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Category: Human Rights

June 7, 2008

North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act Passes in House

So I dropped by Open Congress and was pleased to see: Passed by voice vote in the House on May 15, 2008. On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR 5/13/2008 H3747-3748) Here’s more on the House bill.  Here’s the full  text (opens in pdf).  The list of co-sponsors is impressive for its bipartisanship:  Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5] – 4/17/2008  [Democrat] Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 4/17/2008...

Categories Human Rights/U.S. Politics
May 31, 2008

MUST SEE: BBC / Chosun Ilbo Video on North Korean Refugees in China

In the brilliant sunlight of an icy February day, the camera takes us onto the frozen river.  A female figure lies, face down, hip raised in the classic pose of a reclining beauty, a North Korean woman – fully dressed – who fell while crossing. Like a sculpture cast in bronze, nameless, iconic, she is a monument to all the fallen who went unfilmed, their deaths unremarked. The Chinese guide who has brought the crew to see her has seen...

Categories China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
May 31, 2008

Kathleen Stephens Nomination Woes Deepen

In  March, I explained why I believe that Kathleen Stephens is the wrong person to be our next ambassador to South Korea.  In  April, I  explained why  Senator Sam Brownback had placed a hold on Stephens’s nomination, effectively blocking it.  Brownback announced his opposition  by going to the Senate floor to deliver an impassioned speech — “Google Earth has made witnesses of us all” — that made use of my own satellite image grabs  of Camp 22.  State had applied...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
May 27, 2008

Documentary: Escape from North Korea

This will be the first of two documentaries from Journeyman Pictures I’ll be featuring this week. “Escape from North Korea” follows an entire North Korean family all the way from their relatively privileged life in Pyongyang to the end of their long journey to escape the North, starting with clandestine camera phone images. For both of these documentaries, a big hat tip to commenter and blogger usinkorea.

Categories Activism/Defectors/Refugees
May 24, 2008

Murder, Plain and Simple: North Korean Snipers Killing Refugees Along the Chinese Border

[Updated below with photographs; Digg it here.] Helping Hands Korea, one of the most intrepid and trustworthy organizations that assists North Korean refugees escape from their repressive, famine-plagued homeland, has written to me with a detailed account of how the North Korean and Chinese militaries have joined forces to prevent North Koreans from escaping their homeland, one where large numbers are people are now starving to death once again because the government won’t feed them and won’t let them fend...

Categories Activism/Border Control/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees
May 16, 2008

Korean Church Coalition Launches Ad Campaign on Behalf of N.K. Refugees

I’ve been encouraged about the direction of the movement to publicize the plight of the North Korean people since the KCC and its leader, Sam Kim, threw their weight behind it. They’re bringing much-needed money, manpower, organization, and clout to the fight, and now they’ve launched a modest ad campaign in Korean-language media: I can’t wait to see how the Chinese netizens react to this. It’s probably true — though not necessarily helpful to their cause — that the image...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Refugees
May 2, 2008

Pick Up ROK, Drop On Foot

[Scroll down for updates.] The Korean Church Coalition passes along this press release on Chinese efforts to stop a North Korean human rights demonstration in Seoul, how those efforts backfired, and how the Chinese response since then has exacerbated the reaction. kcc-press-release.pdf Officially, the best China can offer is something that’s not widely perceived as an apology by South Koreans (who can be fairly reluctant to interpret apologies as such once offended). Unofficially, Chinese “netizens” continue to propagate asinine denials...

Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
May 1, 2008

President Bush Issues Statement on North Korea Freedom Week

Laura and I send greetings to all those observing North Korea Freedom Week. I am deeply concerned about the grave human rights conditions in North Korea, especially the denial of universal freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and association, and restrictions on freedom of movement and workers’ rights. I have met in the Oval Office with some of the brave individuals who have escaped from that country. I am deeply concerned by the stories of divided families, harsh conditions, and...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/U.S. Politics
April 27, 2008

Seoul Invaded by “The Ugly Chinese”

The most disastrous Olympic torch run in history  has ended with a new low: On Sunday, clashes broke out in Seoul near the relay start between a group of 500 Chinese supporters and about 50 demonstrators criticizing Beijing‘s policies, carrying a banner reading, “Free North Korean refugees in China.” The students threw stones and water bottles as some 2,500 police tried to keep the two sides apart.  [AP] And so we add another excellent reason, if any more were needed...

Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Refugees
April 22, 2008

House Foreign Affairs Committee Leaders Co-Sponsor Bi-Partisan N.K. Human Rights Bill

[Updated and bumped  4/22:   The GPO has published the full text; it’s here:  hr-5834.pdf It mainly reauthorizes the existing Act, tightens State’s reporting requirements, and adds more power and prestige to the post of Special Envoy.  It also demands quick action from State on increasing radio broadcasting and “facilitating the submission of applications” for asylum at our consular facilities in Asia.]   I don’t have a link to the bill or this press release yet, but it’s from a...

Categories Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. Politics
April 15, 2008

Keeping the Pressure on Beijing

South Korean and American  are pushing the issue of North Korean refugees as the Olympics approach, as as other issues focus intense pressure on China.  Here’s what’s happening in Seoul: Onlookers watch as a man tied up in ropes is led down a crowded pedestrian street by a woman holding a plastic assault rifle. Another man holding a megaphone explains that the re-enactment depicts a scene that has become an everyday occurrence in China. A multinational coalition of activists, calling...

Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
April 8, 2008

Do you suppose China is having second thoughts about that whole ‘Olympics’ idea?

[Update: A new Zogby poll finds that 70% of likely voters believe the IOC was wrong to award the Olympics to China, and 48% believe that “U.S. political officials should not attend the opening ceremony due to China’s poor human rights record.” Dissatisfaction with the IOC’s choice is strong across the political spectrum, with 70% of Democrats and Republicans, and 68% of political independents who said they disagree with the decision to have China host the summer games. A Zogby...

Categories Activism/China/Human Rights
April 7, 2008

Another Public Execution in North Korea

On the March 30, in Hyesan, Yangkang Province, three residents were publicly executed and 30 households were forcibly expelled after a public trial. Aggravated uneasiness and growing horror spread among residents. “Three residents were executed for human trafficking at a vacant lot in the Hyesan Airport while a crowd watched,” a source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK. [Daily NK] If the people of North Korea were better armed, the Chinese and North Korean authorities might have to consider alternatives...

Categories Human Rights/Inside NK
April 6, 2008

KCNA Trips Over the Truth on Human Rights

Writing in the Asia Times, Professor Sung Yoon Lee describes reading KCNA in the original Korean and finding, among the hackneyed sloganeering, that the writers “inadvertently rang with uncommon common sense, not to mention striking validity:” A staple of the KCNA diet, such oft-stated claims [about Japanese abuses during colonial times] are indeed valid historical grievances that North Korea and Japan will have to resolve if the two are ever to normalize diplomatic relations. [OFK note: as if.] But the...

Categories Human Rights/Korean History
March 31, 2008

LiNK: Project Real Sunshine

[Update:  LiNK reports that they’ve extended the deadline to sign up for Project Real Sunshine through April 7th.]   [Correction:   A reader points out that I’ve confused two LiNK projects, “Project  Real Sunshine” and  the “Chollima Leadership Program.”  My apologies.  The Chollima  Leadership Program  is  actually the  one I  described in the post below; Project True Sunshine is an advocacy project,  which I should have remembered.  Fortunately, Andy Jackson didn’t get confused and put up a perfectly fine post.]...

Categories Activism/Reconstruction/Refugees/Regime Change
March 30, 2008

Human Rights Activists Help 12 North Koreans Enter S. Korean Embassy in Laos

A group of six  human rights activists from Europe,  Asia, and Oceania was  in Vientiane, Laos, recently to coordinate efforts on behalf of North Korean refugees when they  decided to move beyond mere words.  Here is an excerpt from  the letter one of them e-mailed me recently: It has come to our attention that twelve North Korean defectors have recently arrived in Laos after traveling through China.  They were on their way to freedom in South Korea, but have since...

Categories Activism/Refugees