Search Results for: Lefkowitz

Well, I must say that I didn’t expect this: BEIJING, China (CNN) — Nearly three years after ordering U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country, North Korea Monday agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons, a joint statement from six-party nuclear arms talks in Beijing said.” This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago,” said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing’s envoy, in a report from The Associated...

This is depressing, mostly because many people will die as a result: (Kyodo) _ The World Food Program is asking donor countries to support the U.N. agency’s plan to shift its assistance to North Korea from emergency relief to longer-term development aid, the head of the WFP’s Pyongyang office said Friday. Richard Ragan, the WFP’s director for North Korea, told Kyodo News in an interview in Beijing that the initial response from major donors, which include Japan and the United...

Deceptive Headline of the Month goes to Channel News Asia for this beaut: ” New US human rights envoy suggests food aid weapon against North Korea.” Weapon against whom? The United States has sent food to the North for years, but we’ve never had much confidence that it’s been feeding the intended recipients. Which is why it’s nice that the article finally got around to saying this: Non-governmental groups have accused North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s regime of widespread...

More on Food Aid: Another interesting article on NK’s rejection of food aid, which goes into somewhat greater detail than those I’ve linked below. I have a quibble with the reporter, a very nice man who claims to be an OFK regular, who says of Jay Lefkowitz, “His remarks sparked attention because what he said isn’t in line with the state department’s existing policy not to link humanitarian aid with human rights.” Food–specifically, the government’s denial of it to millions...

The question I’ve been asking this week is why the world should bother giving North Korea food aid when the North insists that the donors have no right to monitor it, meaning that it all ends up in the bellies of the elite. In North Korea, even the enlisted soldiers are starving, and Marcus Noland has reminded us that North Korea has taken advantage of food aid to cut back on food imports and buy more arms. Seventeen percent of...

The New York Times has two articles of interest. The first is a detailed report on how U.S. force structure in Korea will change. It relies heavily on an interview with Gen. Leon LaPorte, the USFK Commanding General. The other discusses the North Korean decision not to return to the talks next week. Interestingly, North Korea uses the more transparent excuse of the annual US-ROK military exercises rather than focusing on Jay Lefkowitz’s appointment as Special Envoy for Human Rights....

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...

Nicholas Kristof is a man who knows the power of righteous indignation to save lives by hitting genocidal dictators where they’re most often vulnerable: their economies. Listen to the moral authority of Nick Kristof and the New York Times in full roar when millions face imminent mass murder: So what can stop this genocide? At one level the answer is technical: sanctions . . . , a no-fly zone, a freeze of . . . officials’ assets, prosecution of the...

OFK: Please tell us about your background–where you grew up, and what people, ideas, and philosophies influenced the shaping of your character. Jae Ku: I lived in Korea during my first eight years. I have two older brothers and a sister, so there were six of us. I grew up in Midwest, but mostly in Kansas. I spent most of my childhood in the town of Salina. I voted for the first time in 1988, for Mike Michael Dukakis. My...

As you may recall, the North Korean Human Rights Act (specifically, section 107) created a new position of Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea. As of last week, none of my impeccable sources knew who this person would be–one heard the rumor yesterday–so this does appear to be a very new development. And he appears to be an excellent choice, judging by the panic in the South Korean press: Officials connected with the North Korean human rights movement...

As you may recall, the North Korean Human Rights Act (specifically, section 107) created a new position of Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea. As of last week, none of my impeccable sources knew who this person would be–one heard the rumor yesterday–so this does appear to be a very new development. And he appears to be an excellent choice, judging by the panic in the South Korean press: Officials connected with the North Korean human rights movement...

I’d like to thank my friend Suzanne Scholte for forwarding the full text of her keynote address at Freedom House’s North Korean Human Rights Conference in Seoul. Keynote Speech for Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea Remarks by Suzanne Scholte . . . December 8, 2005 I am deeply honored to be a part of this Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and thank the Organizing Committee and Freedom House for asking me to be one...

OFK: Please tell us about your background–where you grew up, and what people, ideas, and philosophies influenced the shaping of your character. Jae Ku: I lived in Korea during my first eight years. I have two older brothers and a sister, so there were six of us. I grew up in Midwest, but mostly in Kansas. I spent most of my childhood in the town of Salina. I voted for the first time in 1988, for Mike Michael Dukakis. My...