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January 26, 2007

Shenyang Six Update

LiNK sends: Hello Friends,     …. It feels strange to be back here in Washington at LiNK headquarters, typing away at a computer. For those of you who have been following the news, the past few weeks have not been calm and restful- they have been rather dramatic and urgent. On December 21, 2006, myself, two LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees were caught and imprisoned by Chinese authorities. I was taken into custody in Beijing, and...

Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
January 21, 2007

Opposition Legislator Responds to Shenyang-Gate with Refugee-Protection Bill

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s main opposition party plans to introduce a law revision aimed at helping North Koreans and South Korean abductees fleeing the communist country, a senior party official said Sunday. Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, secretary-general of the Grand National Party (GNP), said the bill will help prevent the forced repatriation of defectors from North Korea and expedite Seoul’s diplomatic efforts to bring them to South Korea. “The National Assembly passed a similar GNP-initiated bill in 2004...

Categories Appeasement/China & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Refugees
January 17, 2007

Sorry ‘Bout That: How a South Korean Consulate Helped Doom Nine Family Members of Its POWs

[Scroll down for updates.]   Thirty-one years after the North Koreans kidnapped him from his fishing boat, 67 year-old Choi Uk Il is back in South Korea with the wife who never lost faith in him, and after his own government’s Shenyang consulate nearly turned him away.  You can’t help but admire the ferocious loyalty of his wife, who raised their children on a cleaning lady’s salary, kept faith with her husband, and then cowed the faithless Ministry of Foreign...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
January 13, 2007

Shenyang Six Update

From LiNK: We know how agonizing it is to think of the possible fate of the Shenyang Six if things do not go well in negotiations with People’s Republic of China. Please rest assured that we are doing all that we can. The instant there is a role for us all in the grassroots to play, you will hear about it, and we will mobilize internationally for the six. At the moment, we are waiting on high-level discussions and working...

Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
January 11, 2007

Lefkowitz on Kaesong: ‘Material support for a rogue government, its nuclear ambitions, and its human rights atrocities.’

[Updates Below; and a big welcome to everyone coming in from Gateway Pundit.] Ambassador Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, has an excellent new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (thanks to a reader!) that will provoke an absolute Category 5 sh*tstorm between the United States and South Korea, and for the best of reasons. Without question, the State Department and the Administration have not always lived up the high ideals the Special Envoy...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/WMD
January 7, 2007

N. Korean Freedom Coalition Protests Thai Generals’ Pact With China’s Inhumanity

You may recall my previous post about the decision of the Thai military government to launch an “offensive” against North Korean refugees crossing into Thailand after a long and dangerous journey through China. The decision, by a government run by a military junta, reverses what had been the most humane policy in an undemocratic region. As is often true, democracy was only the first casualty; humanity soon became the next casualty. The generals’ decision comes despite the fact that the...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
January 7, 2007

Chinese Police Raid LiNK Refuge, Arrest Three U.S. Activists and Six Refugees

Update 1: I’m going to bump this post up a few times. Meanwhile, I second Kyochan’s advice: Digg the story. I didn’t have an account, but it only took a few seconds to sign up. And I see that Reporters Without Borders is e-mailing half the world over … Saddam Hussein’s execution! Well, here, here! Let’s exhume the old bus-bombing rapist. Scroll down to see my response, and RSF’s reply to that. They claim not to have an opinion on...

Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
January 2, 2007

KBS Confirms It: N. Korean Workers in Europe Are Slaves

Thanks to Mingi Hyun for forwarding, and to my wife for translation assistance.  Report, with video, here. KBS has confirmed that North Korean workers’ pay in East Europe is sent to a North Korean government account.  The Czech government learned that most of the workers’ pay was sent to the North Korean government and has stopped issuing work visas for North Korean workers. . . . The underwear factory is in the small village of Zebrac (phonetic), in the Czech...

Categories Human Rights/Human Trafficking/NK Economics
December 21, 2006

Slavery, Then and Now

Apparently,  North Korean restaurants are popular in China, for everyone except the young women who are forced to work in them.  Fortunately, China is a good enough neighbor to help North Korea hunt the absconders down.     Remind you of anything?     This is about as clear a case of human trafficking as you’ll ever see.  In a just world, China would get sanctions for this.  In the world in which we really live, the James Bakers and...

