<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; South Korea</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/tag/south-korea/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:20:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Muslim Brotherhood Celebrates Murder of 3 &#8220;Korean Zionists&#8221; in Sinai</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/muslim-brotherhood-celebrates-murder-of-3-korean-zionists-in-sinai/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-brotherhood-celebrates-murder-of-3-korean-zionists-in-sinai</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/muslim-brotherhood-celebrates-murder-of-3-korean-zionists-in-sinai/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Feb 2014 15:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamic Terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim Brotherhod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=218974</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Israel attempted to offer aid, but its ambulances were refused access.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PAP20140201029901034_P2.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-218975" alt="PAP20140201029901034_P2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PAP20140201029901034_P2-450x293.jpg" width="450" height="293" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/article.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-218976" alt="EGYPT-UNREST-SINAI-BOMB" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/article-450x291.jpg" width="450" height="291" /></a></p>
<p>The Egyptian authorities have stated that the wave of Muslim terror attacks are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Brotherhood&#8217;s official Twitter account certainly sounds like it<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/muslim-brotherhood-crows-that-three-zionist-tourists-killed-in-sinai"> as it celebrates the murder of</a> <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/egypt-sinai-tourist-bus-explodes-three-dead-27-wounded">three Korean tourists</a>.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Brotherhood official Twitter account (Arabic of course): 3 Zionists were killed in the Taba tourist bus explosion. <a href="http://t.co/rguXFEXfZo">pic.twitter.com/rguXFEXfZo</a></p>
<p>&mdash; The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBigPharaoh/statuses/435042736232595456">February 16, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-explosion-kills-korean-tourists-sinai-22538284"> Korean tour bus that was bombed</a> originated from Egypt and was coming from a Greek Orthodox monastery but headed into Israel. The Twitter link goes to a Brotherhood article ridiculing attempts by the Egyptian government to encourage tourism demonstrating the motivational linkage between the Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorists.</p>
<p>Security sources in Egypt say that the bomb was meant to explode at the crossing between Israel and Egypt which may explain the Muslim Brotherhood&#8217;s Zionist crack. The MB was reacting prematurely to the attack that was supposed to happen, rather than the one that actually did happen.</p>
<p>The bomb may have gone off earlier because the driver, who was killed in the explosion, had taken a detour and stopped off at a coffee shop.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>UPDATE: Bomb was meant to explode at the crossing between <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Egypt&amp;src=hash">#Egypt</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Israel&amp;src=hash">#Israel</a>, say security sources. Bomb was planted in the bus.</p>
<p>&mdash; Egyptian Streets  (@EgyptianStreets) <a href="https://twitter.com/EgyptianStreets/statuses/435064181436325888">February 16, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Israel attempted to offer aid, but its ambulances were refused access.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PHOTO&amp;src=hash">#PHOTO</a>: Israeli ambulances await at the border with <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Egypt&amp;src=hash">#Egypt</a> after being refused entry by Egypt: <a href="http://t.co/FQqkwDtVin">pic.twitter.com/FQqkwDtVin</a> (via <a href="https://twitter.com/cairotoday">@cairotoday</a>)</p>
<p>&mdash; Egyptian Streets  (@EgyptianStreets) <a href="https://twitter.com/EgyptianStreets/statuses/435047846027337728">February 16, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/EgyptianStreets">@EgyptianStreets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cairotoday">@cairotoday</a> keep them OUT!! don&#39;t want any more Israeli settlements going up!</p>
<p>&mdash; Ikhwanii Extincticus (@A201057) <a href="https://twitter.com/A201057/statuses/435055926488211456">February 16, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote><p>An explosion ripped through a tourist bus near a border crossing between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least three South Koreans and the Egyptian driver, security officials said.</p>
<p>The security officials said the source of the explosion was not clear, but they believe it was either a car bomb or a roadside bomb that was detonated by remote control.</p>
<p>Rescue workers found three bodies at the scene of the attack and the badly burnt remains of one or possibly two other people, said Khaled Abu Hashem, the head of ambulance services in southern Sinai.</p>
<p>Almost all 33 passengers on the bus were wounded by the explosion, with 12 suffering serious injuries. The wounded were being treated in hospitals in Taba and the coastal resort towns of Nuweiba and Sharm al-Sheikh to the south on the Red Sea&#8217;s Gulf of Suez.</p>
<p>The security officials said the bus had arrived at the Taba crossing from the ancient Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine&#8217;s in central Sinai. The journey, they said, originated in Cairo, Egypt&#8217;s capital.</p></blockquote>
<p>But simply crossing into Israel makes them Zionists according to the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/muslim-brotherhood-celebrates-murder-of-3-korean-zionists-in-sinai/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Muslims Complain About Lack of Mosques in Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/muslims-complain-about-lack-of-mosques-in-korea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslims-complain-about-lack-of-mosques-in-korea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/muslims-complain-about-lack-of-mosques-in-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Oct 2013 18:58:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=208719</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why aren't there Buddhist temples in Saudi Arabia?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_208720" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/muslim-problems.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-208720" alt="muslim problems" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/muslim-problems.jpg" width="400" height="266" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Muslim Problems</p></div>
<p>Oddly enough there&#8217;s no word on the number of Buddhist temples in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Buddhists in the Middle East because of its reliance on slave labor. 1.5% of the population is technically Buddhist.</p>
<p>The UAE has over 200,000 Buddhists. Saudi Arabia has 400,000. Kuwait has 100,000. Despite that t<a href="http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/region.php?region_id=6">he majority of Buddhist temples</a> in the region are in Israel. Meanwhile this is <a href="http://www.ceylontoday.lk/16-9052-news-detail-arrested-for-idol-worship.html">how Saudi Arabia treats Buddhists</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>A Sri Lankan youth employed as a domestic aid has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for worshiping a statue of the Buddha, which is considered an offence according to Shariah law.</p></blockquote>
<p>But by all means&#8230; let&#8217;s<a href="http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2013/10/muslims-in-korea-want-more-mosques.html"> move on to some Muslim whining about the</a> insufficient number of mosques in a Buddhist/Christian country.</p>
<blockquote><p>Pointing to challenges facing Muslims in South Korea, a new study has revealed that more mosques, halal restaurants and better understanding of Islam were needed to encourage more Muslims students to study in the Asian country.</p>
<p>“Islam is part of their everyday life and many felt there was little in the way of halal food and too few mosques,” Park Hyeon-uk, a member of El Naafidha College’s student group for Middle East studies, told UAE’s The National on Wednesday, October 23.</p></blockquote>
<p>Clearly what Korea needs is more mosques. Malaysia already paid to have one built back in the seventies. But there just aren&#8217;t enough suicide bombings.</p>
<blockquote><p>Another obstacle that Arab students face in Asia&#8217;s fourth-largest economy country is &#8216;language&#8217;. They have been facing difficulty in understanding the Korean language, especially in classes, the study stated.</p>
<p>“It would be nice if they graded foreign students different than Korean students,” said one Arab in a video broadcast to delegates.</p></blockquote>
<p>I guess they could just give the Muslims an A for Affront. Why would you go to South Korea if you don&#8217;t speak the language or intend to learn it? What&#8217;s the plan exactly?</p>
<blockquote><p>“I think the people here need to learn more about the Middle East culture and vice versa,” said Farah Subedar, a presenter on K-Pop music station.</p></blockquote>
<p>If that happens, it will be even harder for Muslim students to visit Korea.</p>
<blockquote><p>Hijab was also a main target of “uncomfortable” comments and questions, an Emirati woman, who has been repeatedly asked about her hijab, said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile here&#8217;s a problem that Koreans face in the Muslim world.</p>
<blockquote><p> On Sunday, the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape purportedly from Al Qaeda-linked militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life.</p>
<p>Kim Sun-il was a South Korean translator and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and killed. Kim was fluent in Arabic, holding a graduate degree in that language from Seoul&#8217;s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.</p>
<p>On May 30, 2004, he was kidnapped in Fallujah — about 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad — by the Islamist group Jama&#8217;at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and held as a hostage.</p></blockquote>
<p>But Muslim problems always come first. Maybe when Koreans are kidnapping and beheading Muslims, instead of not building enough mosques for them, they can complain.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/muslims-complain-about-lack-of-mosques-in-korea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>48</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>North Korea Leans Toward Brink of War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/north-korea-goes-to-brink-of-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korea-goes-to-brink-of-war</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/north-korea-goes-to-brink-of-war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:58:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jung Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[missile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=185083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While waiting to exploit any sign of weakness in the Obama administration. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/north-korea-goes-to-brink-of-war/north-korea-rally/" rel="attachment wp-att-185085"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-185085" title="North Korea Rally" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/north_korea1-450x300.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="180" /></a>In its continuing escalation of threats and psychological warfare, North Korea warned foreigners to evacuate South Korea immediately. &#8220;We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should there be a war,&#8221; said the KCNA news agency, citing its Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. &#8220;The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermo-nuclear war. Once a war is ignited on the peninsula, it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war waged by the DPRK (Democratic People&#8217;s Republic of Korea).&#8221;</p>
<p>To demonstrate its seriousness, North Korea is now poised to launch a medium-range missile, which it had moved to its east coast. The regime led by the third in the dictatorial Kim dynasty, Kim Jong-un, is said to have made all the final preparations necessary to fire the missile &#8211; most likely in a test mode &#8211; as soon as this Wednesday.  April 10th also happens to be the day that North Korea had given to foreign embassies to evacuate their personnel from North Korea&#8217;s capital Pyongyang to ensure their safety.</p>
<p>This warning followed on the heels of North Korea&#8217;s decision to suspend the last vestige of inter-Korean cooperation at the Kaesong joint industrial park just inside North Korea.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-un is going to the brink of war in an effort to consolidate his own power back home and wring concessions from South Korea and the West, as his father and grandfather had done before him. &#8220;Pyongyang has mastered the art of appearing unhinged in order to manipulate other powers,&#8221; as Stratfor Global Intelligence put it. Only this time, the youthful inexperienced dictator is operating at the razor&#8217;s edge with virtually no room for error. Kim Jong-un&#8217;s father and grandfather had followed threatening but predictable patterns of behavior. They knew when to pull back, helped by a succession of U.S. presidents who gave in too easily to their demands in order to buy a temporary peace. Kim Jong-un may be trying the same tactic, but is feeling his way awkwardly and encountering more resistance from the international community.</p>
<p>China, which has the most economic leverage to move North Korea off its present war-like footing, has sharpened its own rhetoric aimed at the rogue regime and has backed the strongest United Nations sanctions to date. In a speech last Sunday, China&#8217;s new president Xi Jinping leveled what many analysts regarded as a stinging, if indirect, slap at the North Korea regime. He said that &#8220;No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, there is no evidence that China has done much of anything concrete beyond this to rein in Kim Jong-un. Nor do we know whether it will even take any steps to enforce the UN sanctions it voted for.</p>
<p>China wants to revert to the relatively stable conditions on the Korean Peninsula that had prevailed, with few major disruptions, from the end of the Korean War to the assumption of power by the unpredictable Kim Jong-un. Not wanting to see a sharp U.S. military build-up in the region in response to Kim Jong-un&#8217;s provocations, China is still hoping that he will end up following in his father&#8217;s and grandfather&#8217;s footsteps and know when to pull back in time from the brink. However, China is aware of the limitations on how far it can pressure Kim Jong-un without causing unintended consequences.</p>
<p>China fears that pulling away North Korea&#8217;s lifeline altogether will precipitate one of its worst nightmares &#8211; a complete collapse of North Korea, resulting in millions of refugees streaming over its border and a vacuum of power that could ultimately lead to a unified Korea allied with the United States.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has responded to North Korea in a manner that the New York Times characterized as &#8220;proportional to the provocation.&#8221; It has shown some public displays of military force in the region and is assembling more robust missile defenses. Joint military exercises with South Korea have continued as scheduled, despite all of North Korea&#8217;s accusations in justification of its own actions that the exercises are a prelude to a U.S.-South Korean attack against North Korea.</p>
<p>Obama administration officials have also made it clear that they will not be persuaded to negotiate economic assistance to North Korea, as has occurred in the past, to move North Korea away from its belligerent course. Nevertheless, according to a report in The Cable, &#8220;a top State Department official met with a top representative of the North Korean government in New York in March.&#8221; However, no progress was made. Each side simply reiterated its set positions.</p>
