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Category: Human Rights

July 1, 2009

Robert King to Be Next NK Human Rights Special Envoy? (Updated)

So says a reader I trust.  The little I know is that he was a staffer who worked for Rep. Tom Lantos, meaning he probably knows plenty about foreign policy and shares his former boss’s interest in human rights, but may not have much specific Asia expertise.  Here’s a photo of him. There are three things that I like about King without knowing anything else.  First, he’s not a State Department insider.  Second, he’s not the same person who will...

Categories Diplomacy/Human Rights/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
July 1, 2009

The Detention of Mr. Yu Gains International Coverage

Finally, we are seeing more international concern for the welfare of the South Korean national who was detained at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea months ago, known only by his family name, “Yu.” Amnesty International has called for “urgent action” over Yu’s case. From Yonhap: The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee, 44, was detained in a North Korean industrial park in March on charges of “slandering” the North’s political system and trying to persuade a North Korean female employee...

Categories Human Rights
June 22, 2009

North and South Korea According to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report

While I was gone, the U.S. State Department released the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, revealing few surprises in terms of North Korea’s record on the issue. The DPRK remains a Tier 3 country meaning “the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Furthermore, in 2009 “[t]he North Korean government made no significant efforts to prevent human trafficking. It did not acknowledge the...

Categories Human Rights
June 16, 2009

Some Good Reads

Both appear in the Wall Street Journal, and both are too good to just graf and go.  Read them both in their entirety. Nicholas Eberstadt:  A New Plan for Pyongyang Paul Wolfowitz:  Resettle the North Korean Refugees Plus this from Melanie Kirkpatrick:  “I pray Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling will come home soon. But if the Americans’ ordeal raises international awareness of the horrors of North Korea’s gulag, it will not have been in vain.”

Categories Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD
June 16, 2009

Latest “New Ledger” Piece

Although the piece nods toward recent events, such as President Lee’s visit to Washington, its central theme is really the inescapable relevance of human rights and North Korea’s disinterest in the kind of coexistence that too many diplomats, academics, and grad students long for in much the same way that Borat longed for Pamela Anderson.  Also, I am not responsible for selecting the photo of that priceless pose by Mrs. Clinton, or for her choice of a pantsuit color.

Categories Blogs & Blogging/Human Rights/WMD
June 15, 2009

North Korea May Have More Nuke Test Sites

The ROK intelligence leak ticker reports: North Korea may have built more underground nuclear test sites in the northeastern district where it staged its first two tests, a news report has said. South Korean intelligence sources quoted by Yonhap news agency said the North could have built two or three such sites in and around Punggyeri in Kilju district near the coast. [AFP] I wonder how many concentration camp prisoners are entombed in those new sites.

Categories Human Rights/Proliferation/WMD
June 9, 2009

North Korea’s Nuclear Tests and Camp 16

I had previously speculated that the proximity of Camp 16 to North Korea’s main nuclear test site was probably more than mere coincidence (you can see Google Earth images of both at this link; click the images).  The Chosun Ilbo has now published the first indirect evidence — really, a gathering of rumors — to support my speculation, despite the regime’s extraordinary secrecy: How were even the locals kept in the dark? The terrain around Mt. Mantap in Kilju, North...

Categories Human Rights/Refugees/The Camps/WMD
June 9, 2009

Ling, Lee Sentences Raise Interest in North Korean Labor, Concentration Camps (Updated)

Again, the North Koreans demonstrate their talent for attracting the wrong kind of attention.  Following the conviction of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, news outlets have begin publishing sidebar stories and printing background quotes about what life is really like in a North Korean labor camp.  The L.A. Times has a full length story about it, complete with a quote by David Hawk and a diagram of what appears to be Kyo-Hwa-So Number 1, near the city of...

Categories Human Rights/The Camps
June 8, 2009

What next for Laura Ling and Euna Lee?

A sentence, as expected, has been handed down, but what happens next for Laura Ling and Euna Lee? According to a report on GMA this morning, it has been speculated that in addition to a visit from a high-ranking U.S. official, North Korea may also want an official U.S. apology to be issued in regard to this case. Apparently, either before I tuned into GMA or after I switched it off, George Stephanopoulos told the program that Hillary Clinton has...

