The Asianist

I now have a new location for The Asianist:

http://asianist.blogspot.com

For those of you who already blogrolled me, please kindly change the URL to the new one.

Thank you!

Posted by James Na at 1:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Asianist will be undergoing some major changes in the near future. Until that time, there will not be any new entries.

In the mean time, please visit Guns and Butter Blog for continuing coverage.

Posted by James Na at 9:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Now they can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya while tens of thousands die in North Korea's gulags.

North Korea and South Korea are two different countries with separate sovereignty. They should not be allowed to field a joint team. Remember, unification fist, then joint-anything else second.

I second Kushibo's prediction:

At any rate, I don't think this is a done deal. An awful lot can happen between now and 2008 (or even 2006). I think that ultimately there won't be anything more than walking into the stadium together.

In fact, I think that, in the long run, this is going to be bad for mindless supporters of North-South relations. The North will probably back out, leaving someone in Seoul with egg on their face.

Posted by James Na at 10:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier I wrote about the problems associated with Yasukuni.

Now, it seems they finally listened. Angry Chinese Blogger reports:

After many years of public and private debate, and nearly 25 years of protests by neighboring China, it has been announced that Tokyo is to form a cross party committee of 100+ lawmakers, drawn from all sides of Japan's political system, to once and for all deal with the thorny issue of providing Japan with an internationally acceptable national war memorial that is free of the controversies that have wracked Yasukuni.

Posted by James Na at 9:56 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier Google got into something of a controversy over its map showing Taiwan as "a province of China," thus seemingly taking Beijing's side.

Now, Angry Chinese Blogger reports that Google has changed its story, sort of:

In September, Google became embroiled in an argument over its naming of Chinese-Taiwan as ‘Taiwan, Province of China’. In October, Google Merged its Google Map service with its Google Local service, and in doing so removed the legend describing the island as a Chinese province. Problem solved? Not quite.

It appears that Google has not entirely gone over to Taiwan’s side.

Apparently, Taiwan is only Taiwan so long as you speak English, and the same goes for Taipei.

Posted by James Na at 8:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As in Japan, rice imports are severely restricted in South Korea. Traditionally, rice autarky (and thus farmers) was politically important.

What this meant, however, was that rice pricing was distorted from the market supply-demand equilibrium (either the price was too high or the government subsidized the cost).

Of course, the economically rational thing to do is to allow free trade in rice like any other commodity. The resulting competition naturally lowers the price to benefit the consumers.

In a positive step (via The Marmot's Hole):

A National Assembly panel Thursday passed a bill aimed at ratifying rice import agreements that South Korea signed with nine countries last year despite fierce protests from lawmakers of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP).

Under the agreements, South Korea will raise its rice import quota to 7.96 percent by 2014 from the current 4 percent in return for a 10-year additional delay in introducing tariffs on rice. The minimum import amount of rice will increase from some 200,000 tons to 400,000 tons by 2014.

The rice accords also call on Seoul to permit up to 30 percent of the imported rice to be sold directly to consumers by 2010.

Posted by James Na at 8:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Not exactly Asia (well, Iraq is SW Asia, but that's still outside the agenda of this blog), but my latest op-ed on the US casualties in Iraq is up:

Predictably, the mainstream media is talking up the "milestone" of the 2,000th American military death in Iraq to portray the struggle as a useless, costly quagmire.
According to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, the total number of American military deaths in Iraq, including non-battle deaths, now stands at 2002 in approximately 32 months of combat from March 2003 to October 2005.

It is often said that these deaths are not simply statistics. They are real faces and lives, each with its own story and family. Yet we do rely on statistics sometimes, because they offer a sense of scale...

Posted by James Na at 8:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier I wrote about Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi visiting Yasukuni and, in effect, honoring Japanese war criminals.

Chairman Henry Hyde, the Republican head of the House International Relations committee, has chimed in on the debate.

Recall that I heartily applauded a previous Hyde letter to President Roh Moo-Hyun of South Korea about the MacArthur statue.

It's really too bad that Congressman Hyde is retiring. I really like the letters he sends out to foreign leaders. They always strike the right note.

Posted by James Na at 12:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"Hello Kitty" is huge in Asia. Now there is a Hello Kitty Jet from Taiwan. For the life of me, I don't understand why Asian women (not just little girls) are mesmerized by Hello Kitty.

It just seems so, well, childish. On the other hand, it might also be a sign that feminism has not exactly made much inroads in Asia. Women are still in love with cutesy things there, and are not afraid to show it.

Posted by James Na at 11:47 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Todd Crowell at Asia Cable writes:

Public approval for the democratic members is low at the moment. The government of Donald Tsang is very popular, unlike the previous administration. Beijing seems to be making peace offerings to the democrats as shown by the get-together in Guangzhou earlier this month. Another mass demonstration being bruited for early December might prove embarrassingly sparse.

The public may look on opposition as being simply stubborn obstructionism in pursuit of a utopian cause. The baby thaw with Beijing, which they are so eager to nurture, would freeze again. In the end the democrats are in a corner and may not have many good options other than to accept the proposals and try for some compromises.

Of course, the desire for democracy can be bought off with prosperity for only so long, e.g. South Korea and Taiwan). But South Korea and Taiwan had powerful external influences for pro-democracy movements from other governments, most notably the United States.

Unfortunately, because of China's increasingly economic juggernaut status, many governments are "going along to get along" with China's, and by extension, Hong Kong's political repression. And my country, the US, is to some extent guilty of that too.

Some technophiles thought that the Internet might derail China's oppression, but the big technology-as-liberator has turned out to be a decidedly mixed bag where China is concerned:

On one hand, the internet has been a tremendously empowering and liberating force for many Chinese - economically and culturally. On the other hand, a business and regulatroy model is emerging that enables censorship to work in a way that is actually tolerable for most Chinese internet users (except for political dissidents who are - to put it mildly - out of luck). As a result, China's extensive system of censorship and internet controls doesn't hold businesses back when it comes to innovating and making money from products and services that enable users to create media (blogs, posdcasts, etc.). We are also looking at a future in which soft censorship will be "baked" into a new generation of software and online services coming out of China. And these products and services will prove very attractive not just for the Chinese government but for many other governments - including some that call themselves democratic.

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

From the Korea Times:

South Korea will dispatch its deputy foreign minister to Iran early next week to solve what looks like a bid by Teheran to punish Seoul for voting for a U.N. resolution on its nuclear program [boldface mine].

Iran rejected imports from South Korea since Oct. 17. At least five cases of such a retaliatory measure have been confirmed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul said on Thursday.

Posted by James Na at 9:34 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Japan's imperial family just might join the 21st Century and allow females to inherit the throne:

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has reached a consensus that an emperor's first-born child, regardless of sex, should be the heir to the Chrysanthemum throne, sources said.

If the proposal is accepted, Princess Aiko, the 3-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, would be given priority to ascend the throne.

No boy has been born in the imperial household for 40 years.

However, a group of scholars on Oct. 6 issued an "emergency statement" arguing that former imperial family members who withdrew from the imperial registration after Japan's defeat in World War II should be allowed to return to the imperial lineage. Such a move would put a male in line for the throne.

The group wants to maintain the imperial tradition of passing succession on to only males.

Posted by James Na at 11:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Asia Times Online:

Never one to shy away from rattling the saber, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made his customary digs about China's growing military machine while in the country. But the words are something of a smokescreen; his visit could mark a new beginning in bilateral military ties.

Posted by James Na at 10:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Deutsche Bank Research says, with lots of pretty graphs (via Asiapundit):

1. China's GDP per capita is 2.2 times higher than that of India.

2. China's economy is more globalized.

3. India has better corporate governance and more "commercially driven" companies.

What this tells me is that China's reform policies have paid off handsomely, but that China's business culture has some strong hurdles. Conversely, India has fared less well due to slower reforms, but has a greater potential in the sense that there is more ingrained Western-style business culture.

