The Final Post
With this entry, posting at OneFreeKorea comes to an end. But this marks less of an end than a new beginning. I have joined forces with two of the very best Korea blogs, DPRK Studies and The Asianist, to form a new group blog, The Korea Liberator. Click the image to have your first look. Don’t mind the sawdust and the bits of sheetrock and insulation. We’re still cleaning up the construction debris. Please update your bookmarks and sidebars accordingly.
Why the merger? All of us had been regular readers of each other’s blogs. All of us are gainfully employed. All of us have families. What we saw was that we were duplicating a lot of reading, linking, writing, and analyzing of the same issues that concerned us all, and that we shared a broad enough agreement on the issues that we often analyzed the issues the same way. The realization came to us when we met recently, here in Washington, D.C. We hope this merger will be a one-stop source for those who do us the honor of reading our screeds. We all have our own unique sources of information as well; that means that you should expect to see more original reporting, more complete coverage of the issues, and more frequent posts when one of us is busy, sick, out of town, or suffering from the occasional bout of blogger’s fatigue.
Why “The Korea Liberator?” First, we all wanted the blog to have the name “Korea” in it, because that will continue to be the focus of this blog. As before, we’ll deviate to other subjects from time to time, as they interest us. Our core belief about North Korea is that it will continue to be an international and humanitarian crisis until its regime is overthrown, and that the world should help the North Koreans themselves do this. Some in Korea throw the “regime change” agenda as an accusation. Some in America deny that accusation for a variety of reasons. We embrace it, and we believe that in their hearts, many of the suffering people of North Korea embrace the same goal.
Our site will promote a view that has garnered far too little discussion internationally–that free nations can inspire and support regime change by the people of North Korea. For reasons that should be obvious, an invasion of the North is an idea we oppose unless extraordinary circumstances (such as a North Korean invasion of the South) intervene. More than a decade of diplomacy proves as clearly as possible that North Korea has no intention of negotiating in good faith. Besides, the North Korean people are suffering and dying in great numbers; a world that has failed to give them protection, asylum, or effective material support has no right to ask them to keep dying for decades more.
We’re under no illusions that many (if not most) Korea-watchers disagree with this view. We realize it could mean years of fighting, bloodshed, as acrimony. It certainly includes a risk of war, although given the extent of North Korean proliferation thus far, it probably does not represent much more of a risk than the status quo. We welcome debate and criticism as part of a thoughtful discussion, but wonder what other reasonable alternatives have not been exhausted. Having a particular view does not mean our minds are closed. We hope that goes for each of you, too. This site will seek thoughtful, reasoned debate with those of all political views, but it will continue to pursue an activist agenda promoting the human rights of the North Korean people, opposition to appeasement, and the expansion of freedom of expression everywhere on earth.
As for OFK, I’ve uploaded all 1,902 posts(!) to The Liberator, and with luck, those posts will remain available for searches and posts.