Human Rights – Page 23

April 4, 2007

Thailand and Laos Planning Mass Repatriations of N. Korean Refugees

[Update: Please click the comment link, look for the “Digg” link at the bottom of the post, and Digg. The e-mail address of the Thai Embassy is info@thaiembdc.org.] Two e-mail messages in as many days convey some very bad news about North Korean refugees in two Southeast Asian nations, Thailand and Laos. Both nations, apparently seeing no U.S. objection and a new U.S. disinterest in the subject of human rights for North Koreans generally, are catching refugees and...

Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia

April 2, 2007

Tough Neighborhood

Writing in the Washington Post, Samuel Songhoon Lee relates the experiences of some of the North Korean students who taught him English, including this rather remarkable report: [B] graduated from School 34 a few weeks ago and is studying at Sungkyunkwan University, one of the nation’s top colleges. He grew up a few minutes away from one of North Korea’s most notorious political prisons, Prison 22 in Hyeryung, Ham-Kyung Province, at the northern tip of North Korea. Because food and...

Human Rights

March 28, 2007

A novel definition for ‘denuclearization;’ and where to keep a horse (from being eaten) in N. Korea

According to this Chosun Ilbo report, North Korea recently floated a novel interpretation of “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” under which it could, you know, keep its nuclear weapons. I wonder what they expected: The assistant secretary of state made it clear that Washington’s goal is complete denuclearization saying, “The U.S. will not form any kind of ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea. He stipulated that “the case of India (which signed a nuclear pact despite possessing nuclear programs) will...

Human Rights/Kim Jong Il/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 21, 2007

Freedom House to Hold Geneva Event on N. Korea Human Rights

If you plan on being in Geneva this weekend, click the thumbnail to see the full-size flyer. Thanks to a reader for sending. Adrian Hong of Liberty in North Korea and Elizabeth Batha of Christian Solidarity Worldwide will speak, in addition to David Hawk and Jared Genser of DLA Piper. Although Europe has not led on this issue, I tend to agree that strong European condemnation matters — it would inspire a more responsible European approach to business and investment,...

Activism/Europe

March 17, 2007

‘Abduction’ Film Updates

This beautifully produced film, created by two National Geographic alumni, will air on BBC 4’s “Storyville” series on March 22nd at 10:30 p.m. I’d add that since absolutely nothing is open at that time in Britain, there’s no excuse not to watch. The film is also coming to DVD in May, with digitally remastered sound and subtitles in eight languages. More at AbductionFilm.com.

Abductions/Activism/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Japan & Korea/Terrorism (NK)

March 15, 2007

North Korea’s Blood Gold

Question: How can a banker and investor in overseas gold mines get sympathetic innocent-victim treatment from the International Herald Tribune? Answer: Go into business with this man. That’s the upshot of this IHT story on Colin McAskill, successor to Nigel Cowie as the new primary foreign stakeholder in the Pyongyang-based Daedong Credit Bank. Reporter Donald Greenless writes that among McAskill’s other functions, he is “helping to operate North Korea’s foreign gold sales.” McAskill offers “dossiers” of proof to disprove any...

Human Rights/Human Trafficking/NK Economics/The Camps

March 14, 2007

How a U.S. Consul Helped Send Six North Korean Refugees to Kim Jong Il’s Gulag

[Update: The Shenyang Six were freed from a Chinese jail in August 2007.] The Secretary of State shall undertake to facilitate the submission of applications [] by citizens of North Korea seeking protection as refugees …. (Title 22, United States Code, Section 7843) Back in January, I told you the story of the Shenyang Six, a group of six North Korean refugees who sought refuge from persecution and starvation in their homeland, and how the Chinese authorities, following their long-standing...

China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Washington Views

March 1, 2007

Why You Have to Read this Blog: Yonhap Gets Lefkowitz’s Testimony Wrong

Standing amid a crowd of journalists today, a thought entered my mind at such velocity that it shattered a tumor of remorse forming around the idea that any of them has a thousand times my audience. True, I thought. But unlike them, every word I write will be published. Oh, the power! It fills and swells my cranium! And no sooner do I see the stories they’ve filed, the frustrated resignation hits me all over again. Because they’re...