Posted by James Na at 10:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Why South Korea seems to be leading the world in the controversial science of stem-cell research (via The Marmot's Hole).

Some explanations are interesting (cultural view of "blood" and genetics, reverence for scientists), some are questionable ("collectivist" research culture) and others are just down right silly ("chopsticks"!).

A couple of points that caught my attention:

For example, despite a nearly absolute ban on abortion, Korea has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world because the government looks away and no one protests.

The article goes on to criticize American-style "moral wresting," but what it really shows is that, in some way, South Korea is a pretty materialistic, amoral culture.

On the positive side:

Korea reveres scientists more than we do. Science is trendy in Korea. It attracts the nation's best students. There's no nerd derision. Hwang Woo-suk is a celebrity in a way we can't imagine an American scientist could be. The national law-enforcement agency assigns officers to protect him. Korean Airlines flies him around the world for free. The minister of science and technology ranks at the top of the South Korean Cabinet—as high as the secretary of state or treasury in the United States. While most foreign scientists who study in the United States end up staying there, nearly 90 percent of Korean scientists end up returning home, despite much lower salaries.

When I was growing up, I couldn't hear enough about studying science, engineering or medicine from my parents, relatives, friends, parents of friends and ad naseum (when I showed some interest in the study of law, I couldn't hear enough about studying computer science first and then doing intellectual property law).

And, yet, the prevaling social culture of South Korea, in my view, is a mythic-bureaucratic one, rather than a rational-scientist one. Policies and laws are often fashioned from rumors, hearsays and wild shifts in popular emotions rather than after substantive debates about the consequences.

If I may so speculate, I think this has much to do with the prevailing materialistic emphasis on education (study science, invent something or become respected and rich) rather than spiritual one designed to teach one to be a learned, rational gentleman/lady.

Posted by James Na at 11:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know what the problem is with some of these conservative Japanese politicians. I agree with their foreign policy and strong alliance with the US. I agree with their economic policy (postal savings privatization). But for reasons I cannot fathom, they continue to insist on honoring war criminals, with the predictable result that surrounding Asian nations, particularly China and Korea, use it as an excuse for political and economic conflict and xenophobic nationalism.

OneFreeKorea echos my thoughts almost exactly:

I'm not suggesting that men who died for their country in wars not of their own choosing don't deserve to be remembered. I'm saying that the war criminals should be moved to another place, and the museum--if it needs to be there at all--needs to tell a more balanced story than its current theme than its present theme that Japan was an innocent victim.

Imperial Japan was anything but a victim. My reading of the British historian Paul Johnson's Modern Times showed some remarkable parallels between psychology of the Japanese leadership in the 1930s and of North Korea today. In both situations, the leaders competed with each other to be more radical, more bellicose, more irrational, and more ruthless . . . in part because being perceived as rational had proven to be so dangerous.

Unlike Germany that went through a deep national soul-searching in 1970's and 1980's about Nazism, Japan never went through a similar process. So no matter how much Japan's leaders apologize about its aggression and abuses before and during World War II, the people of surrounding nations will always remain wary of any assertiveness from Japan, simply because they believe -- likely correctly -- that most Japanese still see themselves as victims of World War II rather than perpetrators of some of the most heinous acts during the war.

Rather than continual expressions of "regret" for past misdeeds from Japanese politicians, what must happen for Japan to be able to "move on" regarding this issue is a nation-wide movement to re-examine its wartime history. That also means no more revisionist text books that portray Japanese imperialism as a benign movement to rid fellow Asians from European domination.

Posted by James Na at 1:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I agree with Bret Swanson that this obsession with currency-revaluation is highly misguided. Frankly, I think it is the wrong subject with which to criticize China.

The main problem with China's economy is the elusive rule of law. Mind you, rule of law does not necessarily equate to Western-style democracy (see Singapore, for example). But rule of law, including the all-important property rights and just and consistent resolution of disputes, is essential if China is to emerge as a viable economy with long-term stability.

For the moment, unfortunately, that goal remains elusive, because rule of law requires political reform, particularly that aimed at genuine reduction of corruption and kleptocracy.

Posted by James Na at 12:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hostesses in Japan aren't exactly prostitutes. They usually sit with clients at clubs or bars and get them to buy (expensive) liquor while chatting together. There is, however, a hint or "allure" of possible sexual relationships.

Apparently, some customers are thinking up new gifts to woo these hostesses:

"Loads of customers have recently started giving nightclub hostesses little dogs as presents in the hope they'll be able to woo them. Dogs are little bit out of the ordinary and, as a present, they have a bit more impact than the average brand name goods," a hostess in Tokyo's Roppongi nightclub district tells Shukan Taishu (10/24).

"The dog also provides the customer with a good topic of conversation next time he meets the hostess and he's probably hoping he might get a bit of action. But, there are so many guys out there with the same idea, some hostesses are apparently getting as many as four dogs as presents. They can't look after the dogs, so just dump them. I feel really sorry for the poor dogs."

Japan is falling for dogs like never before -- its young women in particular. It's now highly fashionable among 20-something women to own a toy breed, especially if it's a Chihuahua like Kyu-chan, the little pup that has made a small fortune for a finance company courtesy of a series of clever TV ads.

Animal activists are outraged at the trend.

"Many young women have bought pets for things like animal therapy recently. But that increase in buyers has also been accompanied by an increase in the number of pets being dumped. There's a problem with the morality of these owners," says Kosaku Yamada, producer of a dog's rights song produced earlier this year. "I want people to treat their pets with the same love and affection they would give to any other member of their family. I hope that Japanese morality regarding pets rises to the same standards shown in Western countries."

For the time being, there are few signs of that occurring. Local and national government statistics show that 170,000 dogs collected from entertainment districts alone were exterminated during fiscal 2004.

Keiji Morii, a vet from Tokyo's Adachi-ku, pleas for people to take more care of pets they've purchased.

"Like humans, animals have precious lives," he tells Shukan Taishu. "Buying a dog means agreeing to become the protector of that animal's precious little life. It's not a decision that should be made lightly. And, once that decision has been made, you should be prepared to accept the dog as a lifetime partner and shower it with all the love and affection that involves."

Posted by James Na at 12:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Is there a split in China's leadership?

While most Chinese hearts soared with the launch on Wednesday morning of the spacecraft Shenzhou VI, which took two Chinese "taikonauts" into orbit, China's leader was in no mood to celebrate.

President Hu Jintao was conspicuous by his absence from the launch site to watch the liftoff from the heavily guarded Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. And it is telling that as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Hu should have missed this important day for China's military.

Hu's absence, and presumably his ill-humor, bear out rumors circulating in the higher reaches of power in China: he suffered a major setback at the 5th plenary session of the central committee of the CCP, which ended after four days of closed-door meetings in Beijing on Tuesday.

Hu, the nominal military chief, is believed to be particularly unhappy with his top brass.

None of the political objectives Hu had aimed for before the session were endorsed by the 354-member central committee in its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006 to 2010).

Hu's list had included speeding up political reforms, a pledge by all local authorities to submit to the macro-controls instituted by central CCP officials, and support from all cadres for the state leadership to attain a more prominent role in international affairs.

Instead, the communique issued at the close of the plenary session concentrated on economic reforms. There was no endorsement at all of macro-control nor the enhancement of China's stance on the international stage.

Political observers in Beijing agree that there now appears to be two party centrals in China. On the table, and for the public to see, there is the Hu-Wen combine. Behind the curtains, there is a special "train" in which the "retired" party chief, Jiang, rides, free to roam the country. Only a few top leaders are allowed a special train, and it is a symbol of exclusive personal status.

Hu replaced Jiang as party chief in 2002, state president in 2003, and military chief last year.

