Eyes on Korea: 2004-09-29

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. Today's Regional Briefing focuses on Korea, courtesy of Robert Koehler in Seoul.

Top Topics

• Couple of good posts discussing U.S. options vis-a-vis N. Korea. Winston Marshall contributed a simply briliant essay looking at U.S. options for resolving the nuclear crisis. Nicholas Eberstadt gives us six possible scenarios for the North Korea issue -- definitely worth reading. Meanwhile, Robert J. Einhorn puts forward some very good arguments in favor of engagement with North Korea.
• ROK troops have finally deployed to Irbil, Iraq, where they will be the third largest contingent behind the U.S. and Great Britain. Their commander, Maj. Gen. Hwang Eui-don, discussed the security situation in Irbil with Yonhap News.

On Tap This Month: S. Koreans helping N. Koreans produce nerve gas, S. Korean intellectual criticizes biased and unobjective U.S. understanding of N. Korea, S. Korean spooks for Kerry, N. Korean pressure cookers, the Great S. Korean prostitution crack down, and much, much more!

North Korea

• Well, it appears that North Korea has finally admitted that it "weaponized" the plutonium extracted from its 8,000 spent fuel rods.
• North Korea has been importing quite a bit of sodium cyanide, a component of sarin nerve gas. What's even more disturbing is that it has been South Korean companies doing the supplying.
• North Korea MAY be prepairing a missile launch. Personally, I think Kirk over at It Makes a Difference to the Sheep says it best:

  So, at the end of the day, what do we know now that we didn't know a week ago? Not much. We know that the DPRK has Rodong missiles. We know that the DPRK conducts frequent military exercises. We know that the DPRK doesn't really care for the U.S. and Japan and often expresses these feelings in rather vivid and provocative language. And we know that newspapers the world over like to run breathless stories of looming danger and impending threat even when some of the experts the reporters consult caution that we don't really know what the DPRK is up to. Sounds about par for the course.

• Over at OhMyNews, Kang In Kyu wonders why Americans hate the North Koreans so. Kang, who found it simply beyond comprehension that both U.S. conservatives and liberals could find the DPRK so distastesful, suggests that the U.S. media's lack of objective information on North Korea and a careful image building campaign by the evil U.S. military-industrial complex has given American liberals the wrong impression about North Korea, unlike their left-wing counterparts in South Korea, who have learned to warmly embrace their neighbors across the DMZ.
• Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu explains why the "pressure cooker theory of dictatorship" doesn't bode well for North Korean internal reform.
• North Korea talks of turning yet more countries into "seas of fire." We're going to miss rhetoric like this after North Korea's gone.
• Pyongyang will simply not tolerate the United States, Japan, or South Korea trying to "benumb the independent consciousness and revolutionary spirit of the popular masses and enervate them through the infiltration of reactionary ideas and culture."
• Is it time for N. Korea's neighbors to show some tough love to the Pyongyang junkies?

South Korea

• While Korean troops appear to be welcomed by locals in Iraq, segments of the local population are apparently not so welcoming to U.S. troops in Korea. However, the departure date for 12,500 of those unwanted guests has been pushed back a year, at the request of the S. Korean government. Go figure.
• The lost Nomad really doesn't like curfews.
• Even the Korean right is pissed that Bush didn't mention S. Korea in his presidential nomination address.
• Just when you thought they were over, questions concerning the U.S. Yongsan Garrison move resurface. GI Korea discusses this issue, too.
• The S. Korean government is cracking down on prostitution in a major way. At the same time, USFK is trying to clean up its own act concerning its servicemen and the world's oldest profession. The crackdown is running into some resistance, however.
• Is South Korean intelligence trying to work for Kerry, whether he wants their assistance or not?
• Feel like learning Korean? The Oranckay discusses some of the motivations and Korean schools in the U.S.
• Why was South Korea playing around with nuclear technology? Because it's a "weak country."
• Korea's learning how to play the "Great Game" in Central Asia.
• You're highly encouraged to read GI Korea's post on the short 1871 U.S. campaign in Korea.