The Asianist

I received an e-mail from Suzanne Scholte of Defense Forum Foundation about a remarkable story of one North Korean refugee. I reproduce in entirety below:

She vowed to "crawl to South Korea" to reach freedom

Dear Friends:

I am very pleased to report that North Korean refugee Mrs. Park Soon-Hee and her son made it to Thailand and are now requesting to go to South Korea. Mrs. Park had lost the use of her feet due to severe beatings she received by North Korean police for the "crime" of leaving the country. She was one of the refugees highlighted at our August 20 demonstration at the Chinese embassy here in Washington, D.C., where her letter provided by Mr. Jae-Hyun Bae of the Citizens Coalition for Human Rights for Abductees and Korean Refugees, was read aloud as an example of the suffering of the North Korean refugees.

Although this is great news, Free North Korea Radio has reminded us this week of what fate awaits those who unlike Mrs. Park have not successfully made it out of China: They have obtained footage for the first time of the brutal beating of a North Korean woman by North Korean border guards. The woman's "crime" was leaving the country as she was caught when she crossed the border from China to go home. You can view pictures from the footage at the Chosun Ilbo website address below.

Suzanne

The full text of her letter is below.

Chosun Ilbo website for pictures of footage from video (link).

Mrs. Park Soon-Hee's letter to the world:

A Letter from a Refugee

"That b***** will try to run away to South Korea unless her feet and calves are rotted and crumbled," the prison guards used to say while mercilessly striking me. Each time I swore to myself, "I will crawl to the South, if I have to, and tell about today. I will tell all the crimes committed by this Kim Jong Il band." This resolve grew stronger each time they tormented me. Each day I watched my rotting feet and prayed this Kim band will soon rot away like my feet.

I used to live in a small town in Southern Hamgyong Province with my family until 2000 when my son and I defected to Jangchoon, China. After nearly 3 years of aimless life I started to go to South Korea through Mongolia. But I was arrested by Chinese police on my way and soon was repatriated to my hometown. When the police in my home town found out that I tried to go to the South they started to attack my body until I bled through my eyes and then trampled my already swollen feet. Soon my feet were severely injured and they started to rot.

The feet of Soon-hee Park (pic)

Before long my body turned blue and it began to swell making me look uglier than any human being or animal. The guards had fun while striking and trampling my body. About a month later the guards noticed I was getting worse with my body turning to black. They felt I was in the hopeless case and soon released me for home treatment.

After rest and treatment at home I decided to set out to China again with the help of two walking sticks. I starved and crawled but made to China.

When my son and his friends met me they cried holding my feet. But I didn't. Now I can have my feet treated and look for a chance to go to the South. It is my seventh month in China waiting for that chance. So far I only see the threat of Chinese police ready to jump on me at their first chance. The anxiety drives me nearly insane. Everyday I look at southern sky waiting, hoping and praying.

Please help me. Please help me to reach my dream. Please pray for me.

Soon-hee Park

The Citizen Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees (CHNK) sent her money to help her travel to the third country. A few days ago we learned it did not reach her. We will send again through a different route. (August 19, 2005)
UPDATE: SHE IS NOW SAFE IN THAILAND WITH HER SON! September 2005)

CHNK: Korea 011-82-2-325-3648, USA 703-388-2388

Posted by James Na at 7:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The blog DPRK Studies catches a possibly out-of-context quote on Yonhap (South Korean equivalent of the Associated Press) on Pakistan's link with North Korea's nuclear program:

From YONHAP, ‘Pakistani premier denies contact with N. Korea on nuclear weapons':

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday dismissed speculation that his country provided North Korea with nuclear materials to help it develop nuclear weapons. “We have had no contact whatsoever, directly or indirectly, with North Korea or any such [nuclear] issues,” Aziz said in a speech to South Korean and Pakistani diplomats. [emphasis added]

Considering that part of the U.S. case against North Korea having a clandestine uranium-based nuclear weapons program, which was in the news just yesterday, the quote above would make U.S. claims perhaps seem less credible. This is especially true for South Koreans not following what Pakistani officials say about the issue, and getting an earful of OhMyNews type propaganda on a daily basis. For them it might bolster NK’s public claims of innocence.

That is because the Pakistani PM is being quoted out of context...

So is this a case of merely lazy journalism? There is a greater dimension to errors of this sort:

Why is the YONHAP story a problem? I link this to the larger picture of U.S.-ROK relations and the public opinion of South Koreans about the U.S. In this case, it directly undermines the U.S. position regarding the North Korean uranium program.

