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Cheers for the BBC for broadcasting the videotape of the recent public executions in North Korea. For all of its embarassments over Iraq, the Beeb has covered the North Korea human rights story far better than any of its American counterparts. Although it appears that some South Korean news programs did initially show the tape, the Christian Science Monitor subsequently reported that the South Korean government had moved to squelch further broadcasts out of a desire to avoid giving offense to the killers. The BBC also quotes Foreign Ministry official Bill Rammell as threatening to tighten sanctions on North Korea if human rights conditions there continue to deteriorate.

Where is the Bush Administration? One wonders if it has become so obsessive about accusations of unilateralism that it is loath to offend a South Korean government that has long since abandoned its alliance with the United States for its own unilateralist passion to appease.

Here’s a link to the video, and here’s a of a recent BBC documentary alleging that North Korea uses gas chambers to kill entire families in chemical weapons tests. The Simon Wiesenthal Center called for an international inspection of the alleged site, Camp 22, when the story first broke. If the U.N. ever got around to joining that call, it certainly didn’t get the word out. Since then, the North Korean regime has reportedly dismantled Camp 22.