Archive for November 2009

U.N. General Assembly Condemns North Korea for “Systemic, Widespread, and Grave” of Human Rights Violations

November 23, 2009 "United" Nations, Human Rights No comments

South Korea voted for and was one of 53 co-sponsors. The vote was 96 for, 19 against, with 65 abstentions:

The resolution goes on to list torture, the absence of due process in law, use of the death penalty, collective punishment, strict restrictions on freedom of movement, thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, the right to privacy and equal access to information, the treatment of returned refugees, violations of economic, social and cultural rights, human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, children and the disabled among others as areas of serious concern, before also criticizing the North Korean government’s ongoing refusal to accept the mandate of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the North Korean human rights situation or to solve issues related to abductions. [Daily NK, Chris Green]

“Inhuman conditions of detention” are also mentioned. And at long last, China finally comes in for some well-deserved criticism, at least implicitly:

The article related to the treatment of refugees is notable for its criticism of China, in addition to North Korea itself. Expressing its concern that the “situation of refugees and asylum-seekers expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and sanctions imposed on citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad” is very serious, “leading to punishments of internment, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or the death penalty,” the resolution calls on North Korea’s neighbors to “treat those who seek refuge humanely” and urges compliance with 1951 and 1967 UN documents relating to the status of refugees, something which China has hitherto failed to do.

The pdf of the actual resolution a friend sent to me won’t open. I’ll be interested in seeing whether China is mentioned by name. I’ve posted a summary of the floor debate below the fold. North Korea will also come up for periodic review before the U.N. Human Rights Council, something that promises to be equally inconsequential.

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Rumor: Kim Ok Remarries

November 23, 2009 Kim Jong Il, Kremlinology No comments

I noted Kim Ok‘s disturbing resemblance to Yonsama when reports first emerged back in 2006 that Kim Jong Il had married his long-time secretary.

According to this report from the Joongang Ilbo, however, Ms. Kim has moved on in life and remarried:

Sources told the JoongAng Ilbo that they have received tips that Kim Ok has married an official from the ruling Workers’ Party.

“We’re analyzing intelligence that Kim Ok, who had been Kim Jong-il’s personal secretary, has tied the knot with a Workers’ Party member,” a source said. “We believe Kim Ok has quit her job in the secretariat.

In North Korea, women working in the ruling party leave their posts after getting married, on the grounds that they may be too distracted at work.

Um, what?

It would be technically inaccurate to describe a flagrant policy of employment discrimination against married women as a “glass ceiling.” Still, for those of you who would be tempted to infer from this that North Korea has failed to achieve full gender equality, Christine Ahn helpfully points out that at least North Korean women don’t have to look at “ads featuring scantily clad women selling alcohol, fashion or cars,” and may instead gaze upon “beautifully painted political posters … to inspire their collective spirits and drive to work harder for the nation.” See? It’s all a matter of how you define it!

Kim Ok, thought to be 45, majored in piano at Pyongyang University of Music and Dance. She is believed to have been Kim Jong-il’s secretary since the late 1980s and to have been the Dear Leader’s fourth domestic partner following the death of Ko Yong-hui in 2004. Kim Ok has accompanied Kim Jong-il abroad, including during the leader’s visit to China in January 2006.

The South Korean intelligence has kept a closer eye on Kim Ok since Kim Jong-il reportedly suffered a stroke in August of last year. But intelligence sources here said Kim Ok has become less visible since the Supreme People’s Assembly held a session in April.

You have to respect anyone who survives a breakup with Kim Jong Il and lives to never breathe a word about it. By some accounts, Kim Ok had even been a bit player in the much-ballyhooed succession drama in North Korea, as to which I still await the emergence of any real evidence that (a) it’s actually taking place or (b) third son Kim Jong Un would hold any real power. And for some North Koreans, those doubts may be reason enough to get out of bed, go to yet another criticism session, and live for another dreary day. According to RFA, via the Chosun Ilbo, some malcontents have apparently expressed their dread of the Kim Jong Un era. The sentiment is understandable and logical, but like nearly all stories about public opinion in North Korea, it’s more anecdotal than scientific.

Senate Confirms Robert King as N. Korea Human Rights Envoy

November 23, 2009 Human Rights No comments

The Senate confirmed King on a voice vote:

Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, he defined North Korea as “one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.” He pledged to protect the human rights of the North Koreans, pay attention to South Korean prisoners of war in the North and Japanese abducted to the North, and address China’s deportation of North Korean defectors. [Chosun Ilbo]

More here. It’s good that King will be a full-timer, unlike Jay Lefkowitz. It’s less good that King brings little North Korea-specific expertise, experience, or cred to the job, and that it took the Obama Administration and the Senate ten months to get this done. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea endorsed him, but by then, Jared Genser and David Hawk were both out of the running.