DPRK Studies also has a useful entry on North Korea's nuclear sites.

Posted by James Na at 7:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Do you remember my earlier prediction?

I suspect that the latest North Korean gambit is a wedge to divide China, South Korea and the United States. China and South Korea will call North Korea's move "reasonable," and will pressure the US to meet North Korea's demands in an attempt to "salvage" the so-called agreement.

If the US appeared unwilling to comply (as it should), then South Korea, in particular, will sell the deadlock as American intransigence in the face of "reasonable" negotiating position from North Korea (for domestic South Korean political purposes, of course).

Today, we hear that former anti-Reunification Minister and bribe bag-man Lim Dong-Won is calling for the U.S. to build the LWRs that should not even be a matter of discussion until the North makes at least some significant step toward NPT compliance. And in a case of the triumph of politics over logic, South Korea and China are now migrating toward meeting North Korea halfway, by finding ambiguity that isn’t there:

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Danwei has a classic China story (via Rconversation):

Today, The Beijing News dutifully reports on new regulations to control the internet, saying that the incitement of demonstrations on websites will now be banned. Juxtaposed with the story, however, is an admiring photograph depicting the thousands of anti-war protestors gathered in Washington on Sunday. We like to think that the irony was conscious.

There is no irony, no jokiness among the Chinese leaders. They are deadly serious about maintaining their political (thus economic) monopoly in China, and they are deadly serious about making China primus inter pares of Asia -- at the expense of the United States and to the detriment of genuine independence of the surrounding countries.

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I thought there were no guns in Japan. I guess gun control isn't perfect even in Japan.

By the way, just in case anyone didn't get it, I am being sarcastic about the "no guns in Japan" remark.

My other blog is "Guns and Butter blog" after all.

Posted by James Na at 9:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

China Daily reports:

A Japanese court on Monday sentenced a rightist seven years in prison for damaging the Chinese Consulate General in Osaka.

The Osaka District Court ruled the defendant, Nobuyuki Nakagama,36, was guilty of damaging properties and arson attempt.

The ruling said he rammed his vehicle on April 23 last year into the front gate of the consulate and attempted to burn the property by setting fire to the vehicle.

The attack, which badly damaged the gate of the consulate but caused no casualties, was the most serious event committed by Japanese right-wing groups against the Chinese diplomatic facilities since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1972.

Remember the "protests" against US and Japanese diplomatic buildings in China? In reality, these incidents were masterminded by the Chinese government, which is increasingly diverting domestic politico-economic pressure toward a foreign "devil."

Unlike in China, in Japan such behaviors are punished by the authorities. Rule of law. It's that simple.

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Just planning, mind you:

The Ground Self-Defense Force's security plan maps out military responses to Chinese attacks against Japan, although some say such a threat has been exaggerated, The Asahi Shimbun learned over the weekend.

It is the first time that such highly classified scenarios involving China have been brought to light.

In the first scenario, Japan-China relations deteriorate, or tensions heighten over natural resources in the sea area near the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. As a result, China sends troops to the Senkaku islands to secure Beijing's interests in the area.

The SDF would respond by sending troops from Kyushu to the main island of Okinawa Prefecture or other islands, such as Ishigakijima, in the prefecture, according to the plan.

The Air Self-Defense Force or the Maritime Self-Defense Force would deal with the Chinese troops who have landed on the Senkaku islands.

GSDF troops would wipe out the remaining Chinese forces and take back the Senkaku islands, according to the plan.

In the second case, tempers flare between China and Taiwanafter Taipei declares independence. The United States, supported by Japan, intervenes in the dispute, and Chinese military forces attack SDF facilities or U.S. military bases in Japan.

The GSDF would dispatch core troops to the islands south of Okinawa's main island, and send in other forces from Kyushu or Shikoku, depending on the situation.

To deal with possible Chinese guerrilla attacks in urban areas of Japan, the GSDF would transfer troops from Hokkaido to cities under siege, and prepare to dispatch specially trained forces to protect SDF and U.S. bases.

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Now for something lighter from South Korea.

Korean discount stores are trying to go 24/7 in order to catch more "nocturnal"-oriented customers:

Riding on the nation's increasing nocturnal lifestyle, large discount store chains are scrambling to operate around the clock, seven days a week, a tactic industry pundits dub "nighttime marketing".

The main driver of the new business strategy is the rising number of people who are active at night, mostly career women and double-income couples, experts said. According to government statistics, the number of women in the country's labor force reached 10.05 million as of June this year, an 8.4% increase from five years earlier.

