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Congratulations to my fellow NKZone bloggers on our nomination for Reporters San Frontieres’s Freedom Blog Award. NKZone and The Command Post have become the depositories for more refined compilations of my posts at this blog (this one swelled my head, too, considering the competition). Vote here, if you’re so inclined, and thank you in advance.

My congratulations to Chris Beaumont at FreeNorthKorea, as well. I’m certainly glad he took my advice and didn’t quit blogging. Chris, if you’re reading this, may I suggest a Guiness at Ireland’s 32 as appropriate compensation for good advice rendered?

While this site certainly represents the fire-eating, Boltonesque militant wing of Korea blogs, NKZone is one of those places where people who disagree generally do battle with reason instead of shouting and epithets. On an issue as unworthy of ideological conflict as human rights for the North Korean people, reason can still persuade many people who are still open to it.

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis notices something about the nominees I pretended not to notice myself. I guess I’ve just come to expect this kind of thing. The nomination of Baghad Burning is certainly suspect, given its monotonous make-you-wanna-pull-the-car-over-and-make-’em-walk whining. You also have to question the choice given the abundance great Iraqi blogs that offer far more original content, and are more representative of the Iraqi election results (and therefore, presumably, mainstream Iraqi opinion).

I guess I’m probably not helping NKZone’s odds for a nomination next year . . . .

Just the same, it’s an honor to be nominated, even if Andrei Lankov, Barry Briggs, Martyn Williams, and Rebecca MacKinnon deserve the vast majority of the recognition.