Page 268

Who Knew?

Three people actually claim to live on Tokdo. I don’t want to ask what they do there.

Japan & Korea/WTF?

Europe Takes Up N.K. Human Rights Mantle

The EU’s human rights dialogue with North Korea’s regime may be predictably “moribund,” but a new report shows that Europe is outperforming the United States in accepting refugees: Seven European nations have granted asylum to 280 North Korean defectors since the mid-1990s, Radio Free Asia reported on Saturday. RFA said Germany, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway gave asylum to 280 out of 700 North Korean refugees who applied there. Germany topped the list, accepting 232 out of...

Defectors/Europe/Human Rights/Korean Politics/North Korea/Refugees

‘Why I Published Those Cartoons’

Fleming Rose, Editor of the Jyllands-Posten, explains. Meanwhile, there is more fuel for my “paxil in the water” proposal: Attacking a U.S. embassy over Danish cartoons. “God Bless Hitler.” A German newspaper thinks the message this sends is unclear. Nigerian Muslim mobs burn churches, kill three kids and a priest. Fifteen dead, total. What’s most noticeable about all this isn’t the existence of extremism. It’s the lack of a moderate response. Tigerhawk is through with asymetic sensitivity. My own feeling...

Terrorism/Iraq/WTF?

When Power Comes from the Wire of a Modem

The Washington Post has a fascinating look at how the Internet forced the Chinese government to retreat – partially – in its censorship of the journal “Freezing Point” (previous posts here). Why didn’t Beijing simply follow Mao’s old “barrel of a gun” formula this time? Because the Chinese economy must sustain sufficiently high growth to absorb a flood of excess laborers from rural areas to preserve social stability, which places China between the Scylla of rising dissent and the Charibdis...

Censorship/China/Geopolitics/Human Rights/NK Economics/WTF?

Japan Halts Dual-Use Sales to North Korea

GI Korea has a post that ought to cost you some sleep.

Japan/Japan & Korea/North Korea/WMD

Sec. Rice: Lefkowitz Will Be More Vocal

It’s the latest suggestion that the Administration is less worried than ever about upsetting Kim Jong Il: The United States will have its North Korea human rights envoy become more active in coming days to get more international attention on the issue, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. “We are going to get him out more,” Rice said at a U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee hearing. “We need the rest of the international community to also...

Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views

A ‘Freezing Point’ Thaw?

The backlash against Beijing’s closure of the journal “Freezing Point” is growing in both the number and the bravery of those supporting that backlash. The reaction – in no small part due to the focused attention of the New York Times – initially forced Beijing to allow the paper to reopen, but without its two fired editors. Now, those editors have published a scathing and fearless response to the censors in the Forbidden City:

Censorship/China

Comrade Chung Dong Young Wins Uri Leadership

Via Kyodo news, Comrade Chung has won an early test of his strength going into the 2007 presidential race. Chung, former unification minister, was elected by a vote at the party’s national convention in Seoul, defeating seven other candidates. He garnered 4,450 votes, beating his main rival and former Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun Tae who obtained 3,847 votes in the eight-man race, according to Yonhap News Agency. “The Uri Party and I will fiercely compete with the (opposition)...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Washington Views

U.S. Media Pick Up ‘Cheerleader Gulag’ Story

An AP wire story relaying the Chosun Ilbo’s original story (TKL post here) has been picked up by CNN.com and numerous other media sites.

Uncategorized

Joongang Ilbo on Biracial Koreans

The Joongang Ilbo’s Kim Soe-Jung has a very long, thoughtful, and comprehensive piece on the subject. It never lost my interest for a moment. What makes this article unlike so many in the Korean press since the Hines Ward phenomenon is that it deals more with the question about how people should be treated than the question of who is Korean. There are also facts you may not have known, such as the explosive growth in mixed marriages in Korea,...

Korean Law/Korean Society

The Value of a Life in North Korea

DailyNK reporter Han Young Jin, a defector from Pyongyang, tells a heartbreaking story about the death of his friend, and about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Must reading.

Defectors/Human Rights/Inside NK/Korean Law/North Korea

Will U.S. Finally Let in N.K. Refugees?

It’s long past time we did this. The U.S. government plans to break with long-established policy and start giving asylum to refugees from North Korea. Wording in the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act that allows it to admit defectors from the Stalinist country has not yet been put into practice due to failure to confirm identities and objections from countries where the refugees were staying. Prominent activists for human rights in the North – Suzanne Scholte, Jae Ku, and...

Activism/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/Washington Views

Paxil for the Lot of You: Cartoons Don’t Kill, Idiocy Does

[Updated] Not a good week for the idea of peaceful coexistence with the undiagnosed and insane. It may be time to revisit the subject of secretly medicating city water supplies. “We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews.” Fortunately, my blood is only half delicious. “Riots in Pakistan spurred by the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spilled over to a South Korean...

Anti-Americanism/Europe/Humor/Satire/Media Criticism/Terrorism/Iraq/WTF?