Previously, local discount outlets would shutter at 8 pm, but the practice began to change in June 2003, when Samsung Homeplus Tesco, a joint venture between South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group and Britain's Tesco, opened its first around-the-clock outlet in Seoul. In late August, the No 2 industry player set up its 31st 24-hour store in the western part of the capital, emerging as the discounter with the largest number of such outlets.

But despite its increased efforts, the US$23.2 billion discount industry may face a bumpy road ahead as vote-conscious politicians push to limit their operating hours. A group of lawmakers are moving to enact legislation to restrict discounters' business hours in an effort to protect merchants in the country's traditional markets. Calling for government countermeasures, those merchants and neighborhood supermarkets have long complained that large discounters have forced them out of the market with cheaper products.

In a somewhat related news, Korean women are apparently the second most insecure in Asia, right after Japanese women:

Korean women are among the most insecure about their looks in Asia and thus the most open to plastic surgery, a survey suggests.
The poll of 2,100 women across Asia by Unilever showed only 33 percent of Korean respondents satisfied with their appearance, the second lowest among nine countries surveyed following Japan. Of Korean respondents, 43 percent said they were overweight.

More than half or 53 percent of Korean women answered they considered having plastic surgery, the highest among surveyed countries. The cosmetic surgery rate of Korean women is already the world’s highest with 17 percent. A staggering 80 percent of plastic surgery patients said they were dissatisfied with the results.

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Japundit has an entry that wonderfully demonstrates the anti-Japanese hysteria now running high in China (pictures alone are worth a visit to the link).

Only, it really is not a laughing matter. The irony is that ugly nationalism IS on the rise in East Asia. But it is in China, not Japan, where one finds such hyper-nationalsim, particularly xenophobia against the US and Japan.

The Chinese "Communist" Party is largely responsible for whipping up the hysteria. Having lost its past ideological justification (now that the Party admits entrepreneurs), it is falling back on nationalism to maintain power ("We're the only ones who can protect you from the foreign devils!).

In China today, patriotism is indeed the last refugee of scoundrels.

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It's common knowledge that the "communist" Chinese government censors the Internet. Here is an example of how that censorship actually manifests itself (including screenshots).

Angry Chinese Blogger also reports the censorship factor as the reason why AOL divorced Lenovo (previously Legend, now the holder of IBM brand name for personal computers in the US):

According to Chief Executive Officer Parsons, it was AOL-Time Warner who pulled out of the partnership with Legend in 2001 after authorities in Beijing made a series of unreasonable demands on the company in regards its joint Internet venture with Legend; leading AOL-Time Warner executives to pull out of their partnership over ethical concerns, and the fear that acquiescence to Beijing’s demands would seriously damage the company’s standing with consumers in the US...

Top among the reasons cited by Chief Executive Parson, as being behind the ending of the partnership, was the insistence by Beijing that Government agencies be allow to intercept, modify and retain data being sent to and from the online subscribers; a move that would have enabled Chinese security forces to eavesdrop on anybody in China who used AOL’s software or servers to access the Internet, and to block any or all content as they saw fit.

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Not strictly about East Asia (I know), but my latest column in the Seattle Times deals with American dominance in the world:

A SUMMER road trip is an enduring American tradition. Despite today's high gas prices, it remains an inexpensive way to travel and experience the country beyond the narrow confines of one's own city.

The changes in scenery that unfolded during my 3,000-mile drive from Seattle to Washington, D.C., were wondrous. Even before I left Washington state, I passed through several climate zones, from the wet west to the dry middle to the alpine east.

When discussing the military, political, economic and cultural dominance of the United States, many foreigners attribute America's success to its size and natural resources. But what of Russia, China, India or Brazil? With equally vast, populous and abundantly endowed lands, why aren't they so dominant?

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My latest op-ed in RealClearPolitics is up:

For the past week, unnoticed by much of the American media, South Koreans have been battling in the port city of Inchon over an important American icon in East Asia -- General Douglas MacArthur.

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Having agreed to relinquish all nuclear weaponry and programs less than a day ago, North Korea is already back to its extortionist routine (via The Lost Nomad):

North Korea said Tuesday it will return to an international non-proliferation regime and allow inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog only after receiving a light-water reactor from the United States...

The statement went on to say that the U.S. should not dream that the North will scrap its nuclear deterrent without provision of a light-water reactor, a basis of mutual trust [boldface mine].