<p>The Obama administration is walking a tightrope, not wanting to appear weak by turning the other cheek to North Korea&#8217;s threats and bellicose actions but not going so far as to light the match that could start an out-of-control conflagration.  So far so good, except for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel&#8217;s decision to postpone tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile that had been scheduled for this week. Dictators see any sign of backing down as more weakness to exploit.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/north-korea-goes-to-brink-of-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>471</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>America&#8217;s Foes Call Obama&#8217;s Bluff</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/americas-enemies-are-calling-obamas-bluff/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=americas-enemies-are-calling-obamas-bluff</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/americas-enemies-are-calling-obamas-bluff/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:58:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[threat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=184794</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The worst actors on the world stage decipher they are free to do as they please. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/americas-enemies-are-calling-obamas-bluff/art-sa-northkorea-20130326221804330947-620x349/" rel="attachment wp-att-184797"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-184797" title="art-sa-northkorea-20130326221804330947-620x349" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/art-sa-northkorea-20130326221804330947-620x349-450x297.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="178" /></a>Obama, Kerry and Hagel thought that they had a plan for putting North Korea back in the box. North Korea had conducted a nuclear test in February, violating once again the various understandings that had been worked out. But agreements and understandings, written or oral, had never meant much to the repressive regime which had suspended the Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War numerous times—including last month.</p>
<p>So Obama decided to wave a stick. The playbook for North Korea would feature flights by B-2 and B-52 bombers and F-22 fighter jets to remind the North Korean military that it was no match for Uncle Sam.</p>
<p>A month after Obama’s victory, Park Geun Hye of the Grand National Party had won South Korea’s presidential election. The Grand National Party is conservative and Hye’s mother was murdered by a North Korean assassin. Hye ran on a platform of conciliation, but her rhetoric of peace was wrapped in a concise message that warned North Korea that if it attacked then it would be made to “suffer the costs of provocation.”</p>
<p>Two weeks before her inauguration, North Korea carried out its underground nuclear test sending the region into a panic. The timing was almost certainly deliberate. For her inauguration, the first female president of South Korea wore an olive green jacket with gold buttons that had a distinctly military look to it and her message to North Korea warned that its nuclear ambitions would turn it into its own biggest victim. The quote had the perfect sort of ambiguity that could be read as empathy in the West and a threat in the East.</p>
<p>Hye’s victory neatly matched up with Abe’s victory in Japan. Both South Korea and Japan were under the leadership of conservative governments. Hye was the daughter of her country’s former military dictator. Abe had spoken of rebuilding Japan’s military into a force to be reckoned with. On the other side of the board, China had turned toward its own hard line leadership.</p>
<p>Obama’s pivot to Asia was a belated recognition that a power vacuum had formed and was being filled by growing militarization on all sides.</p>
<p>Japan and South Korea had little confidence that the United States could continue to maintain stability. China was shoving the United States out of the way and blatantly threatening traditional American allies like the Republic of the Philippines. And North Korea was pushing every red line that could be imagined.</p>
<p>Toward the end of January, North Korea declared that its nuclear program was aimed at America. The era of ambiguity was over. North Korea was defining itself as a nuclear power in a new MAD stalemate.</p>
<p>And so the playbook began to unroll. The joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States were supposed to demonstrate that the two countries together could easily defeat the north. But the exercises were a bluff. A demonstration that no one could take seriously. North Korea certainly did not. Instead it called Obama’s bluff by playing a game of nuclear chicken, raising the stakes and the rhetoric.</p>
<p>Obama blinked. The United States put the playbook on hold, cancelled a missile test and began clumsily urging everyone to tone down the rhetoric to avoid a war. The game of chicken had ended with Obama, Kerry and Hagel squawking in a corner.</p>
<p>The trouble with a bluff is that it only works if the other side believes that you aren’t bluffing. And no one believes that Obama would be willing to commit to the use of force in North Korea in any scenario short of a surprise attack. North Korea knows it. So do China, Japan and South Korea. The grand pivot to Asia was an empty gesture with no substance.</p>
<p>After the Taliban had cleaned Obama’s clock, his empty posturing was not likely to impress the ruling elite of a totalitarian state with nuclear capabilities and a willingness to murder uncounted numbers of its own people in horrifying ways.</p>
<p>Obama’s first and biggest bluff took place in Afghanistan. His Surge was supposed to compel the Taliban to come to the negotiating table and make a peaceful withdrawal feasible. Instead large numbers of American lives were thrown away in a limited surge with a timeline. A bluff that failed to work. And that failure set the stage for all the failed bluffs to come.</p>
<p>Obama had gambled on his ability to win over Afghans by reducing air strikes and narrowly constraining the ability of American soldiers to defend themselves, as well as the willingness of the Taliban to come to any agreement with an enemy that they were being paid by Iran and wealthy Gulf oil tycoons to fight.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the last time that Obama would gamble on a bluff and lose. In Syria, Obama is still betting that a few warnings and officially unofficial support for the opposition will force Assad to step down. It hasn’t worked yet and it won’t work. Obama made the same bet in Libya and Gaddafi called his bluff forcing him to engage in an extended bombing campaign to destroy Libyan forces. And when that was done, the victory prize was a burning diplomatic mission and a dead ambassador.</p>
<p>In Iran, Obama has likewise been bluffing with no ace up his sleeve. Libya made it clear that the only way that the White House will commit to a military operation is if the risk is minimal. Obama’s smaller-and-smarter strategy took armed force off the table against any state with a strong enough military and made his bluffs preemptively worthless.</p>
<p>And that left Syria, North Korea and Iran free to do as they pleased.</p>
<p>Obama is stuck with no options between sanctions and military intervention. And once sanctions have been employed, there is nothing left except to sit and wait for a surrender that will never come. It’s not a problem unique to Obama; Bill Clinton and George W. Bush found themselves facing it with Saddam Hussein. But the difference is that they could credibly bluff. Obama can’t.</p>
<p>Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry mumbled something about refusing to accept North Korea as a nuclear state.</p>
<p>“The United States will do what is necessary to defend ourselves and defend our allies, Korea and Japan, “ Kerry said at a joint press conference with the South Korean foreign minister. “We are fully prepared and capable of doing so, and I think the DPRK understands that.”</p>
<p>But that’s exactly the trouble. North Korea doesn’t understand it. Not when its threats were followed by feverish attempts at retreat from Obama Inc.</p>
<p>President Theodore Roosevelt advised speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Instead Obama speaks loudly and carries a toothpick. Obama and Kerry bluster and then punk out when their bluff is called. Obama’s foreign policy of empty threats and incompetent policies has ushered in a Post-American world order.</p>
<p>Asia has lost faith in American stability. Eastern Europe is learning the same lesson. And the Middle East learned it years ago. Whatever happens with North Korea is no longer up to Obama. Just as the UK and France made all the important decisions in Libya and Syria, the North Korean crisis is in Japan and South Korea’s hands.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/americas-enemies-are-calling-obamas-bluff/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>34</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Retreats, North Korea Pushes Harder</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-retreats-north-korea-pushes-harder/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-retreats-north-korea-pushes-harder</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-retreats-north-korea-pushes-harder/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:05:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=184601</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[North Korea has to bring home a prize to show China that it's worth subsidizing. And the prize can't just be humiliating Obama. Anyone can do that these days.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-retreats-north-korea-pushes-harder/obama-bows-to-china/" rel="attachment wp-att-184602"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-184602" title="obama-bows-to-china" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/obama-bows-to-china1.jpg" alt="" width="399" height="286" /></a></p>
<p>The entire North Korean crisis is starting to look like a comedy routine.</p>
<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-north-korean-bluff-collapses-kim-jong-un-wins/">Obama, Hagel and Kerry unveiled a plan</a> to reassure South Korea that America had its back with an empty &#8220;show of force&#8221; by flying bombers near North Korea. This plan was also supposed to make North Korea come to the negotiating table.</p>
<p>The three stooges bluffed and North Korea bluffed harder. So the Foreign Policy Stooges panicked and began pulling back afraid of making North Korea too upset. Having outbluffed the United States one more time, North Korea is pushing even harder, deploying nukes and telling all foreigners to leave the country.</p>
<p>Obama folded, but North Korea isn&#8217;t just out to humiliate Obama, it wants to score tangible accomplishments. This began as a plan to build up South Korea, but the practical outcome is likely to be a diminution of American support for South Korea because it carries too high a price.</p>
<p>If that sounds farfetched, that is how the United States lost China and then eventually sold out Taiwan. Truman drew the line at Korea, but then the left broke the line at Vietnam. South Korea has remained free, but that could change very fast if China decides to change that and Obama decides to focus on what really matters, browbeating American gun owners.</p>
<p>China doesn&#8217;t want North Korea to rock the boat too much right now, but North Korea has to bring home a prize to show China that it&#8217;s worth subsidizing. And the prize can&#8217;t just be humiliating Obama. Anyone can do that these days. A gang of militia thugs did that in Benghazi. So the endgame is to force the United States to show that it will back down on South Korea if it is sufficiently threatened.</p>
<p>North Korea has partly achieved this goal, but it is pushing harder in the hopes of forcing a crisis that will turn the appeasement levers forcing some understanding to be signed to avert war. An understanding that will move more American forces out of South Korea.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-retreats-north-korea-pushes-harder/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>14</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>North Korea Threatens War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/north-korea-threatens-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korea-threatens-war</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/north-korea-threatens-war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:43:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[armistice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ceasefire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear tests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=180135</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another global hotspot festers, while American leadership wanes.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/north-korea-threatens-war/kim-jong-un1/" rel="attachment wp-att-180137"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-180137" title="kim-jong-un1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/kim-jong-un1-450x329.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="197" /></a>On Tuesday, North Korea vowed it would <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/north-korea-vows-to-cancel-korean-war-cease-fire/">cancel</a> the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War. Soon-to-be-imposed sanctions by the United Nations regarding the nation&#8217;s recent nuclear test and U.S.-South Korean joint military drills were cited as the reasons for the threat. Without going into details, the Korean People&#8217;s Army Supreme Command warned of &#8220;surgical strikes&#8221; aimed at unifying the Korean Peninsula and that they possessed a &#8220;precision nuclear striking tool.&#8221;</p>
<p>An agreement on the latest sanctions was <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57572507/u.s-china-said-to-agree-on-new-sanctions-on-n-korea/">reached</a> between the United States and China late Monday. It represents a shift by China, which has grown frustrated by North Korea&#8217;s increasingly provocative behavior. The U.N. Security Council followed up with an announcement that it would hold private consultations on the matter Tuesday. It was expected that the session would produce a draft resolution extending sanctions against any entities involved in both the nation&#8217;s nuclear and missile programs. It is <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/05/us-lawmakers-push-for-tougher-north-korea-sanctions/">speculated</a> those sanctions could include a further tightening of financial restrictions, more cargo inspections, and an increase in blacklisted companies and individuals. Currently, 17 North Korean entities, including banks and trading companies, as well as nine individuals&#8211;all linked to North Korea&#8217;s nuclear and missile programs&#8211;are being <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-korea-north-un-idUSBRE92404S20130305">blacklisted</a> by the U.N.</p>
<p>A separate announcement by the U.N. press office revealed that Russia, which occupies the presidency of the 15-nation Security Council for the month of March, was scheduled to <a href="http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_05/UN-SC-holds-consultations-Tuesday-on-North-Koreas-nuclear-test/">hold</a> private consultations about North Korea yesterday morning as well. U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity expressed the hope that the council will hold a vote on a resolution by the end of the week.</p>
<p>The latest action follows the unanimous approval of a February 12 <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57568927/u.n-condemns-clear-threat-from-north-korea-after-nuclear-test/">press release</a>, only hours after the atomic blast occurred, by the 15 members of the council. They condemned North Korea&#8217;s latest nuclear test, and pledged they would take additional action. &#8220;In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin work immediately on appropriate measures in a Security Council resolution,&#8221; it read. If the council follows through as expected, the sanctions would be the fourth round of restrictions imposed on the rogue nation.</p>
<p>Inflammatory rhetoric is nothing new for North Korea, especially when the U.S. and South Korea conduct war games on the Korean Peninsula. But the latest statement contains far more specific threats. Pyongyang has warned that it will block a communications line between North Korea and the U.S. at the border village separating North and South Korea and that the 60-year-old armistice agreement will be abrogated on March 11, due to ongoing U.S.-South Korean war games that began March 1. Those war games were characterized as a &#8220;dangerous nuclear war targeted at us&#8221; in the statement released by Pyongyang yesterday. &#8220;We aim to launch surgical strikes at any time and any target without being bounded by the armistice accord and advance our long-cherished wish for national unification,&#8221; it added.</p>
