Category: Miscellaneous

IT’S NOT THE COWS THAT ARE MAD:  USFK is warning our soldiers to watch out for a resurgence of violent anti-American  demonstrations.  If their goal is to get U.S. forces withdrawn from Korea, they’ve already persuaded me to support them.  I’ll be  watching how the Korean government deals with this very carefully. AMERICA IS AGAIN ASKING South Korea to join the Proliferation Security Initiative.  The aftermath of a round of missile tests seems an opportune time for that. NORTH KOREA...

JOSEPH HONG, ONE OF LiNK’s RISING STARS and one of this site’s most valued readers, writing in the International Herald Tribune, asks, “Where has all the courage gone?” After summarizing the current conditions both inside North Korean and for the refugees who have managed to flee, Hong says: In light of this, it is fair to say that international institutions have totally failed in their duty to protect refugees and curtail human rights violations. President George W. Bush has met...

MORE PROTESTS  against China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees  are scheduled  to take place  in Seoul.  The theme: “No human rights, no Olympics.”  If you live in the area and have a good videocamera (riot gear would also help)  there’s probably  a time that’s convenient for you: * Tuesday, 5/6, 2 pm, Chinese embassy, Seoul * Every week Thursday candlelight demonstration * Thursday, Date: 5/8, 7 pm, Seoul City Hall square * Every day at noon at the Chinese consulate...

MUST READ:   Andrei Lankov talks about North Korea’s food situation in the Asia Times.  BETTER THEM THAN US, PT. 2:  Ten North Koreans were killed in that Israeli  air strike  on a nuclear reactor in Syria: The intelligence officers told NHK the 10 killed North Koreans, who were helping build a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria, were believed to be officials from the Munitions Industry Department (No. 99 Department) of the North Korean Worker’s Party and North Korean sappers, or...

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT: South Korean human rights groups said Thursday they will block the Olympic torch relay in protest at China’s alleged human rights violations against Tibetans and North Korean defectors. The torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is scheduled to reach South Korea on April 27 and be passed on to North Korea on the following day. It will arrive in Beijing in early May. “We urge China, as a host of the Olympic Games, to abide by...

ANOTHER GOOGLE EARTH MYSTERY: In the two days following my publication of this post on North Korea’s construction of a suspected underground runway, the same site has also been discovered by the Voice of America and Yonhap. Thanks a million for reading, guys. I’d thank you two million for a little attribution or a link…. IS KOREA’S LEFT MOVING TOWARD THE CENTER? Well, there’s a lot less room under the tent these days. By the way, the picture accompanying the...

THE LIFE IMPRISONMENT ZONE of Camp 14 is described in vivid detail by Shin Dong-Hyuk, who claims to be a survivor (by the way, hat tip to usinkorea for sending this).  Shin’s story of how  another prisoner helped him  survive interrogation in an underground dungeon is particularly touching.  The concern you always have with reports like this is that they come from a single source and can’t be independently confirmed.  Oddly enough, this  report comes by way of the Pattaya...

A HUMANITARIAN SPIRIT that would have seemed unimaginable in Japan half a century ago is taking root: No Fence in North Korea, a Tokyo- based association, started campaigning to release political prisoners from camps in North Korea, where as many as 250,000 people are subjected to torture and summary execution. The group, headed by Shojun Sunagawa, a former Japanese diplomat, held its first meeting in Tokyo yesterday and plans to raise awareness of the camps in North Korea and rescue...

MORE TRAIN WRECKS in North Korea have injured hundreds, according to the Daily NK. Recall that an explosion that may have killed hundreds in the town of Ryongchon in 2006 was triggered by a train accident. SPEAKING OF THINGS THAT SOUND DANGEROUS, I wonder where these North Korean soldiers were getting the scrap iron they were selling to China. Even in the United States, there are idiots who deliberately drive into live-fire zones of U.S. military bases to collect scrap...