Another indication of a schism at the top can be found on the website of the People's Liberation Army Daily, the official organ of the military. Among the list of special topics in the latest archive, half still bear Jiang's name, while Hu is almost invisible. The military paper also devoted little space to promoting the plenary session.

Posted by James Na at 12:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm late to this news (sorry, I've been having software issues) about Chinese thugs beating up a village democracy activist right in front of a journalist:

When I worked as a journalist in China, usually the thugs - and certainly the police - were too smart to let these things happen in front of foreign journalists. Not this time.

Posted by James Na at 6:28 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Asahi Shimbun reports:

A ceremony was held Wednesday at Yasukuni Shrine for the planned return of a Korean monument that commemorates the Korean Peninsula's defeat of Japanese invaders at the end of the 16th century.

The Japanese and South Korean governments officially requested that the stone monument be sent to the peninsula in an attempt to mend relations between the two countries, and also North Korea.

The monument was created in what is now North Hamgyong, a North Korean province, in the early 18th century to celebrate the failed attempt by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to invade the peninsula. Volunteer Korean armies repelled the Japanese attack.

The monument is believed to have been brought to Japan during the Russo-Japan War (1904-1905) by Japanese troops, and later kept at Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation's war dead.

The Bukgwandaecheopbi monument, currently held in the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, is scheduled to be airlifted to South Korea at the end of October after protective measures are taken. It will eventually be transferred to North Korea [boldface mine].

Posted by James Na at 6:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Google says that Taiwan is a province of China.

What do you expect from a company that is run by raging leftists? It'd just be so convenient for them and their business if Taiwan just disappeared as a free, democratic nation and became subjects of a quasi-communist dictatorship.

This isn't to say that Taiwan's leaders have behaved rationally (they've been too reliant on US support without having to spend the funds for their own self-defense), but still that's a minor quibble.

The freedom-lover that I am, I'd rather live in Taiwan than in communist China, but I guess for Google, it's China, so long as there is money to be made.

Posted by James Na at 11:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The blog "Kushibo-E-Kibun" has a good analysis of the latest proclamation from North Korea that it won't need aid due to "bumper crops."

The claim is likely faulty, and the Potemkin view of happy peasants and soldiers havesting crops shown to journalists "at a distance" is probably staged.

It appears clear, however, that the North Korean regime does not wish to be a dependency of outside parties, even if many of its people starve.

The North Korean regime is all about control. Despite the talk of economic reform (now curtailed to some degree), what the North Korean leaders want is to maintain their absolute power at all costs. If outside aid is what's needed for that control, they'll take the aid. If the aid is undermining their control, they'll bar it. It is as simple as that.

Kim Jong-Il and his cronies will kill half the people in North Korea if it means they get to keep prison-like control of the other half (my apologies to normal prisons, which usually have much better conditions than North Korea).

Posted by James Na at 10:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Angry Chinese Blogger says:

Despite frosty political relations, there remains a great deal of charitable good will between China and Japan, as has been characterized by Ito’s donation.

Each year, many Japanese travel to China to take part in charitable works, ranging from volunteers tree planters in North West China, working to help to halt desertification, to doctors and teachers who working with the China’s poor. Many more also work in Japan as fundraisers each year, or make personal donations to good causes in China, including funds to assist Chinese comunities and to help poorer Chinese students to study overseas.

I pointed out earlier the crucial difference between China and Japan as being that of rule of law. Angry Chinese Blogger confirms this:

One rule for China, another for Japan

Ironically, while Tokyo accepted responsibility for Nakagama’s amateurish attack, and authorities issued a full apology soon after the incident, Beijing has yet to accept responsibility for the actions of several thousand Chinese protestors who attempted to storm the Japanese consulate in 上海 (Shanghai) on a number of dates earlier this year, and has yet to issue an full apology for the incidents.

Beijing has also yet to accept responsibility, or issue an apology, for the damage caused to other Japanese interests in China during Government sponsored riots earlier this year which saw tens of thousands of Chinese attacking and looting Japanese businesses on the mainland.

Similarly, Chinese businesses that were targeted for selling Japanese products, and Chinese, Koreans, and other Asians/overseas Asian who were attacked or intimidated by Chinese vigilantly, in the mistaken belief that they were Japanese, have also yet to receive any substantive verbal or monetary recompense for actions committed against them.

Under current international conventions, a host nation is responsible for the protection of foreign citizens and businesses within its boundaries, both during peacetime and during times of unrest, an is tasked with guarding against unrest aimed at foreign dignitaries and diplomatic personnel.

Posted by James Na at 9:56 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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:

Posted by James Na at 10:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 9:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 12:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 12:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 12:10 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 11:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 10:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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?

Posted by James Na at 5:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 8:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 11:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 11:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 9:56 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by James Na at 12:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Posted by James Na at 3:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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)

This is not strictly about US-East Asia issues, but...

I have reviews of Asian restaurants I favored in Seattle at my other blog, Guns and Butter Blog. Now that I am located in Northern Virginia and have not yet had a chance to indulge in the ethnic cuisine scene in the area, I do miss the familiar restaurants of Seattle.

Posted by James Na at 11:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From the Korea Times:

The government plans to raise taxes on capital gains from home transactions and restrict mortgage loans...

On the demand side, the government will raise the capital gains tax on owners of two houses to 50 percent from the current 9 to 36 percent.

Property holdings tax on apartments and unused land will be raised to 1 percent by 2019 from the current 0.15 percent.

The assessment base of the comprehensive real estate tax, a national tax designed to crack down on real estate speculation, will be raised to 100 percent of the standard price gradually by 2009 from the current 50 percent.

And owners of properties worth more than 600 million won will be subject to a comprehensive real estate tax beginning next year. Currently, the tax targets people with homes worth more than 900 million won.

To offset significant increases in property holding and capital gains taxes, it also decided to lower taxes on real estate transactions between individuals by 1 percentage point to 3.5 percent from the current 2.5 percent.

But the government plans to save people with low-priced homes from heavier capital gains taxes. Under the plan, owners of homes worth less than 100 million won in the capital region and six metropolitan cities will not be subject to the new taxation.

In provincial areas, those with homes worth less than 300 million won will be excluded from the new taxation plan.

A taxation-oriented new real estate policy, scheduled to be unveiled today, will throw cold water on an economic recovery, according to international credit rating agencies.

They said that the property boom is not serious enough for the government to employ macroeconomic policies.

On Monday, Fitch Ratings said in a report that the government has been overreacting to the real estate market, making its earlier economic stimulus measures futile.

"There is no evidence of a significant bubble in Korea’s residential real estate market beyond certain wealthy areas around southern Seoul," David Marshal said in the report. "The government has, in its economic policies toward the property market, been excessively antipathetic to any price rises."

"In threatening action to curb the market, the government may have undermined its own efforts to boost the stagnant domestic economy by maintaining low interest rates and raising consumer confidence," he added.

Standard & Poor’s said that although the real estate market was showing signs of overheating, a real estate bubble was limited to a few areas in southern Seoul.

It added that regardless of what measures the government takes, it would be hard to curb real estate speculation in specific regions without side effects.

"The government’s measures to curb property speculation continue to affect the construction sector," Morgan Stanley analyst Andy Xie said.

"The measures to double the property holding tax are likely to put construction investment in the doldrums," he added.

The answer is quite simple: the leftist Roh government is again engaging in a symbolic "populist" policy (read demagoguery). The idea is to attack the rich and those with income property in an effort to be seen as if it is "doing something" about a non-existent problem that is still propagated as a significant issue.

This has been the modus operandi of the disastrous Roh government, and shows no sign of abating.

Posted by James Na at 10:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

According to Chosun Ilbo, a major Korean daily:

North Korea is not ready to come back to six-party talks on its nuclear program this week because they sense a lack of trust, Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said Sunday. After a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun in Pyongyang, Kantathi said, "The North Korean foreign minister told me what he had in mind, what had caused North Korea not to be able to participate in the six-party talks scheduled for Monday."

