Thanks for reading.

An ROK fishing boat has been released in a “goodwill measure” from the DPRK. The four man crew has been released along with the boat, and according to the article:

The North’s recent barrage of conciliatory gestures has been surprising, even to South Korean officials familiar with the fickle pattern in North Korea’s diplomacy. Analysts say the overtures indicate that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has regained confidence about his health and grip on power. He was reported to have had a stroke last August.

This part is questionable, because the reasoning behind this is anybody’s guess. I believe Kim Jong Il has confidence he has absolute power over his domain, but the past shakeups in the cabinet posts indicate something is going on. I have not heard much about any possible succession yet, and the fever of these speculative stories have died down, and still no official word has come from the North. With that, we wait, and in the meantime, I also believe the release of these people are for propaganda purposes (He needs the smiling, caring leader legacy like his old man) and a way to get concessions. It has been a familiar pattern for years, so this is really no surprise. In all, very few things are of goodwill from the Kim Jong Il regime.

Yet at the same time with all of these “goodwill gestures”, the UAE seized a ship with arms to Iran. Yep, giving arms to the enemy is a very nice gesture indeed, and it means some ill-gained hard currency for Kim Jong Il. So while he is trying to reach his hand over the table in a friendly manner, he is still doing what he does best: illicit trade. What a terrific fellow:

According to the Security Council diplomat, the weapons were carried on an Australian vessel, the ANL-Australia, which was flying under a Bahamian flag. According to an Aug. 14 letter sent to the U.N. sanctions committee, the exporting company was an Italian shipper, Otim, which exported the items from its Shanghai office.

“The cargo manifest said the shipment contained oil-boring machines, but then you opened it up and there were these items,” the diplomat said. ANL and Otim officials couldn’t immediately be reached to comment.

The sanctions committee replied to the letter earlier this week, informing the U.A.E. it had an obligation to “seize and dispose” of the weapons. The weapons have been offloaded from the ship, and the ship has been released, according to people familiar with the action.

Bewildered, questions are being asked, Kim is being such a nice guy, why this?

The seizure could also raise fresh questions about North Korea’s intentions. After taking an aggressive stance against the West earlier this year, Pyongyang appears to have softened its rhetoric, releasing two captive American journalists and sending a delegation to meet with South Korea’s president.

There is nothing “fresh” about this in my opinion. I sincerely believe Kim Jong Il is doing everything according to his plan. On the other hand, it appears Washington and others may not be buying this approach. Problem is, few choices are to be had in the North Korean problem, and to be sure, nobody is going to use the ideas presented by One Free Korea to get some real teeth in the sanctions process. The other article continues:

United States and South Korean officials fear the North may be using its current overtures to undermine international consensus for the need to enforce sanctions. They say they are determined to break the old pattern of rewarding the North’s on-again, off-again nuclear strategy with aid and diplomatic incentives.

South Korea says it will not repeat the old format of dialogue with the North that had provided aid but failed to dismantle the North’s nuclear program. On Thursday, the State Department said it had no immediate plan to send an envoy to North Korea. Such a trip would allow North Korea to open bilateral discussions it has long sought while continuing to shun six-nation talks, a forum Washington prefers.

This is news of the century. Not too long ago, I thought this was supposed to end it all. Alas, I guess it did not work, did it? Kim still has his nukes, and some money to boot. All the while his population suffers. Oh wait, the people! I think somebody forgot about them. the speculation continues:

Analysts say they expect the North to continue its recent tack. Mr. Kim has promised his people he will rebuild the economy by 2012. That achievement would make the dynastic transfer of power to his son more popular domestically, but require better ties with the outside world.

“North Korea doesn’t have much time,” said Kim Yong-hyun, the analyst at Dongguk University.

Rebuilding the economy by 2012 will be a tremendous undertaking, and under the current system, I cannot see it working at all. If one has seen the condition of North Korea, it is going to take untold billions of dollars and many years to fix. Unless fundamental reforms take place such as getting back to the international community, start trade, greatly reduce its emphasis on the military, grant more freedoms for commerce, import more food, and the list goes on and on, it is not going to happen. Such reforms will mean the degradation of power.

I do agree North Korea does not have much time, but like anything else there, the amount of time is left is uncertain. That’s what should concern all.

