April 30, 2006

‘Barrel of a Gun’

During my recent trip to Korea, I was fortunate to have dinner and moderate quantities of alcohol with several other K-bloggers, including The Marmot, The Flying Yangban, Oranckay, The Drambuie Man (also a S. Dakota native), and Professor Andrei Lankov, who is working on a book on the Korean War, based on material from old Soviet archives. Oranckay picked a restaurant where I had some of the best kalbi I’ve ever eaten, and Robert knew of a beautifully restored old...

Categories Diplomacy/Inside NK/Korean Society/North Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD
April 30, 2006

USFK Relocation in Trouble

One of the most interesting things I observed during my recent visit to Seoul was the absence of any apparent arrangements to evacuate Yongsan Garrison, in the heart of Seoul. The relocation plan calls for the evacuation of Yongsan by the end of next year, and the movement of all of its facilities to Camp Humphreys, near the shitty city of Pyeongtaek. Yet the only visible changes at Yongsan are improvements — the new bridge connecting Main and South Post,...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
April 30, 2006

The Slavery Candidate

Former Minister of UniFiction / Uri Party Leader / presidential candidate Chung Dong-Young thinks he has found his winning issue: transforming the North into a corporate plantation, with Kim Jong Il as overseer. Chung has the additional disadvantages of being anti-American and having a self-confirmed sub-room-temperature IQ (I’ve never met Chung, but several others who have confirm that judgment). If Chung or someone like him wins the presidency, expect a rapid and mostly complete departure of America’s military contingent from...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
April 30, 2006

Korean Woman Charged in Yongsan Fire

Via the Stars and Stripes. South Korea’s violent, anti-American political subculture found a willing host in the woman, whom the authorities claim to be mentally ill. Although she set the fire to “punish” the United States for its “terrorism,” she ended up burning three Korean workers severely. There were suggestions that the fire had been accidental. At least the Koreans are prosecuting her and asking for hard time, although I doubt that would happen today if this woman were affiliated...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/U.S. Military
April 29, 2006

First N. Korean Gets U.S. Asylum, But What Does This Really Mean for NKHRA Compliance?

Updated 4/30; scroll down “We can and will do more to protect North Korean refugees. . . . We hope that very, very soon, we can welcome North Korean refugees here in the United States.” — Amb. Jay Lefkowitz, April 28, 2006 WASHINGTON, April 28 (Yonhap) — The Los Angeles Immigration Court has granted asylum to a North Korean defector after he awaited a decision in the U.S. for the past 20 months, his lawyer said Friday. The final ruling...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. & Korea
April 29, 2006

Nationalism Meets Socialism: North Korean Propaganda Extols Racial Purity

As one who takes the position that our problems with North Korea will only end with the inevitable destruction of its regime, it’s moments like this when I have to pause to thank the Korea Central News Agency for giving me gems like this one (ht to the Marmot): A strange farce to hamstring the essential characters of the Korean nation and seek for “multiracial society” is now being held in south Korea. In this regard Rodong Sinmun today runs...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Korean Society/Racism
April 29, 2006

Bush Calls N. Korea a ‘Heartless Country’

Via Channel News Asia. In the meeting with the Yokota family, Bush assured them that the United States would “strongly” work for freedom in North Korea. “It’s hard for Americans to imagine that a leader of any country would encourage the abduction of a young child,” Bush said. “It’s a heartless country that would separate loved ones, and yet that’s exactly what happened to this mom as a result of the actions of North Korea,” he said, after meeting with...

Categories Abductions/Uncategorized
April 29, 2006

Ma Young Ae Update

The Daily NK is offering up some investigative reporting to back up its skepticism about Ms. Ma’s asylum claims. Ms. Ma, a former North Korean counterintel agent who worked in China until her defection in 2000, is petitioning for political asylum in the United States because of alleged South Korean persecution. Read and decide for yourself, but one point in the Daily NK’s favor: threatening people to silence them is persection; offering them fat bribes to keep quiet (even if...