<p>North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Each of them occurred after the United Nations condemned them for rocket launches. Sanctions were imposed by the Security Council after the first two tests, and after a rocket launch in December that was thought to be part of Pyongyang&#8217;s covert effort to develop long-range nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States.</p>
<p>North Korea counters that its nuclear development program reflects a response to U.S. hostility dating back to the three-year Korean War that took place from 1950 to 1953. Furthermore, they contend that since an armistice and not a peace treaty was signed following the conflict, the Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war.</p>
<p>In Congress, both the House and Senate foreign panels convened to deal with North Korea as well. The Republican-led House panel is focusing on North Korea&#8217;s criminal activity, thought to earn the nation hundreds of millions of dollars annually. These activities include counterfeiting cigarettes and American currency, drug running, insurance scams, as well as conventional weapon and missile sales outlawed by the U.N. Until now, targeted financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. have been successful, but have upset China, North Korea&#8217;s primary trading and financial partner.  The breadth of the financial sanctions included in this latest resolution remains to be seen.</p>
<p>House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce characterized America&#8217;s ongoing efforts to get Pyongyang to do the right thing, going as far back as the Clinton administration, as a &#8220;bipartisan failure.&#8221; He promised yesterday&#8217;s hearing &#8220;will identify the best strategy for cutting off North Korea&#8217;s access to hard currency in order to see real change.&#8221;</p>
<p>David Asher, one of the U.S. government&#8217;s foremost experts in countering money laundering, terrorism financing, and sanctions evasion schemes, <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/03/06/78/0301000000AEN20130306000600315F.HTML">recommended</a> that the Obama administration resurrect the North Korean Activities Group at the National Security Council (NSC) to coordinate a comprehensive campaign aimed at Pyongyang&#8217;s criminal activities. &#8220;The administration should revive the NSC North Korean Activities Group, appoint a high level North Korea pressure czar at the Department of State, and commence an inter-agency and international effort to actively pursue North Korean illicit activities, weapons trafficking and regime finances using all instruments of national power,&#8221; Asher told members of the House Committee.</p>
<p>Asher contends the program would prevent North Korea from earning the hard currency it needs to fund its nuclear and missile programs, as well its ruling elite. He was adamant about why. &#8220;North Korea is close to attaining a position it has long sought: acceptance as a de-facto global nuclear power with the ability to threaten and coerce the United States and our allies directly,&#8221; he warned. &#8220;I believe that in the next 24 months the North Korean global and regional threat could go from bad to worse.&#8221;</p>
<p>Asher further noted that North Korea is maintaining a relationship with Iran, just as it did with Syria in the early 2000s. &#8220;Who has both the money and the need for weapons grade uranium, weapons technology and the means to deliver such weapons? The answer is Iran,&#8221; he warned, adding that this development needs to be closely tracked.</p>
<p>Lee Sung-yoon, a professor at Tufts University&#8217;s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, echoed Asher&#8217;s concerns, further noting that &#8220;the Treasury Department should declare the entire North Korean government to be a primary money laundering concern.&#8221; He also emphasized that Pyongyang remains vulnerable to financial sanctions due to its &#8220;overdependence on its shadowy palace economy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Both men consider China to be the critical player in this latest development, with Asher contending that several areas of the Pyongyang-Beijing relationship should be assessed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and that sanctions against <em>China</em> should be imposed if it turns out that it is facilitating, rather than hindering, North Korea&#8217;s illegal and dangerous activities.</p>
<p>Senior U.S. government official Joseph DeTrani, who believes North Korea will continue testing nukes and launching missiles, contends that China should step up with regard to enforcing sanctions, and resuming talks with Pyongyang. &#8220;My personal view is that China should do what they did in April 2003 when they convened an emergency meeting of the U.S., North Korea and China to discuss the tension in the region and arrange for the six-party process to be established,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>In Qatar on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-korea-north-un-idUSBRE92404S20130305">expressed</a> the hope that North Korea would change course. &#8220;Rather than threaten to abrogate, the world would be better served if they would engage in legitimate dialogue,&#8221; Kerry said. &#8220;Our preference is not to brandish threats, but for peaceful negotiations.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/north-korea-threatens-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Invites Rapper Who Sang &#8220;Kill Those F____ Yankees&#8230; Kill Their Daughters, Mothers&#8230; Painfully, Slowly&#8221; to White House</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-invites-rapper-who-sang-kill-those-f____-yankees-kill-their-daughters-mothers-painfully-slowly-to-white-house/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-invites-rapper-who-sang-kill-those-f____-yankees-kill-their-daughters-mothers-painfully-slowly-to-white-house</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-invites-rapper-who-sang-kill-those-f____-yankees-kill-their-daughters-mothers-painfully-slowly-to-white-house/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:09:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=168514</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Park Jae-sang aka PSY was born into the very wealthy strata of South Korea. Park Jae-sang was supposed to take over the family semiconductor business, instead he went into making bad music. That's the typical bio of a South Korean version of a trustafarian. Like his European and American counterparts, hating the Yankees is part of the game.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-invites-rapper-who-sang-kill-those-f____-yankees-kill-their-daughters-mothers-painfully-slowly-to-white-house/kim-jong-un/" rel="attachment wp-att-168515"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-168515" title="Kim-Jong-Un" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Kim-Jong-Un-435x350.jpg" alt="And no this isn't Psy" width="435" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>Not that a White House where Sharpton is a frequent guest and the Muslim Brotherhood goes in and out, is really going to be that much more tarnished by this weasel, but <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2012/12/07/gangnam-style-singer-rapped-about-killing-american-soldiers/">it&#8217;s another reminder of what this administration thinks of the US military</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>PSY, the wildly popular Korean rap/pop star who hit it big on YouTube with his viral “Gangnam Style” video, seems so warm and friendly. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you find anti-American rot:</p>
<p>Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives<br />
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture<br />
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers<br />
Kill them all slowly and painfully</p>
<p>PSY will be performing for the White House in a Christmas extravaganza at the National Building Museum</p></blockquote>
<p>This can&#8217;t be too much of a surprise though because South Korea, at least the children of its elites, tend to hate America and blame it for the conflict with South Korea. If we ever liberated North Korea, its people would probably like us more than the &#8220;free&#8221; Koreans do.</p>
<p>Park Jae-sang aka PSY was born into the very wealthy strata of South Korea. Park Jae-sang was supposed to take over the family semiconductor business, instead he went into making bad music. That&#8217;s the typical bio of a South Korean version of a trustafarian. Like his European and American counterparts, hating the Yankees is part of the game.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s why this will probably only drag out PSY&#8217;s 15 minutes of fame outside South Korea. And the odds of Obama Inc. rescinding the invitation are virtually nil. Because those &#8220;Kill those fucking Yankees&#8221; are lyrics that Obama could clap to.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-invites-rapper-who-sang-kill-those-f____-yankees-kill-their-daughters-mothers-painfully-slowly-to-white-house/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Religious Left Resents a Free South Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/mark-d-tooley/religious-left-resents-a-free-south-korea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=religious-left-resents-a-free-south-korea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/mark-d-tooley/religious-left-resents-a-free-south-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:08:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark D. Tooley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religious left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=139143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The saints of social justice point to defensive measures of the south as the real threat to peace on the peninsula. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RoK_USA_Flag.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-139167" title="RoK_USA_Flag" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RoK_USA_Flag.gif" alt="" width="375" height="242" /></a>Decades ago, liberal Protestants used to admire brave South Korea and its Methodist president, Syngman Rhee, for defying Stalinist North Korea and Maoist Red China.  But for much of the last 40 years, the international Religious Left, even in South Korea, has angrily denounced the U.S.-South Korea military alliance.  Meanwhile, global activist prelates are typically silent about gross human rights abuses in North Korea even when Christians are the victims.  Leftist prelates from the Left love visiting the Potemkin show churches that North Korea hosts in Pyongyang to entertain gullible overseas visitors.</p>
<p>Now the Religious Left is campaigning against South Korea&#8217;s constructing a naval base on a volcanic island called Jeju off its southern coast.  &#8220;Today, islanders, religious leaders, and peace activists are calling attention to dangers caused by joint U.S.-South Korean militarization,&#8221; announced one U.S.-based Korean activist on Jim Wallis&#8217; Sojourners blog.  Apparently there are also spiritual and environmental considerations, since Jeju is the mythical &#8220;body of Korea&#8217;s creation goddess, Mago.&#8221;  And UNESCO, which is perhaps even more holy than an ancient goddess, has decreed that Jeju is a World Heritage Site and a World Biosphere Reserve.</p>
<p>The campaign against a South Korean naval presence on Jeju is a little reminiscent of the long-time and ultimately successful Religious Left crusade to close the U.S. Navy&#8217;s munitions testing base at Vieques off the coast of Puerto Rico.  United Methodist bishops from the U.S., having evidently decided there were few greater threats to peace and justice, even motor boated out to Vieques to show solidarity with its oppressed people.</p>
<p>Maybe they can make similar pilgrimages to Jeju before it is fully desecrated by the South Korean Navy, who inexcusably want to defend their nation from the now 60-year threat of North Korean aggression.  Already under construction, the base will despoil a &#8220;unique three-quarter-mile stretch of coastal wetland, threatening an ecological system that harbors several endangered species.&#8221;  Even worse, the naval base will fuel &#8220;increasing military tensions in Asia, raising the risk of a devastating war in the region.&#8221;  How will South Korea&#8217;s installing a base on its own island off its southern coast, far from North Korea, threaten peace? Evidently any self-defense by South Korea, backed by the U.S., is by definition a threat.</p>
<p>The South Korean military has reputedly announced that U.S. warships will dock at the new base only temporarily.  But even five minutes is too long for the international Religious Left.  Leftist South Korean clergy are staging ongoing protests on Jeju.  After all, as the Sojourners blogger intoned, the &#8220;protest is a struggle for peace and justice and a fight against military power, potential war, and a privileged few.&#8221;  The final reference is evidently to construction companies, which are sinning by making a profit from their labor.  She quotes a protesting Franciscan Friar:  &#8220;It’s the call of the gospel against human power destroying the kingdom of God.”</p>
<p>Other opponents of the naval base allege it will facilitate U.S. Pacific-based anti-missile defense systems, which evidently is sinister, even if protecting South Korea from North Korean missiles.  Still other critics complain the base will &#8220;play a strategic role in efforts by the U.S.-South Korea-Japan alliance to reign in Chinese naval expansion.&#8221;  Worrisomely, the naval presence will &#8220;serve as a strategic offensive outpost for South Korea and its allies.&#8221;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/mark-d-tooley/religious-left-resents-a-free-south-korea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Olympics Opening Ceremony: Liberty Forgotten</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-bawer/olympics-opening-ceremony-liberty-forgotten/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=olympics-opening-ceremony-liberty-forgotten</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-bawer/olympics-opening-ceremony-liberty-forgotten/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:27:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Bawer]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Danny Boyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[London]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Multiculturalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Olympics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=138947</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Socialism takes center stage, while Britain's most important cultural contributions are nowhere to be found.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Dancers-perform-in-the-Go-008.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-138949" title="Dancers-perform-in-the-Go-008" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Dancers-perform-in-the-Go-008.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a>The Olympics hadn&#8217;t even started yet when the disgraces began to pile up.  First the International Olympic Committee, plainly loath to offend Muslim governments, ruled out a moment of silence at the opening ceremony for the Israeli athletes murdered in Munich forty years ago.  Then last <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cameron-korea-olympic-flag-blunder-honest-mistake-130658087--oly.html">Wednesday,</a> when South Korea&#8217;s flag was mistakenly displayed instead of North Korea&#8217;s at a women&#8217;s soccer game, Olympics officials fell all over themselves apologizing to baby tyrant Kim Jung-un&#8217;s henchmen for the error.  On the same day, it emerged that Taiwan&#8217;s flag, which has been barred from Olympic venues since the 1980s for fear of offending Communist China, was also removed, on the advice of the same Olympics officials, from a display on Regent Street in downtown London – that is to say, <em>not</em> at an Olympic venue.  And on <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4261350,00.html">Friday</a>, hours before the opening ceremony, Lebanon&#8217;s judo team refused to share a training space with its Israeli counterpart – so officials, rather than telling the Lebanese to go peddle their papers, obligingly put up some kind of screen to separate them from the offending Jews.</p>