Your views are welcome.

Getting a new computer without Windows

Funny thing is, I have three copies of Windows XP in various flavors sitting on hard drives doing nothing. Unfortunately, they were OEMs for pre-fabs other than a general OEM for Windows XP Pro, in which I lost the COA and disc a long time ago. Without these things, I cannot install any of the products legally. Also, since I spent a few hundred on the new computer parts, getting another copy of Windows would have set me back another $150 or so. To make a very long story short, I decided to download a GNU/Linux distribution and use that instead.

I had several options on which distro to use, and in the past have used Mandriva (My first distro was Linux-Mandrake 6.0), Slackware, Red Hat (and Fedora), SuSE (Now, just SUSE) and even tried Gentoo (that distro was a serious pain to install because I am not a GNU/Linux expert). After some thought, I have seen a lot of rave reviews for this thing called Ubuntu (on digg.com of course), and decided to try that.

I was very, very surprised how easy it was to install. Pop in the disc, answer a few questions, and I was on my way. I was sitting there waiting for some more questions about some device, get dropped into a shell, or not finding some device driver. Nothing. It installed without a hitch. Once the thing was finished, and the computer rebooted, I fully expected to do some tweaking to get some things configured such as my WiFi card. Nope. It was a success right out of the box. I was surfing the second it was installed.

I was simply amazed.

Some programs I use all the time were not installed out of the box. So I went to Google and see what kind of stuff Ubuntu uses for packages. Some use tarballs, RPMs, DEBs and other stuff. I have used all of them with varying degrees of success. Since it is not my goal to be a programmer or an operating system expert, I just want my stuff to work so I can do the tasks I want to do. Getting programs was amazingly easy too.

While this posting may seem like I am sucking Ubuntu’s ass, I been only using this distribution for a few days. I will see after some time how this thing really holds up. In the meantime, things work, and work NOW, which is what I want in the first place.

Wait a second, there are some programs I cannot live without

That is correct. There are some programs on Windows that I use all the time that I cannot live without. Photoshop, Google Earth, The Sims 3, and Dreamweaver’s IDE (The WYSIWYG portion is useless). Amazingly, Google Earth was available for GNU/Linux, and while it is not free software (Richard Stallman would have a heart attack), it was there. I cannot go a day or so without looking at it. NKEconWatch’s Google Earth resource is an invaluable tool indeed. Now that I have it for this machine, I think I can use this computer for all my blogging. The downside is, I cannot play Sims 3, but that is a very minor gripe. I can always go to the other machine to play The Sims 3.

I rarely used The GIMP, and since GNU/Linux may not run this without Wine (Ugh, Wine is a pain). Therefore, I have to learn how to use GIMP instead of Photoshop. The CSS/markup editor should not be a problem because of EMACs. I think I have all my ducks in a row to do the things I want to do on my computer. I am very happy at the momnet, and once things go badly, you may see another blog entry on how this distro sucks.

Time will tell.

Oh, and I am trying to figure out how to install webmin or getting a localhost server running. That may take a few moments of white paper reading, so that should not take too long.

Since I learned about Ubuntu from digg, I decided to place a wall paper of Ron Paul. I mean after all, digg is about torrents, Ubuntu, Ron Paul and Obama.

Reporting from Washington — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appeared to be “in full control of his government” when an American mission met with him last week to free two imprisoned American journalists, White House National Security Advisor James L. Jones said today.

Jones, appearing on Sunday news programs, said that despite months of credible reports that Kim struggled with grave health problems, “he seemed in control of his faculties” and “sounded very reasoned” in wide-ranging discussions with former President Bill Clinton.

Kim’s health and control over his government have been key issues in the region for months amid reports from intelligence agencies that the leader’s health setbacks have set off a struggle for power in the impoverished Stalinist state.

