Weird Times in Asia

Japan: North Korea's New Friend?

During most of the last fifty years Japan has been a rather co-operative US ally. But now the Japanese prime minister says he wants to do some trade deals with North Korea - that Axis of Evil member state people tend to forget. And for most of the last fifty years that is essentially what North Korea wanted: that the world (except its communist supporters) should forget it exists. As a result of this self-imposed isolation, the North Korean despotic regime has imposed and continues to impose on its subjects famines, torture, and in every way the most banal and miserable living standards. Now North Korea ungratefully accepts food rations from South Korea, but after the food is delivered, the old anti-South Korea propaganda returns as boldly as ever - until North Korea wants more food.

So what does Japan (a country whose economy is not the dominant force it was a few years ago) want from North Korea? Some things you can't explain, and the answer to that question is one of them. Everyone involved with the prime minister's visit knows but will not say publicly that the visit will simply lead Japan into another trade relationship with a state who intends to take without giving anything in return. Japanese firms will throw plenty of money down the North Korean investment pit, and for what? More Japanese corporate and national debt and Japanese frustration with North Korea for its almost religious deference to the faith of default. And North Korea's thug leaders will laugh all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.

Terrorist Round-up in Thailand?

It is not exactly news that the illegal drugs trade is one of the main finance sources for various terrorist groups. Nowhere is this trade so prolific as in Asia's other contestant for World's Most Isolated and Worst Governed State: Myanmar. The illegal drugs trade is one of the few income sources for Myanmar's military government, and the contraband comprises the country's leading export.

The main drugs trafficking route out of Myanmar is through the jungles along the Myanmar/Thai border. As part of its self-described anti-crime policy, Thailand has made it very clear to the traffickers that a Thai jail is the last place they want to be. But the problem persists, and an undeclared war between drug traffickers and the Thai army continues.

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