Categories Human Rights/Ling/Lee Incident
June 4, 2009

Korean Church Coalition to Hold Nationwide Prayer Vigil Tomorrow; News media embargo the T-word

Laura Ling and Euna Lee are having their sham trial as we speak, so if you believe that prayer helps, this would be the time to pray for them: korean-church-coalition-press-release-for-june-5-2009-event.pdf I’m one who tends to think that tracking down and freezing all of their bank accounts would help much more, and Executive Order 13,224 would be a way to do that that doesn’t mix this case up with other sanctions under contemplation for nuke and missile tests. The Administration is...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Media Criticism/Terrorism (NK)
June 3, 2009

Nationwide vigils for Ling and Lee to take place tonight

[This post will be updated as necessary.] Today is June 3 and that means tonight it will be June 4 in North Korea, where detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be tried in a North Korean court for supposed crimes of illegal entry into North Korea and unexplained “hostile acts.” In a show of support for the two women, vigils are taking place nationwide this evening and also tomorrow. Some vigils will include celebrity appearances, speakers and public...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
June 1, 2009

Updated: Summary of Ling-Lee family appearances on The Today Show (and CNN)

Updated: The family members of detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight as part their efforts to further publicize the detention of the two reporters as their “trial” date in North Korea nears. While much of the show was a repeat of this morning’s interview on The Today Show in terms of public appeal from the family members, a few new revelations caught my attention: This was Euna Lee’s first assignment out of...

Categories Human Rights
May 31, 2009

Unsung Misery

From the London Telegraph comes the story of Hyok Kang, a resident of Onsong, quite possibly the most miserable quarter of North Korea that isn’t a concentration camp, in its extreme northeast.             Kang speaks of a hellish everyday life in which people were publicly executed for stealing copper wire to sell: When the time came, the condemned man was displayed in the streets before being led to the place of execution, where he was...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/Refugees
May 29, 2009

Laura Ling’s letter to her family, dated May 15

Picked up by the media from the page of Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s Facebook group is news of a letter Laura Ling sent her family, dated May 15. Directly from the Facebook page: Journalist Lisa Ling, Laura’s sister received one letter from Laura, dated May 15, 2009. Below are excerpts from Laura’s letter, read by her cousin Angie Wang, at the vigil. When I first got here, I cried so much. Now, I cry less. I try very hard...

Categories Human Rights
May 28, 2009

Vigils Called for June 3 in Support of Ling and Lee

The Facebook page for Laura Ling and Euna Lee (which Lisa Ling has now taken over as administrator) is calling for vigils to take place everywhere on June 3, U.S. time, which is June 4 in North Korea – the date of the scheduled trials for Ling and Lee. So far, vigil locations include Washington, D.C.; New York, NY; Birmingham, AL; Portland, OR; San Francisco and L.A., CA. Organizers are also asking for help from willing volunteers. Contact information is...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
May 21, 2009

Smart, Tough Diplomacy: Hillary Clinton Asks Bloggers to Free U.S. Journalists from North Korea

Because if there’s one thing Kim Jong Il simply cannot withstand, it’s that lethal instrument of soft power known as “snark:” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged women students to use the Internet to campaign for the release of two American women journalists held in North Korea. Clinton urged graduates of Barnard College, a women’s university in New York City, to show their opposition to Pyongyang’s detention of the two journalists who are due to go on...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Diplomacy/Unintended Humor/WTF?
May 1, 2009

But at Least They Didn’t Waterboard Her

You need to see the picture to believe this. Bang had formerly been an actress with the propaganda squad of the Musan Mine. She fled the North with her children when her husband starved to death in 2002, but soon fell victim to human traffickers. She was arrested by Chinese police and was sent back to the North, where she was tortured. In 2004, she escaped again. Bang testified that one 21-year-old pregnant woman who had fled to China and...

Categories Human Rights
April 29, 2009

Study: N. Korea Reduced Public Executions in Reaction to S. Korean Criticism

Does Kim Jong Il care what South Koreans, Americans, or other earthlings say about his regime? Citing interviews with about 50 North Korean defectors who fled their homeland between 2007 and 2008, the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a report that North Korea appears to be mindful of criticism from the international community about its human rights condition and has responded with limited changes. According to the annual report “White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2009,”...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Uncategorized