Search Results for: information crackdown

This interview was conducted entirely by e-mail because Norbert moves around so much. I believe he’s been in Pakistan helping earthquake victims there, or had at least been planning to do so with the Korean Medical Assocation, as he did after the Tsunami in January. Unfortunately, my e-mail truncated my last few questions, including the ones where I asked what was about to go down during the Arirang Festival up in the Emerald City. I’ve asked that question, and a...

This interview was conducted entirely by e-mail because Norbert moves around so much. I believe he’s been in Pakistan helping earthquake victims there, or had at least been planning to do so with the Korean Medical Assocation, as he did after the Tsunami in January. Unfortunately, my e-mail truncated my last few questions, including the ones where I asked what was about to go down during the Arirang Festival up in the Emerald City. I’ve asked that question, and a...

Welcome to the Carnival of the Revolutions edition for August 29th. Hosting next week’s edition (Sept. 5) will be Thinking-East; next up (Sept. 12) is Quid Nimis. Updates added, typos fixed. East Asia and the Pacific Rim Burma: Did the government’s army use chemical weapons against Karen rebels earlier this year? The Jubilee Campaign, a Christian human rights NGO, prints an editorial by Lord David Alton, a member of the British House of Lords. Publius reports on new rumors of...

The BBC reports from China that “spontaneous” protests against Japanese textbooks have “spread.” Think carefully about how often protests in Chinese cities have lasted longer than 10 minutes without the government’s approval recently, and then read this: On Saturday, Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador to demand a formal apology, after windows at its embassy in Beijing were broken during a demonstration, despite the presence of Chinese police. The ambassador, Wang Yi, said Beijing did not condone the protests. I’ve already...

The BBC reports from China that “spontaneous” protests against Japanese textbooks have “spread.” Think carefully about how often protests in Chinese cities have lasted longer than 10 minutes without the government’s approval recently, and then read this: On Saturday, Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador to demand a formal apology, after windows at its embassy in Beijing were broken during a demonstration, despite the presence of Chinese police. The ambassador, Wang Yi, said Beijing did not condone the protests. I’ve already...

Asian dictatorships haven’t had an especially good record against the rash of new viruses lately. Now comes word that bird flu has made its way into North Korea, and that the starving nation, which depended on chicken for 13% of its meat supply (how does anyone know this?), has been slaughtering thousands of the birds and burning their carcasses. The latter may be a wise precaution in light of recent reports that starving North Koreans–the vast majority of whom probably...

Asian dictatorships haven’t had an especially good record against the rash of new viruses lately. Now comes word that bird flu has made its way into North Korea, and that the starving nation, which depended on chicken for 13% of its meat supply (how does anyone know this?), has been slaughtering thousands of the birds and burning their carcasses. The latter may be a wise precaution in light of recent reports that starving North Koreans–the vast majority of whom probably...

Chosun Ilbo correspondent Kang Chol-Hwan has a disturbing new report on a North Korean crackdown on dissent and efforts to destroy evidence of the regime’s atrocities. Kang himself is a survivor of North Korea’s Yodok labor camp district, a complex of camps that covers a vast, remote area of northeaster North Korea. Kang was sent to Yodok while still in elementary school because of a political transgression by his grandfather. You can read the full story in his autobiography. The...

The new Department of State human rights report on North Korea is here. Given the paucity of information, it’s a running year-by-year tally, noting changes when they have occurred, which are seldom much for the better. One significant stat is that the State Department believes there are now no more than 30-50,000 North Koreans in China, and that this is at least partially the result of a Chinese crackdown. It could also be true that the estimate of 300,000 was...