Washington Views

April 6, 2006

Links of Interest

The Flying Yangban has lots of good stuff up today. If you’re in or near Seoul and aren’t working with LiNK yet, they’re holding another meeting Saturday afternoon. Andy also links to an analysis from the International Crisis Group, giving the encouraging conclusion that the U.S. will never allow anything made in Kaesong to be included in a free-trade agreement. He also informs us of the latest machinations in South Korean politics. Yet more calls for America to disengage from...

Abductions/Activism/An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Geopolitics/Human Rights/Islam/Korean Politics/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views

April 5, 2006

Who Is Ma Young-Ae, and What Does She Know?

[Updated 6 Apr 06; scroll down] Via The Flying Yangban, it looks like the U.S. may be on the verge of accepting its first North Korean refugee. Like the Yangban, I’m happy about it. Unlike the Yangban, I don’t see this as necessarily precedent-setting for the broader issue of accepting refugees fleeing persecution in North Korea. Reason: this refugee is also fleeing persecution in South Korea. No, that wasn’t a typo: Ma came to South Korea in 2000. In April...

Abductions/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Censorship/Counterfeiting/Defectors/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Law/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views

April 3, 2006

Lefkowitz Denounces Kaesong Slave Labor; U.S. Continues to Squeeze NK’s Finances

It’s like they’re reading this blog . . . or perhaps great minds just think alike. You may recall that recently, I blogged about a media visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park. Piecing together several excellent reports allowed one to gather: (1) the extraordinary degree of control over the North Korean workers; (2) the extraordinary degree of supervision of the South Korean visitors; (3) the fact that the North Korean workers actually receive just $8 a month, not the widely-reported...

"United" Nations/Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD

March 30, 2006

Congress (Again) Considers Asylum for WMD Witnesses

The provision is similar to one that was a part of the failed North Korean Freedom Act, and was inserted into the Immigration Bill by Senator Sam Brownback, the greatest champion of the North Korean people in that body. Unless you’ve been in a secluded location, you may realize that the House and Senate have yet to bridge major difference in that bill. Still, this quote encouraged me: One Washington source said, “Last year, the North Korea policy was much...

Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/Washington Views/WMD

March 30, 2006

Jay Lefkowitz Interviewed in the Donga Ilbo

I’ll simply link this and recommend it in its entirety. The interviewer asks informed and sharp questions on refugees, regime change, and food aid. Lefkowitz’s answers were adequate but obviously scripted. He’s trying to give the impression that the U.S. will soon start accepting refugees without getting ahead of the Administration; I’m cautiously inclined to believe him, mainly based on other information I’ve heard.

Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views

March 25, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 35

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld adds the second hint in about a week that more troops cuts are coming for South Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on March 23 that South Korea and the United States have agreed on the transfer of wartime command of South Korean forces to South Korea, and that the two nations are discussing a timetable. Rumsfeld confirmed this in a Pentagon news briefing yesterday and commented on the timing of the turnover, saying, “The...

An Alliance?/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 22, 2006

Congress Criticizes State Dep’t on NK Refugees

[Updated; scroll down] Thanks to a dedicated group of Congressional staffers who forwarded me a scanned copy, which is signed by members of both parties and both houses. I’m going through WordPress hell trying to publish the entire text, but in the meantime, here’s a scanned copy on the Committee’s site.The executive summary is that Congress believes that State is turning away refugees, thus flouting its unanimous will and throwing away America’s credibility on this issue. Update: OK, full scanned...

Activism/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 21, 2006

House Staffer: Congress to Demand Progress on NKHRA Implementation

If historians were both omniscient and judicious, they would record that Doug Anderson was a great friend of the North Korean people. Anderson, a thin, quiet, and precise young lawyer and staffer for Rep. James Leach, never misses a House hearing on North Korea policy. He is also a key behind-the-scenes advocate of more humane treatment for the people North Korea (meaning I’m not sure he’d want this kind of recognition, warranted though it may be). I’ve never heard an...

Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 21, 2006

A Modest Drumbeat

The Chosun Ilbo and the Donga Ilbo are looking at their calendars and seeing a slew of events that will further publicize human rights conditions in North Korea. Will this be the year our nascent movement finally demonstrates some media sophistication? March: The State Department will publish its new human rights report (although I don’t have any reason to suspect anything earth-shaking to come of it). March 23rd: European Parliament hearings on North Korea; Freedom House conference in Brussels (we’re...

Activism/Appeasement/Europe/Human Rights/Korean Politics/North Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 18, 2006

Sec. Rice: Lefkowitz Will Be More Vocal

It’s the latest suggestion that the Administration is less worried than ever about upsetting Kim Jong Il: The United States will have its North Korea human rights envoy become more active in coming days to get more international attention on the issue, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. “We are going to get him out more,” Rice said at a U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee hearing. “We need the rest of the international community to also...

Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 18, 2006

Comrade Chung Dong Young Wins Uri Leadership

Via Kyodo news, Comrade Chung has won an early test of his strength going into the 2007 presidential race. Chung, former unification minister, was elected by a vote at the party’s national convention in Seoul, defeating seven other candidates. He garnered 4,450 votes, beating his main rival and former Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun Tae who obtained 3,847 votes in the eight-man race, according to Yonhap News Agency. “The Uri Party and I will fiercely compete with the (opposition)...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Washington Views

February 17, 2006

Will U.S. Finally Let in N.K. Refugees?

It’s long past time we did this. The U.S. government plans to break with long-established policy and start giving asylum to refugees from North Korea. Wording in the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act that allows it to admit defectors from the Stalinist country has not yet been put into practice due to failure to confirm identities and objections from countries where the refugees were staying. Prominent activists for human rights in the North – Suzanne Scholte, Jae Ku, and...

Activism/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 13, 2006

Bolton Speech Conspicuously Silent on N. Korea

The Friday event, at the Washington Omni Shoreham, was by invitation only. My friend, a very experienced news correspondent, forwards these notes in exchange for a promise of anonymity. I edited slightly for spelling and grammar: Bolton sounded fine, convincing enough, on the need for UN reform. I kept waiting for mention of N. Korea, thought it might be coming when he touched on Iran, but no. Wonder whether it was deliberate — [the Administration] or State Dept saying, “Don’t...

Appeasement/Uncategorized/Washington Views

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