Anju Links for 11 March 2008

SURVIVOR: SIBERIA: Is this the toughest man alive? Not only did he survive a Siberian logging camp, he escaped from his North Korean overseers, lived off the land, and — most remarkably — survived six marriages.

THE NORTH KOREAN FREEDOM COALITION’S LETTER to Lee Myung Bak has hit the Joongang Ilbo.

A SENSIBLE APPROACH: Kim Ha-Joong, the nominee to be Unification Minister, has annunciated some of the principles that will guide South Korea’s policy to the North.

He referred to four principles in inter-Korean cooperation mentioned by President Lee Myung-bak — progress in the denuclearization, the feasibility of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, South Korea’s ability to bear the burden, and popular consensus. “Under these principles, we’ll prioritize matters in inter-Korean agreements.”

There was a caveat. “It’s not a good idea to tie humanitarian rice and chemical fertilizer aid to North Korea with its human rights record or the issue of the POWs and abduction victims,” Kim said. “But a comprehensive review of the North Korean nuclear issue or inter-Korean relations will be necessary if the humanitarian aid is of a large scale,” he added. [Chosun Ilbo]

I’d be all for feeding every North Korean man, woman, and child if we knew the food was getting to those who really needed it. If so, the isolation would end, so would the economic inefficiency causing the hunger, and eventually, so would the need for aid. Of course, if you recognize that the regime withholds food as a method of political control, perhaps even of political cleansing, then you understand that food distribution really is North Korea’s most important human rights issue.

More here.

The new South Korean government is now conducting a review of its inter-Korean aid and projects, with the key concept being “reciprocity.” Let’s hope their policy review will take less time than ours did.