Activism/Human Rights/Media Criticism/Uncategorized/Washington Views

February 28, 2007

I Wonder What They’ll Look Like on a SAM-2 Radar Screen

Plenty of armchair psyoppers, myself included, have talked about ways to fly leaflets and other items into North Korea, but here’s the most ambitious concept I’ve seen yet. A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago. [Pravda] Yes, Pravda! Not only does it still exist, but now reports on capitalist conspiracies to infitrate future...

Abductions/Activism/Japan/Japan & Korea

February 21, 2007

We’d All Love to See the Plan

The Korea Times tells us that the South Korean Justice Ministry, having felt the weight of criticism, has a new plan to protect the human rights of North Koreans. It then proceeds to tell us absolutely nothing about the plan or provide a link to it (nothing on the MOJ site, either). Now I remember why I quit reading the Times. Anyway, if it’s anything like the Human Rights Commission’s plan, I doubt we’re missing much.

Human Rights/Korean Law/Media Criticism

February 19, 2007

It’s Time for Jay Lefkowitz to Resign

I recently wrote a piece for publication on North Korea’s finances, the rumors of the then-prospective deal with North Korea, and how to increase the pressure so that we could get a truly verifiable dismantlement of their nuclear program and a real and fundamental movement toward transparency. If no favorable agreement could be achieved, our financial strategy showed real promise in collapsing the regime’s palace economy, and maybe even the regime itself, something for which my aspiration is no secret. ...

Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views

February 18, 2007

Holocaust Now: Looking Down Into Hell at Camp 22

Those who have lived to tell us about Camp 22, located in the bleak northeastern tip of North Korea, can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and all of them are former guards or staff. Of all of North Korea’s numerous labor camps and detention facilities, large and small, Camp 22 is one of the largest, and almost certainly the most terrible, if only for the inhuman experiments witnesses say were done to the men, women, children, and...

Google Earth/Human Rights/The Camps

February 13, 2007

Mysterious Pits in a North Korean Field, 39.944 N, 125.471 E : Image Analysts Wanted

[Update: Coordinates corrected.] [Update 2:Digg the story here.] Reader “kdehead” dropped a comment on another post below, with a link to a Google Earth image of a field near of the “ghost cities” I’d described in this post. Here is part of the image he links (click for full size): Here is his comment: ::Here is : slightly OT”Â¦ but what is this? [link to image] are they trenches/pits with prisoners? note the bottom one – half full. the one...

Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Inside NK

February 12, 2007

Buried Under the Margin of Error

Park Seok-jin is a devoted human rights activist in Seoul, one who is not afraid to complain bitingly about infringements of basic civil rights in Korea or elsewhere. Mr. Park’s Sarangbang Group for Human Rights runs a Web site that deals with a wide range of concerns from Palestine to trans-gender issues. But there is one area where he is notably silent: infringements on human rights by the government of North Korea. He is one of many liberal or left-wing...

Anti-Americanism/Human Rights/The Fifth Column

February 8, 2007

‘Asia’s Darfur’

The better the words Jay Lefkowitz speaks, the more the rest of this administration seems to be drifting toward appeasing the regime at any cost. I admire his efforts to attach the plight of the North Korean people to a worthy cause that has received so much attention from the media, Hollywood, and the Human Rights Industry, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Lefkowitz’s approach is all wrong. What Lefkowitz and others need to grasp is this: hatred of...

Activism/Human Rights

February 6, 2007

Mass Escape at N. Korean Concentration Camp; 120 Escape

[For images of North Korea’s nuclear sites, click here; for updates and commentary on North Korea’s latest nuclear test, click here; for images of other concentration camps, click here and here; for more Google Earth imagery of North Korea, click here.] [Update 11 Feb 07: North Korea denies it] The Daily NK reports: Sources residing in the district of Chongjin, North Hamkyung informed on the 1st and 5th “On December 20th, a mass group of 120 prisoners from the...

Google Earth/Human Rights/Inside NK/Resistance/The Camps

February 5, 2007

Wobble Watch: Kaesong

In a one-hour meeting with Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said that while it is unrealistic to recognize the goods made in the border city of Kaesong as South Korean, there is room left to negotiate within the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries, Unification Ministry officials said. “Lee stressed that U.S. recognition of the goods produced in Kaesong as South Korean will contribute to bringing about a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula....

Appeasement/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/NK Economics

Category: Human Rights