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Category: Human Rights

September 26, 2006

Head of S. Korea’s Human Right Commission Resigns

Shortly after the HRC refused to speak up on behalf of a North Korean facing public execution, its head  has resigned. Yesterday, at a meeting with commission members, one of them asked Mr. Cho why he walked out of a workshop suddenly on Friday.  He said only, “I think it is now time for me to resign. I have nothing more to say.”  He then left the meeting.  A commission official who asked not to be named said, “I heard...

Categories Human Rights/Korean Politics
September 26, 2006

Norbert Vollertsen Reports Being Assaulted in Seoul

Norbert Vollertsen writes to report that he was attacked by a gang of thugs in downtown Seoul and intentionally run over by a taxi.  He is reporting a less-then-stellar police response; they blamed him for being drunk (which he vehemently  denies) and suggests that some of his attackers may have been corroborating witnesses to that side of the story.  Well, I wasn’t there, but two questions come to mind.  First, Norbert claims that he hobbled out of the hospital on...

Categories Activism/Korean Law
September 22, 2006

The Case for Blocking Ban Ki-Moon

The United Nations is facing new denunciations for being feckless, ineffective, and corrupt. The sun also rose, obituaries were published, children went off to school, and leaves in the northern latitudes began to change color. There was something different about the latest criticism, however: despite its general similarity of content, it came from The Guardian, the flagship of the British left, and The Hudson Institute, virtually the Jesuit order of Washington neoconservatism. That’s a stunning convergence from two groups with...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights
September 21, 2006

John Feffer’s Dubious History of the Great North Korean Famine

John Feffer provides a deeply informed and lucid account of all these matters, full of insight, pointing the way to constructive solutions that are within our grasp.” — Noam Chomsky It’s no simple thing to be a North Korea apologist these days, and that’s never been truer now that any intelligent observer can see that the food situation in the North is getting worse fast. There are several converging reasons for this: expulsion of (most of) the World Food Program,...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
September 18, 2006

Yoduk Story Update

Tickets are now on sale at this link. Here are two background reports from the BBC and the L.A. Times. There have been numerous reports on “Yoduk Story” on this blog, including on alleged attempts by South Korea to censor it. Previously, Horace Jeffery Hodges had commented that the English translation for the YS production in Seoul was, well, Konglishy. After making some inquiries with people who are involved in bringing YS to America, I’m pleased to pass on that...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society
September 14, 2006

Yoduk Story Update

There is a change of date and location to report: The plans have now been finalized to bring Yoduk Story to the USA! Opening night will be 7:30 pm on Wednesday, October 4, 2006, at the Strathmore located in North Bethesda, Maryland. Performances will be held on October 4, 5, 6 at 7:30 pm, and we also hope to plan a special Friday, October 6 performance at 3 pm especially for students. Tickets will be available for sale beginning this...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society
September 12, 2006

Human Wrongs Lawyer

Nice to know that Roh’s previous life experiences are still useful to him on occasion. Before he left for the United States, Mr. Roh reiterated his position on human rights abuses in North Korea. Calling such rights a universal value, he added, “Still, I don’t think there is an agreed universal principle yet in international society as to whether a country can take certain measures against another country because of the details of human rights.” He added, “South Korea has...

Categories History/Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
September 7, 2006

European Parliament Passes Resolution on N. Korean Refugees in Thailand

Let no one dispute the effectiveness of groups like Freedom House and Human Rights Without Frontiers. Their influence in Europe is growing, and that influence may preempt a source of cash, trade, and diplomatic support that has proven so useful to Iran. I agree with Nick Eberstadt and Jae Ku that Europe’s support for the North Korean people could shame South Koreans into action. Maybe there’s hope for Europe yet. Full text follows: ======================================== The Resolution was tabled by Hubert...

Categories Europe/Human Rights/Refugees
September 5, 2006

Busted: S. Korean Monitoring of Food Aid Exposed as a Sham

[Updates: English version here, and a small correction below.] “At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death.” ““ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, May 2, 2006 You may recall that just over a year ago, Marcus Noland and Stephen Haggard provoked controversy when they published a report called “Hunger and Human Rights.” In that report, the authors concluded that up to half of food aid deliveries to North Korea...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Resistance
September 4, 2006

The Gates of Hell: 42.471N, 129.824E

These are the gates though which prisoners enter Camp 22 in North Hamgyeong province. Camp 22 is the largest and worst of North Korea’s prison camps, with some portions set aside as a “life imprisonment zone” for prisoners who will never leave. Escaped prisoners and guards report that prisoners are killed in a gas chamber in the camp’s administration area, approximately 8 miles down the road in the background (no high-resolution photograph of the administration area is available on Google...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/The Camps
September 3, 2006

Breaking the Blockade

[Update: Andrei Lankov has a must-read piece on radio broadcasting in the Asia Times Online.] Where there is demand, there will be a supply, and the trickle of alternative information to North Korea, though small, shows signs of persistence and of having a receptive market. In addition to Radio Free NK and Open Radio for North Korea, there is now a Japan-based broadcaster, Shiokaze. The DailyNK interviews its director. Although their original focus is on sending messages to Japanese abductees,...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/Censorship/Democracy/Japan & Korea/Reconstruction/Refugees/Resistance/Uncategorized
September 1, 2006

Can Anyone But the Darfurians Save Darfur?

Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers. One day, this belated Kofi Annan apology may become the U.N.’s de facto epitaph: Looking back now, we see the signs which then were not recognized. Now we know that what we did was not nearly enough — not enough to save Rwanda from itself, not enough to honour the ideals for which the United Nations exists. We will not deny that, in their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda. A...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights
August 29, 2006

30 More N. Koreans Seek U.S. Asylum

From the Korea Herald: About 30 North Korean defectors are seeking asylum in the United States, Radio Free Asia quoted a mission leader working with refugees as saying yesterday. In an interview with the Wasington-based news channel, Rev. Cheon Ki-won of Durihana Mission said, “A second group of North Korean defectors will soon be entering the United States following the first six in May.” Cheon did not specify the identities of the defectors or their current whereabouts. “The number of...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Refugees
August 28, 2006

Welcome Home

A missionary who was imprisoned for 15 months after trying to aid North Korean refugees in China has returned home to a greeting of balloons and flowers from delighted relatives and friends. Wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses Monday night on his arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, said returning home was like being in a “dream state.” A son, Jamin Yoon, 35, holding flowers as his father was swarmed by reporters, said his...

Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
August 28, 2006

Miss Woods, Fetch My ‘Enemies List!’

Well, well, look who the new “centrist” candidate, Goh Kun, invited to his big political coming-out day: The group’s inaugural meeting was held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building yesterday. A list of 106 promoters of the group included mostly scholars and prominent figures, including former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, who is now a professor at Ewha Womans University, and theater actress Park Jung-ja. Mr. Goh said the group did not include active politicians. Yes, that Jeong...

Categories Human Rights/Korean Politics