In My In-Box

Thanks to all of those who e-mailed me links to interesting stories recently. I’ll have to do a carnival-type group posting to discuss all of them. Your contributions, comments, and yes, corrections make this site infintely better than it would be without you.

Adrian Hong of LiNK forwarded this letter he wrote to the Korea Times. I’m printing every word:

I refer to a July 6 article on Page 19 of The Korea Herald entitled “Moral duty in the global community,” authored by Park Kang-ho, a deputy director-general of the International Economic Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

It fascinates and frustrates me to no end how a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade can preach to Koreans about how we ought to be more charitable and open-minded in considering who we ought to help (“my neighbor”), while South Korea’s MOFAT continues to ignore its most powerful and fundamental (not to mention legally-binding) obligations to the closest neighbors to the north. Hiding the truth does not change it from being truth – North Korea is dying. A resurgent famine looms over the populace, and human rights violations have a stark hold upon a nation that claims a third of all the Koreans on the planet. There is poverty and suffering throughout the world today, and we ought to all think about how we can change it for the better.

But the poverty and suffering just north of Seoul is man-made or man-aggravated, and can be significantly alleviated by positive actions by MOFAT. If that is not a priority, or THE priority for a country that seeks to become a “trustworthy nation in the international community,” what is?

It is a sad day when the constitutionally-mandated protector of a suffering people pretends they do not exist.

Adrian Hong

The writer is executive director of Liberty in North Korea, an international grassroots organization devoted to fighting for human rights in North Korea. – Ed.

James Chen forwards the story of a North Korean propaganda film that illustrates the importance of test-marketing and focus groups:

A North Korean propaganda film about the repatriation of a spy Lee In-Mo who had languished for years in a South Korean prison may have a short shelf life, according to defectors now living in the South.

“What we could not believe in the movie was that Lee and others were conducting hunger strikes in the prison,” said one defector about the movie.

“Refusing to eat was a form of resistance in the South? Boy, South Korea must be a paradise. That’s what we said among ourselves”
. . . .

[T]he movie caused many North Koreans to become curious about South Korean society.

Many North Korean defectors said their first reaction upon seeing the film was to ask how people could stay in prison for more than 10 years and remain alive? They say few people survive even three years in North Korean political prisons. Being fed three regular meals a day is utterly unimaginable.

Just imagine what thousands of booklets filled with pictures of markets and traffic jams in Seoul could do. It’s tough to guage the extent to which North Koreans already know the truth. I suspect it depends on the class and region of the population group you sample.

Reader “Spoonbill” forwards a message from a member of the North Korean Freedom Coalition, with whom I’m familiar and trust. The message claims to be from a North Korean expat to Hwang Jang-Yop and Radio Free NK. Obviously, I have no way of authenticating this, so read and decide for yourself:

I am a North Korean living in a foreign country. I am sending this message to Mr. Hwang Jang-Yop and my brothers in South Korea. For my personal safety, I cannot reveal my identity.

I am not a defector, but one of the few selected by the regime with love and care, and grew up without any hardship in North Korea. My hands are shaking now since this is the first time I write this kind of message. I am scared and excited.

I read the messages on your [Hwang’s] website with tears and anger. I could not sleep. I decided to write this message. I am not about to report what is happening in North Korea. Mr. Hwang, you left your family in North Korea, and escaped to South Korea for the people and the democratization of our beloved country. You and others wrote many articles with your blood and tears. What can I add more to those messages!

I have much to tell to the brothers in South Korea, but I am not a literary person. I will try to be brief. I want to let Mr. Hwang know through this message that the North Korean people know about the Free North Korea Radio site. I do not know how many are listening, but there will be more of us thanks to your efforts, Mr. Hwang. I send my greetings to you and other brothers. Do not despair. Be strong and have courage and will to persevere.