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun on Monday confirmed six-party talks on his country’s nuclear program could restart in mid-September.

Paek said the talks could return from recess "just before the end of September... If things are going well, mid-September is possible," Reuters reported.

The minister said the talks, which had been scheduled to reconvene this week, were being delayed due to annual South Korea-U.S. military exercises.

Posted by James Na at 9:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Chietigj Bajpaee in an Asia Times Online article makes some keen observations of the shifting patterns of alliance and conflict in Asia:

Numerous recent and seemingly unconnected events have highlighted the emerging fulcrums of potential alliances in Asia, as well as the possible focal points of conflict.

Third, Russia and China held unprecedented joint military exercises this month. Entitled "Peace Mission 2005" and comprising of 7,000 mainland troops and 1,800 Russian forces, the exercises have come under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with the intention to prepare for intervention in a state overcome by ethnic conflict. While claiming that the war games were not targeted at any third party, they were held in the Shandong peninsula and the Yellow Sea, in close proximity to Japan, Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.

The exercises included a naval landing, which is unusual given that they come under the SCO framework, which would imply involvement in landlocked Central Asia. Furthermore, the US was not invited to observe the exercises although the four other SCO members (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) along with SCO observer states, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan, were [emphasis mine].

Sino-US tensions have also flared over a series of provocative statements by officials on both sides. On the Chinese side, Major-General Zhu Chenghu in a speech at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club in mid-July stated that China would initiate a nuclear first-strike on the US if it were to intervene in a conflict over Taiwan [emphasis mine].

Whether this statement was made in a personal capacity as the Chinese government claims or as an attempt by the central government to test international reaction will only be verified in the coming months when it is established if Zhu has been censured or promoted for his statement.

At present there are no clear alliances in Asia. Instead, there are numerous permutations and combinations of alliances that may be formed. All sides are hedging their bets and preparing for every possibility...

Nevertheless, certain combinations are more likely than others. In all likelihood, China and Russia will grow closer as will Japan and the US. Apart from disputes over Taiwan, China's exchange rate, quotas on Chinese-made textiles, intellectual property rights infringements and China's human rights record, the US is growing increasingly frustrated with China's relations with dictatorial regimes, including Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, King Gyandera in Nepal and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, as well as support for "rogue" or anti-US regimes such as Myanmar, Iran, Sudan and Venezuela. Russia and China have also opposed US unilateralism on the world stage.

India and South Korea are sitting on the fence and could go either way depending on how events play themselves out. For example, Chinese support for Pakistani aggression could put India on the side of the US against China, while aggressive and unilateral military action by the US could solidify an Asian alliance. The current Sino-Indian rapprochement could also be unraveled by a flare-up over their territorial disputes in Aksai China and Arunachel Pradesh, energy competition on the world stage and China's encroachment into India's "sphere of influence" as seen by its improving relations with Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, attempts to join the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean.

Nonetheless, the Bajpaee article is an interesting, coherent analysis and is worth reading in its entirety.

Posted by James Na at 9:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Flash news from Korea Times:

The six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which took a three-week recess on Aug. 7, will likely resume on Sept. 2, China’s top delegate to the negotiation reportedly said in Japan Friday.

But South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the date has not been set.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was quoted by a Japanese political party official as saying that the participating countries _ the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan _ are expected to reconvene on Sept. 2.

"We are now considering resuming the talks on Sept. 2 in consultation with the Japanese side," Kyodo News Agency quoted Wu as saying. "Our staffers are now talking with the U.S. side."

The Jiji Press, however, reported a conflicting story, quoting Wu as saying that the date he announced was his "personal idea."...

The hottest issue in the fourth round of the talks, which began July 26, was triggered by Pyongyang’s hope to retain nuclear facilities for civilian energy needs in such fields as agriculture and medical science.

North Korea's problems in food and medicine -- and indeed in just about everything else -- are very dire, but everyone knows that the United States, South Korea, Japan and even Europe would flood North Korea with aid and investment, if North Korea simply renounced any nuclear program and took real stept to implement it.

Instead, North Korea's desire to seek a "civilian" nuclear program appears to be nothing more than yet another ploy to keep a secret military nuclear program and to continue to engage in what academics call "rent-seeking behavior" (normal folks call that "blackmail").

Posted by James Na at 10:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From Xinhua.net via China Economic Net:

Japan will be engaged in building the rocket unit and the United States will be making the warhead in a joint missile defense project, Kyodo News reported Wednesday, quoting sources close to the project.

The two countries are tied up in developing for Japan a dual-level missile defense system based on current US interception missiles.

Tokyo aims to start the deployment in fiscal 2006 which begins in April.

The two countries will conclude a new pact on the project to develop the enhanced Standard Missile-3 interceptor to be deployedon an Aegis vessel after the Japanese endorses the plan at the Security Council around the end of this year, the report said.

The SM-3 missile is designed to intercept target outside the atmosphere, while the land-based PAC-3 will be used against missiles at lower heights.

The project involves four key components of the enhanced SM-3 system -- the nosecone, infrared sensor, rocket engine and kineticwarhead.

The close allies decided to jointly develop the missile defense system after a rocket launched by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1998 flew over Japan. Tokyo and Washington deem it as a ballistic missile.

Japan eased its ban on arms exports last December and exempted the exports of missile defense-related arms components to the United States to pave the way for the project to move into the development stage.

Posted by James Na at 10:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Segei Blagov at Asia Times writes:

The truth is out. The joint war games on northern Chinese beaches, part of a military exercise between China and Russia, are not designed to send warning messages to the United States about the limits of its global unilateralism.

It's really all about China and Russia practicing for a joint occupation of North Korea, or so the Russian media will have us believe.

More mundanely, the unprecedented display of Russian and Chinese combined military might also sends a signal to Central Asian countries that both Moscow and Beijing will no longer ignore American inroads into the strategically important region. However, Moscow has dismissed speculation of moves toward a new military bloc or joint armed groupings involving Russia and China.

In the mean time, Asia Times also has pieces (here and here) on the proposed Chinese acquisition of a Canadian-registered Central Asian oil company, PetroKazakhstan:

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil and gas producer, reached an agreement with PetroKazakhstan Inc on Monday to buy the Canadian-registered company for US$4.18 billion. If the deal closes as expected in October, it would become the largest-ever overseas acquisition for a Chinese firm, breaking the record set when Lenovo acquired IBM's PC unit.

"CNPC, through its wholly owned subsidiary China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI), has participated in acquiring PetroKazakhstan (PK)," the Beijing-based oil giant said in a statement Monday. CNPC, the state-owned parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina, and PetroKazakhstan, formerly known as Hurricane Hydrocarbons, have entered into an "arrangement agreement" whereby the Chinese oil firm will pay US$55 a share, or 21% more than its closing share price on Friday, PetroKazakhstan said in a statement.

Posted by James Na at 10:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It has been known for sometime that North Korea supplements its meager revenues by engaging in drug dealing, counterfeit currency manufacturing and other manners of organized crime (and if there ever was a organized criminal state, it is North Korea today).

Andy Jackson at the Marmot's Hole has more on the story:

Another source of financing for Pyongyang has just dried up. An international smuggling ring with links to North Korea, China and Thailand has been busted by American law enforcement officials...

This particular criminal group was apparently a little more sophisticated than the bunch who got caught while trying to smuggle Nork drugs into Australia.

Of course, Nork drug smuggling and counterfeiting is nothing new. Such criminal activity could be seen as a sign of a breakdown in government authority, except in this case at least some of the smuggling is being run by the North Korean government.

