonhap)
• Kushibo's note: ... Or else he'll turn this car around... He really will... Don't make him do it!
4. United Nations is criticized by Republicans in US for North Korea receiving a rotating chairmanship of nuclear disarmament body (Yonhap)
5. Consumer prices rise 4.4 percent in June from a year earlier (Yonhap)
6. Seoul appellate court reduces sentence of Reverend Han Sangryol, pastor who visited North Korea in violation of contentious National Security Law, from five years to three years (AP via WaPo)
• Kushibo's note: Find me one person in Korea who serves their full sentence for anything less than life imprisonment, and I owe you a Coke™
7. South Korea to freeze gasoline prices in July due to inflationary pressures (Bloomberg, Reuters)
8. South Korean striker Ji Dong-Won joins English Premier League club Sunderland (CNN)
9. Protesters against free-trade agreement entertain other demonstrators with new musical detailing their struggle against Lee administration policies, A Korus Line (Yonhap)

State Department rejects Carter's claims of human rights abuse over food aid

The US State Department has clearly refuted the idea stated by former President Jimmy Carter that South Korea and the United States withholding food aid constitutes human rights violations:

The U.S. State Department on Friday refuted charges by former President Jimmy Carter that the United States and South Korea were withholding food aid from North Korea for political motives.

The blame for North Korea's food shortage belongs to the North Korean government, a State Department official said.

The State Department's response came the same day that the United Nations World Food Programme announced plans to begin emergency food distribution to 3.5 million North Koreans, primarily women and children, who are starving after a harsh winter decimated crops.

Carter rankled U.S. officials this week after accusing the United States and South Korea of human rights violations by withholding food aide. He made the comments at the end of a three-day visit to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, a visit that had been intended to promote north-south dialogue on the Korean peninsula, revive a denuclearization process and assess food shortages.

The State Department is absolutely right that the onus is on Pyongyang and Pyongyang alone. However, I think Carter does have a point that it may be unethical or immoral to withhold aid that would otherwise have been provided, simply because of a hardline stance against North Korea over their recent actions.

That is, providing the food aid does not prop up the regime or allow it to continue, right? And withholding it only causes innocents to suffer, right?

Only if withholding the food hastens North Korea's peasantry and rank-and-file party members to stop supporting Kim Jong-il's rule would I say it's a clear-cut case.

Well, someone's pleased.

Apparently, North Korea is tickled pink about the UN Security Council condemnation.

From the New York Times:

The North Korean envoy to the United Nations, Sin Son-ho, called a statement condemning the sinking of a South Korean warship, which the Security Council passed unanimously Friday, “our great diplomatic victory.”

Getting your one single benefactor, who happens to be a permanent member of the UNSC, to go to bat for you... them's some mighty skilled diplomacy.

Oh, how I'm loathing China right now.