Open Sources, June 20, 2014

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SUZANNE SCHOLTE’S CAMPAIGN ON SOCIAL MEDIA: If you feel strongly about human rights in North Korea, don’t you want there to be at least one member of Congress who feels as strongly about it as you do? If so, please support Suzanne Scholte by liking her on Facebook and following her on Twitter.

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AMBASSADOR-NOMINEE MARK LIPPERT gives some hints about his policy views at his confirmation hearing:

“The first is continue to build international consensus to isolate North Korea and its regime,” he said, adding, “perhaps one of the best examples would be to isolate them on human rights issue.”

He also advocated continued military exercises and multilateral and independent sanctions and pressure “to send a strong signal that the U.S. is watching [North Korea’s] behavior.”

Finally, he stressed the need for “strong defense and deterrence.” [The Hankyoreh]

If those views actually represent the policies that Lippert would try to implement as Ambassador, they would be a step in the right direction from those followed by the string of ambassadors who came from the State Department East Asia Bureau’s bench, such as Chris Hill, Kathleen Stephens, and Sung Kim.

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CHINA TO NORTH KOREANS: DROP DEAD. Following surprisingly scathing criticism from Marzuki Darusman, China responds by effectively repudiating the major premise of the U.N. Refugee Convention, which China signed:

“With regard to the illegal border-crossers from North Korea, we are obliged to deal with the relevant issue in accordance with international laws, internal laws of China as well as humanitarian principles,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters when asked about U.N. concerns about North Korean refugees in China.

“In China, we have no such thing as political asylum,” Hua said. [Yonhap]

Not only did China agree to the Convention and its 1967 Protocol, it only made one reservation, for Article IV, having to do with religious freedom. To suggest that China won’t protect people who have “a well-founded fear of persecution” based on their political beliefs effectively nullifies China’s signature. When the law becomes inconvenient for China, China ignores the law.

It’s an oddity of human psychology that if North Korean refugees began bombing police stations all over northeastern China, a few government officials would be alienated, many academics would pretend (briefly) to be alienated, and the North Koreans would otherwise reap a wave of global sympathy. Look how much more global sympathy the Palestinians have than the North Koreans do—and the Palestinians have spent the last 70 years throwing away every plausible opportunity for peace, co-existence, and competent self-government.

Remember, too, that we’re also talking about a government that recently built a memorial to Ahn Jung-Geun, who assassinated Japan’s Resident-General of Korea. China calls Ahn a freedom fighter and Japan calls him a terrorist. Many people revel in blurring that distinction, but Ahn’s target was a government official in charge of an unrepresentative, oligarchical administration carrying out oppressive policies. I’m with China on this one.

I certainly don’t advocate violent attacks against Chinese police, but given China’s own violence and lawlessness, I’d also find it difficult to condemn them, provided the North Koreans took pains to avoid civilian casualties. What are desperate people supposed to do when international law and institutions fail them, when all non-violent options are closed to them, and when the lives of their wives and children are in grave and imminent danger? And who are we, who have failed them, to tell them what they should do at all?

My point isn’t that North Koreans should bomb Chinese police stations. My point is that, sadly for us all, terrorism works, and virtually no one cares about people who suffer in silence. If we’re serious about preserving peace, then we should make damn sure that flagrant violations of the law have hard legal and financial consequences.

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IF YOU READ THE FINE PRINT in Kyodo’s coverage of upcoming Japan-North Korea talks on abductees, you can easily see exactly how this will all fall apart:

Meanwhile, North Korea has expressed concern over the sale of the headquarters of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, following an auction.

The headquarters, in Tokyo, functioned as the de facto North Korean embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Asked if the sale of the headquarters will be a card for North Korea in upcoming negotiations with Japan, Suga said, “It’s not a possibility,” adding that the sale has been determined under court proceedings. [Kyodo]

North Korea isn’t going to understand the idea of rule of law, that governments somehow lack the capacity to nullify court orders.

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BETTER SATELLITE IMAGERY OF NORTH KOREA may be coming to a monitor near you. The change is the result of a Commerce Department decision to grant a new license to Digital Globe:

Previously, the U.S. government had forbidden the sale of images with a resolution better than 50 centimeters out of concern that doing so would hand an important intelligence tool to adversaries.

I’d say it’s a safe bet that most of the wrong people already have it.

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WFP CUTS FEEDING PROGRAMS:

The World Food Programme (WFP) has decided to curtail its nutrition program for North Korean babies and pregnant women by about 30 percent due to a lack of funding, a U.S. report said Thursday.

The WFP is operating the two-year nutrition program worth US$200 million in North Korea through 2015, targeting 2.4 million children under the age of 5 as well as pregnant women.

But a lack of funding seemed to lead the U.N. food agency to decide to reduce the operation of its nutrition program, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).

The WFP’s total budget for its humanitarian aid to North Korea reached $137.5 million, down about 30 percent from its original plan, according to the report, it added.

You know who could close that funding gap? Kim Jong Un, that’s who.

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KAESONG PERESTROIKA WATCH: North Korea continues its War Against ChocoPies.

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SUE MI TERRY REVIEWS two books about North Korea, including Jang Jin Sung’s “Dear Leader.”

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AN ISRAELI NGO sets up in South Korea, to help North Korean refugees adjust to their new lives.