Now here is something that may surprise everybody too: Just because there might be a struggle for power (although there is no evidence of that), it does not mean Kim Jong Il is not still firmly in control. If one recalls, Kim Il Sung was a sort of lame-duck god, where he appeared to be in full control (and was the leader by all respects), Kim Jr. was in the background doing all of the legwork. And earlier in the “nomination” process, there was a struggle for power as Kim rose in the ranks. Once Kim Jr. was chosen, that was it. Everybody else as a potential contender for the totalitarian throne was ousted in more ways than one. This time around, it appears Kim Jong Il is going a different direction than his old man, because there is absolutely no solid evidence any successor is in the running. While the world awaits for a confirmation or non-confirmation, the rumors will continue. Personally, I am not holding my breath.

What about the released journalists? Will this help bring the regime to the table for talks? Does this mean North Korea is ready to talk again? Did Bill Clinton finally break the ice in the ever-increasing chill that Kim is sending to his enemies? I have no idea, and I really think nobody knows anything about that either. If they do, they are not talking. I have my doubts, and quite frankly am tired of hearing about it. I do not think these women will make one bit of difference in the larger scheme of things when it comes to North Korea’s most problematic problems. That is, it will not change the dismal human rights record, or get rid of one more nuke. All of these things require a huge price, and even if we do pay that price, the goalposts are moved. Much like chasing rainbows and looking for Jimmy Hoffa. All this did was send Bill Clinton to the table and Central TV will have the meting plastered saying how Bill Clinton kissed Kim Jong Il’s ass. Of course, anybody with half a brain does not by the aged propaganda spewed by the regime on a daily basis, it is important to Kim Jong Il. he wants legitimacy, and this meeting did all of that. At what other cost remains to be seen, but I am almost certain it was not free. The women may be freed, but it does not free one political prisoner in a real prison camp. This part of the dialogue is sorely missing from this equation, and it seems nobody really cares about it.

This has to change, but I can wish in one hand …

“She had two guards in her room at all times, morning and night. And even though they couldn’t speak to her, somehow they developed a strange sort of kinship, Lisa Ling said. “She had some really lovely things to say about the people who were watching over her.” (Associated Press)

Further:

Laura Ling told her family she was treated humanely, but meals were meagre and her phone calls were monitored, Lisa Ling said.

Wow, so they were indeed treated quite well for prisoners. I am glad they did not see Yodok or some other real prison camp. That would have not been good. However, I am very certain the regime knew they would eventually be freed, so they did not want anybody reporting the real conditions at the camps. So in all, they were pawns in a political game. Do not get me wrong, I am very glad they made it back home, but I agree they were not smart venturing across the border even for a few seconds. More details should emerge, and I await them.

Love North Korea

This blog tends to focus on human rights issues, and a smattering of other topics. As with any blog or site, it may evolve. I hope only the best for this site. If you have the time, please take a look.

National Post

Zhang Binyang/Xinhua, via Associated Press

Update: A “press release” from the KCNA.

The DPRK visit of Clinton and his party will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence.

Uhhh, yeah.

Update: ROK Drop has the scoop! The journalists have been freed. This is certainly good news. I am very curious to hear their story, from the trial (which I have never seen any anecdotes of), to the prison itself to their side of the story on how they were captured.

Of course, they will need time to recuperate, spend time with their family and more. More updates should be on the way soon.

Update: According to Yonhap, Bill Clinton met with the reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, supposedly sending a message from President Obama, but the White House denies this:

SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with visiting former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang on Tuesday and received a “verbal message” from the U.S. president, the North’s state media said.

[...]

The White House, however, denied sending a message through Clinton. “That’s not true,” its spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Now with video!

Original Post: (See ROK Drop) Bill Clinton finally made his way to Pyongyang and time will tell what the details of the visit will become. One thing I can be certain, is the cost of releasing these women will be high. After all, Kim does not conduct cheap diplomacy.

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton went to North Korea on Monday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, a person who was briefed on the mission said.

Mr. Clinton landed in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, early Tuesday morning local time, Central TV, a North Korean station, reported. The White House declined to comment.

I also cannot wait to see the KCNA’s version of events. Perhaps it will be something along the lines of how he was very sorry for encroaching the sovereignty of the mighty and invincible Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, and how great Kim Jong Il is. Yes, it is par for the course. The question remains; is a little money and some propaganda fodder worth the release of these women?

I believe it is a good trade-off considering the circumstances at the moment.

Updates should be forthcoming soon. Stay tuned.

More at One Free Korea

Now with even more video:

Update: The women speak