Refugees – Page 13

March 13, 2008

“On the Border”

Today, on Capitol Hill, I had a chance to see an excerpt of that Chosun Ilbo documentary on human trafficking in North Korea. As my friend had said, it does indeed depict drug smuggling. One smuggler is actually interviewed on night vision, just as he emerges from the freezing Tumen River with a load of drugs he is smuggling into China. His source? His brother, a soldier, who is pilfering from a state pharmaceutical factory in Nampo. I wasn’t able...

Drugs & N Korea/Human Trafficking/Media Criticism

March 13, 2008

China Arrests 5 N.K. Refugees; Protest in Seoul This Friday

I’ve been receiving e-mails from a number of NGO’s about this incident, although I haven’t seen published reports about it. I’ll reprint the letter from the North Korean Freedom Coalition in full below. The protest will take place this Friday, March 14, at 10 a.m., in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, near Exit No. 3 of Gyeongbokgung Station, subway Line No. 3. The group organizing the protest is called Christian Assembly. I haven’t heard of this group previously,...

Activism/China & Korea/Refugees

March 8, 2008

Who Would Let This Child Die?

The Chosun Ilbo’s Korean edition is reporting on the heartbreaking and maddening story of Kim Seong-Ryong, a 7 year-old* boy who finds himself caught between the gears of four governments that don’t care if he lives or dies. The story began as a rare exception to the terrible fate most North Korean women suffer in China. Most find themselves raped and enslaved, or end up like this woman did. (I’ll note here that most of their South Korean sisters know...

Refugees

March 5, 2008

Chosun Ilbo Produces Four-Part Documentary on N. Korean Refugees

[Update: OK, that TBS network that’s showing this series turns out not to be this one, but a Japanese network. I’ll let you know about U.S. broadcast times when I hear more.] Yesterday, I wrote about a disturbing economic trend in North Korea that I hadn’t known previously — the regime’s practice of lending food at usurious interest rates. The original report from Good Friends doesn’t specifically say what the penalty for non-payment is, but it must be starvation or...

Drugs & N Korea/Human Trafficking/Refugees

February 26, 2008

S. Korean Intel Questioned Executed Refugees in Groups

The 22 North Koreans found drifting in South Korean waters in the West Sea on Feb. 8 were interrogated by South Korean intelligence agents in groups of five or six, rather than one at a time as regulations require, it was learned on Tuesday. [Chosun Ilbo] This was a violation of National Intelligence Service rules. Richardson, who has debriefed North Korean defectors, nailed it days ago when he explained why North Koreans must only be questioned individually: If they...

Refugees

February 25, 2008

N. Korean Refugees Arrested in Thailand

Two Thais have been arrested for allegedly helping 14 North Koreans to illegally enter Thailand’s northern border town Chiang Saen, local police said Monday. Nikom Chaikul, 36, was arrested last Thursday when he was driving a minibus carrying eight North Koreans — four men and four women aged 19 to 66 — heading to Chiang Saen, according to marine police in Chiang Saen. [Kyodo] The fourteen North Koreans were charged with illegal entry. President Lee’s rhetoric about refugees and human...

Refugees/Southeast Asia

February 24, 2008

The Olympics, China, and N. Korean Refugees

Update: Another call to boycott the Beijing Olympics: Pro-democracy activists in Myanmar called Monday for the world to boycott this year’s Beijing Olympics over what they said was China’s continuing support of Myanmar’s military dictatorship. The 88 Generation Students group, which was instrumental in last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar, urged “citizens around the world … to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics in response to China’s bankrolling of the military junta that rules our country of Burma with guns and...

Activism/Refugees

February 20, 2008

Updates on the 22 Executed North Koreans

Original post here. – Via the Joongang Ilbo, the South Korean NIS claims that they found oysters in the two boats, and that they notified President-Elect Lee’s transition team of the impending repatriation. (Note that various descriptions of the boats continue to be wildly inconsistent — fishing boats? rubber rafts? powered or unpowered?). – Via the Chosun Ilbo, outraged North Korean refugees are finding their voice, and giving us some factual context: The [Committee for Democratization of North Korea] slammed...

Appeasement/Human Rights/Refugees

February 17, 2008

Yonhap: N. Korea Executes 22 Who “Drifted” into S. Korean Waters

Public execution in Hoeryong, North Korea, 2005 Just one week remains in leftist President Roh Moo Hyun’s disgraceful term of office, yet his Sunshine Policy is still killing North Koreans. That policy was generous to the man who lives in this palace, but for the rest of North Korea’s people, it has always meant “die in place” and “you are not welcome.” And while there’s much we still don’t know about this incident, I didn’t believe the official story from...

