A Modest Drumbeat

The Chosun Ilbo and the  Donga Ilbo are looking at their calendars and seeing a slew of events that will further publicize human rights conditions in North Korea.  Will this be the year our nascent movement finally demonstrates some media sophistication?

• March:  The State Department  will publish its new human rights report (although I don’t have any reason to suspect anything earth-shaking to come of it). 
• March 23rd:  European Parliament hearings on North Korea; Freedom House conference in Brussels (we’re still seeking a guest-blogger; FH Web page here; interview with Program Manager Jae Ku here).  Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, will attend.
• April:  U.N. Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn presents his report on North Korea to the European Commission on Human Rights.
• April 22-30:  North Korea Freedom Week (to participate).

A fascinating fact is that these events are all taking place just before South Korea’s May 31st parliamentary elections.  One overhyped non-event with which they won’t have to complete is a planned April  visit by Kim Dae Jung to North Korea, which was such a transparent attempt at electoral manipulation that it drew howls of protest from the opposition and had to be postponed.  Whether the visit takes place in April, June, October, or never, it could just as aptly illustrate how little of substance Sunshine and its successor policies have accomplished in the last six years.  North Korea is still as belligerent as ever, and its ordinary people are just as isolated, repressed, and hungry.  On the other hand, the alliance with the United States has never been in worse shape, despite Korea’s lack of readiness to do without its substantial benefits.