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Category: Human Rights

June 29, 2006

NK Freedom Watch, Issue 4

… courtesy of Freedom House. This issue discusses Europe’s increasing concern for the North Korean people, but focuses on human trafficking. Their definition of human trafficking doesn’t just involve the movement of enslaved people, but also involves the movement of things enslaved people are forced to make. I particularly recommend this issue to those interested in such issues as Kaesong and other exports from the North; this issue contains accounts of gulag inmates being made to produce products for export.

Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Human Trafficking
June 29, 2006

More Refugees on the Way to the USA

About a dozen North Korean defectors are staying in a Southeast Asian country while seeking asylum in the United States, the South Korean government said Thursday, confirming a local newspaper report. On reading further, it’s apparent that the country in question is Thailand, Let’s hope that these refugees are in that group, as it would be a step up from jail. The story also appears to refer to the Shenyang Four.

Categories Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 26, 2006

Kim Jong Il Becomes a Liability for China

Wasn’t it just yesterday when the United States had finally begun to reduce the U.S. military footprint on Okinawa, after years of local residents’ demands? That was then. Tokyo and Washington will deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles in Japan for the first time, officials said Monday amid concerns North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile. The U.S. and Japan reached an accord on the interceptors this month after reports of the possible test-firing became public, and...

Categories Activism/China/Geopolitics/Japan/NK Military/Taiwan/U.S. Military/WMD
June 21, 2006

The Forked Tongue of Lee Jong-Seok, Part 3

“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 That was then. South Korea’s UniFiction Minister is now saying no more rice if the little man fires the big rocket. I strongly support feeding the people of North Korea — especially those to whom the government has denied food aid. They are also victims; they bear no responsibility for the actions...

Categories Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/NK Military
June 20, 2006

The End of Sunshine?

[Update 6/20: As predicted, the North Koreans aren’t taking this well.] “We have the right to speak.” — North Korean government official, talking about South Korean politics Has international pressure has finally forced South Korea to abandon years of official apathy about the phobocracy that is North Korea? Finally, South Korea declares, it will ask the North to treat the lives of its people with a modicum of respect.

Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 20, 2006

Shenyang Four Three Update

Several days ago, I reported that the Shenyang Four would be allowed to leave China safely. This latest report doesn’t directly contradict that, but … A diplomatic source in Seoul said yesterday the United States will accept three of four North Korean asylum-seekers now in the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang, China. The source said Washington had informed Seoul of the decision. The four North Koreans first entered the South Korean diplomatic premises in that city, but on May 6...

Categories China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. & Korea
June 17, 2006

Freedom House Update: The Power of Information

Freedom House forwarded the latest edition of NK Freedom Watch, which I’m pleased to graf and link: “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. ~ Goethe These words ring especially true as we examine the abuse and exploitation of North Korean citizens under the heavy hand of Kim Jong Il. As North Korean defector, Tae San Kim, explained to the European Parliament in March of 2006, “North Korea is the world’s most closed society....

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Uncategorized
June 17, 2006

The I.G. Farben Award

… is a prize for dumbfounding political ineptness guaranteed to drive away any sensible investor. The inaugural award goes to South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook, who has done her prospective partners no favors by publicly suggesting a match between German corporate management and forced labor from North Korea … you know, the country with the concentration camps, the racial purity complex, and the gas chambers. Here’s my prediction: German companies, with their sensitivity to their own history of using...

Categories Appeasement/Europe/Human Rights/NK Economics
June 17, 2006

Why He Took Those Pictures

The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has paid a very public visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park, and the initial signs are good. Vershbow, a man who seeks the public debate his predecessors so often avoided, has not shied from stating some rather blunt views about North Korea. Thus, the fact that the North Koreans allowed his visit to go forward at all is surprising. Best of all, Vershbow snooped around, took pictures, and even seems to have...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/Technology/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/WMD
June 11, 2006

Laotian Gov’t Releases All 12 Prisoners; No Word Yet on Prisoners in Thailand

Thank you for your calls, letters, and e-mails to the Laotian Embassy; it looks like we’ve helped save ten people from a horrific fate. Thanks also to the other bloggers who linked my posts on this story. On behalf of all activists who persevered for almost two weeks during a rollercoaster drama that saw 10 North Korean refugees endure two separate imprisonments in Laos, a ransom standoff, the ever-present specter of repatriation to North Korea via China, I am most...

Categories Abductions/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 10, 2006

Refugees Update

Twelve more North Korean refugees have been arrested in Thailand. Could this be a coincidence? Meanwhile, my contacts are giving me mixed reports on the status of the refugees held in a jail in Luang Prabang, Laos. Some say that media attention is helping the prognosis for release, another says that deportation back to North Korea may be imminent because the attention thus far has been limited. Please, take just a few seconds to contact the Lao Embassy to demand...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Human Rights/Refugees
June 10, 2006

Minister Lee, Call Your Lawyer!

I wonder if the UniFiction Ministry’s Kaesong brain trust — perhaps the same great minds that thought they could fill Wal-Mart shelves with Kaesong products — ever stumbled across these articles of the Republic of Korea Constitution: Article 32 (1) All citizens shall have the right to work. The State shall endeavor to promote the employment of workers and to guarantee optimum wages through social and economic means and shall enforce a minimum wage system under the conditions as prescribed...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Korean Law/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 7, 2006

Yodok Story Coming to Washington

Confirmed by a reliable source: the U.S. debut for Yodok Story will be Wednesday, September 27th at the National Theater. There will be seven shows, through Sunday, and the plans (still not final) are to move to New York and the West Coast, probably L.A., after that. Freedom House and Sen. Sam Brownback both helped bring the production here. I had a chance to meet the director, very briefly, in April. My impression was that he’s physically very small, stylishly...

Categories Activism/Censorship/Human Rights/Korean Society
June 7, 2006

State Dep’t Applies the Term ‘Forced Labor’ to Kaesong

This new State Department report looks very bad for Kaesong products even getting into the United States, much less getting FTA status: The North Korean government may be pocketing most of the pay foreign employers pay North Korean workers, a U.S. report on human trafficking asserted. The report was released Monday by the State Department in Washington. …. Seoul wants, and Washington opposes, the designation of goods made there as domestic South Korean products. U.S. officials have criticized the labor...

Categories Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 6, 2006

Derailed on the Underground Railroad

[Update 7 Jun 06: A hopeful sign? Personally, I think we need to keep the pressure on. My heartfelt thanks to those of you — and I’m hearing from a number of you — who have sent letters, and to the journalists I contacted who have shown great interest in the story. That especially goes for the Yonhap correspondent.] Via the Christian activist Tim Peters, one of the founders of North Korean refugees’ underground railroad, and reader/teacher/activist Brendan Brown, eight...

Categories Activism/Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 3, 2006

Your Dream Job?

Jae Ku, Director of Freedom House’s North Korea program, sends: Dear Friends, I am in need of a Korean speaking intern (native, read and write) for this summer. This is a paid internship, to commence immediately. If you know of anyone, please have that person send me his/her resume. I am looking for someone who is mature and responsible. It is helpful but not necessary to have a background in human rights or North Korean issues. Thank you, Jae Jae...

Categories Activism/Human Rights