Here’s a pdf of King’s statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Blog Find: North Korea Leadership Watch

November 22, 2009 Blogs & Blogging One comment

This is one of the best finds I’ve seen in a long time — prolific, funny, and full of information I hadn’t heard anywhere else. That’s all the more impressive given that blogger Michael Madden was ambitious enough to choose subject matter that most would consider droll, stultifying, opaque, and impervious to verifiable empirical analysis. Not just anyone could begin with material like that and come up with posts like, “Habemus Successor? Or Thaek it to the Limit?.”

More North Korean Diplomats Busted for Smuggling

November 21, 2009 Drugs & N Korea, NK Crime One comment

Not a day goes by that I don’t rue all of the commerce we’re missing out on by not having diplomatic relations with North Korea:

Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday. The pair, a man and a woman who have diplomatic status in Russia, were stopped by Swedish customs officers Wednesday morning as they drove off a ferry from Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Customs officials discovered Russian cigarettes in the car driven by the couple, Swedish Customs spokeswoman Monica Magnusson told Reuters. [Reuters]

They always travel in pairs, you know. Lucky for them, they had an almost completely flawless back-up plan:

The two North Koreans claimed diplomatic immunity.

“They were accredited as diplomats in Russia, but had no accreditation in Sweden,” she said. “They were arrested on suspicion of smuggling.”

Magnusson added that the pair were still being held by Swedish police and that she was not aware of them having any contact with North Korean officials since their arrest. Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the arrests but would not comment directly on the matter, saying it was a criminal case and was being handled by the police.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Julin said foreign diplomats are only immune from criminal prosecution in countries where they have been accredited with the authorities. “If you come to Sweden and commit a crime, you’re just like any other foreign national,” she said.

What? You mean someone is proposing to apply the same standards to North Korea that they apply to other countries? Such brigandish hooliganism cannot stand!

Sweden is one of only seven countries to have an embassy in North Korea, treated by much of the world as a rogue state due to human rights abuses and its possession of nuclear weapons despite opposition by the international community.

North Korea is believed to derive a substantial amount of its foreign exchange from tobacco smuggling, although estimates of the amounts vary widely. Cigarettes are one of the milder commodities in which North Korean diplomats routinely traffic. They’ve also been caught smuggling dope, cash, gold, and just about every foul substance you can imagine:

Authorities in numerous countries have stopped North Korean diplomats from smuggling vehicles, alcohol, fake antiques, electronic goods, weapons, and more. Other reports deeply implicate officials in the endangered-species trade. Since 1996, at least six North Korean diplomats have been forced to leave Africa after attempts to smuggle elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns. Such efforts seem partly driven by the dismal funding of North Korea’s embassies. Lacking cash, North Korea closed at least 14 embassies last year and reportedly told those remaining to become “self-sufficient.” Still other diplomatic smuggling incidents involve cigarettes, allegedly sold tax free on the black market, and pirated CDs. Two diplomats crossing into Romania from Bulgaria last year were found to have crammed 12,000 bootleg CDs in the trunk of their car. [U.S. News, Feb. 7, 1999]

This 2007 Congressional Research Service report states that at that time, there had been 50 documented incidents in which North Korean diplomats were caught smuggling illegal drugs in 20 different countries. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

It’s enough to make you wonder what else they’ve carried without getting caught.

Caption This Picture

November 21, 2009 Kim Jong Il 14 comments

kim-jong-il-corn.jpg

Der Spiegel on the Al Kibar Strike (or Axis, Schmaxis, Part 10)

November 20, 2009 Axis of Evil, Proliferation, WMD No comments

al-kibar-reactor-sky-news-image.jpgDer Spiegel has printed a very extensive story on the Syrian nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar, the Israeli air strike that destroyed it, and the aftermath. I haven’t had time to get through the whole thing, but one thing I can say is how much more soundly I sleep knowing that all that “axis of evil” nonsense is finally behind us:

According to information SPIEGEL has obtained from sources in Damascus, Assad has been considering taking a sensational political step. He is believed to have suggested to contacts in Pyongyang that he is considering the disclosure of his “national” nuclear program, but without divulging any details of cooperation with his North Korean and Iranian partners. Libyan revolutionary leader Moammar Gadhafi reaped considerable benefits from the international community after a similar “confession” about his country’s nuclear program.

The reaction from North Korea was swift and extremely harsh: Pyongyang sent a senior government representative to Damascus to inform Syrian authorities that the North Koreans would terminate all cooperation on chemical weapons if Assad proceeded with his plan. And this regardless whether he mentioned Pyongyang in this context or not.

