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The North Korean nuclear negotiator has confirmed my prior suspicions that the North Koreans have no intention of giving up the nuclear weapons they currently have:

The remarks therefore suggest that the nuclear weapons Pyongyang has already built are not on the agenda at this stage, hinting that separate negotiations from the six-way framework will have to tackle them. That in turn suggests that the five countries — South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan — have accepted North Korea’s position that the nuclear weapons themselves are not at issue in the talks, a position it has taken since a Sept. 19, 2005 statement of principles.

North Korea reiterated the position when it returned to the six-way talks in December. North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-kwan said in Beijing on Dec. 22 that the North wants to discuss the issue of nuclear weapons when it no longer feels threatened because the U.S. has ended its “hostile” policy toward the North and mutual trust has been built up. “

North Korea has no intent to give up their weapons.  They are just trying to get what they can from the international community without giving up the half dozen nukes they now possess.  These nuclear weapons ensure regime security from an outside attack; that is something more valuable to a dictator like Kim Jong-il than any incentive the international community could give to him.

While North Korea is trying to get what they can in these negotiations, the US side is trying to maneuver the negotiations to where the perception that is created when these talks ultimately fail, which they will, it will be clear that the North Koreans are the ones to blame.  I am very pessimistic about this because I think no matter how these negotiations fail the US both politically and in the media will be blamed even when it is not the US’s fault.

The list of critics to the current policy is growing now with the resignation of Robert Joseph from the State Department who advocated financially strangling the North Korean regime.  Keep in mind that John Bolton as well has come out strongly against the current Administration’s North Korea policy.

Only time will tell who is right.

You can read more over at DPRK Studies.

Here, here, & here are good roundups of the people who claim to support the troops and not the war. The shredding of US flags here and here are particularly nice ways to demonstrate your support for the troops.  Read and decide for yourself.

Via OFK, is this fine report from Michael Totten about his trip to Kurdistan in northern Iraq. In his report he mentions this about the ROK Army Zaytun unit serving in Iraq:

Iraqi Kurdistan is technically occupied by a foreign power, but this occupation surely ranks among one of the most absurd in human history. Dr. Ali Sindi, advisor to Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani, told me that South Korea is the official occupier of “Northern Iraq.” Korean soldiers are stationed just outside Erbil in a base near the airport. He laughed when he told me the Kurdish military, the Peshmerga (“those who face death”), surround the South Koreans to make sure they’re safe.

Andy at the Marmot’s Hole feels that Totten is slighting the ROK Army’s contributions in Iraq. I have been posting on the ROK Army deployment since its inception and here is a roundup of my thoughts on this issue.

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For background on this posting I highly recommend you read my prior postings here and here.  Anyway, today officially marks the day the Appeal for Courage petition has overtaken the Appeal for Redress petition.  As of this posting Appeal for Courage has had 1,730 signatures compared to Appeal for Redress’s 1,727 signatures.  Courage has overtaken Redress despite Redress being covertly backed by large liberal activist groups and supported by the largest liberal public relations firm in the country, Fenton Communications, which receives George Soros money.  Additionally Redress was formed by a former Amnesty International member who was planted into the military in an effort to create a perception of a "grassroots" uprising within the ranks against the President’s policy in Iraq.

Redress was launched last October before the mid-term elections and due to Fenton Communications it has been featured in past few months in hundreds of newspapers, a CBS News 60 Minutes special, and backed by Yahoo to name a few prominent media supporters.  Despite all of this, Appeal for Courage has overtaken Redress in just 37 days with very little media publicity.  This is a real grassroots effort, much like the Gathering of Eagles this past weekend, that will receive very little media attention despite outnumbering those who the mainstream media is giving all the coverage to. 

The Asia Sentinel has some a strong view on the latest Macau Bank deal being negotiated between the US and North Korea. 

Is anyone surprised by this at all:

North Korea will not stop its nuclear activity unless $25 million of its funds held in a Macau bank are fully released, the regime’s top nuclear envoy said Saturday.

Banco Delta Asia had been blacklisted by Washington since September 2005 for its complicity in North Korean money laundering. The U.S. had promised to resolve the issue as part of the implementation of a landmark nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Department ended its investigation into the small Macau lender and said that ties would be cut with the bank and the U.S. financial system. The move might lead regulators to unfreeze a portion of the money.

Issuing the communist state’s first official response to the U.S. decision, Kim Kye Gwan said Saturday in Beijing that his country has not heard anything officially about the lifting of financial sanctions.