Posted by James Na at 9:37 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, I blogged about Wrigley's and China and wrote:

Yes, you can make money in China and, yes, you can dominate the local market despite all the obstacles of conducting business in a byzantine "communist" quasi-capitalist dictatorship.

But here is what the Left calls China's government -- an "inelastic political system":

China, to be sure, still has very many problems of its own, including an inelastic political system, a daunting rich-poor gap, the ever-volatile Taiwan issue, demoralizing corruption problems and those extremely unfortunate and counterproductive tensions with Japan.

Posted by James Na at 6:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

According to Interfax News Agency via Ferghana.ru:

SKODA COMES TO KAZAKSTAN

The factory that assembles Nivas in Kazakhstan intends to market over 500 Skodas this year and almost 5,000 in 2006. Skoda Superbs will account for 20% of the output, Skoda Octavias for the remaining 80%.

"Ferghana" in Ferghana.ru refers to the Ferghana Valley, a land with ancient history where Greeks, China, Islam, Russia and steppe nomads clashed -- a fascinating, if now neglected (in the West), corner of the world.

Posted by James Na at 5:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier I wrote about Singapore.

Now Todd Crowell at Asia Cable writes:

Wrigley’s is slowly working its way back into Singapore after having been shut out, along with every other gum maker after the island country famously banned the import and sale of chewing gum for sanitary reasons in 1992. The company was deeply involved in the negotiations leading to the 2003 Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Two issues dominated the negotiations: Singapore’s participation in the Iraq War coalition and chewing gum. Of the two, gum was by far the stickiest.

Somewhat grudgingly, Singapore compromised, agreeing to allow the importation and sale of what it called “therapeutic” gum. “They were tough,” said former Rep. Philip Crane ® of Illinois, who was involved in the negotiations. This opened the way for sales of Wrigley’s Orbit brand of sugar-free gum, which contains calcium lactate intended to strengthen tooth enamel. Another beneficiary of the deal is Pfizer, which makes Nicorette, a nicotine gum meant to help smokers kick the habit.

At the moment, Wrigley’s gum can only be obtained through a licensed pharmacist, and the buyer must provide his name and identity card number. In Singapore, chewing gum is still very much a controlled substance.

Almost unnoticed, the Chicago-based Wrigley’s, the world’s largest maker and marketer of chewing gum, has built a dominating presence in China. With 60 per cent of the market and a million retail sales outlets, Wrigley’s has probably come closer than any other American company to fulfilling the century-old mythic dream: “If every one of China’s one billion people bought just one …”

In five years Wrigley’s has built an awesome distribution network, making sure that the little green packages of Doublemint gum are available in almost every corner of the country. The company is said to have the widest distribution and sales network of any food manufacturing and consumer packaging company in China, foreign or domestic, a staggering one million outlets, 30,000 in Shanghai alone.

No foreign or domestic gum company comes close to Wrigley’s market share or sales volume. Indeed, the domestic Guangdong Fanyu Candy Co., the once prosperous and well-known maker of Yiqing chewing gum and Dada bubble gum, had to fold its operations in 2002. It could not compete. The only significant competitors left are the South Korean Lotte and the Italian Perfetti Van Melle.

Since 1999, China has become the second-largest market for Wrigley’s, behind only the U.S. “I don’t think people know how global [Wrigley’s] is,” fund manager Rose Papp told Forbes.com. Wrigley’s now counts 14 percent of its sales in Asia, up from 3.3 percent in the year 2000. Industry analysts estimate that the Chinese chewing gum market is worth about $250 million now and may reach more than $800 million by 2008.

Posted by James Na at 5:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I posted about the joint Russian-Chinese military exercise earlier.

Elizabeth Wishnick writes in Asia Times Online that Russia and China may be "brothers in arm" in wishing to counter the US dominance, but have different strategic goals:

While Peace Mission 2005 may be a joint exercise, China and Russia are pursuing different goals, and there is little chance of future coordinated military interventions in third countries. Russia sees an opportunity to train its pilots, test its equipment, and, most importantly, showcase its technology for China's purchase. For China, the exercise provides an important training function, but is also designed to demonstrate its naval power to Taiwan and other neighbors.

With the development of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership in the 1990s, Russian officials have consistently expressed their support for a one-China policy. Nevertheless, leaders in Moscow have been equally consistent in their refusal to become involved in any Chinese military confrontation over Taiwan, as their rejection of a location in southern China for the exercises indicates.

Peace Mission 2005 also enables China to send Japan a message regarding Beijing's capability to defend its interests in offshore territorial disputes, but Moscow has quite a different set of concerns there. The Russian government has been successful in recent months in creating a bidding war between China and Japan over first access to Siberian oil. With President Vladimir Putin scheduled to visit Tokyo in November to discuss the territorial issue as well as energy cooperation, Russia may be seeking to prove that it has another option in the form of the Sino-Russian partnership should talks with Japan not go well.

Finally, Russia has its own long-term concerns about the strategic implications of a rising China. As a lead-up to Peace Mission 2005, in late July the Far East military district in Russia held the Vostok-2005 exercise near the Chinese border, involving 5,000 troops and 14,000 personnel from the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Emergencies Ministry, to prepare for threats from separatist and terrorist groups. While the Russian Federation faces many separatist threats, this is not true of the Far East district. In this part of Russia, security concerns revolve around defense of extended peripheries and demographic imbalances, especially vis-a-vis neighbor and strategic partner China.

Posted by James Na at 12:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Singapore has long prided itself on being a unique international city of varying ethnicities, languages and cultures and being perhaps the cleanest and the most modern city-state in the world.

Now, Asahi Shimbun reports of its attempt to become the international education hub:

Try googling "Singapore" and chances are the word "hub" will appear alongside any mention of the city-state-whether in regard to transport, aviation, tourism, business, finance, even shopping.

With one eye on the sagging birthrate, and the other on its reputation as a safe, clean and prosperous nation, the government has come up with a plan to establish Singapore as Asia's premier "education hub."

Even at the primary level, Singapore has long been a popular destination for thousands of Asian students keen to draw on the island's English-speaking culture.

In fact some 20,000 primary and junior high school students-four percent of the country's total 530,000 students-are from overseas. Boarding schools here attract kids as young as 7-years-old...

When Song Jong Fun, 15, first arrived at the dormitory five years ago from Pusan, South Korea, he says he was homesick and miserable.

But as he got used to his surroundings and the language, things started to click.

Now he says he feels like English has become his first language, and worries about his Korean ability...

Students can learn English yet remain an easy flight away from home; parents can breathe easy-conservative Singapore is said to be one of the safest countries in the world; it also has a squeaky-clean reputation for its spotless streets and amenities; and, it's not too hard on the wallet.

Alas! it is also an authoritarian confucianist state (some call it proto-fascist) where the government tightly regulates lives of its citizens (instead of resorting to government violence to enforce its rule, however, it does act in a more civilized fashion -- it launches libel lawsuits against dissidents and bankrupts them). It is the not the kind of place that freedom-livng Americans would make a permanent home.

In any case, the education hub policy has had some unintended side effects:

But the "education hub" project still has a way to go as there are problems on the other side of the school gates.

Some mothers who accompanied non-scholarship students have been caught working illegally-in the sex industry.

The scandal caused a major stir in the outwardly chaste government, which has since refused to issue work permits

When Lee Kuan Yew passes from the scene, perhaps.

Posted by James Na at 11:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, I had a chance to read an op-ed in the Asian Wall Street Journal about the recent surge of anti-Americanism in South Korea. In it, the author argues that the anti-Americanism is not caused by the oft-repeated mantra of a "generational shift" in Korea (older Koreans with experiences of the Korean War giving way to younger Koreans without).

With the permission of the author, I reproduce it in entirety here:

The Decay of the U.S.- South Korean Alliance

By WON JOON CHOE
June 10, 2005

Today's summit between President George W. Bush and his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo Hyun brings two interwoven foreign-policy crises to center stage. The first crisis involves North Korea's announcement that it has nuclear weapons. And the second crisis limits the Bush administration's options in dealing with this first crisis, because it involves the decay of the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea.

