Anju Links for 11 June 2008
STALL, STALL, STALL: North Korea says it will halt the “disablement” of its nuclear facilities until it receives energy aid first. Interestingly, food was not a high-priority demand.
THIRTY-THREE YEARS after the North Koreans seized his fishing boat and took him and 32 of his fellow crewmen hostage, South Korean fisherman Yun Jong-Su, 65, has escaped and taken refuge in the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. I had hoped to do a longer post on this, but there just wasn’t time. More here.
IT’S GOOD THAT South Korea is cracking down on violent protests, and even better that it’s also cracking down on police violence. Both are necessary to build a culture of respect for law and order.
I PUT RELATIVELY LITTLE STOCK IN anything from the U.N., much less self-exculpation from the U.N., but here’s a Washington Post report on the U.N. partially clearing itself of U.S. accusations that it allowed North Korea to abuse development aid. The report concedes that financial controls were lax, and that the U.N. exported U.S.-made dual-use goods to the North.
REGULAR READERS WON’T find it shocking, but here’s the Daily NK’s appraisal of how the North Korean regime distributes food aid. On the other hand, this misuse of scarce resources is obscene, even by North Korean standards.
THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF FAMILIES, an MIA advocacy organization, will hold a conference in Virginia on June 20th. The Alliance, which suspects North Korea of holding U.S. POW’s after the Armistice, is inviting North Korean defectors to speak at that conference. More information below the fold:
Some have called North Korea a “prison state” and reports of its pervasive security system and brutal prison camps have shocked the conscience of the world.
On June 20th in the Washington, DC-area a unique assembly of groups from across the nation and abroad will meet to expose the disturbing stories of the “Captives of North Korea” and make common cause to seek freedom and accounting for them. These groups are asking you to join them.
You will hear from:
· courageous North Koreans who have escaped with reports of Korean, US and other prisoners secretly held under appalling conditions
· The families and friends of U.S. POW/MIAs who never returned from North Korea, including those known to be alive in communist prisons but not repatriated
· Those fighting to resolve the fate of thousands of South Korean civilians abducted and taken North during and after the Korean War
· Representatives of the Japanese families whose loved ones, along with those from many other nations, were kidnapped by North Korea agents for intelligence purposes
· Those fighting for the rights of North Korean political prisoners, trafficked women and refugees ““ some of whom are reportedly now being forced back to a terrible fate in North Korea by the Chinese government as it prepares for the Olympics
· Friends of South Korean POWs kept after the war ““ some have recently returned “from the dead” after decades of captivity and hundreds more are believed still imprisoned
As the American government focuses US/North Korean relations on the nuclear issue, and freedom for North Korean prisoners takes a back seat in the march to improved relations, the stakes may never have been higher for the “Captives of North Korea””¦
Please join us and pass along this email. All are welcome from 1-5pm at the Holiday Inn National Airport, 2650 Jefferson Davis Highway, Crystal City, VA 22202
This event has been made possible by the financial support of the National Alliance of Families and the organizational support of the North Korean Freedom Coalition. Those leading the event include the Korean/Cold War Families of the Missing; Korean War Abductees Research Institute/Korean War Abductees Family Union; ReACH/Japanese Rescue Movement and others to be announced.
For more information, please email: Mark Sauter, volunteer coordinator, at: marksauter@msn.com