<p>Reading about these disgraceful matters, one found oneself asking: are the Olympics, when you get right down to it, really nothing more than the United Nations with basketball courts and swimming pools – that is, plenty of pretty rhetoric about international brotherhood, and underneath it a craven bureaucracy all too ready to appease Muslims and totalitarians?</p>
<p>Given these unpromising prefatory problems, one scarcely knew what to expect of the opening ceremony, conceived and created by filmmaker Danny Boyle (<em>Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire</em>).  Its first minutes, however, proved auspiciously tuneful, touching, and patriotic: children&#8217;s choirs in the stadium, and in rustic settings in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, sang, respectively, Blake&#8217;s “Jerusalem,” “Flower of Scotland,” Welsh composer Ralph Vaughan Williams&#8217;s stately hymn “Cwm Rhondda,” and “Danny Boy.”  The James Bond bit with the queen was amusing.  As the show in the stadium began to take form, moreover, one could not help being exceedingly impressed by the <em>mise èn</em> <em>scene</em> – the evocative pastoral scene transformed before one&#8217;s eyes into an unforgettably graphic vision of the industrial revolution, complete with a group of capitalists in top hats and –</p>
<p><em>Hey, wait a minute, </em>one started to wonder, <em>what&#8217;s going on here? </em></p>
<p>Eventually it became clear that what we were watching was intended as a brief summary of British history – which, in Boyle&#8217;s retelling, essentially began with capitalists&#8217; transformation of (to quote from Blake&#8217;s “Jerusalem”) “England&#8217;s green and pleasant land” into a country of “dark satanic mills.”  Which raised the question: what happened to 1066, Magna Carta, Henry VIII&#8217;s break with Rome, the Spanish Armada, and Oliver Cromwell – just to name a few random highlights that predate the rise of industry?</p>
<p>In Boyle&#8217;s vision, what followed this grim transformation – and redeemed Britain – was, quite simply (and reductively) protest: by, among others, trade unionists and suffragettes, groups of which we saw on the march.  And also medical care, on which there was an almost exclusive emphasis for the better part of a half hour.  After a small army of nurses and kids in beds made their way into the stadium, some of the lit-up beds spelled out the initials GOSH, which (as most international viewers would have no way of knowing) are the initials of the Great Ormond Street Hospital, an institution for sick children founded in the early 1800s.  J.K. Rowling read aloud from <em>Peter Pan – </em>the royalties from which (as, again, few people outside the U.K. would be likely to know) J.M. Barrie donated to that hospital in 1929.  The apex of this portion of the show was the rearrangement of illuminated beds to spell out NHS, for National Health Service – a glorification, in short, of socialized medicine, and an implication that the NHS is the natural culmination of centuries of advancement resulting from leftist agitation.</p>
<p>After the best segment of the show – the laugh-out-loud contribution by the always hilarious Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. Mr. Bean – came a long, busy, rather confusing and all-over-the-place tribute to the British youth culture of recent decades, notably rap music, and to contemporary social media, centered largely on the love story of a young black couple and featuring Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, at a laptop.  What Boyle was doing here was painting a picture of demotic life in today&#8217;s U.K., as he apparently sees it, and suggesting that it is the triumphant consummation of everything that went before.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-bawer/olympics-opening-ceremony-liberty-forgotten/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>25</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Running Back to the U.S.A.</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/running-back-to-the-u-s-a/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=running-back-to-the-u-s-a</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/running-back-to-the-u-s-a/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gurney]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[acts of war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alliance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[american military forces]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[campaign pledge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[combat role]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japanese]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[japanese prime minister]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[man]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Moscow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Northeast Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Okinawa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Okinawa Island]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political Scandal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[president]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reason]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[role]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tokyo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unfair discrimination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=62275</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[America's Asian allies decide to keep the US around, after all.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hatoyama.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62452" title="hatoyama" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hatoyama.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="329" /></a></p>
<p>Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned after barely eight months in office. Despite his desire to reduce Washington’s influence over Japanese politics, Hatoyama was forced to back off a major campaign pledge —beginning the process of removing all American military forces from Japan’s Okinawa Island. Already weakened by domestic political scandal, Hatoyama resigned rather than lead his Democratic Party into parliamentary elections next month. He felt that he had lost the confidence of his people after announcing that American forces would indeed be staying on Okinawa (though moving to a more remote location).</p>
<p>So ends the tenure of a man who came to power riding a wave of popularity, promising to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/world/asia/16japan.html?ref=asia" target="_blank">lead Japan to a new era</a> of reduced spending and a foreign policy distinct from the United States. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/world/asia/16japan.html?ref=asia" target="_blank">He ended Japan’s</a> supportive, non-combat role in the war in Afghanistan. His stated goal was to <a href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100119f1.html" target="_blank">rebalance Japan’s alliance</a> with the United States, maintaining close ties, perhaps, but under terms less favorable to America.</p>
<p>But now, he has quit, and his replacement has already <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlQO-kyvIEyrc0I90V5l0LFN7JTwD9G5L9EO0" target="_blank">sought to reassure</a> America that the alliance will remain as-is. The reason for this sudden shift, yanking Japan firmly back into America’s orbit, was explained by a joint statement issued by Tokyo and Washington: “Recent developments in the security environment of Northeast Asia reaffirmed the significance of the Alliance.” Addressing reporters later, Hatoyama went further, saying, “I am painfully aware of the feeling of the people of Okinawa that the present problem of the bases represents unfair discrimination against them. At the same time, the presence of US bases is essential for Japan&#8217;s security.”</p>
<p>In other words, the <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Korean+envoy+warns+could+erupt+quickly/3109871/story.html" target="_blank">North Koreans</a> have rattled the Japanese. A year ago, Japan might have had reason feel comfortable inching away from an America, with the US military stretched and a new, dovish president seeking to avoid confrontations. But now with the North Koreans <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/05/19/matt-gurney-north-korea-caught-holding-the-smoking-torpedo.aspx" target="_blank">committing acts of war</a> over and above their usual provocations, the Japanese have decided they’d rather keep their powerful friend around, after all. America’s military faces an uncertain future during these times of fiscal duress and while the Democrats control both the White House and Congress, but the fact remains that it is still the world’s best fighting force. Hatoyama, despite his earlier hopes of building a new Japan free of American protection and influence, has been forcefully reminded of just how dangerous a place the world can be.</p>
<p>The American presence on Okinawa Island, while essential for Japanese security in these turbulent times, is understandably an inconvenience for the local population. Okinawa is small but densely populated: 1.3 million Japanese live on it, along with 25,000 Marines, plus their support staff and families. The forces housed on Okinawa represent fully half of the US forces stationed in Japan. In 1995, three Marines kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old girl. They were tried and sentenced to long prison terms, but the relationship between the US forces and the local Japanese population never recovered. When you factor in the petty crime, noise, pollution and crowding inherent to any large military force, it is easy to understand that the local civilians might resent the base. But the Marines’ presence on Okinawa, setting aside such extremely rare incidents as the above-mentioned rape, is merely that — an inconvenience. America’s support for Japan, in light of an aggressive North Korean regime capable of <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123819923986362105.html" target="_blank">easily striking Japan</a>, is a political and pragmatic necessity.</p>
<p>The Japanese are not the only allies of the United States in the region to suddenly rediscover how beneficial a strong relationship with America can be. South Korea, the victim of North Korea’s unprovoked attack, has enjoyed a long history of close defense relations with the United States, dating back to the Korean War itself, which saw American-led allied forces protect South Korea from North Korea communist forces, backed by Beijing and Moscow. For several years, however, the United States and South Korea have been working towards a <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LC13Dg01.html" target="_blank">transfer of control of all forces</a> — including American — to South Korea. America has almost 30,000 troops in the South, but the South has a 600,000-man army. Under the new arrangement, the American troops would have taken all a supporting role.</p>
<p>Since North Korea’s attack, however, South Korea’s defense community has become determined to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703406604575278350884508216.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_world" target="_blank">delay the transfer of command</a>. They do not want America to move into a supporting role — if war comes, they want to make very certain that US forces lead the charge against the numerically strong but technologically backwards North Korean military. The South Korean president is being pressured to invoke a clause in his country’s alliance with the United States that would delay the planned 2012 handover of command to South Korea. Meanwhile, the utility of the alliance is being clearly demonstrated: despite the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/27/south-korea-military-drills" target="_blank">predictable outrage</a> from the North, the United States <a href="http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Defense-Secretary-Announces-Plans-for-Joint-US-South-Korean-Military-Exercises-95680549.html" target="_blank">plans to join</a> South Korea in naval exercises in the weeks and months ahead, demonstrating the close relationship and military prowess of the allies to the troubled North. There has also been discussion of sending an American carrier battle group, and its awesome firepower, to the region to impress upon the North Koreans the wisdom of choosing a more peaceful course of action.</p>
<p>No decision to deploy the carrier has yet been made public, but the message is clear. For Japan and South Korea, the world can be a dangerous place. And in such a world, you can ask for no better friend than the United States of America.</p>
<p><em>Matt Gurney  is an editor at the National Post, a Canadian national newspaper, and writes and speaks on military and geopolitical issues. He can be reached  at <a href="mailto:matt@mattgurney.ca" target="_blank">matt@mattgurney.ca</a>. </em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/running-back-to-the-u-s-a/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Promoting a Free North Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/promoting-a-free-korea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=promoting-a-free-korea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/promoting-a-free-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cheonan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colonel Gordon Cucullu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dramatic confrontation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean agents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kumgang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military exercises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[order]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[political ties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[population]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean army]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Suzanne Scholte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=61847</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The tyranny will provoke crises until it falls 

]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/dprk-dmsp-dark.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-61848" title="dprk-dmsp-dark" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/dprk-dmsp-dark-300x222.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="222" /></a></p>
<p>The crisis with North Korea is escalating and will continue to escalate for as long as the regime is in power. Kim Jong-Il made a calculated decision that he needed a dramatic confrontation in order to appear strong, set the stage for his youngest son to take over, and to create a pretext with which to stop Western influence from reaching the country’s increasingly knowledgeable population. Until the regime collapses under the weight of its failures, it will need to periodically up the ante with a series of increasingly frightening provocations.</p>
<p>There was a much bigger purpose behind the North’s sinking of the<em> Cheonan</em> and that was to stir up the biggest clash since the Korean War. Shortly after the attack, the South Korean army was accused by the North of crossing into the Demilitarized Zone and opening fire. Five properties at the jointly-operated Mt. Kumgang resort were <a href="http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2919620">seized</a>, and two North Korean agents were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22korea.html">arrested</a> in South Korea as they plotted to assassinate the highest-level defector living there. This was a <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/04/26/a-crisis-in-the-making/">campaign</a> to make certain that a crisis was sparked.</p>
<p>Since South Korea has formally accused the Kim Jong-Il regime of sinking their ship, the U.S. and South Korea have planned joint military exercises, the South Koreans have pledged to bring the case to the United Nations and they have cut off almost all trade with North Korea. The South’s sea lanes are also being closed to North Korean ships and they are <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-korea_26int.ART.State.Edition1.499e5c9.html">re-labeling</a> the North as their “principal enemy.”</p>
<p>The North Korean government believes it has to retaliate and appear strong in the face of this retaliation. They have reacted by cutting off economic and political ties, and promising to close the Kaesong factory complex where South Korean businesses were allowed to invest, and South Koreans are now beginning to be <a href="http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921030">kicked out</a> from the site. The military is on alert, and the telephone line between the two countries used to avert naval clashes has been cut off. The “puppet authorities” of the South will not be <a href="http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=2532">allowed</a> to travel to the North, and none of the South’s air or naval vessels can enter their territory.</p>
