NightWatch

For the Night of 13 August 2009

South Korea: For the record. President Lee Myung-bak is expected to promise massive economic and humanitarian assistance for North Korea if the communist nation abandons its nuclear ambitions, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae (Office of the President) said Friday. The pledge will come in his speech Saturday, marking the country's liberation from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.

"President Lee will again confirm plans to actively assist North Korea in the economic, education, financial and infrastructure sectors once North Korea gives up its nuclear programs."

North Korea-South Korea: Tonight’s Good News. North Korea today freed a South Korean employee of Hyundai Asan -- the Hyundai Group's North Korean business arm -- who had been detained in North Korea since late March for criticizing its political system, a Unification Ministry spokeswoman said, as The Associated Press reported.

The release came the day after Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung Eun traveled to Pyongyang to negotiate the employee’s release.

Comment: Normalization of relations with South Korea is not yet complete because a South Korean fishing crew remains in detention after having entered North Korean waters off the east coast. This incident should also resolve quietly and amicably.

During this Watch. The chairwoman of Hyundai Group extended her North Korea trip for a third time on Friday, as uncertainty about a potential meeting with the country's leader Kim Cho'ng-il remained after the release of a detained employee.

Hyun Jung-eun, due to return home in the afternoon, extended her trip by one more day to Saturday, said Hyundai spokesman Kim Ha-young. Hyun's entourage called Cho Kun-shik, chief of Hyundai Asan Corp., the group's North Korea business unit, in the morning to say the chairwoman will stay in North Korea for one more day, the spokesman said.

China-Vietnam: Update. China and Vietnam met today to settle their dispute in the South China Sea, Xinhua reported, citing a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release. The two sides vowed to implement the consensus they reached during the meeting. Right.

The vulnerability of any bilateral profit-sharing arrangement, for example, is that there are other claimants to South China Sea undersea resources, including Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Pakistan: Baitullah Mehsud remains either dead or alive. The US and Pakistani governments have demonstrated no ability to prove their claims he is dead with persuasive evidence. The Pakistani Taliban claim that they will provide proof Baitullah is alive in the next few days.

Iran-Bolivia: For the record. Foreign Minister Mottaki, speaking in Bolivia, said yesterday (12 August), that his country opposes the expansion of the U.S. military's presence in Colombia and is against in principle foreign military bases anywhere in the world, The Associated Press reported. Mottaki also said, "The hegemonic policies of the United States in Latin America and Asia have completely failed. That's why we think all countries that want their freedom should work together to arrive at true justice in international relations."

Iran has become a strong supporter of the Bolivarian Alliance/Alternative, led by Venezuela’s President Chavez. In countering Chavez’ anti-American vitriol, Readers might consider asking how substitution of one outside influence (Iran) for another (the US) serves the self-reliance goals of the Bolivarians.

Israel: False Alarm. The Israel Defense Forces said today all of its soldiers have been accounted for, after authorities investigated a report that a soldier was captured near Ben Gurion International Airport by a group calling itself the Al-Quds Army, Maan news reported. A soldier reported observing a fellow soldier getting kidnapped off the street and stuffed into a car that sped away earlier today. That report has now been investigated and found to be untrue

Haaretz reported that Israeli security forces erected roadblocks throughout Tel Aviv and Gush Dan, conducted car-by-car inspections and scrambled two helicopters to participate in the search. Israel's Channel 10 reported that a female soldier witnessed the capture of the male soldier. The roadblocks and other disruptions are manifestations of a standard operating procedure that “crashes” all resources to rescue a soldier.

Argentina-Honduras: The BBC reported today that Argentina ordered the expulsion of the Honduran Ambassador because of her public support for a coup which ousted former President Zelaya. The Argentine Foreign Ministry said it "ordered the cessation of functions" of Ambassador Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams at Zelaya's request!

The Argentine government supports the position of the Organization of American States (OAS), which has condemned June's ouster of Zelaya. After two months the superficiality of the outside governments’ reactions to the events in Honduras is the outstanding political feature.

What emerges is an implied political ideology that only the chief executive matters in a democracy, not the supreme judiciary of the legislature which share power equally. The idea that the US State Department might share that ideology would be unconstitutional in the US system of government, as it is in the Honduran system. That kind of thinking is an invitation to praetorian coups because it exaggerates the political role of a chief executive. It is a distortion of a democracy based on separation of powers.

End of NightWatch for 13 August.