Fighteeng!

Talk about mixed signals… ever dated a girl who was a sweetheart one second and then a psycho the next?  Well, that’s not exactly a fair comparison with the volatile behavior of North Korea, but what happened today comes close.

The New York Times reports that North Korea is turning over a new leaf by almost apologizing for the deaths caused by the “accidental” flooding of Imjin river.

“It was regrettable that unintended human casualties occurred,” a North Korean delegate told South Korean officials during the meeting at a North Korean border town on Wednesday.

The North also offered condolences to the bereaved families, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said. South Korea was pressing the North to agree to a joint flood-control system to prevent similar episodes.

“We see this as an expression of North Korean intentions to improve ties with us,” said Park Sun-kyoo, a presidential spokesman in Seoul. “This is a very positive signal.”

The warm fuzzies wouldn’t last long. Less than 24 hours later, North Korea appears to have made up another incident to rattle its sabers.

North Korea accused the South on Thursday of intruding into its territorial waters, further raising tension on the peninsula already heightened by the North’s launch this week of a barrage of short-range missiles…

“The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.

Damn… those are fighting words! Well at least the North Korean did send out a warning this time, unlike the river flood.

Wow, hard to believe that the Nobel prize has been awarded to Obama barely a year into office.  Would Kim Dae Jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his years of work reaching out to the North, have positive things to say about this if he had lived long enough to see this day?  Does Obama deserve it?

So I listened to Obama’s speech to see how he would justify accepting the award, and he had this to say:

“… And I know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.  And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”

Hmm… sounds reasonable, but I wasn’t sure if that was consistent with the Nobel charter, so I headed over to wikipedia to find out what the criteria is that the prize panel uses to judge peace awards, which is:

“… the person shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”

Now whether you agree if this criteria is appropriate or not is a different matter, but clearly, it’s not just about quantity of accomplishments but also a more loosely worded “best work”.  I don’t know any of the other 200 or so odd nominations that might have been more deserving, but if apply Obama to these standards, then I think he passes with flying colors. Did Obama have the best work for fraternity between nations?  Check.  Did Obama reduce standing armies?  Check.  Did Obama hold meetings to promote peace?  Check.  No wonder Nobel’s official statement on their website states:

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Note that the committee uses the word “efforts” rather than “results”, which means to me that one’s courageous efforts can be just as useful to promote peace, regardless of accomplishments.

Kim Dae Jung was awarded for his tireless work in reconciling with North Korea as well, with unfortunately little to show for it.   Not to take away anything from the breakthrough negotiations, but even the secret millions paid to the North hasn’t reduced troop levels, nuclear testing, and a reciprocal visit.

Personally, I prefer not to dwell on the rhetoric of whether it was premature or deserved.  Whatever.  I think Obama will live up to the higher expectations that people have for him now that he has won this award, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the world changes for the better with Obama leading the way.

Holy cow! I can’t believe I’m reading this… the Chosun Ilbo got a copy of North Korea’s revised constitution, which I didn’t think anything ever needed revision up there given the dictatorship keeps its people stuck in the 1950s.   Turns out Dear Leader thinks that communism is not really turning out as he had hoped… uh..  it took him how many years to figure that out?

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apparently explained the deletion of the word “communism” from the country’s constitution, which was revised in April. “It is difficult to comprehend communism. I will try to get socialism right,” Kim was reported as saying by a spokesman for the state-run Minju Chosun newspaper.

He’s going to try and get socialism right?  One, I don’t think he has much time left to try,  and two, who is he benchmarking his definition of socialism against?   USA?  Possibly, if he watches enough of the fair and balanced FOX News coverage of the healthcare debate.

The spokesman was talking to South Korean reporters on the sidelines of inter-Korean family reunions in Mt. Kumgang. “This is the reason behind the deletion of ‘communism’ from the constitution,” he said. “Communism is meant to be a one-class society where there is no distinction between exploiter and exploited, but that system cannot exist while American imperialism lasts.”

Huh?  So does that mean Dear Leader will put the communism words into the constitution back once he nukes the evil empire that is USA?  But if that ever happens, won’t he have achieved his goal of getting socialism right by that time?

Or maybe Dear Leader is just lobbying for some UN speech time, like this Gaddafi guy, who earned it by giving up his WMDs.

Well, whatever he finally ends up with will likely not do a darn thing to improve the lives of millions of his own starved, tortured, abused non-exploited citizens.  I don’t believe it when one of the changes also include this gem:

Clause 8 stipulates that it is the state’s responsibility to protect the human rights of citizens. The old constitution held the state responsible only for the people’s safety and welfare.

Ironically, these constitutional revisions allegedly occurred in April, which is around the same time when the two US journalists were captured by North Korean soldiers for spying. I think he’s defining human rights in proportion to how he will define socialism.

Looks like we finally have accountability in the deaths of the campers who drowned during the mysterious Imjin river flood earlier this month.  The Korea Herald reports:

“An employee of the Korea Water Resources Corp., surnamed Song, and an employee of the Yeoncheon county office, surnamed Koh, face charges of dereliction of duty and professional negligence that resulted in deaths.”

Don't you guys monitor EVERYTHING along the DMZ?

Apparently, both should have known or did know about the rising water levels but failed to do notify anyone.  While this may serve as some measure of justice to the aggrieved families, I’m surprised that – after decades of being technically at war with the North and knowing their history of volatile, unpredictable behavior – the South Korean military, with all of  its advanced technology and 24/7 surveillance with US backing, doesn’t appear to have a river monitoring system of its own.

Holding civilian authorities accountable seems misplaced given that one might possibly argue that the flood was an act of war. For its part, North Korea explains it away as some kind of accident, that “a sudden surge in the dam’s water level” caused the emergency release, which doesn’t seem plausible given the lack of rain at the time. Indeed, Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek opinionated,

“I think the North did it intentionally.”

Maybe.  Who knows for sure?  I’ve asked seven of my Korean friends, from late 20’s to late 40’s, and they all believe it to be an accident.  Or perhaps, that’s what they want the waygookin to believe.

Accident or not, if North Korea can manage to secretly carve out a third tunnel back in 1978, they sure are capable of weaponizing a dam in 2009. Nothing I’ve read so far has questioned the military’s preparedness over this matter.