Nothing, it seems. North Korea is back to its game of nuclear extortion. It will pretend to give a little, then demand endless impossibilities, buying time, delaying and obfuscating.

I suspect that the latest North Korean gambit is a wedge to divide China, South Korea and the United States. China and South Korea will call North Korea's move "reasonable," and will pressure the US to meet North Korea's demands in an attempt to "salvage" the so-called agreement.

If the US appeared unwilling to comply (as it should), then South Korea, in particular, will sell the deadlock as American intransigence in the face of "reasonable" negotiating position from North Korea (for domestic South Korean political purposes, of course).

The game goes on. Only a sword will cut this Gordian knot, I am afraid (and Bush isn't Alexander).

Meanwhile Bush's term ticks away -- every day that passes without a real resolution decreases the chance that the Bush administration can do anything decisive (with only so much time left until the election). This plays into the North Korean strategy of shopping for negotiation partners.

Having waited for a new negotiation partner in 2004 who failed to materialize (Kerry), North Korea -- mindful of Republican weakness theme being inundated in the media in the aftermath of Katrina -- will play the same game until 2008, biding its time with dramatic "agreements" that mean nothing.

As I wrote in RealClearPolitics in March of this year, what the Bush administration:

must strenuously avoid is a repeat of what the Clinton administration did -- to pass down a major international threat that will be substantially more difficult to resolve for its successor.

Posted by James Na at 9:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Korea Times:

North Korea has pledged to drop its nuclear weapons development program and return to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

In a joint statement issued here Monday, North Korea promised to give up all nuclear weapons and present nuclear programs and to return to the NPT as soon as possible, while accepting inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

1. What verification measures will be in place?

2. What kind of concessions were made to the North, particularly by the United States?

UPDATE: Here are some answer to the two questions (via the Lost Nomad):

The China-drafted statement calls for North Korea to rejoin the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear programs as it disarms, according to sources close to the talks.

The North, in return, will be given security guarantees plus fuel oil and electricity aid, the sources said, requesting anonymity.

The statement includes references on North Korea's demand for power-generating light-water reactors as part of its right to "peaceful nuclear activities," they said.

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As I wrote earlier (and as everyone now knows), Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) trounced the opposition, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), in the last election.

The DPJ had two choices in electing a new leader. In the end, it chose a Blair-esque figure (via White Peril):

Seiji Maehara, a young conservative, began reshaping the main opposition bloc on Sunday by appointing new officers and outlining plans for a stronger military and smaller spending in a vision that drew comparisons to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's "third-way" government.

Maehara, a 43-year-old defense expert who wants a more assertive role for Japan's military overseas, was narrowly elected a day earlier to head the DPJ, edging aside staid party veteran and co-founder Naoto Kan.

The new leader said Sunday he would re-examine his party's close ties to labor unions, trim wasteful tax spending and push to amend Japan's Constitution so the country's Self Defense Forces would have greater freedom to fight overseas and support its allies. Maehara also wants spending cuts balanced by strong funding for education and other social welfare programs.

Maehara is strong on defense and says Japan's Constitution must clearly give the SDF the right to fight back if attacked and include a new article stipulating its role in aiding allies.

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One Free Korea, always fast to the punch, finds that S. Korea responded to the letter from Chairman Henry Hyde and four others of the International Relations Committee.

OFK notes that, despite the original letter being addressed to President Roh of Korea, his foreign minister is sending the response, leaving Roh to "clarify" his position:

It's interesting that the South Koreans released this over the weekend, and much moreso that Ban, not Roh, responded to a letter addressed to the former. Roh is still triangulating. He's clearly afraid to take a strong stand against the red-vests.

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Earlier, I wrote about the violent clashes in Inchon, Korea over the MacArthur statue.

Now some US congressmen are intervening in a diplomatic, but indignant letter to President Roh of South Korea.

Read the whole letter -- it strikes just the right tone!

More coverage from North Korea Zone and The Marmot's Hole.

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From Angry Chinese Blogger:

In a shock move, Shenzhen Telecom, the Guangdong division of China Telecom, has announced that it has banned users of its network from using the Voice over IP telephony services provided by the European company Skype, and that it has put in place technology that prevents people from communicating with Skype. Forcing many off the free of Voice over IP service, and onto pre paid state sponsored long distance call schemes.

The banning of Skype services by the state controlled telecom group came with no warning and is feared may herald a wider blocking of VoIP services in China...