Appeasement/Human Rights/Refugees

February 4, 2008

The Restoration: Toward a More Humane Refugee Policy?

I’ll say it again: I’m no fan of President-Elect Lee Myung-Bak, but as long as he listens to Park Jin, he’ll do fine: Park said during his visit to Hanawon, a facility for resettlement and education of defectors in Ansung, Gyeonggi Province, “The defector issue is a universal human rights issue and the first step for reunification.” He added, “While the South Korean government has neglected and disregarded the defector issue, defectors have chosen third-party countries as the path to...

Defectors/Refugees

February 4, 2008

Kaesong Workers Recoup Stolen Wages on the Black Market

With all the questions about how much pay Kaesong workers actually collect, we’ve always suspected that their earnings must be far more than most of their North Korean neighbors. For one thing, the workers are hand-picked loyalists; the regime must want to keep them relatively content. Yet no one really believed that the workers received the “official” wage of around $60 a month, after “voluntary” deductions and the bite of the inflated official exchange rate. I figured it was just...

Human Trafficking/NK Economics

December 26, 2007

Two more North Korean refugees coming to U.S.

Two North Korean defectors are in the U.S. with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.The UNHCR’s Beijing office says a man in his 20s and a woman in her 30s have been under UN protection since July last year and were granted approval for asylum in the U.S. by Beijing and Washington. [Chosun Ilbo] The report marks only the second known occasion of the UNHCR performing its assigned mission on behalf of North Korean refugees, and...

"United" Nations/Refugees

December 23, 2007

N. Korean Dissident Yoo Sang-Joon freed

To those who responded to my request to spam e-mail the Chinese government to demand Yoo Sang Joon’s release, reach up and pat yourself on the back. You just might have saved a life. Yoo’s wife and one child died in the Great Famine, and his remaining son, Chul Min, died of exposure trying to escape through the Mongolian desert. Not long ago, Yoo appeared to be headed for a post-mortem reunion with his family. He was under arrest by...

Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees

December 18, 2007

N. Korea refugees commits suicide in Chinese jail

From Tokyo, where some NGO’s are holding an international conference on North Korean human rights, Human Rights Without Frontiers sends this sad news:

China & Korea/Refugees

December 4, 2007

A North Korean Refugee in Belgium

Human Rights Without frontiers sends this refugee’s story, which I thought was interesting enough to pass along to you: HRWF Int’l (26.11.2007) – Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ – Email: info@hrwf.net. Kim M. W., 31 years old, arrived in Belgium this year. He is one of the rare North Korean refugees to have requested asylum in Belgium, even though it is open to the repressed people of North Korea. Human Rights Without Frontiers met him in Brussels. HRWF: What was your life like...

Human Rights/Refugees

November 24, 2007

Casualties of Banalities: The Arrest and Coming Death of Yoo Sang-Joon

One of the bravest men I have ever met is locked in a Chinese prison this weekend, facing the risk of being sent back to certain execution in his native North Korea. His story stands for the human suffering that endures while diplomats craft a controversial agreement to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons and to grant its dictator, Kim Jong-il, the peace treaty and the recognition that his regime has sought for decades. [The Sunday Times, Michael Sheridan]...

"United" Nations/Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. Politics

November 20, 2007

Global Protest Against China’s Brutality Toward N. Korean Refugees — Nov. 30 – Dec. 1

The list of locations scheduled to hold demonstrations is impressive; organizers will target Chinese embassies and consulates in Washington, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Brussels, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Oslo, London, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Madrid. That represents significant growth since past demonstrations, something that’s very welcome at a discouraging moment when the Bush Administration has pretty much sold out the entire cause. If you don’t know what we’re upset about, here’s a good introduction to the issue....

Activism/China/China & Korea/Refugees

August 20, 2007

The Shenyang Six Are Freed

Do you still remember their story, the arrest of Adrian Hong and the courageous LiNK activists, and the shame on our Consul General in Shenyang? I had given up all hope, but others did not, and their persistence has been repaid with six lives. WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 20 – Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) today announced that six North Korean refugees imprisoned by Chinese authorities last December were recently released from a prison in Shenyang. The six – which...