29 March 2010: The Relevance of Human Rights

The Chosun Ilbo calls on South Korea to treat human rights like a serious issue, after years of the opposite:

It is time to make things extremely difficult for North Korea unless it takes at least some steps to improve the human rights situation. “It is time for the highest level of the UN, the Security Council, to step up,” Muntarbhorn said. The Security Council members — the U.S., China, the U.K., France and Russia — must tackle North Korea’s human rights situation and threaten the North with even harsher sanctions to get it to pay attention.

Seoul must play a leading role in these efforts. The South Korean government must undertake a wide range of measures, including assessing the human rights situation in North Korea and coming up with an action plan. South Korea could start by joining hands with international human rights advocacy groups who help sick children and elderly people in North Korea. Such steps will demonstrate to the world that the human rights situation in North Korea is a pressing concern.

Diplomats and analysts of various kinds who treat human rights like a distraction from their nuclear monomania don’t understand that the Kim regime’s nuclear threat and its domestic atrocities both spring from its utter disregard for human life. Diplomacy and drum circles aren’t going to change the fundamental character flaw of a sociopath, but they may weaken the rule of the Kims and empower some transitional figure — or at least someone with a shred of conscience — to push the Kims aside. Only then will diplomatic solutions have any hope for success.

Dear Richard Halloran: I’m a big fan of your writing, but I must respectfully inform you that I have registered the copyright for the application of the term “Gotterdammerung” in the North Korean context. But because I liked your article, I won’t ask for a royalty this time.

Meet the New Boss: Open News tells us a little about Kim Jong Eun:

[H]is leadership and charisma are said to be as strong as Kim Jong-Il’s. His personality can be harsh at times, and he acts cold and violent, the source said. The older generation of North Korean elites are very worried about his personality as he even uses his closest people for his ambitions, just like his father, Kim Jong- Il, does. Therefore, elder elites are anxious about Kim Jong-Eun’s succession of power.

Worried enough to do something about it?

Open News reports that “the National Security Agency ordered public executions of those who are using Chinese cell phones and leaking information.” Because the North Korean people, unlike North Korea’s neighbors, are unarmed and defenseless, this is no idle threat. By way of a grim example, Open News provides more information on “Mr. Chung” (or “Chong”) who was publicly executed in January for using a cell phone.

Hush, Jimmy. You’ve done enough. Incredibly enough, failed Human Rights President and failed ex-president Jimmy Carter opposes sanctions against Kim Jong Il’s regime, and would like to go back farg up every aspect of our diplomacy left unfarged since in 1994.

The North Korean dialect is not as pristine as advertised. The number of Russian loan words is more surprising to me than it should be.