Tehran’s reaction is believed to have been even more severe. Saeed Jalili, the country’s leading nuclear negotiator and a close associate of Iran’s supreme religious leader, apparently brought along an urgent message from the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which Khamenei called Assad’s plan “unacceptable” and threatened that it would spell the end of the two countries’ strategic alliance and a sharp decline in relations. [Der Spiegel]

The article goes on to discuss the missed opportunity for a grand bargain with Syria that would have involved the exchange of the Golan Heights and plenty of cash and trade benefits for Syria’s cooperation in our non-proliferation efforts. To be sure, there were uncertainties, starting with Syria’s general history of duplicity and its preliminary insistence on continuing to support Hezbollah. Yet if our diplomats had managed to talk the Syrians out of their support for terrorism in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, it would have been a windfall of tectonic significance to our interests in the region. Certainly some factions in Israel would have protested, but provided there were means to assure that Syria kept its end of the bargain, and entered into a verifiable non-aggression treaty that prevented it from planting any guns or rockets on the Heights, an end to Syrian support for Hamas and Hezbollah would have been a net gain for Israel’s security. After all, it was Israel that had the chutzpah to shut al-Kibar down to begin with.

Syria has since allowed the IAEA to visit the al-Kibar site, by the way, and despite Syria’s efforts to blanket the rubble in concrete, inspectors found “a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles (i.e. produced as a result of chemical processing)” which were “of a type not included in Syria’s declared inventory of nuclear material.” The IAEA has demanded access to additional suspicious sites. So far, Syria has refused. I wouldn’t completely give up hope that the IAEA will send the Syrians a very angry letter, but at this point — even factoring in Dimona — I’d credit the Israeli Air Force as a far more effective institution at preventing proliferation.

That North Korea was involved in building the reactor isn’t news anymore, though I’ve already found many interesting tidbits here, including the fact that North Korea’s involvement was first revealed when a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard defected and began talking to the CIA.

All of this, of course, happened as Chris Hill was negotiating Agreed Framework II with the North Koreans, and continued long after the agreement was signed. For months after the Israeli strike, as rumors of North Korean involvement swirled among almost unprecedented secrecy in Washington, Hill withheld intelligence about the strike from Congress’s key foreign relations and intelligence oversight committees, and more understandably, from the IAEA. It eventually took a furious Wall Street Journal Op-Ed to get Hill to let the cat out of the bag. For a while thereafter, it was rumored that Hill would resign. Instead, he was exiled to a sleepy backwater where he couldn’t possibly do any more harm to American interests.

One wonders if Syria might have done a Qaddafi had Hill — with the full assent of President Bush and Condoleezza Rice — not hushed up the al-Kibar story, and had the Bush Administration generally been thinking strategically and taking advantage of such opportunities by then. Add this to all that Hill’s short-sighted duplicity has cost our interests overseas, although I fear we’re not done tabulating those costs.

An FTA After All?

November 19, 2009 U.S. & Korea One comment

On balance, it’s more likely that President Obama’s surprising shift in tone is about keeping up appearances on the one issue that matters most to the South Korean government. Still, you can’t deny that this is a breathtaking shift:

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Thursday morning to ratify a free-trade agreement with South Korea that has been stuck for two years, challenging the U.S. Congress to separate South Korea from other Asian nations enjoying vast trade surpluses with the U.S. [....]

“In the United States, there is a misperception that the [free-trade agreement] once passed will only benefit Korea and will be detrimental to American consumers, which is not true,” Mr. Lee said.

Mr. Lee characterized as “minuscule” the trade surplus that South Korea has with the U.S., a characterization Mr. Obama agreed with. The U.S. president challenged Congress, which is run by his own party, to show more sophistication on trade issues.

“There’s a tendency to lump all of Asia together when Congress looks at trade agreements and says it appears this is a one-way street,” Mr. Obama said. [Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Weisman and Evan Ramstad]

And what sort of malicious demagogue would spread that kind of misperception?

Obama, congratulating South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak on his election on Feb. 11, said the Korea-U.S. FTA does not meet the “standard” of reciprocity. [....]

The presidential hopeful said Korea-U.S. economic relations “also benefited both nations and deepened our ties. I look forward as well to supporting ways to increase our bilateral trade and investment ties through agreements paying proper attention to our key industries and agricultural sectors, such as autos, rice, and beef, and to protection of labor and environmental standards. Regrettably, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement does not meet this standard.”

He expressed discontent at South Korea’s import ban on bone-in cuts of American beef, the Korea-U.S. FTA’s exclusion of the rice market and the degree of opening of the auto market. [Chosun Ilbo, Feb. 15, 2008]

Wait till the union boys hear this. And if you think I meant the UAW or the SIEU, that’s not the half of it:

“If automobiles are a problem, we are in a position to discuss them again,” Mr Lee said, in a shift from a previous refusal to renegotiate the biggest free trade pact involving the US for years. “I told President Lee and his team that I am committed to see the two countries work together to move this agreement forward,” Mr Obama said. [BBC]

When I contemplate the next wave of anti-American violence and incitement the KCTU will raise over this, I question whether the good outweighs the harm. And although Kaesong is pretty clearly dying, I’ll oppose the FTA as long as it provides for those “outward processing zones.” All of that is notwithstanding my belief that overall, the FTA makes economic and diplomatic sense.