According to Beijing Business Today, China Telecom is aiming to place a blanket ban on all Data-Voice communications, including voice message services and pier to pier voice networks, and has been experimenting in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

This report has yet to be confirmed as accurate.

When asked for comment on the blocking of Skype services, a representative for the Guangdong telecom interest said that service center staff had been only instructed to tell consumers that Skype and other Internet telephone services were illegal, and that they were prohibited under regulations introduced in 2004 to preserve “market order”. The representitive also said that the downloading of Skype software over the China Network was also prohibited.

Although its ability to compete with state owned firms is likely to make Skype and other VoIP technologies a concern for Beijing, another of their concern is likely to be that data based voice services are harder to track and tap than traditional telephone systems.

Where as a conventional telephone signal uses a standard form of encoding that is publicly known, uses a single circuit between two fixed points, and can be tapped directly through the use of a wire tap or indirectly through monitoring equipment built into telephone exchanges, Skype uses AES - Advanced Encryption Standard - block cipher encryption, and its messages are split up and routed over multiple paths and through multiple servers, making Skype calls more difficult to track calls back to those making them and exponentially more difficult to eavesdrop on.

China currently demands that all businesses using encryption to transmit and protect data in China hand their ‘keys’ over to Beijing. As Skype does not have an official presence in Mainland China, but instead allows users to subscribe externally, it has not complied with Beijing’s demands...

Coincidentally, the block on SkypeOut comes hot on the heals of prospecting by Hong Kong based corporation Tom Online, Skype’s Chinese partners group, to provide a fee paying VoIP service on the mainland.

VoIP services provided by Tom Online do not use the Skype software package and are likely subject to direct censorship and monitoring by Beijing. Skype services are not currently subject to such intrusions.

See related story about how China requires control of Yahoo China information in order to monitor flow of "sensitive" information.

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From the Guardian via Taipei Times:

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about" [boldface mine].

Chinese criminal legal reform has a long way to go.

UPDATE (09/16/2005):One Free Korea is also blogging this issue, but seems skeptical about it.

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I guess this is what the UN and China mean by "self-determination":

The General Committee of the UN General Assembly decided Tuesday at its 60th session not to include into the draft agenda the so-called "question of the representation of 23 million people of Taiwan in the UN" and "a proactive role of the United Nations in maintaining peace in the Taiwan Straits."

The General Assembly has, for the 13th consecutive time, thwarted Taiwan's attempt to join the world inter-governmental body composed of sovereign states.

The decision was announced by Jan Eliasson, president of the current session of the UN General Assembly, after a short debate on the issue, raised by Chad and a few other countries.

We ALL know that China and Taiwan are two separate countries with separate governments! No amount of diplomatic niceties will mask that reality.

Posted by James Na at 11:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Whether General Douglas MacArthur was a great strategist over a long military career is debatable. But what is certain is that his Inchon landing during the Korean War was sheer genius.

The maneuver turned the tide of the war decisively and almost won it (until the Chinese communist forces intervened).

In appreciation for this, the City of Inchon in South Korea hosts a statue of General MacArthur.

Lately, this statue has become a focal point between South Korean leftists (aka dupes for North Korea) who want a complete withdrawal of the US Forces Korea (USFK) and the conservatives who are, finally, fighting back against the madness. The conflict boiled over recently as 4,000 leftist "activists," demanding that the MacArthur statue be pulled, clashed with Korean police and about 1,000 conservatives.

The protest is splitting the ruling Uri Party:

Uri Party standing committee member Chang Young-dal told a meeting of legislators the people calling for the removal of the statue revealed a “deep ethnic purity" and warned the party to watch out for "ultra-rightists" latching on to the statue issue to band together and ratchet up tensions. But Rep. Han Kwang-won, whose constituency includes Freedom Park, said, "The statue was erected with donations from Incheon residents... If you are truly progressive, you must think about why MacArthur is a hero in the hearts of your elders and why he's become a symbol of Incheon."

The [conservative] Grand National Party has called on the government to take firm measures, which the party’s chairwoman Park Geun-hye said were needed against "acts shaking the Korea-U.S. alliance." GNP floor leader Kang Jae-seop said the movement "destroyed the basic principles of the nation." Incheon mayor Ahn Sang-soo told a press conference pulling the statue down or moving it elsewhere would not help the interests of the city or the nation. He also urged "outsiders" to stop making trouble in his city.

A spokesman for the minor opposition Millennium Democratic Party, Yoo Jong-pil, said, "Since MacArthur is a symbolic figure who protected liberal democracy in Korea, it is not desirable for a minority to translate their arbitrary historical interpretations into action."