<p>Four of North Korea’s submarines have <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/05/26/0301000000AEN20100526001200315.HTML">left</a> their base and their location is unknown. It is possible they have been deployed for an attack. <a href="http://www.colonelgordon.com/">Colonel Gordon Cucullu,</a> author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Separated-Birth-North-Korea-Became/dp/1592285910/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1275101465&amp;sr=8-3"><em>Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin</em></a>, told FrontPage that it is also possible that the submarines are hidden in caves along the coast as a security measure. This movement may be because of the North Korean military’s “war footing,” but it is hard to know for sure given how erratic their behavior has been.</p>
<p>Another startling development is that the South has arrested a spy who transmitted classified information about their subway system to the Kim Jong-Il regime. This is a strong indication that North Korea is still preparing for potential sabotage operations. The North has the world’s largest number of special forces, which they have been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100804018.html">training</a> to carry out guerilla-type attacks. It is also known that the North has commandos willing to go on suicide missions. Should the North Korean government view the upcoming military exercises as something they must respond aggressively to in order to maintain credibility, the use of such saboteurs cannot be ruled out.</p>
<p>The biggest reason North Korea has started and continued the crisis is to maintain a hold on its population. It provides an excuse for dramatic security measures and a reason to crack down on things like joint ventures with the South that expose the people to Western influence. This has become an <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/">increasing problem</a> for Kim Jong-Il, as over half of the population now <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/23/AR2010032304035.html">accesses</a> foreign news, polls of refugees show increasing anger towards the government for their economic catastrophe, and public expressions of dissent when the government issued a new currency and banned old bank notes and foreign currency.</p>
<p>Suzanne Scholte, the leader of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, told FrontPage that now is the time to aggressively “reach out to the North Korean people through all means possible” and to focus on the human rights situation under Kim Jong-Il, which she described as a “holocaust.” She provided FrontPage with the text of a speech she gave in April, outlining the weaknesses of the regime.</p>
<p>Two of the most important methods the regime uses to stay in power have collapsed. The system to distribute food and goods has collapsed, and so private markets have arisen that are decreasing the population’s reliance upon the government for survival.</p>
<p>The second major method was isolating the population from outside influence, which is also failing.</p>
<p>“One could argue that capitalism is alive and well and thriving in North Korea as the people cope the best they can by trading and selling the markets,” she said in her speech.</p>
<p>“In fact, the film <em>Titanic</em> became so widely watched in North Korea that the regime felt compelled to inform the people that the movie was a depiction of the failure of capitalism,” she said.</p>
<p>The fear of the Kim Jong-Il regime became evident when it said it will destroy any loudspeakers set up by the South to broadcast into the North. That is a line that he cannot allow to be crossed. The North Koreans have <a href="http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=2532">vowed</a> to begin “merciless counteractions” against the South’s “psychological warfare against the North.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has <a href="http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&amp;num=6411">made</a> new 300-strong police units in each province to stamp out opposition and to try to prevent the flow of information into the country.</p>
<p>The West faces a dilemma. The North Korean government feels it needs a crisis in order to survive, and therefore, ignoring them will only result in greater provocations. At the same time, Kim Jong-Il must react to the retaliation by appearing stronger than his enemies by heating things up further. The result is an inevitable series of increasing crises with unforeseen consequences. The solution is to hasten the day when the regime falls, but the weaker the regime becomes, the more likely it is to lash out as it has this year. The unfortunate conclusion is that further clashes are unavoidable.</p>
<p>There are multiple ways that the West can weaken the regime’s grip. Colonel Cucullu said that the North expects to “be rewarded by Western nations once again.” This behavior cannot be encouraged through appeasement. He also raised the point that Japan is also fearful and will not rely on the U.S. for its safety. The possibility of chaos on the Korean Peninsula and the potential for Japan to rapidly rearm can be used to pressure China into reigning in its partner.</p>
<p>Joshua Stanton makes a wise <a href="http://newledger.com/2010/05/overthrowing-kim-a-capitalist-manifesto-part-3/">suggestion</a> that cell phones be smuggled into North Korea’s markets and towers erected in the South so they have reception. Scholte said that there are 17,000 North Koreans who left their country for the South that can be <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/01/north-korea-defector-countrys-regime-still-strong/">used</a> to send information into their original homeland. Refugees can be mobilized for similar efforts.</p>
<p>The U.S. should place North Korea back on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, and push for sanctions in the United Nations. International measures to freeze the assets of North Korean officials and institutions involved in criminal activity and human rights abuses should also be taken.</p>
<p>There will be those who oppose such measures out of a fear of provoking North Korea. The sad truth is that the current government will set out to instigate major confrontations as a matter of survival. The West has two options: Ignore the misery of the North Korean people and hope that this pattern will not spiral down into armed conflict, or actively welcome the day that Korea can be united and free.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/promoting-a-free-korea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>More Than Bluster</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/more-than-bluster/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=more-than-bluster</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/more-than-bluster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2010 04:03:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ban ki moon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[direct transfers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[international investigators]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ki-moon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean peninsula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean ship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military exercises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pacific]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Lee Myung-bak]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[propaganda messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pyongyang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secretary-General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean president]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UNDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united nations secretary general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[veto power]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=61216</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[North Korea ups the ante. Will the world's democracies fold? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/kim-jong-420x0.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61232" title="kim-jong-420x0" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/kim-jong-420x0.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="255" /></a></p>
<p>Tensions are rising in the Korean Peninsula, following confirmation by international investigators that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship in March, killing 46 sailors which were South Korea’s worst military fatalities since the Korean War ended in 1953.</p>
<p>South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to cut off nearly all trade with North Korea and to deny North Korean merchant ships permission to use South Korean sea lanes. South Korea also plans to broadcast propaganda messages into the North and to drop leaflets by air.</p>
<p>The United States is planning joint military exercises with South Korea in a show of resolve.</p>
<p>China does not want to do anything that might further inflame the situation, while its friends in North Korea are talking about going to war.</p>
<p>As for the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters at his monthly press conference at UN headquarters in New York that the evidence laid out in the report of the international investigators &#8220;is overwhelming and deeply troubling.&#8221;  Ban Ki-moon expressed his grave concerns, not only on behalf of the United Nations but also personally as a South Korean citizen. “I have a very strong attachment and even a sense of responsibility,” he told reporters.  “Now, serving as Secretary-General, this is most troubling for me to see what is happening in the Korean Peninsula &#8211; that’s my motherland.”</p>
<p>The Secretary General said that the Security Council will be conferring on what “appropriate” measures to take against the rogue regime. What that means is anyone’s guess, since China will most likely use its veto power to make sure that North Korea gets no more than another slap on the wrist following the ineffective sanctions imposed after North Korea’s missile and nuclear arms testing.</p>
<p>China’s solicitude for North Korea should not be surprising, considering that China has been North Korea’s largest trading partner and supplier of assistance (through subsidized trade and direct transfers).  Moreover, as pointed out by the Congressional Research Service, “Beijing values North Korea as a buffer between the democratic South Korea and the U.S. forces stationed there, as a rationale to divert U.S. and Japanese resources in the Asia Pacific toward dealing with Pyongyang and less focused on the growing military might of China.”</p>
<p>For its part, the United Nations itself is still throwing North Korea a lifeline, so to speak. Irrespective of its government’s aggressive actions, humanitarian aid to North Korea will continue, promised Ban Ki-moon.  He emphasized the needs of the malnourished children, calling them “the leaders of our future generations.”</p>
<p>After his formal news conference was over, I approached the Secretary General and asked him what level of confidence he had that the humanitarian aid would actually reach the people in North Korea who needed it.  I reminded him how previous aid projects to help the people sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme had failed.</p>
<p>All that Ban Ki-moon could say in response was that “We have to try.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is a doomed effort. The North Korean regime has a habit of raiding the UN piggybank.  For example, it convinced the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to provide hard currency payments without any safeguards. Those funds ended up lining the dictator Kim Jong-Il&#8217;s pocket. At least $20 million was transferred from the UNDP directly to the North Korean regime for so-called development projects. The UNDP enabled North Korea to use UN-affiliated accounts to launder money and to import dual-use technology.  As a consequence of this scandal, the UNDP had shut down its North Korea operations, but has since decided to resume them.</p>
<p>The terrible malnutrition that Ban Ki-moon laments is a direct result of the regime’s cruel neglect and mismanagement.  It lets its people suffer from severe food shortages and a near-total breakdown in the public health system while it squanders money on nuclear arms and missiles.  The UN’s World Health Organization has managed to get some limited rations delivered to less than a third of the neediest people. While the World Health Organization claims it has international staff monitoring distribution of food aid, reports have surfaced that people getting food are giving it back to the government.</p>
<p>As long as this closed regime stays in power, there is little the United Nations can do to really break through and reach the imprisoned population with humanitarian aid, even with the best of intentions. The aid will be squandered by Kim Jong-Il and his henchmen, as they have done before with development assistance.  The UN is simply enabling the government to continue to survive.</p>
<p>The back of this regime must be broken by strangling its economy and quarantining entry and exit of ships to and from North Korean ports suspected of carrying nuclear or other military equipment and materials.  There is no other way to save its people.</p>
<p>Article Seven of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines various categories of acts that constitute crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery or enforced prostitution, persecution and enforced disappearance of persons. North Korea is guilty of virtually all of these horrendous crimes against its own people, yet nothing is being done to hold its leaders to account.</p>
<p>Even if the International Criminal Court should take some action against the North Korean regime, it will mean nothing.  Kim Jong-Il need only look at what is happening with Sudan’s Omar Hassan al-Bashir as an example. The Court issued a warrant for al-Bashir’s arrest more than a year ago on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Not only is al-Bashir still free, but he will be serving yet another term as president.  Two top UN officials in Sudan are even planning to attend his inauguration ceremony.</p>
<p>Decisive action against North Korea, beyond what the United Nations is capable of doing, is needed immediately.  Will the world’s democracies finally have the courage it takes to put this aggressive dictatorship in its place once and for all? So far, it does not look promising.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/more-than-bluster/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The New Korean War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/stephenbrown/the-new-korean-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-new-korean-war</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/stephenbrown/the-new-korean-war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 May 2010 04:27:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stephen Brown]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[army]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ban ki moon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[border]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[broadcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cheonan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Donald Kirk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[footing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Bush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inchon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[incident]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jong-il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kirk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean agents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean delegation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[naval exercises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[north korean leader kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patrol boats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seoul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean navy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sweden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united nations secretary general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[war footing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=61107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kim Jong-il puts his tyranny's armed forces on war footing.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em> </em></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/new.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61140" title="new" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/new.gif" alt="" width="375" height="464" /></a></p>