"We will not stop our nuclear activity until our funds frozen in the BDA are fully released," he said. "We will not stop the Yongbyon nuclear facility until the United States fully releases our funds frozen in the BDA."

What annoys me about the media coverage of this latest North Korean antic is that the unfreezing of money in the Macau bank was not an agreed upon pre-condition for the US to give to North Korea in return for freezing their nuclear reactor.  I recommend everyone read OFK’s excellent run down on this issue.  However, I felt the tone of the article made it sound like the US side is the one not living up to the agreement by not unfreezing the accounts when in fact it is the North Koreans making demands that are not in the original agreement. 

It is always impressive the amount of money the military is able to raise for charities through the Combined Federal Campaign:

Representatives from units and fraternal organizations throughout South Korea gathered at the Yongsan Multiplex Theater on Tuesday for the 2006 Combined Federal Campaign awards ceremony.

More than 170 awards were given to the units with the largest percentages of members donating to CFC and with the largest average donations.

Awards fell into four categories: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. More than half of the awards fell into the upper two categories, with 54 units receiving the platinum award for at least 85 percent participation and an average gift of $200 and 49 units earning gold for 60 percent participation and an average donation of $120. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Wood, 7th Air Force commander, served as guest speaker and presented awards.

Describing CFC as the most inclusive charitable organization in the world, he explained why he felt donating was important. “CFC is a big deal,” he said. “It’s one of the ways we give back to the community and make things better.” According to Wood, CFC-Overseas generated more than $1.5 million in 2006, with 10 percent of the donations coming from within U.S. Forces Korea.

For those not in the military reading this, every year the military encourages soldiers to choose a charity that is part of the CFC to donate money to.  The soldiers are given a book with a number of charities that the military has deemed to be legitimate and worthy of donations and then it is up to the soldier if he/she wants to donate money.  As you can see above the military raised $1.5 million dollars overseas with 10% coming from USFK which means USFK raised $150,000 dollars this year for charity. 

The other really good charity campaign the Army does is the Army Emergency Relief fund.  AER donations are used to allow soldiers to have immediate financial assistance in case of family emergencies.  Soldiers can apply for immediate financial assistance that will come in the form of either an interest free loan or an out right grant if the repayment of an interest free loan is to big of a financial burden on the soldier.  This program is truly soldiers taking care of their own.  AER is especially important for USFK because when soldiers have family members get critically ill, injured, or pass away; they can receive AER money to pay for their plane tickets back to the US.  The AER program in the Second Infantry Division I know is outstanding from personal experience from sending soldiers there for money and being approved the same day and flying home the next. 

So if you are not already donating through both the CFC and AER you really should because they are definitely both good programs worthy of a few extra bucks you may have available every month. 

You can tell the Democrats are in power because this issue just continues to stay alive:

The Pentagon’s top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays — and "less on my personal moral views."

I don’t think General Pace should apologize for his own personal moral beliefs, but it definitely wasn’t wise to bring up his moral beliefs because it just feeds the untrue assumption that the military is conducting a witch hunt against gay servicemembers. You can read more of my thoughts on this in my prior posting here.

OFK and DPRK Studies has the latest on the beginning of the possible reneging by North Korea on the nuclear agreement signed last month.  Is anyone really surprised by this?

This poll is just another indication of how discontented the general Korean population has become with President Roh Moo-hyun and the Sunshine Policy in general.  Here are some of the results of the poll:

In the politics category, some 83.3 percent of respondents said it is senseless to give aid to North Korea unless that country shows a basic change in attitude. The figure is an increase of 15 percent from four years ago. Other questions also triggered a clear majority of conservative answers: "Union members should restrain from staging strikes as they lower corporations’ international competitiveness" (75.6 percent, an increase of 20 percentage points); "National unification should be realized only within a framework of a free market economy" (68.8 percent); "It’s justifiable for police to use force when public order is threatened by demonstrators" (62.5 percent); and "The National Security Law should be maintained as it is" (61.5 percent).

As you can see in the graphic above, Gallup compiled their findings between conservative and progressive positions and assigned point values to them.  Koreans are actually more conservative now than they were 5 years ago, which is bad news for any progressive candidates in this year’s presidential election.  Are Koreans finally going to stop drinking the "Sunshine" Kool-Aid spoon fed to them by the progressives these past 6 years?  If this poll is any indication it appears the answer is yes and this year the population will be able to prove it with their vote in the presidential election.

(HT: Joe)