But the episode again demonstrates that the political left in South Korea is gripped by radicalism and violence, contrary to its claims of being open, democratic and progressive.

The Lost Nomad (great pics) and The Marmot's Hole have more coverages.

Posted by James Na at 11:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier I wrote about a potential improvement for the Chinese legal system, particularly its criminal law.

Before we get excited about it, here is a bit of cold water. Rebecca MacKinnon relays the news that, with the help from Yahoo China, the Chinese government was able to arrest a journalist looking into the government's dissident suppression policy.

MacKinnon further warns:

Human rights organizations, media organizations, and others who are seeking and receiving sensitive information via e-mail from people inside China have a responsibility to educate the e-mailers about the security dangers they face. People must be warned very clearly:

IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT GETTING IN TROUBLE, DO NOT USE YAHOO OR GMAIL, OR ANY OTHER SERVICE WHOSE PARENT COMPANY HAS A BUSINESS PRESENCE IN CHINA.

Posted by James Na at 9:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Yomiuri Shimbun headline says it all:

ELECTION 2005--SHOWDOWN OVER REFORM / Koizumi bet pays off big-time / LDP-New Komeito coalition wins more than 300 seats in poll

Top on his agenda is the postal privatization bill, but another priority apparently is Japan's normalization with North Korea, in conjunction with discussions about Japanese abductees in North Korea.

Still, Koizumi seems to understand the obstacle to any normalization -- the de-nuclearization of North Korea:

Former LDP vice president Taku Yamasaki, who is widely seen as Koizumi's right-hand man, told a Monday morning TV program the prime minister would have to meet Kim Jong-il one more time by next September. Yamasaki said he understood popular feeling in Japan about the issue of Japanese people abducted by North Korea in the 1970s, but the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula now under discussion at six-party talks needed to come first. He said the six-party talks were not the forum to discuss strictly bilateral issues.

But even the AP had to admit the opposition Democrats were weak:

One problem was the party's inability to distinguish itself from the LDP. In the past, it has run as the anti-LDP - a tactic that worked when dissatisfaction with the ruling party ran high.

But in this case, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made the vote a referendum on his proposal to privatize the postal system by 2017, stealing the reform banner from the opposition.

In the vacuum, the Democratic Party of Japan's lack of compelling ideas became glaringly obvious.

Posted by James Na at 8:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Never Forget. Never Forgive.

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South Korea and North Korea will cooperate on a joint TV production:

For the first time, public television networks from South Korea and North Korea are working together to produce a dramatic series covering events in their tumultuous past.

Seoul-based Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) has worked out a deal with Korean Central Television (KCTV), headquartered in Pyongyang, to produce the drama "Sayookshin."

The series describes the adventures of six loyal retainers who were killed in their struggle to restore to the throne King Danjong (1441-57, reigned 1452-55).

Casting was a tricky task for the South Koreans, said a KBS official.

"From which of the two countries should the actor who plays the king come? Even in a drama, the country whose actor plays the king might be seen as superior to the other," he said. "So we were afraid casting actors from both sides would cause a rift."

The official also said it would be impossible for South Korean actors to stay in North Korea for long periods while shooting the scenes.

However, the South Korean government will not allow KBS to pay all the costs to KCTV in cash. So, part of the payment has been worked out in the form of broadcasting equipment, such as new Sony production cameras and lights.

It isn't because they might turn around and spend the money to finance their nuclear weapons program and/or other destructive endeavors, would it?

Posted by James Na at 11:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It looks as if Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's gamble may have paid off and the ruling Liberal Democrats might win the election in Japan.

Some see signs of trouble between Japan and China, arising out of Koizumi's insistence on visiting Yasukuni and China's constant self-victimization-as-best-attack policy toward Japan:

A series of spectacular mass events was held in Beijing last weekend to mark the grand climax of 60 days of nationwide commemorative events.

The Chinese leadership also took the opportunity to stress that Beijing expects Tokyo to handle the painful issue of its wartime suffering with the utmost sensitivity.

Seemingly disregarding the fact that the whole of China was focused on his country's wartime record, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also on the weekend renewed speculation that he will again pay homage at a controversial Shinto shrine which honors convicted Class-A war criminals responsible for atrocities in China. His announcement has already created fresh bilateral tension, and if Koizumi wins Sunday's general election, the current China-Japan political rift looks certain to continue.