Although it's a mistake to see this decay as irreversible, there's understandable pessimism about the future of the alliance. That's because Mr. Roh, a leftist whom the local press dubs the "reformist dictator," is a man America has great difficulty doing business with. He won the presidency by exploiting an ugly wave of anti-Americanism following the accidental death of two teenagers in a collision with a U.S. military vehicle.

On the eve of his Dec. 2002 victory, Mr. Roh laid bare his true intentions by brazenly declaring that he would maintain neutrality in the event of a war between the U.S. and North Korea. His latest foreign policy initiative reflects that, by casting South Korea in the role of a "Northeast Asian balancer" -- which could see Seoul siding with China against the U.S. in some circumstances.

Mr. Roh's foreign policy clashes most discordantly with American interests over North Korea, where he has embraced his predecessor Kim Dae Jung's "Sunshine Policy" of one-sided concessions toward Pyongyang. That's based on the fallacious notion that, rather than being a belligerent totalitarian menace, North Korea is simply an ordinary state that is only developing nuclear weapons in order to protect itself.

That hamstrings the Bush administration's options when it comes to North Korea. While there is debate regarding the wisdom of military strikes, there is little debate that Seoul's cooperation would be necessary to launch them. The military option was on the table during a prior nuclear crisis in 1994 because then President Kim Young Sam, a lifelong anti-communist, would have gone along with launching pre-emptive strikes against Pyongyang. But it is inconceivable that Mr. Roh would do so today. His bankrolling of Pyongyang also makes it far more difficult to impose workable economic sanctions.

Seoul's cozying up to Pyongyang may also frustrate what many in the Bush administration officials regard as the best remaining alternative: relying on China to pressure North Korea. According to Park Jin, a prominent opposition parliamentarian, a Chinese diplomat recently complained that Seoul's appeasement emboldens Pyongyang and renders it less amenable to Beijing's influence.

The Bush administration's policy on North Korea will continue to be plagued by problems so long as Mr. Roh and his allies remain in power. But that should not be allowed to induce a pervasive fatalism that South Korea is already a lost cause and prevent the Bush administration from reaching out to its wayward ally.

Such fatalism is fueled by the myth of a "generational shift" in South Korean politics, a myth which finds an unthinking acceptance among many foreign observers. According to this myth, the elections of Mr. Roh and his predecessor Mr. Kim represent the emergence of a new, permanent political majority in South Korea. Often referred to as the "386" generation, this new majority is said to be young, leftist, anti-American, and pro-Chinese.

The reality is there is no such new majority. Rather than an ideological realignment, Messrs. Roh and Kim owe their victories to the failure of the conservatives to coalesce around a single candidate who could defeat them. The conservative candidate Lee Hoi Chang would have beaten Mr. Kim by a landslide in the 1997 presidential election had former provincial governor Rhee In Je not bolted from Mr. Lee's party to run on his own. Again in 2002, a third candidate split the conservative vote. Chung Mong Jun, a pro-American industrialist, initially stood as a third candidate and then pledged his support to Mr. Roh in a most bizarre ideological alliance.

Nor is anti-Americanism or pro-Chinese sentiment so deep-seated among the young. Attitudes toward America and China are far more complex, and often vacillate wildly depending on the political news of the day. For instance, pro-Chinese fervor cooled dramatically during the recent rhetorical tussle over Beijing's claims that the ancient kingdom of Koguryo was actually part of China.

In fact, the recent incarnation of anti-Americanism in South Korea is a product of government propaganda. The Roh government and its allies have done their best to fan suspicions of the U.S., while striving to keep the true character of the North's monstrous regime hidden from view.

Mr. Roh's effort to re-educate the South Korean public sometimes eerily mimics the methods used by Pyongyang. His intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service, routinely intimidates those who would speak out against the abuses of Kim Jong Il's regime, including North Korean defectors and foreign humanitarian aid workers such as Dr. Vollertsen. Perhaps more shocking, Mr. Roh's Uri Party recently ram through a "media reform" law designed to limit the circulation of the opposition newspapers that are critical of his appeasement policy.

All that can be countered by engaging the Roh government in a struggle for the hearts of the South Korean people. The Bush administration can seek to speak directly to ordinary South Koreans about the horrors of Kim Jong Il's gulag state, explain why the world cannot allow it to possess nuclear arms, and also remind South Koreans of how their alliance with the U.S. has protected them for more than half a century.

America taught South Korea's long oppressed people to yearn for the intoxicating beauty of freedom. And President Bush could do no better than to remind them of the fragility of freedom, and that freedom's preservation requires unblinking courage in the face of those who would seek to trample it.

Mr. Choe is a commentator on Korean politics and a former associate at the law firm of Allen & Overy.

Posted by James Na at 10:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This site (hat tip: Keith Pennock at Discovery Institute) would be so hilarious if it weren't for the fact that the content is a database of actual, real, live propaganda from the North Korean "media" (which many outlets of the South Korean media increasingly resemble).

Check it out, it's worth more than a chuckle.

Posted by James Na at 8:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Leftist South Korean groups are in ecstasy over the visit from North Korean officials for the joint celebration of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule (hat tip: Judith Apter Klinghoffer):

Joint Liberation Day celebrations of the two Koreas in Seoul are turning into a platform for North Korea to publicize its views as the South Korean hosts are going out of their way to avoid offending their guests. The North Koreans are unabashedly airing demands for the withdrawal of the U.S. military and the rejection of “foreign influences,” while in the heart of downtown Seoul, participants from pro-North Korean labor, civic and student groups openly shout slogans in that vein. On Tuesday, the North Korean delegation gleefully waved sashes given them by South Korean supporters that read, "Withdraw USFK!"

In fact, as the eminently sensible Andrei Lankov points out, what is often ignored in the South Korean intellectual circles is that the North Korean government of Kim Il-Sung started out as a pure puppet regime of the Soviet communists:

The textbook dedicates quite a few pages to the 1946 land reform in the North, whose radicalism is favorably contrasted with the sluggishness of similar measures in South Korea. Basically, it's true: the South Korean government of 1948-1950 included too many landlords to be enthusiastic about land redistribution. But there was something in the story that made one laugh: the book failed to mention that from beginning to end, land reform in North Korea was planned by Soviet military authorities.

Land reform was promulgated in the name of nascent North Korean authorities, but Kim Il-sung simply signed the documents that had been prepared for him by Russian officers. This is evident from Russian papers on land reform, which were declassified and published in South Korea years ago. But these facts do not fit the authors' concept and hence are not mentioned in the textbook.

More from Lankov:

South Korea was once the domain of knee-jerk anti-communism, but nowadays "progressive" (left-wing) academics increasingly have come to dominate the South Korean intellectual world. And these people badly want to play down the impact the Soviet Union once had on the North. They want it so badly that they sometimes even pretend to be ignorant of new material that clearly contradicts the version of history they want to have...

Thus, the left wants to show the illegitimacy of its opponents, insisting that the South Korean state from its inception was not "authentically national", instead it was compromised by the wide employment of former pro-Japanese collaborators and by close cooperation with the US military. Needless to say, such collaboration is always emphasized.

But to advance their ideas even further, those political intellectuals also need a positive example, which would be able to stand for everything good in their picture of national history. Hence, they chose to believe that the early North Korean state was a complete opposite to the allegedly corrupt and dependent Seoul government of the era. There are hard facts that demonstrate that until 1950 for all practical purposes the North Korean state was a Soviet puppet, but these facts do not fit into their world picture nicely, and hence are not mentioned.

