Cambodia – My colleague, Sean Patrick Murphy, over at FB’s Global Film Review blog, has an interesting post about a new documentary, “S21, The Khmer Rogue Killing Machine”. The documentary interviews former Khmer Rogue members who worked at the infamous S21 prison camp, where various crimes against humanity were committed during the reign of Pol […]
This is an update to an earlier blog post concerning the Burmese Junta’s nuclear ambitions and the aid it might be receiving from North Korea. Last year, the Japan Times ran an article on this topic, now Al-Jazeera has aired an investigative report. In the strategic footsteps of North Korea, Myanmar’s leaders are also building […]
SIPRI’s report in March 2010 highlighted China’s growing desire to develop its Arctic capabilities. Yet China is also collaborating with other countries to possibly expand its role in the Arctic. Two of those countries are North Korea and Iceland, neither of which have Arctic coastlines, but which are far enough north to give China greater […]
Jessica D’Itri I am reading The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters by B.R. Myers, an associate professor at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. The book purports to explain the national myth that informs the worldviews of North Koreans. The author refutes the standard trope that North Korea is […]
North Koreans are increasingly defying their government to tap into foreign radio broadcasts, according to Peter Beck of the Wall Street Journal. In his recent article, Beck highlighted the high barriers that North Korean civilians face to receive information from foreign sources. All radios sold in North Korea have their dials permanently fixed to the […]
A lot of international attention has focused on North Korea and Iranian nuclear programs. However, Mark Fitzpatrick has an interesting article in the Japan Times concerning nuclear proliferation in Southeast Asia, specifically as it applies to rumors surrounding Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions. This blog has previously discussed Burmese defectors’ claims that the junta was developing nuclear […]
The Arctic Sea, officially carrying a cargo of timber worth $2m, disappeared en route from Finland to Algeria on July 24. The vessel vanished into thin air after sailing through the English Channel, a curious case that engaged the attention of Finnish police, Swedish investigators, Interpol, and the Russian Navy. Before people could really jump […]
In an editorial within today’s Washington Post, Edward Schumacher-Matos presents a nice summary of what might be considered a waning in the power of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez. As Schumacher-Matos describes, on a number of fronts other South American nations have been acting counter to Chávez’s wishes. Ecuador, though considered an ally, has reached out […]
– South East Asia Times is reporting that the man killed in the Indonesian government’s raid in central Java is not Noordin Mohammed Top. The government will compare the DNA of the corpses of the man suspected of being Top to one of Top’s children, which may take up to two weeks. This may be […]
The past couple of days, there has been a frenzy of media coverage about the two jailed American journalists who were freed from North Korea. And rightly so. Rarely has such a dramatic set of circumstances come into play at the same time, then ended in a moral, political, and humanitarian coup. Yet the biggest […]
– Two of the runner-ups in July’s Indonesian presidential election, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Jusuf Kall, will challenge the election results before the nine judges of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia. They claim the voter list contained up to 23 million duplicate names, but neither has provided any evidence to support their claims. Although there […]
North Korea officials sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of hard labor on Monday. The women were working for Current TV along the China-North Korea border when they were taken by North Korean government officials. They have been in jail since March. Numerous journalist advocacy organizations have called for their […]
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