March 24, 2006

Clouds Over the Minsk Spring

Who among us is as brave as these people? The crackdown began just after 3 a.m., when police officers wearing black riot helmets and masks arrived on six large trucks and surrounded the small encampment in October Square. The demonstrators, who had been protesting a rigged presidential election last Sunday, stood their ground while the officers dismounted and jogged into place in lines, cutting off any chance of escape. The US and EU have finally agreed on something; both will...

Categories Democracy/Europe/Human Rights
March 23, 2006

Brussels Update

The Chosun Ilbo reports: International pressure on North Korea to improve its dismal human rights record increased on Wednesday, when the European Parliament decided to link humanitarian aid to the issue while a conference highlighting abuses in the North opened in the EU capital Brussels. Thursday sees the first hearing on North Korean human rights before the European Parliament. At the conference, which was led by activist groups from the U.S. and across Europe, Hungarian member of the European Parliament...

Categories Activism/Europe/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees
March 23, 2006

Journalistic Integrity Thwarts the Thought Police

The Korean press earns heartfelt praise this week for showing courage in its convictions, and refusing to let itself be censored by the North Korean thought police. If only their government possessed the same clarity. It all began with one of those tortuous, strictly monitored “reunions” the North permits between divided families — this one at Mt. Kumgang. A number of those present on the North Korean side were in fact abducted South Korean citizens, perhaps hoping for a last...

Categories Abductions/Appeasement/Censorship/Human Rights/Media Criticism
March 1, 2006

Comrade Chung to Visit Kaesong

Must be an election coming . . . . He said he would also ask opposition party leaders to join the trip, and was pushing for a meeting with Kim Jong-il and other senior North Korean leaders.  The Grand National Party dismissed Mr. Chung’s invitation yesterday, calling a trip to North Korea an old-fashioned way for politicians to promote themselves before an election. As OFK alumni already know, Chung has a signed  pact with Satan, and I have the photo...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Humor/Satire/Korean Politics/NK Economics
March 1, 2006

New Docu on S. Korea’s Abductees

I had no idea there were so many: [T]he director of “People of No Return”, a haunting documentary about 30,000 South Korean civilians abducted to North Korea during and after the war, has intentionally made his film dry to avoid political biases, and packs it instead with statistics, documents and footage from historical archives. The film, which took three years to complete, is to be screened at the New York International Film and Video Festival in May.

Categories Abductions/Human Rights/Korean Society
March 1, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 33

Exasperation with the recently  awful state of things in South Korea has been a bipartisan  concern for a while now.  First we had the unanimous passage of the NK Human Rights Act, over the opposition of, and despite  lobbying by, both Koreas.  Then came the failure of what should have been a voice-vote resolution affirming the  50th Anniversary of the US-Korea alliance.  More recently, Hillary Clinton accused South Koreans of “historical amnesia.”  Now a former Clinton Administration official is comparing...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
February 28, 2006

Korea’s ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ Bubble

This week, several new reports, chiefly those from the New York Times and the LA Times, describe a journalists’ group tour of the Kaesong Industrial Park, possibly the only place on earth where the spirits of P.T. Barnum(*) and Lavrenti Beria cohabitate. A Paradise Within a (Worker’s) Paradise In North Korea, a nation that is essentially one vast open-air prison, Kaesong is the new prison laundry — a relatively cushier, marginally less despotic part of the institution into which you...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Inside NK/NK Economics/North Korea
February 27, 2006

Supernotes Scandal to Hit Bank of China; NK Gov’t in Talks with U.S. on Counterfeiting

Via the Chosun Ilbo: The U.S. is preparing to seize more than US$2.67 million from three frozen bank accounts with Chiyu Banking, a subsidiary of Bank of China Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post reported the funds are believed to be the first known link between a Hong Kong bank and North Korea’s underground trade in “supernotes,” or high-quality fake US$100 bills. The accounts belong to an unemployed mainland Chinese woman named Kwok Hiu Ha. The Bank of China...