Even a cursory look through now-available historical documents clearly indicates: In 1945-1950, the North Korean regime operated under complete control of Soviet supervisors. Who drafted the above-mentioned land reform law? Soviet advisers. Who edited and, after some deliberation, confirmed the North Korean constitution of 1948? Joseph Stalin himself. Who arrested all major opponents to the emerging communist regime? The Soviet military police. Where were the dissidents sent to do their time? To Siberia, of course.

The available papers leave no doubt that even relatively mundane actions of the North Korean government needed approval from Moscow. The Soviet politburo, a supreme council of the state, approved the agenda of the North Korean rubber-stamping parliament and even "gave permission" to stage a parade in 1948. The much-trumpeted conference of politicians from the North and South in spring 1948 was another Soviet idea, even if the leftist historians now love to depict it as yet another expression of Pyongyang's willingness to negotiate based on its alleged national feelings. The most important speeches to be delivered by the North Korean leaders had to be read and approved in the Soviet Embassy.

If all these do not give us a right to describe the North of 1945-1950 as a "puppet regime", what further evidence is needed. But such facts do not fit the agenda of many South Korean intellectuals who are allergic to the anti-communist propaganda of their youth.

There are also indications that the current leftist government in South Korea is not nearly as popular as the left-leaning American media portray -- in fact, it never was all that popular (more on that later). We should stick around in the region, but some judicious political maneuvering is in order.

Posted by James Na at 8:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Peter Brookes at Heritages writes about the Russian-Chinese joint military exercise:

This week will see an ominous precedent: The first- ever joint Chinese-Russian military exercises kick off Thursday in Northeast Asia.

The exercises are small in scale — but huge in implication. They indicate a further warming of the "strategic partnership" that Moscow and Beijing struck back in 1996.

More importantly, they signal the first real post-Cold War steps, beyond inflammatory rhetoric, by Russia and China to balance — and, ultimately, diminish — U.S. power across Asia. If America doesn't take strategic steps to counter these efforts, it will lose influence to Russia and China in an increasingly important part of the world.

Unimaginable just a few years ago, the weeklong military exercises — dubbed "Peace Mission 2005" — will involve 10,000 troops on China and Russia's eastern coasts and in adjacent seas.

For instance, although Russia nixed the idea, the Chinese demanded the exercises be held 500 miles to the south — a move plainly aimed at intimidating Taiwan.

Beijing clearly wanted to send a warning to Washington (and, perhaps, Tokyo) about its support for Taipei, and hint at the possibility that if there were a Taiwan Strait dust-up, Russia might stand with China.

The exercise also gives Russia an opportunity to strut its military wares before its best customers — Chinese generals. Moscow is Beijing's largest arms supplier, to the tune of more than $2 billion a year for purchases that include subs, ships, missiles and fighters.

Rumors abound that Moscow may finally be ready to sell strategic, cruise-missile-capable bombers such as the long-range TU-95 and supersonic TU-22 to Beijing — strengthening China's military hand against America and U.S. friends and allies in Asia.

Russia and China are working together to oppose American influence all around their periphery. Both are upset by U.S. support for freedom in the region — notably in the recent Orange (Ukraine), Rose (Georgia) and Tulip (Kyrgyzstan) revolutions — all of which fell in what Moscow or Beijing deems its sphere of influence.

Japan’s Nihon Keizai reported that some in Japan’s defense establishment believe the exercise to be practice for a possible intervention in North Korea, or more specifically, to determine whether in the wake of a North Korean collapse, Sino-Russian forces can get to the DMZ faster than ROK-U.S. forces can get to the Yalu. I’m not sure if that’s actually the case, as the LAT reported that Russia originally wanted to carry out the exercise in Central Asia and China near Taiwan, with Shandong being the resulting compromise. Still, the Japanese suspicions are at least interesting to think about.

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That's right, $100 per fighter jet (hat tip: The Lost Nomad):

South Korea is to sell supersonic fighters at $100 (101,000 won) per jet. It may be hard to believe, but it’s no lie.

The fighter jets to be sold at such a giveaway price are F-5A/Bs, which are being retired from their 40-year-long service this month.

The Ministry of National Defense and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said Sunday they considered selling the retired aircraft, which opened the era of supersonic fighters for the Korean Air Force in 1965, to foreign nations including Mexico and Poland.

We have about 50 F-5A/B fighter jets at the moment, half of which are used for educational and demonstrational purposes. The ministry will consider selling the remaining half to foreign nations at $100 per unit, a KAI official said. It’s a nominal price.

He hinted that the virtual donation is part of a sales strategy to export KT-1 and T-50 supersonic trainers developed and produced by KAI to the foreign nations. "We have also sold F-5A/B fighters to the Philippines at $100 each in the past.

Here are some pictures of F-5A/B Freedom Fighters, and the stats including the procurement saga and other information can be found here at GlobalSecurity.org.

I've got $100. I wonder whether the ROK government would sell one to me. I think it would make a wonderful gift for my best friend, Jack, who is a pilot.

Posted by James Na at 7:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In a row over US criticism over the bloody Andijan repression, the US forces are leaving a strategically useful Central Asian base.

Not strictly East Asia, I know, but still interesting: see the entry in my other blog, Guns and Butter.

Posted by James Na at 11:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Ted Turner wants to turn the DMZ into a "nature preserve." See the full coverage on The Marmot's Hole.

Hundreds of thousands are perishing through communist-induced famine and political repression in North Korea, but Turner apparently cares more about creating a "nature preserve" than diligently working toward, if not the end of the repugnant North Korean regime, some sort of reform aimed at reducing political repression and economic improvement in North Korea.

Guess what, Ted? The DMZ is already a nature preserve of sorts, because people can't venture there (or perhaps that is what Turner has in mind for a nature preserve, all mines and barbed wires).

What the two Koreas really need is for the DMZ to be habitable again -- hopefully through the end of North Korea's bizzaro-communist regime.

Posted by James Na at 5:23 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Todd Crowell at Asia Cable has a good review of the latest electoral gambit from Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi:

The political pressure on some of Japan’s legislators to pass the postal privatization bill was so great that one legislator actually committed suicide. Now many believe that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is committing the equivalent of political hara kiri by dissolving parliament and calling for new elections next month.

Koizumi made good on his threat to call a special general election after the House of Councilors, Japan’s equivalent of the Senate, defeated his bills to privatize Japan’s post office, including its banking and insurance branches which contain assets equal to about $3 trillion (that’s with a “T”).

One thing that gives Koizumi some hope is his approval ratings going into the election. The last poll gave his cabinet a 47.3 percent stamp of approval. For Americans that may seem low, but in Japan it is, in fact, a very high rating. Several LDP premiers have had approval ratings that fell into single digits.

Though almost ignored in the U.S., the election could have serious foreign policy consequences. If Katsuya Okada, leader of the Japan Democratic Party, forms a government, he very likely would end the visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that irritate China and Korea. Indeed, there is evidence that the public at large is nervous about Koizumi’s annual visits, so it might be a good issue to run on.

He would likely withdraw Japanese soldiers from Iraq. Unfortunately for Koizumi, Samawah, where the Japanese are stationed, is in turmoil. One dead soldier might turn the entire election around. A new government would probably drop any plans to amend the country’s peace constitution and may not be as eager as Koizumi to move Japan militarily closer to the U.S., especially in helping come to the defense of Taiwan.

Then there is the issue of postal privatization itself. This is really the subject of an article by itself. It’s safe to say that any tinkering with a pot of wealth roughly equal to a third of the entire gross domestic product of the United States cannot help but have enormous implications for Japan and the rest of the world.

I’ll simply quote a key passage from a study by Jetro [Japan External Trade Organization]: “If the Japanese public . . . begins to invest their postal savings in private banks and other investment vehicles, the country’s economy will never be the same. Huge amounts of pent-up household capital would be moved into private financial markets. This would help to bolster not only Japan’s incipient economic recovery but, over time, financial markets around the world.”

