Embracing evil
Michael Bassett is an odd character of a kind that draws an increasingly selective audience–people who really, really hate other people who criticize North Korea about human rights.
The most recent targets of Bassett’s rage are a friend of mine, Casey Lartigue, and this woman:
In an article by John Power for The Diplomat, Bassett calls the woman, a North Korean refugee named Yeonmi Park, “a liar” and a “spinstress” for telling The Irish Independent, in her slightly broken English: “Every morning and every … like … some riverside like this [gesturing out the window] you can see the dead bodies floating, and if you go out in the morning and just people dead there.”
Park’s actual words are on video, but Power–or whatever source he drew from–alters her words slightly but materially to, “Every morning at riversides like this you can see dead bodies floating. If you go out in the morning, they are there.” In search of a controversy, Power confronts Park with this misquote, and she responds, “What I meant was … it was the countryside and special border areas and in winters (you could see bodies in rivers).” Or so says John Power.
Power then quotes Felix Abt, a windbag North Korean apologist and Switzerland’s greatest embarrassment to humanity since François Genoud. Abt also accuses Park of lying: “So I did see poverty-stricken areas, infrastructure in shambles, broken bridges over rivers and I would certainly have seen dead bodies if there were any.” Abt, who has also called the U.N. Commission of Inquiry report on North Korea “a massive exaggeration,” tells Power, “[T]here may have been floating bodies in rivers in the terrible crisis years of the 90s when 600,000 people starved to death according to an estimate by the U.N. official who was then supervising foreign aid during the famine in the country.” (Abt’s sentences are as long as tapeworms.)
Bassett accuses Park of “sensationaliz[ing] the narrative to make everybody think that, you know, this is the ‘90s North Korea. It’s not.”
That is to say, Abt and Bassett insist that Park must be lying because there haven’t been “any” (Abt’s word) bodies found in North Korean rivers since 2000. Well, now…. If only some journalist who would rather inform his readers about a serious story than make a carnival sideshow of it would do some minimal research and conclusively establish just who’s really full of what here:
[February 11, 2008: Another North Korean “sensationalist”]
I’ll give Felix Abt this much–she certainly isn’t floating. Abt claims to have lived and “traveled unaccompanied to even remote provinces of” North Korea at the time this video was taken. Park is 21 now and was 13 when she fled, which would have been around 2006. I wasn’t with Yeonmi Park, so I can’t really prove she’s telling the truth, but I’ve already proven that Abt and Bassett aren’t, and I’m just getting started.
This video is from a 2005 documentary, “Undercover in the Secret State.” The two public executions shown at the beginning of the video were filmed that same year, also a year when Felix Abt lived and traveled widely in North Korea. At the 20-minute mark, dead and dying people are shown lying in the streets. It does not specify what year that footage was taken.
Those scenes are consistent with what many other North Korean refugees have reported in the “post”-famine years? Do Abt and Bassett claim they’re lying, too?
This video was taken in September 2004, also while Felix Abt claims to have lived and traveled widely in North Korea:
[Above: children whose pictures have never been tweeted by Felix Abt.]
This woman left North Korea in 2006, when Felix Abt lived and traveled widely in North Korea:
Abt left North Korea in 2009, but insists that conditions in North Korea have improved recently. Plenty of North Koreans disagree, and so do your lying eyes. This video, depicting something else Abt presumably never saw in all his travels, was taken in 2012, after Abt left:
[She gave her life to help an armchair hegemon she never
met win an argument on the internet.]
Since 2012, the bodies of dead North Koreans have floated as far as the coast of Japan. As to Abt’s failure to spot any labor camps, I’m sure Ezra Pound never toured Sachsenhausen, either:
Abt and Bassett are demonstrably wrong, and if there was any decency in either of them, they’d apologize to Yeonmi Park, publicly and prominently. Which is why they won’t.
Power’s article quotes me, accurately, as calling Felix Abt an “apologist,” as did one of the few people to review his book, for The South China Morning Post. (Power follows me on Twitter, but he never contacted me before he wrote his article, not that it’s any loss to me.) Abt claims to have a sufficient basis of knowledge to deny Park’s allegations. But if he traveled as extensively in North Korea as he claims without seeing any of these things, he’s either lying or too blind to read a cuckoo clock at high noon. Here is a man who has pursued his own human rights inquiry with the tenacity of O.J.’s search for the real killer.
As for Bassett, I can’t see how he could be in any better position to accuse Miss Park of lying than I am to vouch for Bassett’s claim that he experienced “brain injury related problems” arising from his military service, but I’ve read enough of his writing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. I’ve never met Bassett and don’t particularly care to, but I thank him for his service and wish him a full and speedy recovery. I’m not sure whether I should loathe Bassett or pity him, or whether those reactions are mutually exclusive. However you explain him, I can’t see what useful skill, knowledge, or judgment he brings to any discussion about North Korea.
Still, when Bassett makes the conspiratorial charge that Park is “being fed a narrative” and “being told to perform,” I feel the need to clarify that I’ve never met Yeonmi Park or discussed any sanctions legislation with her, although I hope to do both in the near future. Park says word of the legislation I helped write–along some brilliant, hard-working staffers from both parties, and at the direction of leaders like Rep. Ed Royce and Rep. Elliot Engel–has spread among North Korean refugees, and that they approve. I’m profoundly honored to hear this. Obviously, I value their views far more than I value the views of Bassett or Abt.
