Search Results for “Executed”

January 8, 2008

MUST READ: ‘Finding America’s Role in a Collapsed North Korean State’

[Update: Is this an invitation to Munich? China promises to “cooperate” with the West, but admits that it might move into North Korea to “restore order,” and for strictly humanitarian reasons, of course. We all know what humanitarians rule the People’s Republic of China.] Not a moment too soon, as the Red hordes mass to reclaim the Outer Koguryo Autonomous Zone, there is a much-needed advancement of the discussion of the future former North Korea. It comes from U.S....

China & Korea/Reconstruction

December 3, 2007

Camp 14: An Other-Than-Human Existence

[Update: I almost forgot this UPI link, and thanks to the friend who forwarded the link. Sometimes, I think it’s your blog, and I just assemble it. It’s certainly easier for me that way, and much more interesting.] If you have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, Camp 14 survivor Shin Dong-Hyuk has an opinion piece published describing life inside a place that no other prisoner has ever escaped to describe. If you don’t, a number of other pieces...

Human Rights/The Camps

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 23, 2007

South Korea Abstains Again

. . . in a U.N. vote to condemn North Korea’s human rights atrocities (via Korea Unification Studies). They abstain, for the record, from condemning this, or this, or this. Or this. Almost exactly a year ago, after years of abstentions, the South Koreans finally yielded to intense pressure and voted in favor. What changed? My theory is that America’s betrayal gave the South Koreans cover. Remember that next time anyone tries to argue that our diplomacy with North Korea...

"United" Nations/Human Rights

September 24, 2007

The Rangoon Autumn

Updates below: 9/21: Original post, background of the protests. 9/22: Monks march to Aung San Suu Syi’s home in record downpour; 10,000 protest in Mandalay. 9/23: Protests hit 8 cities; Rangoon turnout at 20,000; World leaders speak out against use of force to quell protests, but the U.N. is silent. 9/24: Rangoon protests draw 100,000; Their hold on power seriously threatened, junta generals threaten to use force; Bush to announce new sanctions before U.N. General Assembly; Burmese entertainers join the opposition....

Democracy/Southeast Asia

August 6, 2007

Pew: Anti-Americanism Declined in South Korea (But Read the Fine Print)

According to this year’s Pew Global attitudes report, anti-Americanism has declined significantly in South Korea, from 46% favorable in 2003 to 58% favorable last year. Pew says that the “U.S. image has improved dramatically” there, and while this result suggests a significant and positive change, Pew’s enthusiasm is overstated, because Pew is comparing two extremes that may overstate the actual situation. Pew’s first point of comparison is 2003, when anti-Americanism was at its fevered peak, when no South Korean politician...

Anti-Americanism

August 4, 2007

Beyond the Drum Circle: Stopping Genocide in the Real World

There is within us some hidden power, mysterious and secret, which keeps us going, keeps us alive, despite the natural law. If we cannot live on what is permitted, we live on what is forbidden. That is no disgrace for us. What is permitted is no more than an agreement, and what is forbidden derives from the same agreement. If we do not accept the agreement, it is not binding on us. And particularly where this forbidden and permitted comes...

"United" Nations/Human Rights/U.S. Law

August 3, 2007

Newsweek: Seoul Paid Ransom to Fake Kidnappers

First, a few updates. A representative for the hostages’ families has rejected invitations from radical groups to turn this into the next anti-American election year issue: The families of the Korean hostages spoke out against a movement to hold the U.S. responsible for the unresolved crisis, saying anti-American demonstrations could put the hostages’ lives at greater risk. The families turned down an offer by some anti-American organizations to stage a candlelight rally. Lee Jeong-hoon, a representative of the families, said...

Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq

July 21, 2007

‘Pyongyang Soju’ Importer Arrested

A Korean American businessman has been arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of hiding his activities as a spy for the South Korean government, AP reported Thursday. According to court documents obtained by the wire agency, Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, was a legal resident in the U.S. for the past 20 years and conducted business with North Korea. Park provided information he obtained from his frequent trips to North Korea to the South...

Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. Law

July 12, 2007

Korean Church Coalition Joins N. Korean Human Rights Movement, and an Appeal for a Condemned Man

[Update: Barack Obama endorses the rally and its cause with a nicely written letter. Read it here. Of course, it would be great to think that Obama will be as persistent and passionate on this issue as Sam Brownback, who introduced this resolution in the Senate. That’s two presidential candidates, one from each party. In a particularly bipartisan gesture, one prominent Republican staffer even sent me a copy of Obama’s letter(!). If the KCC turns out a good crowd...

Human Rights/Religion/Resistance

April 26, 2007

North Korea Freedom Week 2007: Bringing Attention to an Unreported Genocide

[Updated below with a report on the Congressional briefing. There was some very chilling testimony today.] [Update, 4/26: Some great news about refugees in Thailand, and a video link to one of Tuesday’s events.] First, please digg this post, and please tell your friends to do the same. For those who don’t know why this issue needs more attention — including yours — please witness Camp 22 and its horrors, learn the grim fate of refugees sent back to North...

Activism/Human Rights

March 14, 2007

Can They Do It? A Brief History of Resistance to the North Korean Regime

[Updated March 2007; See new incidents and survey stats at the bottom of the post.] According to the image of the North Korean people that their rulers carefully cultivate, North Koreans are brainwashed automatons. Regime minders, who closely follow foreign camera crews inside North Korea, seldom permit outsiders to see any alternative. That image is probably a combination of fear, stage management, brainwashing, and a degree of truth: few North Koreans have ever known anything else, and extreme nationalism...

Resistance

February 13, 2007

Definitely Not Gitmo

Chinese authorities in the far-west city of Urumqi today executed an ethnic Uyghur man for allegedly attempting to “split the [Chinese] motherland. “The execution was carried out at 9 a.m.,” Ismail Semed’s widow, Buhejer, told RFA’s Uyghur service. “They gave his body to us at the cemetery. Some of his relatives and friends joined us. When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart. Semed, a Uyghur political activist deported...

China/Terrorism (NK)

February 5, 2007

Disciplinary Erosion Hits N. Korean Border Guards

The Daily NK reports that two border guards were caught taking money to allow refugees to cross the border and will be executed. Although the state can’t decide whether to hang or shoot the two unfortunates, or how to schedule it around the Dear Leader’s birthday, past history suggests that the deed will be carried out publicly to make an example of the men. Consider the example set. Of the two reported consequences, only one seems to have been intended: ...

Inside NK/NK Military/Refugees

September 20, 2006

Another Public Execution Video

The guerrilla cameras of the North Korean resistance have brought out another video of a public execution. Like the most recent video releases, showing border guards hauling away South Korean food aid and the display of a dissident banner, it’s from South Hamgyeong Province. The Daily NK has stills and audio, although the images, for understandable reasons, are not clear. The headline says the video depicts a woman being executed for stealing corn from another woman’s home. Later on, however,...

Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Resistance

August 28, 2006

Welcome Home

A missionary who was imprisoned for 15 months after trying to aid North Korean refugees in China has returned home to a greeting of balloons and flowers from delighted relatives and friends. Wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses Monday night on his arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, said returning home was like being in a “dream state.” A son, Jamin Yoon, 35, holding flowers as his father was swarmed by reporters, said his...

Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees

July 15, 2006

Too Little, Too Late

There may be no better way to defeat a radical movement than to let it win an election. The radical is an inherently emotional creation, one ill suited to the objective analysis of facts that effective government requires. If democratic institutions can survive their tenure of office, they generally discredit themselves in short order. I can’t imagine a better illustration of this principle than watching a South Korean government with a 14% approval rating meekly promoting a military alliance and...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/NK Economics/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

Search Results for: Executed