Monday, January 22, 2007

Neighbour to the North

Though I don't post on North Korea issues much, I've read a few things as of late that are worth posting the links to. Over at Foreign Policy in Focus, there is good statement from John Feffer and Martin Hart-Landsberg on the morality of sanctions, including the recent economic front and the inherent danger in the Proliferation Security Intiative (PSI), against North Korea.
...because of the increased risk of war in and around the Korean peninsula, the sanctions are not only a blunt instrument but possibly a very dangerous one as well. While North Korea’s human rights record is deplorable, a war on the Korean peninsula, which would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Koreans in the first months of conflict, would be a human rights disaster of much greater magnitude.
Over and Frog in a Well, meanwhile, Owen has a funny post on the perils of using the word 'civil war' to describe the Korean War, even for the President. Seems there is very little room interpretation.

1 comment:

  1. If there is a Doomsday Clock (great theatre, that) for north-east Asia, then the PSI certainly bumps us up a few minutes.

    A public workers union in Canada caused a stir last year when it voted to boycott Israeli goods. If only more labour organizations would express solidarity in ways that mattered ...

    When the North Koreans drop cluster bombs over Kyoto, I'll agree with sanctions.

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