Fact[free] Check(point)

I confess I felt quite pleased to hear that NPR's Morning Edition would be doing a segment on inter-Korean relations inspired by the opening of new border checkpoints between the two Koreas. My anticipation was largely in vain. The piece was as content-rich as a local news segment about a new shopping center being built downtown. Nowhere were the moral ambiguities of the new 'detente' between North and South addressed. In short, it was the opposite of what I've come to expect from NPR.

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UPDATE
Well, I guess I owe NPR an apology. All Things Considered (3/15) had a very good story on the North Korea themed Yodok Story, a jaunty musical about Gulag-like prison camps. Really.
BTW I really do hate McCune-Reischauer transliteration and its elusive circumflex. I still don't know if the title is 여덕,요덕, 요독 or 여독.

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In other news, if the Marmot recommends it, it must be a good idea.
The Korean Blogosphere

Northern Limits

This is the sort of thing that puts me in the uncomfortable situation of agreeing with the majority of the blogs which focus on the Koreas. (The question of why so many of them have a conservative viewpoint is one I'd like to address someday.) I'm actually enthusiastically in favor of negotiation but backing down to NK is no way to achieve peace. The NLL was instituted arbitrarily and may need to be redrawn, but only in the context of a broader agreement on naval issues. To open the NLL for discussion when the North has been unwilling to negotiate on any of the other matters under discussion is to give up an important bargaining tool.