<p>President Obama may soon discover his  predecessor, George Bush, was more than correct in designating  North  Korea an “Axis of Evil”  state.</p>
<p>As the  United  States announced on Monday it would conduct joint  naval exercises with the South Korean navy in response to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking" target="_blank">sinking of a South  Korean warship</a> two months ago, North  Korea, the nation deemed responsible for the  disaster that cost 46 lives, raised tensions by putting its military forces on a  war footing.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LE26Dg01.html" target="_blank">Asia Times</a></em> reported yesterday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in a military  broadcast, placed his million plus armed forces on “combat readiness,” causing  concern worldwide about North Korean intentions as well as a drop in major stock  markets.</p>
<p>“We  do not hope for war but if South Korea, with the United States and Japan on its  back, tries to attack us, Kim Jong-il has ordered us to finish the task of  unification left undone during the…(Korean) war (in 1953),” the military  broadcast stated.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LE26Dg01.html" target="_blank">North Korea, of course, denies</a> that it sank the South Korean corvette, <em>Cheonan</em>, on March 26, but the evidence  states otherwise. An international commission made up of experts from  Australia,  America and  Sweden investigated the sinking and  concluded North  Korea was guilty of the atrocity after finding North  Korean torpedo parts in the wreckage raised from the sea bottom.</p>
<p>“The  evidence is quite compelling,” said Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary  general. “There is no controversy.”</p>
<p>North  Korea also has a long history of committing  terrorist acts against South  Korea. In 1983, North Korean agents bombed a South  Korean delegation in Burma, killing several members. In 1987,  North  Korea was also blamed for blowing up a South Korean  airliner in flight. In another naval incident in 2002, four South Korean sailors  were killed in an exchange of gunfire with North Korean patrol boats.</p>
<p>Besides  joint naval exercises with the United  States, the South Korean government has responded  with punitive measures. All trade with  North  Korea will be cut off as well as access to shipping  lanes through South Korean waters that North Korean ships use to shorten voyages  to China.</p>
<p>South  Korea will also again name  North  Korea as its “principal enemy”, a designation  dropped in 2004 during a warming of relations. According to a <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/world/asia/26korea.html?hp" target="_blank">New York  Times story</a></em>, North Korea was  first named a “principal enemy” in 1994 after threatening “to turn Seoul into a  ‘sea of fire’ ” during the crisis over its nuclear weapons program.” After the  <em>Cheonan</em> incident, Kim Jong-il has  threatened South  Korea with “all-out war” if sanctions are applied.</p>
<p>The  world is now waiting to see whether Kim Jong-il will actually carry out his  threat to engulf the two countries in war or whether he is simply staging a  tantrum to extort aid from Western countries as he has done in the past.</p>
<p>Although the two  Koreas are still technically at war,  outwardly, the war scenario appears the most unlikely one. Both North and  South  Korea know the latter is not going to initiate any  military action against the North over the <em>Cheonan</em> incident. As columnist Donald  Kirk states, South  Korea is doing so well economically, possessing one  of the world’s fastest growing economies, it does not want to risk its  hard-earned prosperity and high living standards in a destructive war. Kirk and  other military analysts have pointed out a further reason for  South  Korea’s avoiding war over North Korean provocations  like the <em>Cheonan</em>:  Seoul would bear the brunt of any North  Korean attack due to its location close to the North Korean border.</p>
<p>“The North  still has thousands of artillery pieces within range of metropolitan Seoul and  the nearby port of Inchon as well as missiles with the range to reach anywhere  in the South, and nobody in South Korea really wants to challenge that,”  <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LD29Ae01.html" target="_blank">Kirk writes</a>.</p>
<p>For  North  Korea’s part, war also does not appear to be an  option. Its army is in a very dilapidated condition. Years of sanctions and a  ramshackle economy have left the North Korean armed forces with no money for  training, maintenance or for purchasing new equipment.  North  Korea’s biggest military threat is its 60,000  commando troops, many of whom have been moved close to the border. In case of  war, it is thought the North Koreans’ plan, due to their army’s movement  limitations, would be to occupy Seoul and then seek a  ceasefire.</p>
<p>Analysts, like the military news publication <em><a href="http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/South-Korea-Plans-To-Invade-The-North-6-26-2009.asp" target="_blank">Strategy  Page</a>,</em> state that the modern, well-equipped South Korean army, which  produces many of its own weapons and is supported by a strong economy, has a  plan to throw back such an invasion and then move into the North. Such a plan to  cross the border would also be implemented if the North Korean state ever  collapsed. American forces in South Korea, which numbered 42,000 before 9/11,  now stand at about 30,000 and would come under South Korean command in case of a  conflict.</p>
<p>But  common sense may play no part in a Stalinist dictatorship’s decision to go to  war, especially one struggling to survive. Reports have been coming out of  North  Korea that the people are again facing starvation  like in the 1990s when an estimated two million died. A poor harvest this year,  the failure of a currency reform scheme last year and the repressing of private  farmer’s markets have again left the long-suffering North Koreans destitute.</p>
<p>North  Korea also cannot look to  China, its main ally, for help.  China, like other countries, has refused  food aid as long as North  Korea refuses to give up its nuclear weapons  program. Not wishing to support an economic cripple,  China also vainly wanted  North  Korea to adopt free market reforms and become  self-sufficient like it did. Like South  Korea, China fears a North Korean collapse and  the millions of hungry Korean refugees that would flood over its border seeking  food.</p>
<p>Unlike in the 1990s though, North Korean citizens are  reported to be more restless regarding their cruel, state-sponsored fate. The  underground black market is reported as thriving, indicating a disregard for the  government, as the people are becoming more aware of what is happening outside  their country, especially on the North Korean-Chinese border, where smuggling  and Chinese cell phones, although illegal, have connected North Koreans with the  modern world.</p>
<p>To  block this unrest from becoming a popular uprising and detract people’s  attention from their misery, the North Korean government may do what the  Argentinean military junta did in 1982 when faced with a similar disastrous  economic situation and restless population: launch a military adventure. And  with the 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the start of the Korean War next month,  Kim Jong-il may see that as a sign to “finish the task” of reuniting the Koreas,  especially while his government still controls the population.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/stephenbrown/the-new-korean-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>North Korean ‘Stairway to Heaven’?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/alan-wisdom/north-korean-%e2%80%98stairway-to-heaven%e2%80%99/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korean-%25e2%2580%2598stairway-to-heaven%25e2%2580%2599</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/alan-wisdom/north-korean-%e2%80%98stairway-to-heaven%e2%80%99/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 May 2010 04:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Wisdom]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[article]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bright hues]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charlotte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christian federation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communist government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[country]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[delegation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[house]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jerry Van Marter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kansas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KCF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linda Valentine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[N.C.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[partner church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PCUSA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presbyterian church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pyongyang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stairway to heaven]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[straw mat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sung]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[u s air]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Commission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Van Marter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wichita]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=60705</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More propaganda by the religious Left on behalf of the worst offenders of religious persecution. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/nk.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60797" title="nk" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/nk.gif" alt="" width="400" height="301" /></a></p>
<p>The May 4th article in the official Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) News Service is entitled “Stairway to Heaven.” It tells of a visit by a high-level PCUSA delegation to a “house church” in North Korea. The “stairway” in question is the four flights of steps up which the PCUSA officials had to climb to reach the Pyongyang apartment where the house church worshiped.</p>
<p>“Heaven” is the feeling experienced by the visiting delegation, including top executive Linda Valentine. “This small upper room immediately feels like God’s house … and a family reunion,” said Jerry Van Marter, author of the article and director of the PCUSA News Service.</p>
<p>Van Marter’s rapturous report would be a huge journalistic coup if this were indeed a “house church” in the usual sense—an unofficial, clandestine gathering of Christians inside the world’s most repressive state. But it was no such thing. This Pyongyang “house church” visited by the U.S. church delegation is affiliated with the Korean Christian Federation (KCF), controlled by North Korea’s communist government. The KCF is “the partner church of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in this extremely isolated country,” Van Marter stated.</p>
<p>“Extremely isolated” is, to say the least, a very restrained description of the awful situation inside North Korea. But it’s the strongest language that the PCUSA News Service can muster. The rest of the article paints with bright hues. There are precisely “ten North Korean Christians gathered here for worship” in the Pyongyang apartment. They are polite and friendly, greeting the PCUSA officials “like some close relatives were coming.”</p>
<p>Each worshiper is provided with identical accessories: a straw mat, a Bible, and a soft-cover hymnal. “The time together slips easily and quickly into worship,” Van Marter writes, “with periods of prayer, the singing of at least three hymns—accompanied by the piano and an accordion—an offering, and lengthy readings from the Bible. The service concludes with the Lord’s Prayer.” Just the same way Presbyterians do it in Wichita, Kansas, or Charlotte, N.C.</p>
<p>The sermon, however, does seem rather political. A recently retired PCUSA mission coordinator preaches on “the inevitable reunification of North and South Korea”—coincidentally, a frequent theme in North Korean government propaganda. The house church leader responds in kind: “The PC(USA) is very well-known to Christian believers in Korea and is well-loved for your support of peaceful reunification.”</p>
<p>Parting is such sweet sorrow for North Korean hosts and U.S. guests alike: “Tears of joy at newfound Christian fellowship mix with tears of regret that our time together is so short. One thing is certain: God is in this place.”</p>
<p>There is not a raised eyebrow, not a single skeptical word in the entire PCUSA News article. The “house church” is taken at full face value. Figures provided by the government-controlled KCF are conveyed with complete credulity. “This ‘house church’ is one of 500 scattered throughout North Korea,” Van Marter informs readers. “House churches are now the life blood of the KCF, which claims about 15,000 members in the country.”</p>
<p>These round numbers look even stranger when one realizes that they have not changed much over North Korea’s history. A 2005 KCF report indicates that “[t]here are more than 10,000 Protestants and about 5,000 Catholics in our country,” with two Protestant churches and “500 other tabernacles.” In 1988, the Institute on Religion and Democracy reported that the KCF “has claimed to consist of some 10,000 Protestants in 500 house churches,” with 2,000 Catholics besides.</p>
<p>What are the chances that the North Korean Protestant population has remained stable at exactly 10,000 in precisely 500 house churches? The thought does not occur to the PCUSA News reporter. Nor does he betray any doubts when told by the KCF that, of some 14,000 Christian churches in North Korea in 1945, “all were destroyed in the Korean War.” Apparently, the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s had extremely advanced church-seeking missiles that eliminated all houses of worship, even in the smallest hamlets. The possibility that the late Kim Il Sung’s communist dictatorship might have shut down those churches is not raised.</p>
<p>Reputable human rights monitors paint a very different picture of religion in North Korea. “The government controls most aspects of daily life, including religious activity, which is allowed only in government-operated religious ‘federations’ or a small number of government-approved ‘house churches,’” according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “Other public and private religious activity is prohibited. Anyone discovered engaging in clandestine religious activity is subject to discrimination, arrest, arbitrary detention, disappearance, torture, and public execution. A large number of religious believers are incarcerated in <em>kwan-li-so</em> [penal labor camps].”</p>
<p>The U.S. commission states that, although religious federations like the KCF may contain some sincere Christian believers, they “are led by political operatives whose goals are to substantiate the government’s policy of control over religious activity.” Worship services under the federations “are heavily monitored and the sites exist primarily as showpieces for foreign visitors.”</p>
<p>Nevertheless, credulous foreign visitors have often been taken in by the show. When Billy Graham visited in 1992, he praised Pyongyang as “one of the most beautiful modern cities I have ever had the privilege to visit.” In a glossy trip report, Graham described his meeting with the dictator Kim Il Sung as the “highlight” of his visit. “President Kim is highly revered by the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” according to Graham’s report, “and is often referred to as ‘The Great Leader’ by the nation’s citizens.” Graham’s report, like the recent PCUSA News report, made no mention of any religious persecution or human rights abuses in North Korea.</p>
