Search Results for: Lefkowitz

You’ve previously seen me mention the extreme displeasure of some activists in Washington and elsewhere that U.S. embassies are turning away North Korean refugees, most likely due to political “sensitivities” regarding the governments of South or North Korea, or China. I have blogged that letting these refugees in is a specific statutory requirement under the North Korean Human Rights Act, section 303, now codified at 22 U.S.C. sec. 7843. It also flirts with violating the U.N. Refugee Convention, something I’ve...

You . . . you are the crowd who walk past laughing on the road; and there are a few of us, escaped victims or eyewitnesses of the things which happen in the thicket and who, haunted by our memories, go on screaming on the wireless, yelling at you in newspapers and in public meetings, theaters and cinemas. . . . You shake yourselves like puppies who have got their fur wet, . . . and you walk on, protected...

(by guest blogger Andy Jackson) This the last of a series of posts on the Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and related events. Signing up When Joshua and I had talked about my guest-blogging at One Free Korea last summer, I ultimately decided against it for a couple of reasons. First, I was already writing for my blog, the Marmot’s Hole and (rarely) TCS Daily. Between those commitments and my day job, I just didn’t think I...

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow recently drew some shrill responses from North Korea and its friends in the South for calling the North a “criminal regime” when commenting on the latter’s counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The ambassador may create a degree of discomfort in the South Korean government, but he’s certainly doing a far better job of carrying the American message than his predecessors. In the process, he’s won some fans, and not just on this blog. All emphasis...

OFK’s posts from Freedom House’s July 2005 North Korean human rights conference in Washington: Freedom House Washington Conference Pt. 1, General Observations Pt. 2, Sharansky Speech Pt. 3, Q&A with Sharansky, Kang & Brownback Pt. 4, LiNK Protest at S. Korean Embassy Pt. 5, The NK Gov’t Reacts Pt. 6, Media Roundup Pt. 7, Interfaith Panel Pt. 8, Were Liberals Underrepresented? Pt. 9, Bleat the Press Andy Jackson’s posts from Freedom House’s December 2005 Conference in Seoul: Overview and opening...

(by guest blogger Andy Jackson) This a part of a series of posts on the Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and related events. The portions in the blockquote were taken from my notes. I apologize for any inaccuracies. Kim Moon-soo is one of the leading political figures in Korea who are trying to put human rights in North Korea on the front burner. The third-term Grand National Party (GNP) legislator serves Bucheon, a suburb of Seoul. He...

Oranckay has responded to this post in which I reveled in Chung Dong-Young’s diplomatic incompetence and arrogance. Chung, as you recall, refused to meet Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush’s Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, instead sending his parking valet to meet Lefkowitz at a tea shop at 7 p.m. This, contrary to Chung’s likely expectations, only had the effect of hardening the attitudes of U.S. officials and driving them further into the open for a lack of suitable...

With 10,000 reported to be in attendance at this Saturday vigil (curiously, the estimate is of 10,000 candles, not people–I’m going out on a very short limb, then) Seoul’s North Korean human rights conference closed with a sufficiently respectable turnout to claim real momentum. This despite frigid cold and the best efforts of the South Korean government to keep turnout down. “Restrictions from the government were so tight that we chose the form of vigil, which does not require governmental...

Alexander Vershbow on Economic Aid to North Korea U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow is not backing down: Ignoring North Korean growls over the weekend that earlier remarks had jeopardized nuclear weapons negotiations, Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to Korea, said yesterday that if those nuclear talks failed, Pyongyang would be to blame. He also asked that Seoul’s economic projects in the North should be “coordinated” with those negotiations. “The signals from North Korea in recent days have not...

Then again, it seems unfair to blame Chung when his stupidity, however unintentionally, creates opportunities for the Bush Administration to move in a more decisive direction. The Washington Times thinks that the comments of Vershbow and Lefkowitz are a calculated series of comments that signal a tougher U.S. line. I’m not so sure of that, given the provocation of Chung’s comments, and those of North Korea, before Vershbow spoke up. Either way, Chung’s two cents didn’t buy much love. The...

(by guest blogger Andy Jackson) This a part of a series of posts on the Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and related events. This is the first in what probably be a dozen or so posts on the Seoul Summit and some other events. While I hope to have them done by the evening of Monday, December 12 (Korean time), family, work and other commitments might stretch the project out a day or two. While participants such...

And to think that in Roh Moo-Hyun’s administration, Ban Ki-Moon is actually the sensible one. Via the Chosun Ilbo: Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told a press conference on Wednesday the government would take some time to decide its position on the conference scheduled for Dec. 8-11 since it was a privately organized event. He also hinted that the government is wary of meeting with Jay Lefkowitz, the special U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights, who will come to Seoul...

On this side of the Pacific, the news is less encouraging. What follows is another Washington leak to OFK, one which must remain without attribution. My source is extremely well-placed to comment on the matters of which he informs me. I wish I could say how well placed. Why, some of us want to know, has the North Korean Human Rights Act lodged in the State Department’s windpipe? Why, over a year after the bill was signed into law, does...

[Updated] Thanks for your patience while I spent a day at work catching up on everything I missed yesterday. As noted, I was invited by the North Korean Freedom Coalition to take part in a 30-minute meeting that U.N. Ambassador John Bolton granted us at his office in New York. Present were six members of the coalition, including (left to right) myself, Mariam Bell of the Wilberforce Forum, Rabbi Cooper, Ambassador Bolton, Coalition President Suzanne Scholte, stalwart member Sin U...

This is one of the projects I’ve been meaning to write up for several days. Don Kirk himself–he’s most famous for exposing the illegal payoffs to Kim Jong Il that became the 2000 Summit Scandal–was kind enough to forward it, and I offer him my thanks for doing so and my apologies, not only for the delay, but also for not giving the piece the level of discussion I think it merits. Because most readers won’t be able to access...

Updated; scroll down. We are now four months from the next Great North Korean Famine, and rather than making the urgent and public appeals that could stop it, the United Nations is issuing a permit. Just one month after the World Food Program issued an urgent appeal stating that 6.5 million North Koreans depend on its food aid for their survival, it has capitulated to North Korea’s demand to cease delivering food aid in favor of “development aid” that will...