Categories China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Human Trafficking
December 20, 2006

Bangkok Post: Thai Military Gov’t Orders ‘Offensive’ Against N. Korean Refugees

Thanks to a reader for forwarding this.  Chiang Rai _ Immigration authorities in the North are going on the offensive to try to stem the influx of North Korean migrants by tipping off China where the migrants are hiding before they enter Thailand illegally. Pol Col Jessada Yaisoon, the immigration checkpoint chief for Mae Sai district, said immigration officers would use more pro-active measures which necessitate approaching China, the ”upstream country” of the problem. The government has been alarmed by...

Categories China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
December 18, 2006

Phillip Buck Featured in WSJ

Underground railroad worker Phillip Buck,  recently released from a Chinese prison,  has told Melanie Kirkpatrick  about his activities, his  arrest, and even his new identity: Pastor Buck is nothing if not determined. In 2002, while in a Southeast Asian country with a group of refugees he had guided there, his apartment in Yanji city, in northeast China, was raided. Nineteen refugees were captured and a copy of his passport was confiscated. With his identity now compromised, Mr. Buck returned to...

Categories China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees/Uncategorized
December 11, 2006

Two N. Korean Soldiers Rescued from Raft in the Sea of Japan*

The wooden raft was simply drifting, off Sokcho. When the two were discovered, they were wearing dark green that looked to be a military uniform and one of the men was suffering from hypothermia to the point that he had lost consciousness. No word on whether the soldiers plan to defect, although I can’t think of another reason why two soldiers (presuming they are soldiers) would go AWOL and take to an unpowered wooden raft in December. (*Take that, you...

Categories Defectors/NK Military/Refugees
December 9, 2006

New Report on North Korean Refugees

The report, from the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, mainly deals with the problem of absorbing refugees into South Korean society.  There are five authors; Andrei Lankov wrote one chapter, and Marcus Noland and Stephen Haggard edited the paper itself.  It’s a long read, so in a few days’ time, I may bump this post up, and those of us who’ve read it can discuss further.  Really, from what I’ve read, it sounds like an open letter...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
December 4, 2006

EU Investigating Forced N. Korean Labor

Update:   More at the Daily NK.   You may recall my previous post (and R. Elgin’s) about the use of female North Korean slave laborers to stitch upholstery for German luxury sedans, which certainly brings back a few memories about the golden age of German business ethics.  It looks like that source of income will soon come to an end, as the European Parliament is now investigating the conditions under which North Koreans labor in the Czech Republic and...

Categories Europe/Human Rights/Human Trafficking
December 2, 2006

Must-Read: On the Underground Railroad

The Times of London spent months trying to interview one of the conductors of the underground railroad.  This remarkable report tells us what North Koreans suffer to escape from hell on earth: He muffles his face and hides in the back of a car. Every Chinese checkpoint is a challenge. North Korean agents are out to kill him. Chinese-Korean gangsters hate him for rescuing women doomed to sexual slavery. Nam made his own escape after his wife and younger son...

Categories China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
December 1, 2006

N. Korean Refugees Continue Flooding Into Thailand

Thailand is annoyed, and has just sentenced dozens more to short jail terms for illegal border crossing.  This from Reuters and the Bangkok Post, dated November 30, 2006. The Foreign Ministry complained yesterday that local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were hampering Thailand ‘s efforts to prevent illegal entry by North Korean defectors. The ministry’s complaint came after police rounded up 59 North Koreans in Pathum Thani province on Tuesday, the third mass arrest in four months. The UNHCR, which...

Categories Refugees/Southeast Asia
November 29, 2006

Welcome Home

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees reports that Choi Young-Hun, who has been in a Chinese prison for the last four years for helping North Korea refugees, has been released: Choi was met at Incheon Airport this evening by close family members.  And although he appears extremely weak following his imprisonment, he took the time to express his thanks to all those around the world who have supported him with their prayers, letters and other contributions.

Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees