http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/ Tue, 22 May 2012 09:51:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-58308 How many more people have to die before the world notices? « 北京哈佛书院2008 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:41:30 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-58308 [...] A new docudrama movie was just released in South Korea, called Crossing.  Looks to be phenomenal, I’ll have to see it when I pass through Seoul on my way back to the US.  Hopefully this will stir up South Koreans at least to caring about the plight of their own people in the North, before many more people die. [...] [...] A new docudrama movie was just released in South Korea, called Crossing.  Looks to be phenomenal, I’ll have to see it when I pass through Seoul on my way back to the US.  Hopefully this will stir up South Koreans at least to caring about the plight of their own people in the North, before many more people die. [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-55621 OneFreeKorea » South Korea Abstains Again Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:25:31 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-55621 [...] Almost exactly a year ago, after years of abstentions, the South Koreans finally yielded to intense pressure and voted in favor.  What changed?  My theory is that America’s betrayal gave the South Koreans cover.  Remember that next time anyone tries to argue that our diplomacy with North Korea will help ease the oppression in North Korea.  In fact, we’ve just condoned it with our silence, and in doing so, our diplomats have underscored the farcical uselessness of the vaunted multilateral institution where they executed their Machiavellian pirouette.  Here is its epitaph: “[W]e believed the United Nations could save us.”  — A Yodok survivor [...] [...] Almost exactly a year ago, after years of abstentions, the South Koreans finally yielded to intense pressure and voted in favor.  What changed?  My theory is that America’s betrayal gave the South Koreans cover.  Remember that next time anyone tries to argue that our diplomacy with North Korea will help ease the oppression in North Korea.  In fact, we’ve just condoned it with our silence, and in doing so, our diplomats have underscored the farcical uselessness of the vaunted multilateral institution where they executed their Machiavellian pirouette.  Here is its epitaph: “[W]e believed the United Nations could save us.”  — A Yodok survivor [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-53527 OneFreeKorea » Holocaust Now: Looking Down Into Hell at Camp 22 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:32:07 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-53527 [...] U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan recently apologized for doing nothing while 800,000 Rwandans were murdered. Meanwhile, the killing went on at Camp 22. Neither Annan, nor his High Commissioner for Human Rights, nor his High Commissioner for Refugees said or did much of anything. The world has forgotten the North Korean people … at least the ones without nuclear weapons. Annan’s successor, Ban Ki Moon, built his career as South Korea’s Foreign Minister by ignoring North Korean atrocities. [...] [...] U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan recently apologized for doing nothing while 800,000 Rwandans were murdered. Meanwhile, the killing went on at Camp 22. Neither Annan, nor his High Commissioner for Human Rights, nor his High Commissioner for Refugees said or did much of anything. The world has forgotten the North Korean people … at least the ones without nuclear weapons. Annan’s successor, Ban Ki Moon, built his career as South Korea’s Foreign Minister by ignoring North Korean atrocities. [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-52131 OneFreeKorea » “Famine in North Korea:” An Interactive Review (2 of 3) Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:17:29 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-52131 [...] This collective failure shouldn’t surprise us too much.  The “international community’s” nominal leader, Ban Ki-Moon, built his career on ignoring this crime and appeasing its perpetrators. His most visible effort on North Korea has been to order the audit and phase-out of a the UNDP’s operations there due to the exposure of massive irregularities with them.  Noland and Haggard want the WFP and donor nations to “continue to highlight government practices that impede the delivery of food to vulnerable groups, including diversion ….” [231]  That’s rather kind of them after they’ve explained what pains the WFP took, and still takes, to avoid any criticism of the regime that might endanger their access. [...] [...] This collective failure shouldn’t surprise us too much.  The “international community’s” nominal leader, Ban Ki-Moon, built his career on ignoring this crime and appeasing its perpetrators. His most visible effort on North Korea has been to order the audit and phase-out of a the UNDP’s operations there due to the exposure of massive irregularities with them.  Noland and Haggard want the WFP and donor nations to “continue to highlight government practices that impede the delivery of food to vulnerable groups, including diversion ….” [231]  That’s rather kind of them after they’ve explained what pains the WFP took, and still takes, to avoid any criticism of the regime that might endanger their access. [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-52014 OneFreeKorea » Ban Ki Moon’s ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ Fails the North Korean People and the U.N. Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:50:30 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-52014 [...] I doubt that Ban is as detached from such matters as he claims to be.  We speak of a man for whom feigning ignorance of evil is habitual and whose word means nothing: Last fall the U.S. Mission to the U.N. began trying to pry information from the UNDP about its strange and secretive doings in North Korea. When damning details surfaced in January, Ban promised a system-wide audit of the U.N., and an audit within three months of the UNDP in North Korea. Ban then reneged. The system-wide audit was postponed — apparently forever. In March, with the North Korean government refusing to accept stricter practices for UNDP operations in the country, the UNDP closed its office in Pyongyang. But instead of shipping all its records immediately out of the country, the UNDP stored some at the Pyongyang offices of the U.N. World Food Program. [...] [...] I doubt that Ban is as detached from such matters as he claims to be.  We speak of a man for whom feigning ignorance of evil is habitual and whose word means nothing: Last fall the U.S. Mission to the U.N. began trying to pry information from the UNDP about its strange and secretive doings in North Korea. When damning details surfaced in January, Ban promised a system-wide audit of the U.N., and an audit within three months of the UNDP in North Korea. Ban then reneged. The system-wide audit was postponed — apparently forever. In March, with the North Korean government refusing to accept stricter practices for UNDP operations in the country, the UNDP closed its office in Pyongyang. But instead of shipping all its records immediately out of the country, the UNDP stored some at the Pyongyang offices of the U.N. World Food Program. [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-51339 OneFreeKorea » The Going-Out-of-Business Summit Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:40:36 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-51339 [...] Could this possibly amount to anything other than a cynical election-year ploy for a photo op?  Roh is deeply unpopular, his party is near the end of a slow and painful process of disintegration, and as of this moment, Uri 2.0 is headed for an electoral trouncing.  By what sort of mandate will Roh bind his country to an agreement’s terms?  How much influence has he ever wielded over the other parties to the six-party talks?  What can he offer Kim Jong Il that he hasn’t already given, asking nothing in return?  Very little.  Roh is still president, but a few months later, he won’t be, and the new President of Republic of Korea may not agree with the wisdom of being bound by Roh’s final close-out giveaway, though Kim Jong Il is a strict contructionist when it comes to what people agree to give him.  It would be the height of irresponsibility for Roh to agree to anything now, but you could say the same of how he financed Kim Jong Il’s nuclear armament or sanctioned his atrocities against the North Korean people.  In other words, it would be just what we expect from him. [...] [...] Could this possibly amount to anything other than a cynical election-year ploy for a photo op?  Roh is deeply unpopular, his party is near the end of a slow and painful process of disintegration, and as of this moment, Uri 2.0 is headed for an electoral trouncing.  By what sort of mandate will Roh bind his country to an agreement’s terms?  How much influence has he ever wielded over the other parties to the six-party talks?  What can he offer Kim Jong Il that he hasn’t already given, asking nothing in return?  Very little.  Roh is still president, but a few months later, he won’t be, and the new President of Republic of Korea may not agree with the wisdom of being bound by Roh’s final close-out giveaway, though Kim Jong Il is a strict contructionist when it comes to what people agree to give him.  It would be the height of irresponsibility for Roh to agree to anything now, but you could say the same of how he financed Kim Jong Il’s nuclear armament or sanctioned his atrocities against the North Korean people.  In other words, it would be just what we expect from him. [...]

]]> http://freekorea.us/2005/04/07/they-will-say-they-did-not-know-2/comment-page-1/#comment-5440 OneFreeKorea » O Roh Is Me Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:58:09 +0000 http://freekorea.us/?p=2820#comment-5440 [...] The fact that Onishi takes Roh’s interest in history or human rights at face value, especially in light of this, is yet another reason to view Roh’s legacy with more skepticism than Onishi will.  In the Roh era, interpretations of history and human rights have been reliably selective because both are merely a means to an end.  Nor does Onishi mention Roh’s studied disinterest in either safeguarding free speech (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), defending a free press (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), or promoting human rights (1, 2) in the present tense.  Onishi has written an opinion piece disguised as news, a thinly veiled apologia for the unconditional appeasement of a regime that, under Roh’s care and feeding, continued to set new lows for belligerence and oppression.  In the end, however, there’s no disguising this awful legacy Roh has made for himself, even by the low standards of South Korea, where presidents are generally responding to indictments at this stage of their tenure.  Roh’s unpopularity should make George W. Bush count his blessings. [...] [...] The fact that Onishi takes Roh’s interest in history or human rights at face value, especially in light of this, is yet another reason to view Roh’s legacy with more skepticism than Onishi will.  In the Roh era, interpretations of history and human rights have been reliably selective because both are merely a means to an end.  Nor does Onishi mention Roh’s studied disinterest in either safeguarding free speech (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), defending a free press (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), or promoting human rights (1, 2) in the present tense.  Onishi has written an opinion piece disguised as news, a thinly veiled apologia for the unconditional appeasement of a regime that, under Roh’s care and feeding, continued to set new lows for belligerence and oppression.  In the end, however, there’s no disguising this awful legacy Roh has made for himself, even by the low standards of South Korea, where presidents are generally responding to indictments at this stage of their tenure.  Roh’s unpopularity should make George W. Bush count his blessings. [...]

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