23 March 2010

I regret that work obligations prevented me from meeting Lee Ae Ran during her recent visit to Washington, but the Mainichi Shimbun has a nice article about her here.

An Asian casino magnate with a multitude of sleazy associations has been denied a gaming license in Atlantic City:

A March 2003 e-mail from a private investigation firm hired by MGM Mirage that found that “Stanley Ho was linked closely to the two major triads operating in Macau, the 14K and Sun Yee On.” The same report alleged Stanley Ho has “strong ties” to North Korea, is partners in a casino there, and told Russian officials in January 2003 that he could “facilitate the movement of Saddam Hussein, his family and other senior Iraqi leaders to North Korea.”

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North Korea rejects the U.N.’s calls for an end to human rights violations, including public executions, torture, and forced labor.

Don Kirk wonders why we’ve heard so little from Robert Park. I think it’s pretty obvious that Park is traumatized by whatever happened to him in the North, and I’m not sure it’s appropriate to be calling press conferences for him until he’s ready for that, emotionally.

Ha Tae-Kyung, a former leftist political prisoner and now President of Open News, sums up President Lee’s North Korea policy this way:

President Lee Myung-Bak Administration’s policies toward the North are an improvement from the past. However they are lacking in policies to accelerate internal change in North Korea. Since North Korea is a secretive country any information from the outside will have a huge effect. It is therefore crucial to widely spread outside news within the country. Currently news broadcasted to North Korea is only available on short-wave so the majority of North Koreans are unable to hear them. If the government will permit civilian news broadcast to North Korea through AM frequency then it can catalyze internal North Korean change with an uprising of North Korean citizens. [Open News]