Brothers in South Korea! I said I lived comfortably in North Korea. I had no freedom in North Korea, but lived comfortably. I have to tell you it was not due to the Free NK Radio that I came to hate and feel angry against the Kim Jong-il regime. All North Koreans, except for a few who lost their souls and those who can never be forgiven by the most generous people, do not look up to Kim Jong-il any longer. You must look at the people in North Korea. They are not the regime. They are different.

However, nobody can talk about freedom or democracy in North Korea. I myself cannot contribute anything for democracy in our country. Forgive me. When our country is unified, I will run to Mr. Hwang and pay my respect. Till then, be healthy and strong, Mr. Hwang. You must fight to the end. I salute to my brothers in South Korea. Please acknowledge my message so that I can feel proud.

If my message is of any help, please pass it on to others. Forgive me. I am overwhelmed and do not know what I am writing. I pray for the day when democracy comes to our country, or rather, the evil dictatorship is crushed.

Some day, I’d love to know for sure just who wrote that message. If it is what it claims to be, it took great courage for the author to write it.

Reader “Aaron” e-mails some links on the bizarre intersection between Kim Jong Il and the local Republican paper, the Washington Times. That intersection is none other than the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who just grows more morally ambiguous with each passing year. He’s already been implicated in brokering a deal that sold North Korea submarines, and paid the regime millions for the future site of the Moonie Vatican. You’ve probably also heard of the too-wierd-to-be-fiction story of Moon getting himself crowned at the Capitol.

Fortunately, that didn’t stop George W. Bush from freezing some of the Rev. Moon’s assets in connection with WMD deals for North Korea. The Korea Times has more:

[E]xperts in Seoul expressed surprise over the inclusion of Korea Ryonbong General Corporation, a Pyongyang-based company that in 2002 launched an automobile assembly line together with South Korea’s Pyonghwa Motors.

The South Korean firm, owned by Rev. Moon Sun-myung’s Unification Church, invested about 71 billion won in the plant located in the North Korean city of Nampo, according to news reports.

. . . .

The South Korean government has sought to play down the significance of the U.S. executive order. But officials and experts in Seoul privately expressed concerns that it could slow inter-Korean economic engagement and damage hopes of resuming the stalled six-party nuclear talks.

“The order is basically the same as imposing economic sanctions,” a government official said on condition of anonymity. “This kind of measure may make local firms, many of which have assets in the U.S., think twice before doing business with North Korea.”

Under the executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department is able to freeze assets not only of the listed companies but also those of any person or organization that has business dealings with them.

Executive order here, and it’d be pure porn for the lawyers if it had a “qui tam” or “private attorney general” provision. I’d probably quit my job and take up the lawfare business if it did. I suggested another draft piece of legislation here some months ago, with the same goal in mind, but using the potential for I.G. Farben-style slave labor suits against companies that invest in the North and use forced labor there.

Either way, I think this is a giant step in the right direction. The North Korean regime is not opening its economy, trading in the kind of consumer goods that will change its society, or allowing more than a select few co-conspirators to participate in free trade. It has simply selected a few unethical business partners to provide it with sufficient capital to keep the terror state functioning.

If you want to learn much more about the Moonies and their wierd connections to North Korea (after suddenly dropping their anti-communist doctrine), Jasper Becker’s Rogue Regime has a fairly extensive discussion. The book is phenomenal, by the way–almost certainly the best-written, best-researched North Korean book written. I’ll have more to say when I finish it.

The Reverend Douglas Shin forwards the text of the introduction to the new edition, which he translated for Kang Chol-Hwan. Rev. Shin was the first important activist for the North Korean people I met, back in 2003 before I had even started this blog. He’s an extraordinarily kind and modest man, yet wise and often downright shrewd. His site is definitely worth a look, too, although he’s the first to admit that it’s cosmetically challenged.

Very possibly. Very possibly at this site. Brendan Brown reports that several of his students have taken up my invitation to start posting here. Since the main X Factor about North Korea is what and how its people think, this should add greatly to what all of us can learn. It’s a very exciting possibility to host what may be the very first North Korean dissident blog.