December 18, 2009

New Imagery of North Korea’s Yodok Concentration Camp Shows Northern, Western Boundaries

Since I had first begun to map North Korea’s concentration camp system on Google Earth, it had been a source of frustration to me that the imagery of Camp 15, the infamous Yodok Camp documented in Kang Chol Hwan’s memoir, was of such poor quality and resolution. The other day, my friend Curtis notified me that Google Earth had released much new imagery of North Korea, and with that new imagery, we now have a much better outline of Camp...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/The Camps
December 18, 2009

Kim Jong Il’s Trickle-Up Economics Starve North Korea’s Poor

After the Great Confiscation was announced, the Daily NK had supposed that the poorest or North Korea’s poor wouldn’t be hurt as badly as those with more savings to lose. To its credit, the paper is now correcting that supposition, having grasped a concept that probably isn’t taught in North Korean schools — supply-side economics: The source said, “Due to the bill exchange, business went bad and the authorities are cracking down on private trade in food, so problems for...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/NK Economics
December 17, 2009

Happy Birthday, Daily NK

Last night I had the good fortune of being invited to the 5th anniversary bash of the Daily NK.  The occasion also celebrated the 10th anniversary of its parent organization, the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, aka NKnet, aka 북한민주화네트워크, and last week’s recipient of the National Human Rights Award from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. Speakers giving congratulatory remarks included the Minister of Unification and Hwang Jang Yop (see none other than the Daily...

Categories Miscellaneous
December 17, 2009

Kim Jong Il Death Watch

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is suffering from chronic laryngitis – probably because of excessive smoking and drinking – and he can’t work without resting every other day, a news report said Wednesday. The disease worsened last month, though the 67-year-old leader has recovered much from last year’s reported stroke and a kidney disease, said the Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea, a radio station specializing in North Korean news. [AP] Hmmm. Maybe if we sent Madeleine Albright back...

Categories Kim Jong Il
December 17, 2009

North Korean Arms Shipment Linked to Iran and China

Did I call it or what? Weapons seized in Thailand from an impounded plane traveling from North Korea were likely destined for Iran, a high-ranking Thai government security official was quoted by Reuters as saying regarding the findings of a team investigating the arms. “Some experts believe the weapons may be going to Iran, which has bought arms from North Korea in the past,” said the official. The official was quoted as saying the Thai investigating team considered Iran the...

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China & Korea/Iran/Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
December 16, 2009

16 December 2009

WHAT IS IT WITH THESE PEOPLE? When asked whether he’d carried a letter from the President to Kim Jong Il, Special Envoy Stephen Bosworth misled reporters: Bosworth artfully evaded reporters’ queries about the letter in Seoul last week, after he left North Korea. Asked whether he had brought a letter, he sidestepped the question, saying: “As for a message to the North Koreans from President Obama, in effect, I am the message.” Reporters in Asia then reported that he had...

Categories Anju Links
December 16, 2009

Great Confiscation Updates: North Korea Bans All Foreigners

[Update: The Daily NK thinks the ban is “not news.”] So how worried is North Korea about the potential for more unrest and rioting? As of yesterday, it will ban all foreigners from entering the country until at least February to make sure there won’t be any foreign witnesses to any demonstrations or massacres. North Korea reportedly plans to ban foreigners from the country from Sunday until early February, apparently to allow unrest caused by this month’s shock currency reform...

Categories NK Economics/Resistance
December 15, 2009

Chosun Ilbo: North Korea Executes 12 After Currency Riot in Hamhung

Now that many North Koreans have burned the savings that the regime suddenly declared worthless this month, the Chosun Ilbo reports that public outrage has forced Kim Jong Il to raise the exchange limit to 500,000 won. The decision coincides with the first report of a significant outbreak of anti-regime violence, followed by a brutal reaction: The announcements came after rioting by market traders in the Hamhung region was reported on Dec. 5-6 amid sympathy from ordinary people, sources said....

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/Resistance
December 12, 2009

(Updated) North Korea, Which Was Removed from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism Last Year …

… has been caught smuggling weapons again, in flagrant violation of UNSCR 1874. Update: The AP reports that the cargo included surface-to-air missile components, causing me to write a long, screedy update. Update 2: More updates at the link above. More information suggests that the destination was Iran, and one major newspaper misreads UNSCR 1874, though the confusion is excusable. This appears to be the largest shipment of North Korean weapons intercepted since the passage of UNSCR 1874.

Categories Axis of Evil/Proliferation/Terrorism (NK)
December 12, 2009

You Didn’t See Me Raising My Hand

I confess that I may be one degree more interested than The Marmot in those “crucial” talks between Stephen Bosworth and the North Koreans, for reasons I explain in this Hegemon post. After all, it could have been worse. The State Department could have declared a “breakthrough.” Dreading this as I was, it wasn’t possible to maintain complete apathy. Every negotiation with North Korea is another chance for State to drive a Lexus to the car lot and limp home...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
December 12, 2009

Once Again, More Slowly: Isolating the North Korean People Only Helps Kim Jong Il

Now it’s a Japanese government minister suggesting that Japan shouldn’t grant visas to North Korean athletes. I fear an important distinction is being lost here. On the one hand, I strongly agree with the need to isolate the North Korean regime financially — to do no harm, to refuse to sustain or legitimize an evil system of government. On the other hand, I recognize that maintaining the isolation of the North Korean people actually helps sustain that system. Because the...

Categories Deprogramming/Japan & Korea
December 11, 2009

Did I Just Get the President I Voted For?

[Update: OK, this is just wrong.] The award of a Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama was as good a reason as any to ridicule Europeans, but I can’t help thinking, with malicious delight, how much the shallow, vapid, cynical pacifists in attendance must have hated his acceptance speech — for the award itself was a cynical act, as Obama probably knows. I’ve made no secret of my skepticism that President Obama was prepared for the office he has since...

Categories America/Europe
December 11, 2009

Great Confiscation Updates

A DAY AFTER I excoriated the New York Times for its awful North Korea coverage (well, it is …) their Ideas blog links and recommends my New Ledger post about the Ajumma Rebellion. I prefer to think they’re trying to appease me. =================== NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS ITSELF: So, exactly how much of a North Korean economy is still left if you suddenly and arbitrarily confiscate private savings and eradicate private markets? South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper quoted sources in China’s border...

Categories NK Economics/Resistance
December 10, 2009

Today’s the 61st Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(Inspired by Indexed, with apologies for the hurried execution.) Sixty-one years ago today, on December 10th, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Just a few months before, on September 9th, the DPRK was officially founded.  (As Joshua might say, discuss amongst yourselves.) The North Korea Freedom Coalition, writing in a recent release, has a few ideas on changing the status quo: Because North Korea is among the most isolated countries in the world and its...

Categories "United" Nations/Activism/Human Rights
December 10, 2009

Picture of the Day: ROK Defense Minister Decorates Sailors After Battle with North Korean Ship

The crew of the Chamsuri 325, who fought off a North Korean incursion across the Northern Limit Line, are decorated by the Defense Minister for courage under fire. Here is the vessel’s skipper, Lieutenant Kim Sang-Hun: “I could literally see the shells flying at us. Some skidded off the water and slammed into the side of our boat,” he said, speaking aboard the Chamsuri 325, the very boat that engaged with the North Korean Navy a decade ago. No South...

Categories NK Military/North-South/ROK Military