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Monthly Archive: June, 2008

June 7, 2008

North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act Passes in House

So I dropped by Open Congress and was pleased to see: Passed by voice vote in the House on May 15, 2008. On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR 5/13/2008 H3747-3748) Here’s more on the House bill.  Here’s the full  text (opens in pdf).  The list of co-sponsors is impressive for its bipartisanship:  Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5] – 4/17/2008  [Democrat] Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 4/17/2008...

Categories Human Rights/U.S. Politics
June 4, 2008

In Food Aid Talks, North Korea Reverts to Old Ways; Regime Thins Population of P’yang

A reliable source who asks not to be named e-mailed me yesterday to pass along a fly-on-the-wall description of an “expert’s meeting” in Beijing. The purpose of the meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials had been to agree on the technical details of the U.S. food aid program — exactly how the North Korean regime will and will not allow us to feed its population. The meeting was described as “fairly downbeat” and “contentious,” with the North Korean negotiators...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Regime Change
June 3, 2008

N. Korea Threatens South Over Leaflets

North Korea warned Friday South Korea should immediately stop spreading anti-North propaganda leaflets in the communist state to prevent worsening inter-Korean ties from leading to “a catastrophic phase.”  The warning by the North’s delegation to the inter-Korean military working-level talks came in a message sent to the South Korean military. “If they do not want the present inter-Korean relations to lead to a catastrophic phase, they should take immediate steps to stop all forms of reckless scattering of leaflets at...

Categories Terrorism (NK)
June 3, 2008

The Washington Times Reviews “Crossing”

Avoiding the melodrama of many South Korean films, “Crossing” is relentless in its detailed, docudrama approach. A cross-border trader and his family are seized by secret police in a midnight raid. Ragged orphans beg in destitute markets. Camp guards kick a pregnant woman in China in the stomach. Kim Tae-kyun, the film’s director, said he did not retain Mr. Yoo, a high-profile defector, as a consultant for fear of creating a political incident while filming in China. Last year, Mr....

Categories Appeasement/Korean Society/Refugees
June 2, 2008

Chris Hill Resignation Watch

[Update:   Here, at Channel News Asia, Kim Sook seems to be saying that the North Koreans are refusing to hand over their declaration until the Americans de-list North Korea first.  Remember — State’s best chance of successfully de-listing North Korea means giving Congress notice of its decision in late June and taking advantage of the August recess to wrong-foot its congressional opponents.  As a practical matter,  that means North Korea won’t be de-listed  until August, but of course, that’s...

Categories Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics
June 2, 2008

Food Shortages Widen N. Korea’s Class Gap

[Update:    For some reason,  the links to those Good Friends  reports are finicky.  Try this: newsletter-number-133.pdf newsletter-number-134.pdf  ] Two more dispatches from  Good Friends reinforce previous reports that as the food crisis intensifies, it’s kids and for the elderly especially hard.  Things only seem to be  getting worse.  You have to question the precision and timeliness of anecdotes and direct quotations smuggled out of North Korea, but I  quote  them here nonetheless.   Read and decide for yourself. Among 2...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
June 1, 2008

Anju Links for 1 June 2008

IT’S NOT THE COWS THAT ARE MAD:  USFK is warning our soldiers to watch out for a resurgence of violent anti-American  demonstrations.  If their goal is to get U.S. forces withdrawn from Korea, they’ve already persuaded me to support them.  I’ll be  watching how the Korean government deals with this very carefully. AMERICA IS AGAIN ASKING South Korea to join the Proliferation Security Initiative.  The aftermath of a round of missile tests seems an opportune time for that. NORTH KOREA...

Categories Anju Links
June 1, 2008

Pyongyang Soju Story Takes a Strange Twist

There’s more news about Steve Park, a/k/a Park Il Woo, the importer of the foul-tasting  Pyongyang Soju, who was charged with acting as an unregistered agent for South Korea by giving its agents off-line intel about his business trips to Nouth Korea. Park has since pled guilty to lying to FBI agents.  When FBI agents asked Park whether he’d had any contact with South Korean officials Park not only denied it, but denied that he’d had any contact within the...

Categories NK Economics/U.S. Law
June 1, 2008

LiNK: S. Korea Is Speeding Up Admissions of Refugees in Thailand

This came to me  by e-mail a few days ago,  not from LiNK, but from Human Rights Without Frontiers,  another NGO that works with them  to assist North Korean refugees: Dear Friends, Thank you all for stepping up and voicing your concern for the welfare of North Korean refugees in Thailand. Last month, on April 23, I traveled to Bangkok and met with officials at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressing all of our concern over the treatment and...

Categories Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 1, 2008

N. Korean Famine Spurs Broad Discontent But Little Resistance So Far

Several new reports inform us that the famine in North Korea continues to worsen, and to claim ever larger numbers of victims. Reports from Good Friends and the Daily NK suggest that discontent is spreading among all generations and political strata of North Korean society.  Dissent is expressed more openly than in the past, but aside from some isolated protests over market restrictions, it has not yet translated into active resistance. Andrew Natsios suggests that it may: “The North Korean...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Regime Change
June 1, 2008

Two More Japanese Escape from N. Korea

The Asahi Shimbun reported on the 26th that a Japanese woman and her 40-year-old son, both of whom defected from North Korea, are being sheltered by the authorities in Jilin, China. The 73-year-old woman, from Sendai in Japan, migrated to North Korea after her husband joined the Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan) in 1967, and defected from North Korea, reportedly due to the famine, across the Tumen River this spring. According to the Japanese newspaper, while...

Categories Abductions/Japan & Korea