In general, I find much to applaud in Koizumi (pro-US foreign policy, postal service banking liberalization and so on). Unfortunately, however, he continues to insist on a policy of revisionism where Japan's past aggression is concerned, thus making it easy for China to play victim in order to assert its regional dominance (very passive-aggressive, actually).

While Germans went through something of a collective national reflection about their Nazi past in the 1970s, Japan never did so, despite outward apologies of its political leaders. Thus, while German textbooks emphasize the complicity of their elders in the Nazi aggression, Japanese textbooks often engage in revisionist nonsense of Japanese imperialists as "liberators" of fellow Asians who just went a little wild once in a while.

This pervasive attitude among Japanese conservatives unfortunately hinders Japan from balancing the rising Chinese might. Every time Japan even thinks of flexing its muscle to counter Chinese influence, the latter cries "The Rape of Nanjing" (or "revisionist textbooks" and so on).

Only when the Japanese society truly embraces this issue, will it stop being a useful ploy for China in keeping Japan down from its rightful role as the Asian primus inter pares and the best US ally in the region.

Posted by James Na at 11:44 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As if Katrina were not enough, nature struck Japan, killing over a dozen.

"Death is... whimsical today." (Gary Oldman in the film "The Professional").

Nature is merciless. See my entry in "Guns and Butter Blog."

Posted by James Na at 11:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Although the traditional development model for the Third World still calls for making lots of money freely available for dictators and repressive governments, most rational people know that what is truly necessary is building a culture of rule of law and attendant institutions.

So the news from China about the potential improvement in legal structure is very positive (hat tip: Asia Observer):

China is considering revising its Criminal Procedure Law to pave way for entering the United Nations civil and political rights convention, a gesture hailed by a law expert in Beijing on Wednesday as "one more step towards judicial justice."

Long Zongzhi, a law professor with China's Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that China has laid a basis for approving the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by putting the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law high on its agenda...

"China's ratification of the two conventions would mean it further opens up economically and socially and respects basic law norms concerning human rights in the judicial field set up by the UN, and lists them as standards for domestic judicial practices," said Long.

The proposal to amend China's Criminal Procedure Law was adopted by the NPC last year, which plans to initiate the revision process this year or next year.

According to Long, several problems related to the law and its implementation need to be addressed, such as further adjustment of the basic structure of litigation, strengthening judicial restraint and human rights protection, reforming the trial mode and modifying procedures for investigation, prosecution and court trial.

Before we all get excited about a democratic China, however, we should bear in mind that merely having the right laws and institutions do not suffice. After all, the Chinese constitution guarantees its citizens freedom of speech, assembly and religion. Somehow I think that adherent of the Falun Gong movement would take issue with the Chinese government interpretation of that document.

China still has long ways to go, but this is a step in the right direction.

Posted by James Na at 11:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Times of India reports:

The United States is deploying its F-16 fighter jets for large scale air exercises with India to be held at the Kalaikunda Air Base outside Kolkata in November this year.

Twelve F-16 CJs and an E-3 AWACS from the Misawa and Kadena Air Base on Okinawa in Japan will be flying down for the ten-day Cope India exercises starting November 7, according to defence sources.

It is the first time the US is deploying F-16 fighter jets for exercises in India. Washington held back its F-16s and sent six F-15 Eagles from the Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska during the last exercises in Gwalior in February 2004, partly due to concerns over reactions from Pakistan, whose air force inventory centers around the F-16s.

But in a surprising twist, the US F-15s suffered reverses at the hands of the IAF is a friendly shooting match, leading to a serious appraisal in the US about where its air force stands in relation to the rest of the world.

This time the US wants to get it right. Besides, both sides appear to have decided that Pakistan is relatively marginal to their military relationship, which is pegged to broader and deeper concerns.

Still, it was a mild shock of sorts even with a "garden-variety" USAF pilots going against the best-of-the-best Indian pilots. I suspect the USAF is back with vengeance and will crush the Indian Air Force. Stay tuned.

Posted by James Na at 5:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Although US-S.Korean relationship is perhaps at an all-time low, the two nations are still allies. In a gesture of that relationship, S. Korea is providing aid for Katrina victims:

The Korean government decided Sunday to offer US$30 million in aid to the United States in order to help the country recover from the destruction visited upon the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. The government will also dispatch a 50-man search and rescue team to the affected area, and consideration is also being given to the dispatch of military personnel (which would require National Assembly approval) should a request be made by the United States.