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Asahi Online reports:

As part of the transformation of the U.S. forces, plans are progressing in the Asia-Pacific region for a fundamental realignment of the command and control structure as well as the deployment of new combat capabilities.

Those moves are designed to create a more effective force posture to fight terrorism and to maintain and enhance deterrence capabilities against China and North Korea.

In the background is the recognition that the strategic environment in the region is deteriorating due in part to the rapid modernization of China's military.

American officials are placing greater expectations on strengthening cooperation with Japan on a deterrence strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the global war against terrorism.

One symbol of the transformation of the command and control structure is an establishment of a new warfighting headquarters in Hickam Air Force Base outside of Honolulu...

Plans call for establishing 10 such warfighting headquarters around the world...

That network would allow the U.S. Air Force to become more effective and efficient. According to Major General Gary L. North, director for operations at Pacific Command, one possibility would be to "have the work being done for planning for Iraq done by the Kenney warfighting headquarters" in Hawaii.

Pacific Command is one of nine unified commands in the U.S. military. It has the largest area of responsibility (AOR), which extends from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of Africa. There are 43 nations, including Japan, within that area. The total number of troops under the command is about 300,000.

The AOR of Pacific Air Forces was divided into four. Japan is covered by the 5th Air Force headquartered at Yokota Air Base; the Korean Peninsula is covered by the 7th Air Force headquartered at Osan Air Base; the northern Pacific is covered by the 11th Air Force headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska; and the south Pacific and Indian Ocean was covered by the 13th Air Force, previously headquartered at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

Under the latest realignment, all areas with the exception of the Korean Peninsula falls under the command of Kenney Headquarters. A separate warfighting headquarters will be set up in South Korea.

Then there is the issue of preparing for the current war (the so-called War on Terror) while pondering a future warfighting scenario (a potential war against China):

Meanwhile, analysts have pointed to the difficulties facing the Pacific Command to deal with two separate strategic tasks, the war against terrorism as well as serving as a deterrence against China and North Korea.

"A concentration (of forces) on Northeast Asia is at odds with the emerging threat (of terrorism) in Southeast Asia," said Thomas A. Bowditch, a special assistant to the deputy commander of the Pacific Command. Bowditch is involved in the discussions on the realignment of U.S. troops in Japan as well. "The commander is pulled in two directions. This is his most difficult dilemma with regard to his force posture."

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From the Chosun Ilbo, a conservative South Korean daily:

The Korea Foundation has ended its support for the American Enterprise Institute, a rightwing U.S. think tank credited with being the brains behind the war on Iraq, Foreign Minster Ban Ki-moon told the National Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee on Monday. It reportedly did so at the ruling party’s request.

The AEI is the leading neoconservative think tank with close links to the Bush administration. Its brain children include the invasion of Iraq, tax cuts and planned redeployments of U.S. forces around the world. Vice President Dick Cheney, former Deputy Secretary of State John Bolton, and "Axis of Evil" speechwriter David Frum all have AEI backgrounds. Reviled by critics as a neocon bastion, President George W. Bush has called it a collection of America's best minds.

The Korea Foundation, a body under the Foreign Ministry, has given US$1.4 million to the AEI since 1992. A foundation official said it gives money to major Washington think tanks to support research on Korea. He said the National Assembly had asked it to end contributions to the AEI.

Posted by James Na at 3:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

...for the intermission in the last several weeks. During my relocation to Northern VA, I had no access to a secure computer, so I could not post entries.

The site is back up and the content should flow!

Posted by James Na at 3:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Bush administration made no new "offer" to the North Korean regime, but North Korea has decided to return to the negotiation table:

"We are able to confirm that we have an agreed upon date with all the parties for resuming six-party talks, the week of July 25," a senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The confirmation came during a dinner hosted by China for Hill and Kim Kye-gwan, who headed North Korea's delegations to previous six-party talks and is expected to do so again at the next round.

Since a third inconclusive round of talks in Beijing in June last year, Pyongyang had demanded that any new round must have an expanded focus on broader disarmament issues, not just on the North's nuclear programs.

But U.S. officials said Pyongyang had reaffirmed the narrower focus. "It's significant that the purpose is denuclearisation," the senior official said.

We Americans often discuss the cost to ourselves of any failure in negotiations, but we should not forget that North Korea has more to lose in many ways by playing chicken with us, PROVIDED that we negotiate from a principle of strength, not from any sense of desperation and weakness.

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

Before pressing "SEND," it always helps to double check as one Korea "expert" recently found out (hat tip: The Marmot's Hole).

The U.S.-Asia foreign policy establishment here is positively gaga over a teensy transmission error last week by consultant Chris Nelson , author of the highly authoritative Nelson Report, a must-read for those involved in foreign affairs, especially on Asia.

Nelson, who works for Samuels International, prepared an exceptionally frank "special report for the embassy of the Republic of South Korea" titled "Players on Korea Policy in Washington, D.C."

Acknowledging his brutal assessments -- his survey left few untrashed -- he warned the embassy that "if ANY of this Report is seen by ANY one outside of the embassy, its humble author is going to have to receive political asylum."

Alas. Nelson, instead of sending the 22-page analysis to the Korean Embassy, hit his list for Nelson Report subscribers, administration officials, Hill folks, think tankers, media types and others -- more than 800 people, including many of whom he had skewered or identified as people who talk to him. So it's most unclear who would offer asylum.

Posted by James Na at 12:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Asahi Online reports:

An apparent terrorist threat forced organizers to abruptly cancel a rally in Iraq on Sunday intended to support the Japanese Self-Defense Forces stationed in Samawah.

The rally was arranged by an Iraqi sports group and an association that wanted to show its appreciation of Japan's goodwill in the area, organizers said.

"We wanted to express our gratitude for Japan's contributions for promoting sports activities here, but we had to cancel it to avoid trouble," one of the organizers said.

Of course, most Americans are unaware of troop contributions from our Asian and other allies, because the mainstream news media suddenly discovers allies in this "unilateral" war only when they draw down their participation.

Posted by James Na at 6:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

That includes Senator Hillary Clinton.

And naturally, I'd expect her to tout her husband's "accomplishment" in this regard, the now infamous 1994 "Agreed Framework":

There is a precedent for this. According to former defense secretary William J. Perry (in a 1999 book) it was the threat of U.N. sanctions that led to negotiations concluding in the Agreed Framework, which froze the North Korean plutonium-based nuclear program for nine years.

If Levin and Clinton are calling for an Agreed Framework 2, they are setting up America's North Korean policy for a failure... again.

Posted by James Na at 5:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Previously, I urged in "China's Strategic Direction" (April 15th, 2005, RealClearPolitics) not to neglect the possibily that China's strategic influence may heard "north" to Central Asia rather than "south" to Southeast Asia.

RadioFreeEurope reports that Kazakhstan and China signed a joint declaration on a "strategic partnership" (hat tip: Registan.net):

[Chinese President] Hu is reported to be particularly interested in boosting energy and trade ties as he visits Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan and China are building a 988-kilometer pipeline worth some $700 million to export Kazakh oil to China. [Kazakh President] Nazarbaev said on 4 July the pipeline will be completed on 16 December.

A likely topic on the agenda is recent violence in eastern Uzbekistan.

Tashkent says the violence on 13 May in the city of Andijon killed 176 people and was caused by Muslim extremist groups intent on toppling the government.

But human rights groups say more than 500 people, mostly civilians, were killed by fire from government troops.

China, Kazakhstan, and Russia have strongly supported Tashkent's position.

Nazarbaev said on 30 June in Astana that states have the right to crack down on what he termed "terrorists."

"What should the state do in such cases?" Nazarbaev said. "The state of Israel, for instance, never negotiates with terrorists."

The SCO, a regional security grouping dominated by Russia and China, includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

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