Categories Censorship/Defectors/Korean Law/Refugees/Uncategorized
April 29, 2006

Corruption and Malnutrition Sap NK Military’s Morale and Readiness

Required reading for DPRK military watchers, via the Daily NK: The most serious problem is malnutrition spreading in the North Korean military. Before the food shortage, 800g of rice, 200g of meat was the official amount provided for one day, the soldiers have not been receiving the official amount for more than 10 years. It does not seem to be improving either. Rice has been replaced with corn or potato, and meat is only provided for holidays. Military bases try...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/NK Military
April 29, 2006

Daily NK: Gov’t Not Delivering Food Rations

Last fall, when the North Korean government ordered the World Food Program out of the country, I wrote a series of alarmist posts based on the simple syllogism that, since 6.5 million North Koreans depended on WFP aid as of last August, and that the aid was cut off as of last December, that millions of North Koreans were going to go hungry in the months to follow. Last week’s North Korea Freedom Week events gave me the opportunity to...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Media Criticism
April 28, 2006

Can We Save This Man?

A 43-year-old political prisoner in North Korea is expected to be executed this weekend, and human rights groups in Seoul and around the world are trying to save the man’s life. In Seoul, 23 South Korean human rights groups yesterday submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission. They are seeking its assistance to stop the execution of Son Jeong-nam, who is being detained in Pyongyang by the North Korean State Security Department, said his younger brother, Jeong-hun, who...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Human Rights
April 28, 2006

Time Asia on the Underground Railroad

My biggest regret of my recent trip to Korea was that I wasn’t able to sit down and talk with the Rev. Tim Peters at length. Tim is one of the kindest, most selfless, most sincere people I’ve met in my life. He told me to watch for this piece in Time, which begins with this refugee woman’s description of the guard who killed her unborn baby: Hwang, Kim says, referred repeatedly to the baby as “the Chink,” because the...

Categories Activism/Asia/China & Korea/Defectors/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Refugees
April 28, 2006

NK Freedom Week 2006, Part II

The events have not yet concluded, and an all-night prayer vigil at the Chinese Embassy is underway. For various reasons, all of us missed the first half of the week. In my case, that was due to a family visit to South Korea (observations to follow later). Still, the events that are capable of being described at a forum like this one can be described now. Here is the week’s enduring image, one that creates a hopeful contrast to when...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
April 28, 2006

N. Korea Freedom Week Updates

First, please join us on the West side of the U.S. Capitol today, starting at 11:30. The rally will last well into the afternoon, with plenty of opportunities to frighten powerful and cynical people throughout the day. Some of us may even make a special appearance at the South Korean Embassy later this afternoon. At 6 PM, Suzanne Scholte of the North Korean Freedom Coalition will lead a rally at the Chinese Embassy that will become an all-night prayer vigil....

Categories Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/China & Korea/Defectors/Democracy/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean History/North Korea/Refugees/Resistance/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
April 21, 2006

Hu Jintao Visit: A Diplomatic Fiasco; Bush Raises Refugee Issue

The meeting, the first at the White House between the men since Mr. Hu became China’s top leader in 2002, was plagued by gaffes that upended months of painstaking diplomacy over protocol and staging. For millions of Americans, and for unknown numbers of Chinese able to penetrate the Great Firewall, the enduring image of Hu Jintao’s visit will not be the 21-gun salute he got, or the full state dinner he did not get, but the face of this Falun...

Categories China/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/Refugees
April 20, 2006

Earth to Korea: Nobody Cares About Tokdo. You’re Making Total Asses of Yourselves Over Nothing.

In the face of Pyongyang’s furious protest, the Seoul government indicated it would return to “quiet diplomacy” on North Korean refugees . . . . — UPI, Aug. 17, 2004 On the human rights issue in North Korea, [Prime Minister Han Myeong-Sook] stated that “the government deals with improving the North Korean human rights record and maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula with actions rather than words,” and went on to say that “providing humanitarian aid to the North is...

Categories Japan & Korea
April 19, 2006

Chosun Ilbo on NK Freedom Week

I’ve tried to do what I could to help with North Korean Freedom Week this year, so it’s encouraging to see the Korean press covering it. Any excuse to remind readers to join us next week will suffice. In fairness, however, I’m not sure that the Washington Post actually reported that Bush will raise the issue of North Korean refugees with Hu Jintao, as the Chosun Ilbo claims. Obviously, I hope that turn out to be the case.

Categories Activism/Human Rights