Kwangju Declassified: Holbrooke’s Legacy
One of the most important documents I obtained in my 15-year quest to unearth the US role in South Korea in 1979 and 1980 were the minutes to a White House meeting that took place on May 22, 1980. At…
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
Asia
An American in Hiroshima
Steve Leeper is an American in an usual position: he is the first foreigner to run the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, the organization that operates the museums and memorials in the first city attacked by nuclear weapons. Steve’s been getting a lot…
ETAN to Obama: No to Blair as DNI
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has long been at the forefront of the international movement to support democratic and indigenous struggles in Indonesia against the repressive military forces in that country. Those forces are closely aligned with…
Amazing! Music and peace in Pyongyang
Lorin Maazel, the director of the New York Philharmonic, presented a bouquet to a performer in Pyongyang (Chang W. Lee/NY Times) More here, here and here. Great shots of the Philharmonic’s visit here. Timely analysis of U.S. ties with the…
Bush and Kim, Peacemakers
Bruce Cumings, the nation’s foremost historian of US-Korean relations, analyzes the Bush administration’s recent deal with Kim Jong Il: “Bizarre events may well place Bush and ‘evildoer’ Kim Jong Il side by side as peacemakers. If so, all well and…
Nuke danger in Japan
Japan’s nuclear power industry has a terrible record of cover-ups, and the recent earthquake in Niigata has triggered another one. The quake caused fires and a significant leak of radioactive fuel, forcing the government to shut down the world’s largest…
Cover-up of US eco-damage in ROK charged
HANKYOREH: “Amid a furor over the alleged contamination of U.S. military bases being returned to South Korea, the National Assembly environmental committee on Friday urged the government to release classified documents on its agreement with Washington or face legal action.…
DPRK: Nukes, national pride & goats
Mark Magnier of the L.A. Times is one of the best American correspondents in Asia. I used to work with him at the Journal of Commerce, where he was the paper’s Tokyo correspondent and trade editor. He recently spent four…
Labor gains in US trade bill (or maybe not)
WaPo: Major break seen in labor provisions in Bush/Dem trade bill. “The key to the agreement…was the Bush administration’s reluctant assent to Democratic demands for more stringent labor rules. Under the new policy, enforceable labor provisions will be written into…
DPRK: Japan not welcome at nuclear talks
North Korea, via Reuters: “There is no need for Japan to participate in (the talks) as a local delegate because it is no more than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed…
Iranian missile barrage
WHOA… NYT: “Iran fired several missiles with a range of more than 1,000 miles during a military maneuver today, apparently to send a message to the United States and several of its allies in the Persian Gulf after they conducted…
North Koreans seek a way out
The International Crisis Group has a harrowing report out on the large numbers of people leaving North Korea for an uncertain and sometimes perilous life overseas. A sobering assessment of the human costs of the US-North Korea standoff and a…
Nuke for a nuke?
Kim Jong Il got his bomb. So now we’re going to start planning nuclear war? Apparently so, according to the Korea Times. Key grafs; scary: “Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), has been mandated by…
We have a bomb, but it’s just a little bomb
WaPo: “The explosion set off by North Korea yesterday appears to have been extremely small for a nuclear blast, complicating U.S. intelligence efforts to determine whether the country’s first such test was successful or signaled that Pyongyang’s capabilities are less…
North Korea tests an A-bomb: Now what?
As I said on Democracy Now! this morning, North Korea’s test of a nuclear bomb is a monumental event that makes the DPRK the world’s eighth nuclear power (Note: I should have said nine – Israel has the bomb, but…
The DPRK on the latest US-Korean ‘crisis’
If Hankyroreh, a South Korean newspaper, can interview Han Song-ryol, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations in New York, well, so can anyone. It would be nice for once for the New York Times or the Washington Post…
Factional politics in Pyongyang?
Very likely: Japan’s Asahi reports from Seoul that military hardliners appear to be calling the shots in North Korea. Maybe Kim Jong Il is being outflanked by the DPRK’s version of the neocons. Excerpts: “Although it is difficult to tell…
DPRK: In your face
When Democrats like Ashton Carter and William Perry make Dick Cheney look like a moderate, its time to rethink US policy towards North Korea. How about taking the North Koreans up on their offer, made more than five years ago,…
Korean activists shut down FTA hearing
From the Korea Times: “Angry farmers and activists effectively disrupted a public hearing on ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks between Korea and the United States, Tuesday, leading to their suspension. Four hundred farmers and anti-free trade activists staged a…
Korean fantasy
The US is going bananas over North Korea’s missile-firing preparations. So maybe this is your chance to book your tour of the world’s last communist state. Golf in Pyongyang, dine on the Yalu.
Eric Clapton and…Kim Jong Il?
Apparently the Dear Leader’s second son is a big fan. From the Korea Times: “Japan’s Fuji TV has broadcast footage of a man resembling North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il’s second son, who is about 170 centimeters high, wearing blue jeans,…
South Korea vs Boeing
Update: Pilot deaths put F-15 deal in doubt From June 8: The crash this week of two F-15s flown by the South Korean Air Force has revived Korean anger over the Bush administration’s heavy-handed pressure campaign on Seoul to buy…
Indonesia: More blood on US hands
Donald Rumsfeld was in Indonesia this week to celebrate the normalization of US military ties with the Indonesian army, which has openly defied international law and the UN in refusing to own up to gross crimes against humanity committed in…
Death squads return to the Philippines
An alarming report from Asia Times today about the Philippines, one of America’s closest allies in East Asia. Three political activists with the Movement for National Democracy (KPD), a coalition of trade unions, farmers’ and fishermen’s organizations, and women’s and…