<p>Some had hoped that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, Western church delegations would learn to be less trusting of dictators’ propaganda about supposed religious freedom. National Council of Churches General Secretary Joan Brown Campbell confessed in 1993: “We did not understand the depth of the suffering of Christians under communism. We failed to … cry out under the communist oppression.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it appears that the lesson has not been fully learned. There are still those who fail to cry out—who, as the biblical prophet Jeremiah once remarked, cry “’Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.”</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/alan-wisdom/north-korean-%e2%80%98stairway-to-heaven%e2%80%99/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Madman’s Blaze of Glory</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/a-madman%e2%80%99s-blaze-of-glory/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-madman%25e2%2580%2599s-blaze-of-glory</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/a-madman%e2%80%99s-blaze-of-glory/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:06:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gurney]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baengnyeong Island]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cheonan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evening dark]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[explosion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irrational behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[island]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean navy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[man]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[massive explosion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[north korean dictator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seoul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean soldiers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[underwater explosion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[warship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58924</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How much provocation can South Korea take?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kimjongil.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58926" title="kimjongil" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kimjongil.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="289" /></a>One month ago, March 26, the South Korean warship <em>Cheonan</em> was sailing near Baengnyeong Island. This island is a frequent site of clashes between North and South Korea; while the island belongs to the South, the North claims the waters around it. In the evening dark, a massive explosion rocked the warship. Her back broken by the blast, the ship split in two and <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/26/south.korea.ship.sinking/index.html">went down</a>. Of the 104 officers and crew aboard, 46 died. A 47<sup>th</sup> man, a Navy rescue diver, died shortly thereafter while trying to save others.</p>
<p>Suspicion, naturally, turned to the enigmatic, unstable North Korean regime of Kim Jong-il. The North Korean dictator, known for his paranoia and provocative acts, is believed to be in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/kim-jong-il-birthday-celebrations">poor health</a>. Increasingly irrational behavior was one concern shared by many international experts; the man was dangerously unstable when he was in good health. How much more psychologically deranged would he become as his health worsened and his days drew short? Sinking a South Korean warship without provocation would seem to offer evidence of just how far the regime is now willing to go.</p>
<p>While the South Korean government has yet to officially declare the <em>Cheonan</em> was lost to an attack by the North, the writing is on the wall. The <em>Cheonan</em>’s broken hull was raised from the bottom and examined. The explosion that sank the ship was not the result of an accidental collision or an internal malfunction. South Korea’s Minister of Defense <a href="http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/04/25/general-as-skorea-ship-sinks_7545773.html?boxes=Homepagebusinessnews">has said</a> that the information indicates that a “bubble jet,” or an underwater explosion, struck the vessel. This type of explosion is exactly what one would expect from a torpedo, such as the ones used by the North Korean navy.</p>
<p>And yet South Korea still is playing their cards very close to the vest. Despite the mounting evidence that North   Korea attacked without warning and killed 46 South Korean soldiers, official reaction has been muted. The <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8598267.stm">government has promised</a> to get to the bottom of the issue, but has refrained from assigning any blame to North   Korea. The Minister of Defense has speculated that it might have been an attack from the North, but now that it’s virtually proven, South Korea’s silence is almost comical.</p>
<p>Almost, but not quite. If South Korea were to officially declare that the sinking of the <em>Cheonan</em> was a hostile attack, it would be very hard for the country to refrain from some kind of retaliation. The South Korean public is outraged over the loss of their warship and the government is facing intense pressure to strike back. And yet, as is always the case when democracies go to war, a campaign that starts off with the full support of the people can quickly find its support ebbing away once soldiers start coming home in body bags.</p>
<p>South Korea would risk more than most democracies were it to go to war. Unlike the Europeans and Australians, Canadians and Americans, the South Koreans don’t have the luxury of fighting their battles in someone else’s backyard. Their capital city, Seoul, is well within range of North Korean artillery. Even though the South Korean military is far more advanced than the obsolete (if numerically large) North Korean forces, quantity has a quality all its own. North Korea’s Stalin-era weapons would fare poorly in battle, sure…but could make life unbearable for South Korea’s citizens and devastate its economy.</p>
<p>For South Korea, there are few good options. Even if it did wage war successfully against North Korea, what would it have gained? It would conquer the world’s largest refugee camp, a nation of some 24 million half-starved fanatics, victims of arguably the most oppressive totalitarian regime the world has ever known. The responsibility of feeding that many people, of building their economy up from virtually nothing and of finding some way to integrate the captive North Korean population, is a task so daunting as to ensure that South Korea would never attempt it.</p>
<p>North Korea’s nuclear stockpile would likely not play a decisive role in the conflict. They are believed to have enough fissile material to have constructed up to eight warheads, but it is uncertain whether or not any of those potential weapons have been assembled and are capable of being used in combat (building a nuclear bomb is hard enough, making it small enough to fit atop a missile is something else entirely).</p>
<p>Even if the North was incapable of using its nuclear weapons decisively, however, they would still be an incredibly destabilizing factor in any potential war. The United States would be unhappy to see nuclear weapons used, as it would then be expected to protect its South Korean allies, or else risk discrediting the concept of its “nuclear umbrella” of protection it affords its allies. China and Japan, similarly, would be most displeased at the thought of nuclear warheads exploding on the Korean peninsula and spreading radioactive fallout over their countries. And the mere threat of nuclear attack would be enough to cause panic and economic chaos in South Korea. All things considered, unless North Korea’s atomics could be reliably attacked and destroyed at the outset of any war, South Korea would do well to avoid a fight.</p>
<p>South Korea, with no good options, will almost certainly find a way to keep the peace. It might declare that it can’t reliably prove that North Korea attacked the <em>Cheonan</em>, thus having an excuse to get out of war. It might call for, and get, tough international condemnation and possibly economic sanctions. It might even refer the incident to the United Nations, where it will be studied in committees and eventually reported on after tempers have cooled. That will infuriate the families of the lost sailors, but is the right choice in the short term.</p>
<p>But in the long term, South Korea must contend with a newly aggressive North Korean regime that has shown that it is willing to commit unprovoked acts of war. South Korea will understandably want to avoid going to war today. But it must prepare itself for the bleak possibility that the next North Korean provocation might not be as easy to ignore than the deaths of 46 sailors. If Kim Jong-il chooses to mark his last days with a blaze of glory, he’ll get his wish. And all Koreans will pay the consequences.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matt-gurney/a-madman%e2%80%99s-blaze-of-glory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Crisis in the Making</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/a-crisis-in-the-making/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-crisis-in-the-making</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/a-crisis-in-the-making/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:07:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cheonan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[class submarines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[defense intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intelligence command]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jon Herskovitz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[latter scenario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[midget submarine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[naval clash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retaliation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scenario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south koreans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[submarine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58819</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sinking of a South Korean ship is just the latest of North Korea's provocations.
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/south-korean-ship-sinking.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-58821" title="south korean ship sinking" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/south-korean-ship-sinking-300x255.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="255" /></a></p>
<p>South Korea has <a href="http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100425/808/tnl-close-range-external-explosion-cause.html">concluded</a> that a close-range external explosion, most likely from a torpedo, is responsible for the sinking of its ship on March 26, killing at least 40 of their sailors. North   Korea has denied responsibility, but it is just another provocation by the Kim Jong-Il regime that is focused on starting a major crisis.</p>
<p>South Korean military-intelligence has written a <a href="http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2919620">report</a> that says it is “certain” that the North Koreans were involved in the attack. In a sign that better intelligence is being collected on the North than is often assumed, the Defense Intelligence Command sent a report to the navy in the weeks prior to the attack warning that the North was going to use small suicide submarines in an attack.</p>
<p>In this scenario, a midget submarine would have gotten close to the target and launched the torpedo, destroying itself and the <em>Cheonan</em>, or the submarine would destroy itself after the initial attack in order to kill the ship’s crew as they tried to escape. The latter scenario is less likely because there are no reports of two explosions. It is also possible that the attacking submarine did not destroy itself. Further excavation to try to find remnants of a suicide submarine could shed light on what exactly happened.</p>
<p>The South believes that North Korea launched the attack in retaliation for its defeat in a naval clash back in November. Defectors <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/7619087/South-Korean-ship-sunk-by-crack-squad-of-human-torpedoes.html">claim</a> that Kim Jong-Il hatched the plot himself and 13 commandos were involved. One says he was told by a North Korean military officer that Kim Jong-Il personally visited a naval base in February where he called for an act of retaliation.</p>
<p>The exact submarine involved may have already been pinpointed. The chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee <a href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/06/2010040600350.html">says</a> that the location of one of North Korea’s Shark-class submarines on the day of the attack remains a mystery. Originally, the U.S. and South Korea downplayed suggestions of the North’s involvement, pointing to the fact that the <em>Cheonan</em> did not detect a torpedo, but North Korea does have acoustic torpedoes that can defeat a ship’s radar.</p>
<p>The reasoning behind the attack is greater than revenge. North   Korea periodically provokes crises as part of its attempts to hold the regime together and gain international attention and concessions. Kim Jong-Il’s declining health and the <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/">decreasing grip</a> on the population makes the creation of a crisis all the more vital for the regime, but it has a few cards left to play.</p>
<p>Jon Herskovitz of <em>Reuters</em> <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TOE62E044.htm">predicted</a> this upping of the ante on March 17, writing that “he [Kim Jong-Il] lacks a game-changing ace to play that would seriously rattle the international community or spook markets long used to his grandstanding. Unless he is prepared to sail dangerously close to provoking a suicidal war.” Attacking a South Korean warship as an act of retaliation for recent “aggression” fits perfectly in this scenario as it is a tactic not previously used but is unlikely to provoke a war that would threaten the regime.</p>
<p>Other actions taken recently by North Korea clearly show that the attack on the <em>Cheonan</em> is part of a systematic attempt to raise tension and take center stage. On April 4, the regime claimed that South Korean soldiers had crossed the border and opened fire. Last week, two North Korean agents were <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/22/AR2010042203090.html">arrested</a> in South   Korea before they could murder a high-level defector living there.</p>
<p>On April 23, North Korea <a href="http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2919620">announced</a> that it was going to seize five properties owned by South Korea at the Mt. Kumgang resort jointly operated by the two countries. The dispute over the resort began in 2008 when the South stopped offering tours after a tourist was killed by one of the North’s soldiers. At the same time, it’s being <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iURO8fOyWVOA0ytFlaAGuC9F7R9wD9F7KLI01">reported</a> that North   Korea is preparing to carry out its third test of a nuclear weapon in the next two months, just in time for the South’s regional elections in June. The South claims there is no intelligence to verify the report, however.</p>
<p>South Korea and the U.S. are now in a tricky spot. The U.S. can and should place North   Korea back on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. The training and deployment of suicide bombers and assassins clearly is an act of terrorism, even if North   Korea isn’t Islamic. North Korea’s support for Hezbollah also makes it a state sponsor.</p>
<p>South Korea has said they will retaliate by acting through the international community, presumably by going to the United Nations. Further sanctions are unlikely. A U.N. demand that the North pay a certain amount of money is possible, but is hardly the type of punishment that will satisfy the South Koreans’ demand for retribution.</p>
<p>Aggressive action will be demanded by the voters who go to the ballot boxes in June, but such limited action seems to be what Kim Jong-Il wants. A response that escalates the situation but doesn’t really hurt the regime will only encourage North Korea to continue to use this tactic, yet ignoring them will only make them try even harder to create a crisis. It seems that, no matter what the West does, North Korea will inevitably keep trying to one-up its previous provocation. As long as Kim Jong-Il or one of his sons rule, this will be the pattern of behavior.</p>