South Korea’s offer of US$30 million is, as far as I know, the second largest offer behind Qatar’s offer of US$100 million, and dwarfs the offers made by other nations in the region (Japan, for instance, will send US$200,000 and has offered US$300 more). Considering how the Korean economy has seen better days, Seoul’s offer is beyond generous and I can only hope the U.S. media gives it more attention than from what I’ve seen so far.

Posted by James Na at 4:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

According to Taipei Times:

Diplomatic protocol over Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming US visit has become such a jostling issue between the two powers that some analysts fear the trip may yield limited success.

Washington proposed that Hu meet President George W. Bush at his Crawford, Texas ranch or Camp David retreat -- informal settings where the US leader feels comfortable discussing issues in a relaxed fashion.

Among the privileged few who have been put up at Bush's ranch were Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Hu's predecessor Jiang Zemin.

But Chinese officials wanted a state visit for Hu -- an arrival ceremony on the White House south lawn accompanied by a 21-gun salute customary for a head of state, a summit meeting at the Oval office and a State dinner.

Knowing how important protocol is to Chinese culture and the stakes involved domestically, Beijing wanted to gain maximum mileage from Hu's first visit to Washington as leader of the world's most populous nation, diplomats familiar with the preparations said.

Chinese officials preferred Hu against the backdrop of Washington's powerful symbols -- the White House and Capitol Hill -- ahead of his attendance at the UN Summit to send a key message home that their leader was on the world stage.

Finally, after much deliberations and a compromise, US officials agreed to give Hu a 21 gun salute and a welcome on the south lawn but drew the line at a state banquet -- no state dinner but just a lunch, officials familiar with the protocol said.

Hu will stay at the Blair House residence opposite the White House often used by foreign dignitaries.

But his trip falls short of a full-blown state visit.

"It is a shame that interlocutors on both sides spent a better part of six to eight months talking about whether it is a state visit, official visit or just a visit and and not talking about other issues the presidents really need to talk about," said Randall Schriver, a senior US State Department official handling East Asian issues under Bush's first term.

Posted by James Na at 10:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There is no doubt that China's forced family planning, its "one child per family" policy is morally odious.

But what is also obvious is that the heavy-handed government regulation -- like many other such regulations -- mostly affects the majority of middle-class families.

China Daily reports:

But despite the same policy, Du, now a businessman in Guangzhou, has two sons and is planning to have another daughter. He paid a fine of 60,000 RMB (about $7500) to have his second son. But the fine is pocket change for Du, who owns a shoe factory and more than 14 million RMB (about $1.75 million) in assets.

According to the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, families who can have two children are "at the two ends of the social scale." They are either so poor that the government never expects them to repay the fine, or so rich that the fine is meaningless. As China's economy and income skyrocket in recent years, the rich are finding it easy to evade the one-child policy.

Peasants pregnant with their second or third child typically escape from their hometown to avoid forced abortion by the local population and family planning officers. The rich don't need to escape. Instead, they simply pay the fine. According to the International Herald Leader, a businessman in Zhejiang Province paid a 0.4 million RMB ($80,000) fine for his second child.

The rich can afford universities with ease. For the poor, the universities give aid, which in turn raises prices for everyone else. The result? The middle-class suffers the most and has difficulty sending children to colleges -- too rich to garner aid, too poor to afford the now increased tuitions.

Posted by James Na at 10:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Asia Times Online reports:

Arms merchants from industrialized nations are increasingly finding Asia, which has replaced the Near East as the world's top conventional-weapons market, the place to go, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Led by purchases by China and India, the world's most populous region accounted for nearly 50% of the total value of all new arms-transfer agreements with developing nations from 2001 through 2004, according to the report. India led the rankings in 2004 by signing US$5.7 billion in new arms deals that year, according to the report, the latest in an annual series.

It also found the United States and Russia continue to dominate all other arms suppliers by a significant margin in selling to developing countries.

Whereas oil-rich Middle Eastern states bought large quantities of weapons in the oil-boom years, industrial, technological and economic might of Asian countries like China and India are outpacing an essentially natural resource-based economy of the Middle East.

An additional interesting item to note is Russia re-emergence in the business:

Grimmett noted in his report that Russia has made "important efforts, in recent years, to provide more flexible and creative financing and payment options for prospective arms clients", including licensed production agreements that have paid off with both China and India that "should provide it with sustained business during this decade".

Aside from those two countries, the report found that Moscow appears focused on Southeast Asia, where it has had "some success in securing arms agreements with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia".

Posted by James Na at 9:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)