Category: Anju Links

Were it not for an obscure provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, we would not have learned last week that some of America’s largest corporations have been indirectly subsidizing North Korea by buying gold supplied by its Central Bank. Dozens of companies disclosed over the last week that their suppliers use gold refined by North Korea’s central bank. These companies include Hewlett-Packard Co., Ralph Lauren Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Rockwell Automation Corp. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. IBM, for example, disclosed that...

~   1   ~ Congressional Hearing, June 18th: “Human Rights Abuses and Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea.” The briefer will be Ambassador Lee Jung-Hoon, South Korea’s Ambassador for Human Rights. I’m rather interested in Lee’s answers, because I see no evidence that either the U.S. or South Korea intends to offer a credible policy response to the Commission of Inquiry’s report. If you wonder just how much the South Korean government is embracing and acting on the COI’s...

~ 1 ~ Victor Cha has co-written a piece in Foreign Policy about the importance of keeping human rights on the negotiating agenda with North Korea, and points to this infographic on the gulags, co-sponsored by the George W. Bush Center. The Bush Center will also host an invitation-only event on human rights in North Korea again next week. Leave aside the mootness of arguing about the negotiating agenda with North Korea. One may as well argue about Eric Cantor’s...

~   1   ~ MUST-READ: NK NEWS has obtained and analyzed recent satellite images of the site of that apartment collapse in Pyongyang. It’s too bad that there aren’t any images of the site from early May, so that they could draw some firmer conclusions, but it’s clear that either the regime (a) covered up the collapse for days (if not weeks) to protect it from unfavorable comparisons to the Sewol Ferry disaster, (b) hauled the debris away with no consideration of...

~ 1 ~ ANOTHER APARTMENT BUILDING in Pyongyang is near collapse, according to the Chosun Ilbo. The report claims that the building’s foundation is settling into the ground, its walls are cracking, and residents are selling their apartments to other families and moving out (which tells you a lot about the state of civic ethics in Pyongyang). I think just about every news service except the AP has now reported something newsworthy about this story. (hat tip: GI Korea) ~...

The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved H.R. 1771 today. Only two amendments were offered at the markup, by Congressman Connolly (D., Va.) and Congressman Castro (D., Tex.). Both were good amendments that made H.R. 1771 a better and tougher piece of legislation. You can read the current version, san amendments, here. I was struck by the bipartisan unanimity of the mark-up, compared to others I’ve seen. Several members called for Kim Jong Un’s overthrow, and some of the most strident rhetoric...

~   1   ~ SO, TO SUMMARIZE yesterday’s NLL excitement, North Korea fired artillery “near” a South Korean patrol boat off Yeonpyeong Island (which North Korea shelled in 2010), South Korea (borrowing from the North Korean lexicon) threatened a “merciless counterattack” if provoked, North Korea said it never fired but South Korea did, and South Korea called that “a blatant lie.” Now tell me which Korea was more transformed by the Sunshine Policy. ~   2   ~ WHY BUILDINGS...

~   1   ~ BREAKING: N. KOREAN WARSHIPS CROSS NLL: “Three North Korean military vessels briefly crossed the western maritime border on Tuesday, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots to force their retreat, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. ‘Two patrol boats and one government ship from North Korea crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea at around 4 p.m. in succession,’ the JCS said in a statement.” ~   2  ...

Last August, the Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim Jong Un had ordered the executions of former girlfriend Hyon Song Wol and the other members of the all-female performing group, the Unhasu Orchestra, for making porn videos. Media around the world leapt all over the story, but as you will recall, I reacted skeptically. I mocked the sensationalism of it, writing, “Three million deaths is a statistic, but a dead porn star is a headline.” I then explained the reasons for...

~   1   ~ LiNK WILL HOLD ITS ANNUAL SUMMIT from June 12th through 15th, at Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California. Here’s the agenda and list of speakers. You have just over two weeks to register. ~   2   ~ IF YOU’RE READING THIS FROM SEOUL, THE FREEDOM FACTORY, under the able leadership of Casey Lartigue, has a full schedule of events in your area for the next few months. On May 14th, it will screen, “North Korea: Life Inside...

I’m slightly ashamed to admit this, but when I awoke yesterday morning, the first thing I looked forward to was KCNA’s reaction to the mild Tourette’s episode of a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman the other day, in which he questioned the stability and legitimacy of the illegitimate and possibly unstable regime in Pyongyang. Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) — The National Defence Commission (NDC) of the DPRK Tuesday released a crucial report in which it declared it would finally settle...

~   1   ~ GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN TELLS TRUTH, WORLD GASPS IN HORROR: In a rare direct attack on the North Korean regime, South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman Kim Min-seok said the North’s statement was “deeply regrettable” and that Pyongyang regularly lies so deserves to be discredited. “North Korea isn’t a real country is it? It doesn’t have human rights or freedom. It exists solely to prop up a single person,” Kim said at a briefing in Seoul. “It...

~   1   ~ EVENT AT THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION, TOMORROW AT 10: “With China characteristically blocking UN action, what can be done to address human rights violations and improve conditions for the North Korean people? Join us as distinguished panel of human rights experts discuss potential follow-on actions.” The panel will include Greg Scarlatoiu of HRNK and John Sifton of Human Rights Watch. Jared Genser, unfortunately, can’t appear because of a scheduling conflict. Bruce Klingner will host and moderate....

~   1   ~ SPEAKER SERIES IN SEOUL: The North Korea Strategy Center writes in, asking me to post links to two of its upcoming events, which I’m happy to do. On April 30th at 7 p.m., Joanna Hosaniak will present a talk entitled, “NKHR and the International Community,” and on May 7th at 7 p.m, Sokeel Park will present, “Accelerating Bottom-up Change in North Korea.” ~   2   ~ FOR EVERY ONE WHO MADE IT, A THOUSAND...