NoKo: OPPOSING VIOLENT PROTESTS IS ‘TERRORISM:’ I think they’re referring to this. For the record, here is how North Korea deals with violent protests, and here’s how it deals with peaceful ones. PROTESTORS from Reporters Without Borders disrupted the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Athens and interrupted a ChiCom party hack’s speech. The Washington Post has video. Tibetan protestors blocked a nearby road, and several were arrested. In Tibet, the protests continue: In the Chabcha area of Amdo [Hainan/Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous...

HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE TO KILL to get noticed by Amnesty International?  My theory is that it depends on how much you tell people you hate America, but it looks like North Korea may have exceeded Amnesty’s limit.  Let’s hope this turns out to be something sustained. NAMIBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST DENOUNCES North Korea’s human rights record  on the occasion of Kim Yong Nam’s visit: Just about a week or two ago about 15 people were executed publicly...

WE PAY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to get back the remains of our MIA’s, but North Korea lets them lie unclaimed, unmarked, and unmourned. Then again, that’s probably true of plenty of North Koreans today. HARD TIMES FOR BAD PEOPLE: The Washington Post reports from Colombia that the the Marxist, Chavez-backed, coke-dealing FARC guerrillas have suffered serious military setbacks and morale problems. Like Al Qaeda, the FARC has done serious harm to America on its own soil, and also...

BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS: “[D]espite the strong call for government action, South Korea had the largest number of people (41 percent) saying the employers should be allowed to refuse hiring a qualified person because of the person’s race or ethnicity.” The average on this question was 19 percent. Asked if the government should prevent employers from discriminating, 53 percent said yes, below the average 60 percent. [Yonhap, via The Hankyoreh] TIBET’S POLITICAL DEMOGRAPHICS: The Peking Duck explains...

HUMANS  AGAINST HUMAN  RIGHTS!    A group calling itself the Buddhist Human Rights Committee of South Korea isn’t uniformly enthusiastic about human rights: “That the S. Korean government has raised human rights issues of North Korea shows that the government, at the instigation of the U.S., is pursuing a policy of division which fosters mistrust and confrontation between the people of South and North Korea. Denouncing the U.S. as capitalist Yankees who detest and despise human beings, the committee said...

SURVIVOR: SIBERIA: Is this the toughest man alive? Not only did he survive a Siberian logging camp, he escaped from his North Korean overseers, lived off the land, and — most remarkably — survived six marriages. THE NORTH KOREAN FREEDOM COALITION’S LETTER to Lee Myung Bak has hit the Joongang Ilbo. A SENSIBLE APPROACH: Kim Ha-Joong, the nominee to be Unification Minister, has annunciated some of the principles that will guide South Korea’s policy to the North. He referred to...

COST-SHARING ISN’T GOING AWAY as an issue between the United States and South Korea. Ambassador Vershbow continues to make an issue of it even after President Lee’s inauguration. LEAST FAVORED NATION STATUS: North Korea may have the world’s worst dictatorship, but it’s only the second least liked nation in America. Iran, always a strong and deserving contender, is liked the least. A HUMAN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT in the Unification Ministry? I GUESS YOU COULD CALL THAT AN IMPROVEMENT: North Korea, which...

YOU DON’T SAY: Actual North Koreans don’t think the New York Phil’s visit will mean much. “Most people…are busy trying to make ends meet and put food on the table, and what they truly need is rice and money, so they have little freedom to think about music . . . . Rather than sit around and listen to classical music, people have to spend that time to go out and pluck another bunch of weeds to sell or boil...

SUSTAINING THE CHARADE: She can’t pretend that the six-party scheme is working, so Condi Rice wants a timetable for North Korea to comply with its agreements. Had Secretary Rice insisted on and gotten a well-structured deal back in 2005, there would have been some chance to accomplish something, though we should remember that unless non-performance has harsh consequences, deadlines mean little to the North Koreans. Too late, she realizes that the original deal was too amorphous to accomplish much of...