Open Sources: International Protest Against China’s Repatriation of N. Korean Refugees, September 22nd

The North Korean Freedom Coalition is organizing a wave of international protests for September 22nd. The protests will occur in front of Chinese embassies and consulates in 12 different countries, including Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo, but also Sydney, Brussels, Prague, Tallinn, Helsinki, Mexico City, Warsaw, Busan, Bucharest, Kiev, London, Dublin, Chicago, Houston, New York, Chicago, L.A., and San Francisco. If your city isn’t listed there and happens to have a ChiCom consulate, it’s not too late to become an organizer.

I was too busy to even write about this before, but if North Korea is indeed responsible for a cyber-attack on a South Korean bank — well, OK, it’s not as bad as shelling a village or sinking a warship, but it certainly warrants invoking the doctrine of reprisal.

South Korean officials said that 30 million customers of the Nonghyup agricultural bank were unable to use ATMs or online services for several days and that key data were destroyed, making it the most serious of a series of incidents in recent months. But even more troubling was the prospect that a belligerent neighbor had acquired the tools to disrupt one of the world’s most heavily wired nations — and that even more damaging attacks could be in store.

Fortunately, we have plenty of options for doing that. Only the will is lacking.

That said, the word “cyberterror” seems misplaced for any attack that doesn’t create an imminent threat to life.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz raises a good question about Syria’s al-Kibar reactor, which Israel bombed in 2007. Unlike its North Korean equivalent, al-Kibar had no radiochemical plant or other reprocessing facilities nearby. One possibility, of course, is that they’re elsewhere in Syria and that their location isn’t available in open sources. But another is that they’re in Iran, and that al-Kibar was really an Iranian facility hidden on Syrian soil. It certainly makes sense, given some evidence that Iran financed al-Kibar, along with the fairly extensive cooperation between Iran and North Korea.

This has to be the saddest thing I’ve read all year.

According to a Chongjin source on August 31st, corner spots within the South Chongjin market in the Nanam region of the city have been occupied by individuals selling their own used goods. Referred locally to as “Stalls of Tears” they are a source of sympathy and pity from the local people.

The source said the poorest of the poor can be seen in the market selling their used household goods to scrape together enough money to eat. Their destitute station makes for a miserable sight.
“They sell whatever they can,” said the source, “starting with their cutlery and more or less anything of saleable value. Some have nothing to sell apart from used empty rice sacks.

Such people used to get by on a rice gruel made of potato or pumpkin. Now, said the source, unable to acquire the ingredients even for this they have taken to selling their possessions in the market. Often, however, they fail to make any sales and take back home what they brought. Unable to pay the market stall fees, they are not seen again the following day.

“They have no land, no fields or such and so no hope for tomorrow,” added the source. “They came to sell their possessions in order to stay alive. But they hardly make anything and can expect little beyond the destruction of their family or death.

I wonder what a pair of unused tap shoes would fetch.

A translation from the original Chinese: I am shocked, shocked to see proliferation going on here.

Not-So Splendid Isolation: On top of everything else, North Koreans now have to worry about AIDS.

The North Korean policy towards religion is simple-annihilation. However, some changes in actual religious persecution have been noticed. This is not because the official polity towards religion has been amended, but rather because the attitudes of those who monitor religious activities have been altered.

The wealthy are not punished for their religious activities. Everyone in North Korea-regardless of their social position, or education- is primarily interested in money-the agents of the National Security Agency(or any other security force) are not immune to this. Therefore, when any issue regarding religion occurs, the first thought of the agent is typically of money.

Recently, there have been several cases in which it has appeared that religious suspects have been only lightly punished for their activities and then released. In these cases, they were released thanks to bribery. In the past, it had been impossible to avoid strict punishment, but recently a bribe is enough to secure one’s release. [Open News]