19 November 2009

November 19, 2009 Anju Links No comments

WELCOME TO SEOUL, MR. PRESIDENT:

“I want to emphasize that President Lee and I both agree on the need to break the pattern that existed in the past in which North Korea behaves in a provocative fashion, then is willing to return to talks, and then talks for a while, and then leaves the talks and seeks further concessions.

If we’ve finally learned, I’ll admit that Obama is the last man I’d have expected to finally learn it. Call me cautiously but pleasantly surprised, though I’m still worried about who will take Phillip Goldberg‘s place. I nominate Stuart Levey.

CHANGE!

The United States and its ally South Korea are “running amuck with bloodshot eyes to find a pretext for a war of aggression,” North Korea’s official news agency said Tuesday. It warned that the North’s people are prepared to sacrifice their lives to defend “Korean-style socialism “¦ which is (the) most advantageous in the world.”

It’s a relief that we have a president who is, at least sometimes, smart enough not to believe the pablum he fed his supporters during the campaign. Just listen to this gathering of imbeciles applaud the very idea of talking to North Korea, as if they expect it to accomplish something, as if that isn’t exactly what we’d been doing all along. Fine, talk to them, but for the life of me, I can’t see any evidence that talking with North Korea has ever made its behavior less dangerous.

A BRUTALLY HONEST LOOK at how Korea sees race, in Foreign Policy (ht to Robert). The money quote is from Hines Ward’s mother:

Kim described in stark terms the discrimination she experienced before she immigrated to the United States. “What do you think would have become of us if I had kept living here with Hines? He would probably never have been able to be anything but a beggar. Do you think I would even have been able to get work cleaning houses?” she said while visiting the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in Seoul. “Koreans of the same skin color are even more racist among themselves. It doesn’t make sense. If everybody hates our children so much because their skin is a different color, then why do Koreans run around dying their hair blond and red?”


PRESIDENT LEE WILL REPLACE his envoys to China and Russia. Interesting, but I’m still waiting for him to fire his Consul in Shenyang.

AFTER ALL, HITLER DID BUILD THE AUTOBAHNS, and after all, Kim Jong Il does make hippies cut their hair. One terrible prospect that had never occurred to me is that post-Kim Jong Il Korea will be overrun by a blight of smelly hippies.

Somali Pirates Hijack North Korean-Crewed Ship (Updated Below)

November 19, 2009 Abductions 2 comments

North Korea’s notoriously rickety freighters must be as enticing to Somali pirates as my 1979 Impala with the red clear tape over the left taillight lens was to Rapid City, South Dakota’s finest. As recently as May, the South Korean Navy thwarted a pirate attack on a North Korean ship. The pirates, now said to be under the charismatic leadership of a fat white kid, are trying to rebound from more aggressive international enforcement efforts with a spate of new hijackings, including this one:

The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken on Monday in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north-west of the Seychelles. It had been heading for Mombasa, Kenya, but was diverted north, Navfor said. [BBC]

The pirates are holding the 28 North Korean crew members hostage, adding to another 200 hostages from various nations currently in their collection. Word through unofficial diplomatic channels is that the pirates have offered to release the crew if Kim Jong Il personally flies to Somalia to retrieve them, carrying an undisclosed sum. And this time, no supernotes.

The combination of a North Korean crew and a Singaporean ship is suspicious in light of the recent UNSCR 1874, which allows limited port inspections of North Korean ships. The idea of a pirate attack also opens up some delectable possibilities for inspections at sea, which the resolution doesn’t allow.

Overall, pirate attacks have fallen dramatically due to increased naval patrols and the fact that some people refuse to be hostages. Yes, the pirates were stupid enough to attack the Maersk Alabama again. Last time, the unarmed crew repelled the pirates with courage and resourcefulness alone. This time, they repelled the pirates with courage, resourcefulness, and hoglegs:

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device. [...]

Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early Wednesday about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking. [AP]

Although attacks are down overall, the BBC report describes a long spate of attacks in recent days. For that, we owe no thanks to Spain, which recently took the unilateralist course of paying the pirates a $4 million ransom, but as everyone knows by now, it is the Spanish way to grovel and surrender.

Update: Reuters reports that the captain of the Theresa VIII has died of wounds received during the hijacking. It does not state clearly whether the captain was North Korean, although the crew is. Der Spiegel, which labors under some confusion about the ship’s nationality, has a photograph of it. Honestly — who turns North Koreans loose with a chemical tanker this big?

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