<p><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden" /> <input id="jsProxy" onclick="jsCall();" type="hidden" /> <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden" /> <input id="jsProxy" onclick="jsCall();" type="hidden" /> <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden" /> <input id="jsProxy" onclick="jsCall();" type="hidden" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/a-crisis-in-the-making/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Kim Jong-Il Fearful of an Uprising?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:03:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accidental explosion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[class submarines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[explosion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hostile activity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[incident]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean coast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean national assembly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[korean peninsula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[location]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minister]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sound blends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korean officials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vessel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yellow Sea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58047</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mysterious sinking of South Korean vessel could be response to increasing unrest among North Korean citizens.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kim-jong-il.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58048" title="kim-jong-il" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kim-jong-il.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="444" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Visit <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/">Pajamas</a></strong></p>
<p>A South Korean naval ship sank on March 26 after an explosion ripped the vessel into two. Suspicion of the source of the explosion immediately focused on North Korea, although South Korean and American officials emphasized that there was no proof that the incident was an attack and that it could have resulted from a collision with a mine planted decades ago. If North Korea is behind the explosion, the reason may lie in reports about the country’s population becoming more aware of the oppression they are being subjected to.</p>
<p>Initially, South Korea and the U.S. downplayed notions that the ship was sunk by Kim Jong-Il’s military. The location of the sinking was in the Yellow Sea near the North Korean coast in disputed waters that have previously been the scene of naval clashes as recently as November. The South Korean defense minister is now <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8600959.stm">stating</a> that he thinks the explosion was caused by a torpedo, but he isn’t ruling out the possibility of an accidental explosion from a Korean War-era mine or the deliberate targeting of the ship with a mine.</p>
<p>The  chairman of the South Korean National Assembly’s Defense Committee <a href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/06/2010040600350.html">says</a> that two North Korean Shark-class submarines under surveillance disappeared between March 23 and 27, and they have been unable to determine the location of one of them on March 26, the day of the explosion. The South Korean defense minister initially noted that the vessel did not detect an incoming torpedo on its radar, but this official says that doesn’t matter. North Korea has advanced acoustic torpedoes that slowly stalk their targets so their sound blends in with the engine to escape detection.</p>
<p>High-ranking South Korean officials are voicing their increasing belief that the sinking was the result of hostile activity, but the U.S., eager to avoid a dramatic escalation, is doing the opposite. The commander of U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula <a href="http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Node=B1&amp;Id=1260952">says</a> there is no evidence of North Korean involvement in the incident and recommends waiting for a joint U.S.-South Korean probe to figure out exactly what happened.</p>
<p><strong>To continue reading this article, <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/">click here.</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/is-kim-jong-il-fearful-of-an-uprising/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Imprisoned for Saving American Lives</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-l-work/imprisoned-for-killing-terrorists-in-iraq-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=imprisoned-for-killing-terrorists-in-iraq-2</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-l-work/imprisoned-for-killing-terrorists-in-iraq-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[John L. Work]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[18th airborne corps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[allah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alpha]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alpha company]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[area]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[area of baghdad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[army infantry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baghdad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bosnia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Catch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CID]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[combat veteran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[command]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[command structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[company]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Court]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DHAA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enemy fire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evidence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fire fights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firefight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[germany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[groesbeck journal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hatley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[husband]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infantry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insurgency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insurgent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investigation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamic Terrorists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Hatley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Hatley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kosovo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leahy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leavenworth prison]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mario Guerrero]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[master sergeant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Master Sergeant John Hatley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mayo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military terminology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mrs. Hatley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nineteen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nineteen years]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[operation desert storm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Panama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patrol operations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prison]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[release]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[roadside bombs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sergeants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sgt. Jesse Cunningham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sgt. Joseph Mayo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sgt. Michael Leahy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sniper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soldiers of allah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Son]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[states marine corps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[story]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Texas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[texas hometown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tours of duty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Army]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united states marine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united states marine corps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[veteran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[West Rasheed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wife kim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[year]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=51190</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Former U.S. Army Master Sergeant John Hatley is now serving a forty year sentence for allegedly killing terrorists in Iraq.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/john.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-51192" title="john" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/john.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="499" /></a></p>
<p>Former U.S. Army Master Sergeant John Hatley is now serving <a href="http://www.groesbeckjournal.com/news/2009-06-04/Front_Page/Hatley_family_Johns_still_a_hero.html">a forty year sentence</a> in Leavenworth prison. He was convicted by a 2009 Court Martial of murdering four Iraqi insurgent arrestees in Baghdad following a 2007 ambush and firefight, and dumping the bodies into a Baghdad canal.  Two other Sergeants with the Alpha Company 1-18 1<sup>st</sup> Infantry were also convicted and sent to prison.</p>
<p>Hatley&#8217;s wife, Kim Hatley, is leading a crusade to win clemency for her husband. I recently spoke with her by telephone. A veteran of six years as an Intel-analyst and Crypto-analyst with the U.S. Army 18<sup>th</sup> Airborne Corps, Mrs. Hatley has a nineteen-year-old son in the United States Marine Corps in Afghanistan.  She related some details of events that led up to the firefight, the shootings and the investigation that sent her husband to prison:</p>
<p>John Hatley was a highly decorated combat veteran of nineteen years and six months military service. He was deployed in Bosnia, Kosovo, Panama, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Operation Desert Storm and three tours of duty in Iraq.  The soldiers of Alpha Company 1-18 1<sup>st</sup> Army Infantry knew him to be the first into a hot spot and the last to come out.  Mrs. Hatley says that her husband was a legend in Alpha Company and treated the soldiers under his command as though they were family.</p>
<p>During daily 2007 patrol operations in the West Rasheed area of Baghdad, Hatley’s soldiers often found themselves under enemy fire.  The post-Hussein sectarian “insurgency” was well under way.  Hatley’s soldiers killed some of the attackers and captured many others.  Over the length of the insurgency, snipers and roadside bombs (IEDs) killed or crippled thousands of Americans.</p>
<p>As the war dragged on, tens of thousands of jihadists who were taken prisoner during or after fire-fights in Baghdad went to the Detention Holding Area Annex (DHAA), which is military terminology for a jail.  Astonishingly, the DHAA personnel released nearly all of them shortly after their arrests, for “lack of sufficient evidence to detain.”  Most of the prisoners were released.  The newly-freed insurgents immediately returned to the streets to resume killing and maiming American soldiers.  This insanity became known as the Catch and Release Program.</p>
<p>Adding to the stress of war, Hatley and his soldiers collected the scores of dead bodies that were regularly dumped onto Baghdad streets by terrorists.  Most of the dead were non-combatant civilians who had been tortured and mutilated prior to their executions.</p>
<p>Then, on February 27, 2007, an insurgent sniper killed Staff Sergeant Karl Soto-Pinedo, who was like a beloved son to Hatley.  Mrs. Hatley told me that her husband was grief-stricken to the point of dysfunction by Soto-Pinedo’s death.  On March 17, Spc. Mario Guerrero was killed by a road-side bomb explosion.  All the same, the patrols went on ceaselessly, from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. – every day.  For months on end Hatley and his soldiers fought the war on three or four hours of sleep per night.</p>
<p>On a particular April day in 2007, Hatley’s unit once again came under fire. Four insurgents ran from a house where they hid during the fire-fight and the Americans soon captured them.  U.S. troops found small arms, sniper rifles and ammunition within that house. All of the captured insurgents field-tested “positive” for gunshot residue on their hands.</p>
<p>Hatley radioed the DHAA that he was en-route with the four detainees.  The DHAA refused to receive them, citing a “lack of sufficient evidence to hold.”  Hatley was ordered to release these terrorists who had tried to kill American soldiers.  Now, as the alleged story that came out in court goes, he discussed the DHAA release order with two of his subordinates, Sgt. Michael Leahy and Sgt. Joseph Mayo.  The Sergeants decided they had just about had their fill of Catch and Release, and that these four insurgents were not going free to return to kill and maim Americans. They subsequently drove the four terrorists to a nearby canal, fired one shot each into the backs of their heads, and dumped the dead bodies into the water.  Sgt. Jesse Cunningham, seated inside their parked vehicle, apparently watched all of it in the rear-view mirror. The bodies, however, were never found.  No local residents reported anyone missing.</p>
<p>By 2009, the Hatleys were stationed in Germany.  Sgt. Jesse Cunningham got himself into a jam with the Army for assaulting another non-commissioned officer and for falling asleep at his post – both serious offenses if proven.  Under investigation, Cunningham talked to a JAG lawyer and decided to trade what he knew about the 2007 Baghdad shootings to get himself off the hook.  He became “the snitch.”</p>
<p>Using Cunningham’s statement, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) extracted confessions from both Leahy and Mayo.  Hatley refused to admit having done anything wrong.  The military trial was in Vilseck, Germany, from April 13 through 16, 2009.</p>
<p>Cunningham, Leahy and Mayo all took the witness stand against their former First Sergeant.  Mrs. Hatley, who was present for the entire trial, told me that Leahy and Mayo, who had already been convicted, looked to be in great distress on the stand during testimony and appeared to everyone that they did not want to testify against their First Sergeant. Both received bad conduct discharges and prison time.  Hatley received a dishonorable discharge to go along with his life sentence.  Members of the press openly wept when the sentence was handed down.</p>
<p>Mrs. Hatley now spends endless hours on the internet and the phone, mustering support for her husband’s release.  She sounds optimistic, despite the terrible situation.  She says that even in prison her husband has received meritorious staff reports, once for saving a choking prisoner’s life by administering the Heimlich maneuver.</p>
<p>The endless conflict goes on.  Soldiers and Marines deal with Rules of Engagement (ROE) that tie their hands and prolong the national agony of our overseas involvement in the eternal war that Islam declared against infidels nearly fourteen-hundred years ago.</p>
<p>Many officers in the military’s upper echelons remain willfully ignorant of Islamic doctrine and oblivious to its dynamics in the war.  They write the crippling ROE and the Catch-and-Release policies that have caused the deaths of innumerable American soldiers and Marines &#8212; and they sit comfortably behind their desks at the Pentagon.  In the meantime, men like John Hatley sit in prison.</p>
<p><strong>[For those wishing to help Kim Hatley win clemency for her husband, visit <a href="http://defendjohnhatley.com/">DefendJohnHatley.com</a>.]</strong><em><br />
</em></p>
<p><em>John L. Work is a contributor to <a href="http://www.newsrealblog.com/">NewsReal Blog</a>.  He is a retired Colorado Law Enforcement Officer and a free-lance writer.</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-l-work/imprisoned-for-killing-terrorists-in-iraq-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>150</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 1818/1904 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 12:40:02 by W3 Total Cache -->