OFK on the CBC

For those who may be interested, I was interviewed by the CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi this morning about media coverage of North Korea, and about the difficulty of separating truth from falsehood and parody. You can listen to the full interview here.

I apologize for calling Ms. Hyon Song Wol, who is allegedly alive, “Ms. Han.” I attribute the error to my disbelief and consequent disinterest in the reports about her, except for what they say about the uneven quality of our news coverage. My own interest tends to focus on events that affect many more North Korean lives than this.

With respect to other matters I referred to in the interview, you can read my initial skepticism about the Hyon Song Wol story here and here, about North Korea’s denial of the story and threats in response to a mutation of it here, about other North Korean journo-terrorism against South Korean newspapers here, about rumors of executions-by-flamethrower here, about the unicorn story here, and about my criticism of the Associated Press here and here. You can also find links to some of the guerrilla news services I refer to on the sidebar on the left.

Finally, and in the interest of complete accuracy, I’ve never directly advised the Executive Branch of our government about North Korea policy; in fact, I’ve been a frequent critic of both the Obama and Bush administrations for sidelining human rights from their North Korea policies. It is true, however, that I’ve advised the House Foreign Affairs Committee about North Korea-related legislation, and continue to do so as requested.

On this blog, as with this morning’s interview, the opinions expressed are mine alone. Welcome, and thank you for visiting.