Bye!

I'm mad lazy and $h1t so I don't update. So I'm going to stop posting. I'm working on putting a blog together for revolution in Japan and Japanese anti-pop culture stuff with some people. Here's what has happened through this blog:

-Nothing
-Nothing
-Nothing
-Creation of the Nihon Sekigun or Japanese Red Army. The rebirth of the notorious left-wing Japanese terrorist group that was active in the 70's and 80's but disbanded a few years ago. It's going to be peaceful. We want to stop ultra-nationalism and corporate corruption and scandals and make Japan a more peaceful nation.

Why The Deal Will Work This Time

Many people are criticizing the new deal between the US and North Korea saying that the fuel that will be given to north Korea will just be used to reactivate the Yongbyan Reactor. But this time they're wrong. Why? Because the US had the upper hand in negotiations. We had a weapon. It's called freezing assets. The other two times that an agreement was reached with North Korea, the US didn't have much of an upper hand. We were the scared ones; North Korea had nothing to lose. But this time we froze Kim Jong-il's assets that are used to buy many luxury items. We also put an embargo on luxury goods that were being sent to north Korea. Kim Jong-il couldn't buy his scotch anymore; nor could he buy his movies or boats or luxury cars. That was the last straw. It was either live without these luxury items or give into the US' demands. Kimmy boy chose the second option.

Now North Korea can get its energy and Kim Jong-il's luxuries while the US and the rest of NE Asia can live without the fear of North Korea having the Bomb. In this situation, everybody wins. And who knows, maybe Bush's popularity will rise above 40% for the first time in a while. And hell, maybe the troop surge will work. The next question is whether or not neo-Stalinism is dead after this agreement.

Movies About the DPRK!

There are two movies about North Korea that are being shown right now. The first is called Abduction: the Megumi Yokota Story. It's a documentary about 13-year old Megumi Yokota who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 so she could help the North Korean military learn Japanese. This was one of the many kidnappings that took place in Japan.

The other movie is called Crossing the Line. It tells the story about Joe Dresnok, one of the only American soldiers to defect to North Korea. Dresnok had a very abusive childhood and dropped out of high school. After serving a sentence for theft he joined the Army. He was stationed in West Germany where he met his wife who later left him after two years. Dresnok was moved to Korea to guard the old DMZ. Facing a court martial after an incident in one of the many villages of "comfort" women near the base he defected to North Korea. In this film he tells his story but doesn't say much about the regime. It's going to be at the Berlin Film Festival, so watch out all of you Berliners!

CSM On Kim Jong-il

Christian Science Monitor is doing a series of articles on Kim Jong-il which I stumbled upon while going through Yahoo! News.

You Can Read It Here

Paek Nam Sum, DPRK Foreign Ministerm Dead at 78

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago
SEOUL, South Korea - Paek Nam Sun, North Korea's foreign minister and the country's top diplomat for nearly 10 years, has died at the age of 78, official media reported Wednesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed his condolences, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported.

The one-sentence dispatch did not provide any more details, including when or how he died. But China's official Xinhua news agency said Paek died Tuesday.Paek has been the North's top diplomat since 1998. News reports have said he was suffering from kidney disease. It was unclear who would succeed him.

Paek's death is not believed likely to lead to any change in North Korea's foreign policy. The North's Foreign Ministry usually implements policies that have been crafted by the ruling Korean Workers' Party. Power is heavily concentrated in Kim's hands, and state officers stray from the official line at their peril.

His most recent overseas trip was to Malaysia for Asia's largest security conference, called ARF, and then Singapore for an official visit in July last year. In previous ARF meetings, Paek met Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell but did not hold such a meeting with Condoleezza Rice in July.

His death came as tensions remained high on the Korean peninsula following the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test. North Korea held talks with the United States and other regional powers last month in the nuclear standoff, but they failed to make any progress.

Ban Ki-moon, who stepped down as South Korea's foreign minister in October to become the new U.N. secretary-general, expressed his condolences on the death of Paek, "with whom he worked for peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula over the years," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York."The secretary-general hopes that the death of foreign minister Paek does not, in any case, hinder the ongoing six-party process or the way for North Korea's foreign policy to open up to the international community," Montas said.Ban, who succeeded Kofi Annan as secretary-general, has said one of his top priorities will be to try to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

Paek graduated from the prestigious Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, and later participated in talks in the 1970s between the two countries' Red Cross societies over issues such as separated families. Diplomatic involvement with South Korea, the North's wealthy neighbor and former battlefield foe, has always been a key to career advancement for North Korean officials.Paek was also ambassador to Poland in the 1970s.Paek was an elite loyalist who rose over decades through government ranks. He was born in 1929 in North Hamgyong, a province on the Chinese and Russian borders that is home to a coal mine notorious for forced labor as well as a key missile base.

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. officials have proposed putting more anti-missile radar in Japan to help intercept weapons from North Korea headed for U.S. soil, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Quoting an unnamed U.S. military source, the Asahi Shimbun said the radar would also be intended to better monitor and track ballistic missiles from the communist state heading toward U.S. troops stationed in Japan and South Korea.

Security worries have mounted since North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles in July and conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October.

Japanese defense officials are considering the proposal, which was made in mid-November, the Asahi said.

The United States currently has anti-missile radar in northern Japan. But that radar failed to pick up missile tests by North Korea in July because it had been monitoring missiles headed for U.S. soil.

Those missiles fell into the Sea of Japan.


LINK

The Current Economic Situation in North Korea

So how is North Korea's economy coming along? Much better than a few years ago.

Andrei Lankov had an interesting article a few days ago on Neo-Stalinist economics vs. capitalism. Many merchants around the country are making tons of money. Sometimes more than party officials. On top of that many North Koreans are buying bootleg DVDs of Korean dramas and small handheld radios from China. Outside information is coming into North Korea.

But if it is, then why aren't the people mad at the current regime? Simple. They're making money and don't want to screw it up. If they start to question the government, then they'll get arrested and thrown into jail and lose all of the money they earned which will go to the government.

NEWS: Moderate conservatives and reformists are beating Ahmadinejad's ultra=conservatives in the local elections! In a few years, North Korea can say good bye to Iranian nuclear technology!