Categories China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Defectors/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Uncategorized
February 26, 2006

The NYT: Coming to a Supermarket Checkout Near You

If you’d like a case-in-point in media bias, look no further than this NYT piece on Christian human rights activists for North Korea by Norimitsu Onishi. There is plenty of good North Korea coverage at the Times, most of it written by James Brooke and David Sanger, but seldom by Onishi, who tends to write puff pieces about social trends and other more superficial matters. Part of Onishi’s problem is that he may be somewhat out of his league, but...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Defectors/Human Rights/Media Criticism/North Korea/Refugees
February 26, 2006

What Ban Would Bring to the U.N., and to His Party

The U.N.: No Values Necessary What could say more about what’s wrong with the United Nations when a candidate for its top post – an experienced diplomat – would say this publicly? “I don’t think a specific issue like North Korean human rights has a direct connection to the bid for the UN secretary-general’s seat,” Ban told reporters. Asked by a CBS reporter whether the way the South Korean government handles human rights conditions in North Korea could hurt his...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Uncategorized
February 25, 2006

True to Form, World Food Program Caves in to NK Demands

When she’s not exposing the U.N.’s corruption, Claudia Rosett is exposing its general fecklessness and worthlessness on matters of substance. Ms. Rosett’s favorite case-in-point is North Korea, where she nails – dead-on – what’s wrong with the World Food Program’s approach to feeding the hungry. North Korea, unrestrained by any regard for the lives of its less-privileged citizens, pushes for more control over the food and less U.N. monitoring. The U.N. bureaucrats lack the testicular fortitude to push back, go...

Categories Appeasement/Defectors/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 23, 2006

Caught in the Act!

I wonder what Roh Moo-Hyun will say this time. Rogue diplomats? North Korean diplomats were caught attempting to smuggle US$1 million and 200 million yen into Mongolia on Tuesday, the Mongolian press reported. Reports said the North Koreans told Mongolian authorities they were planning to put the money in a Mongolian bank account, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The paper said that it was unclear whether the money was counterfeit or not, and what measures the Mongolian authorities will take....

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Japan/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 22, 2006

Congress Criticizes State Dep’t on NK Refugees

[Updated; scroll down] Thanks to a dedicated group of Congressional staffers who forwarded me a scanned copy, which is signed by members of both parties and both houses. I’m going through WordPress hell trying to publish the entire text, but in the meantime, here’s a scanned copy on the Committee’s site.The executive summary is that Congress believes that State is turning away refugees, thus flouting its unanimous will and throwing away America’s credibility on this issue. Update: OK, full scanned...

Categories Activism/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 22, 2006

LiNK Benefit March 1st; Win Cool Stuff!

Update and Correction:   I’m officially a bonehead.   I originally and  incorrectly gave today as the date for the event below; in fact, tonight’s event was at  LiNK’s new office.  The event  described below will take place March 1st.  My deepest, most sincere apologies and a cup of coffee on me to anyone who went to the wrong place!   To make matters worse, I dashed this post off before a day of meetings without  Internet access,  so I had...

Categories Activism/China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
February 21, 2006

Anti-Kim Jong Il Leaflets Reported at Onsong

Via the refugee-run DailyNK: Feb 10, Onsung-gun, North Hamkyung province, anti-Kim Jong Il flyers were found, reported North Korean internal source on Feb 17. The source said the flyers read, “Stand Kim Jong Il Upside Down” and tens of them were found near the Wangje Mt. Grand Monument and the Security Agency along with other government agencies. Read the rest here.

Categories Defectors/Inside NK/North Korea/Refugees/Resistance
February 21, 2006

House Staffer: Congress to Demand Progress on NKHRA Implementation

If historians were both omniscient and judicious, they would record that Doug Anderson was a great friend of the North Korean people. Anderson, a thin, quiet, and precise young lawyer and staffer for Rep. James Leach, never misses a House hearing on North Korea policy. He is also a key behind-the-scenes advocate of more humane treatment for the people North Korea (meaning I’m not sure he’d want this kind of recognition, warranted though it may be). I’ve never heard an...

Categories Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views