Anju Links for 12 August 2008
NO JUCHE FOR YOU: The South Korean government has refused permission for delegations from an unnamed “local youth group” and the infamously extremist Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union to visit North Korea. The decision has reportedly caused a spike in the prices of invisible ink, pen-shaped transmitters, and cyanide capsules in college dormitories, faculty lounges, and union halls across South Korea.
A SECOND SHIPMENT OF AMERICAN FOOD AID has arrived to feed North Korea’s needy army.
FIVE NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS have found temporary shelter in Prague, pending their request to be resettled in the United States:
Three North Korean men and two women arrived in Prague July 27, Tomas Urubek, director of the Department for Asylum and Migration Policies at the Czech Interior Ministry, said. The five had been in Beijing under the protection of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), he said, adding that this is the first time the Czech Republic has granted temporary residence to North Koreans from China as they transit to third countries.
“The U.S. authorities are now considering the cases and apparently they are now close to the final decision to grant them refugee status and to resettle them in the United States,” Urubek said. [Radio Free Asia]
It seems unlikely that the Bush Administration will let in even 100 North Korean refugees before it ends. Contrast this with estimates of between 50,000 and 300,000 North Koreans (perhaps not all refugees, per se) hiding in China alone.
A HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION WORTHY OF ITS NAME? South Korea’s HRC, which became a global laughingstock for its skewed priorities, tortured reasoning, and general worthlessness, is finally taking on what may be Korea’s — and the world’s –greatest and least-mourned human rights crisis:
The National Human Rights Commission has advised the government to make greater diplomatic efforts to protect the human rights of North Korean refugees in China. A plenary meeting of the commission on Tuesday urged the foreign minister to make “multifaceted diplomatic efforts” to ensure the Chinese government stops indiscriminately repatriating North Korean refugees and instead protects their rights under international law, including the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and humanitarian considerations. [Chosun Ilbo]
AND IN RELATED NEWS, South Korea’s National Assembly may soon pass modest North Korean human rights legislation, though that legislation would do little more than “urge” North Korea to protect refugess and free hostages. The champion of the new law is Assemblyman Hwang Woo-Yea, who deserves to be remembers as one of the earliest, and most determined advocates for the lives and dignity of ordinary North Koreans. Hwang, despite the hostility of his own government, has essentially martialled a modest international coalition in support of this issue. Says Hwang of the change this would mean, “We won’t be pursuing ‘silent diplomacy’ anymore.” May Hwang’s words be the epitaph for complicity, collaboration, and national betrayal. If only.
SOME OBSERVERS HAVE DRAWN ENCOURAGEMENT from the fact that pro-Bush demonstrators outnumbered anti-Bush demonstators when the POTUS recently visited Seoul. That may or may not be significant, depending on whether Kim Jong Il was just showing his appreciation, or depending on how much of this was the impact of South Korean police — who outnumbered demonstrators on either side — enforcing public order for a change:
Protesters, apparently used to rather lax treatment, seemed taken aback by the prompt action taken by the police. Thanks to strict law enforcement, traffic in downtown Seoul was back to normal before midnight. Demonstrators seemed to have learned the lesson from the night before, and after only three warnings from the police, those who rallied in front of KBS in Yeouido on Wednesday night dispersed without much resistance.
Police took unprecedentedly swift action on Tuesday night, having earlier warned they would deploy water cannon and arrest violators. They tracked down especially violent protesters and arrested them when they fled, a task made easier by spray cans they turned on them. Protesters scattered into smaller groups of 100 to 300, and the crowds dispersed to Euljiro, Toegyero and the Myeongdong Cathedral. Traffic downtown was normalized by 11:30 p.m. [Chosun Ilbo]
Obviously, there are ways to protesting without blocking traffic or hitting people with bamboo poles or steel pipes. But is South Korea’s protest culture ready for that?
NORTH KOREA HAS CHOSEN nuclear negotiator Pak Gil-Yon as its Vice Foreign Minister, a post that effectively performs a foreign minister’s function (as with North Korea’s presidency, the Foreign Minister’s post is held by a dead guy). You can’t argue that Pak’s negotiating skills are exceeded by those of anyone at Foggy Bottom. Hitler was probably pleased with Ribbentrop in 1939, too.
ANOTHER NORTH KOREAN OFFICER has gone over to South Korea … posthumously. South Korea was to have repatriated the remains by now. Recall that another North Korean officer, this one still alive, defected to the South last April.
TALKING THE TALK: Bush makes perfunctory remarks about human rights in China, which still draw a sharp rebuke from the ChiComs. Possibly the classiest Olympic human rights protest was the U.S. delegation’s choice of a flag-bearer, which evokes thoughts of Jesse Owens in Berlin. Here is what must be the dumbest. Seriously. What point is this supposed to make?
AND FINALLY, TO NO ONE’S ASTONISHMENT, Syria has snubbed the IAEA’s polite request to question Syrian officials about North Korea’s alleged effort to proliferate nuclear weapons technology to a fellow sponsor of terrorism. Did I mention that Syria is probably about to be elected as a member of the IAEA’s board? It’s this sort of thing that killed the U.N. Human Rights Committee, although not much has changed there since.