Strangely, Bassett says he “does not doubt other defectors and accepts the findings of the recent UN Commission of Inquiry’s report,” which found evidence of crimes against humanity. If Bassett really read that report–and I can’t say much for his reading comprehension skills with respect to H.R. 1771–he knows that many other witnesses testified before the COI about crimes as bad as, or worse than, those Miss Park described in her interview, including rape, infanticide, mass starvation, and systematic mass murder.
So what’s Bassett’s point? If the COI’s broader charges are true, and if his own argumentum-ad-ignorantiam denial of bodies lying in North Korean rivers and streets is demonstrably false, why bully this young woman after all she’s been through? Does Bassett also accuse her of lying about the time her mother allowed herself to be raped to save Yeonmi, then just 13, from the same fate? Was he there? Does he suggest that things like that don’t happen, either? Is he just gratuitously mean, or is there some more sympathetic explanation for him? I don’t pretend to know.
~ ~ ~
There are now 25,000 North Koreans living in South Korea. Survey data collected from refugees in China while Abt lived in North Korea tell us that nearly all of them claim to have seen starvation, extrajudicial execution, or other human rights abuses. About 300 of them testified before the Commission of Inquiry. If it were possible to check out all of their stories, I’m sure some of them would turn out to have been exaggerated. Many more would be authenticated as true, as Bassett and Abt seem to concede. Some North Koreans will take the horrors they saw to their graves. Many others already have. Kim Jong Un has denied us access to most of the corroborating evidence. That, by itself, looks like circumstantial evidence of something.
North Korea takes the position that all of these refugees really are liars who fled their homes, their friends, and their families—and risked their lives—to slander their homeland. It has launched a smear campaign against the most prominent of them. The fact that Abt and Bassett are doing the same now may be a complete coincidence.
But if all of these people really are lying, why is North Korea the world’s most closed and secretive country? Why not give the Red Cross free access to the places people like me—and dozens of survivors and former guards—call prison camps, and be done with it? Why not let the World Food Program inspect and distribute food freely? Aren’t Abt and Bassett tired enough of this argument to join in those calls, or are they afraid of what we’d see? Wouldn’t North Korea’s acceptance of some transparency be an easy way to thwart whatever hidden agenda its critics allegedly harbor, or to refute the argument that North Korea is pathologically opposed to reform? Why not prove me wrong, so that I can take up woodworking again?
Of course, Abt must realize that joining in such a call might jeopardize his business interests in Pyongyang, but I’m sure he could find another profession equally suited to his character, like selling cutlery to ISIS, or picking through the dirt at Auschwitz to scavenge for gold fillings.
Finally, if Bassett and Abt’s claims are so easily discredited, what’s the point of printing them, other than to draw traffic to a freak show where two men, each a strange and questionable specimen in his own way, libel a young refugee woman about her escape from a living hell? Regardless of John Power’s intentions, was exploiting all concerned really worth it?
~ ~ ~
Note to commenters: This thread will be moderated. I will delete any threats, needlessly crude language, or previously unpublished details about Bassett or Abt’s personal lives. I wouldn’t piss on Felix Abt if he was on fire, but I take Bassett at his word that he was injured in the service of his country, which is why I’ve followed my better judgment and ignored him until I felt obliged to defend Yeonmi Park from his bullying and libel. In that spirit, I removed the reference to a caption contest.
What a pleasure it was to read this wonderful evisceration of trolls.
Thank you. Abt has made an embryonic mini-industry out of lies, half-truths and weasel words.
This was out of the ballpark.
Check your sources more meticulously! Last video was taken in 2009-2010. Last picture is a screenshot from the Mirror tabloid newspaper, hardly a bastion of accountability. You can do better than that if you are calling out other journalists (John Power). Other than that, yeah all that stuff is pretty convincing and only the most ‘objective’ of people could dismiss it. Bringing mental health issues into it is shoddy writing though, everything else you said was credible enough. Good job!
Steve, I didn’t actually say when that video was taken. And while I agree that the Mirror isn’t the most credible source, I’ll give the video they published a presumption of veracity. The video doesn’t come with an embed code, so you have to go to the article to see it.
Thank you for this interesting and important article. It touches base on everything wrong with HR in the DPRK that the mentioned detractors are overlooking but the aggressive tone of the piece really takes away from the core message.
Totally understand the need to defend themselves against unwarranted attacks but I think as a public figure Mr Lartigue is going about it the wrong way. The voice of reason is one that should be publicly delivered in an intellectual way, when it is reduced to citing previous mental health issue, it is just plain mud slinging. I firmly believe that Bassett is not the voice of reason but why go down to his level?
I posted a comment on Mr Lartigue’s blog post yesterday highlighting my constructive critique that I have just summarised above, and checked back a couple of times for a response. The first time I checked there was a couple more comments, second time, comments all deleted… I don’t understand why as I critiqued only the execution of his attack, not the important contents themselves. The voice of reason, which I think Mr. Lartigue is in the context of this argument, doesn’t need to censor his critics when their subject has validity. I am really curious as to why he felt the need to do this.
This, I’m afraid leads me to believe that Mr Lartigue needs to reevaluate his use of the public sphere before he starts damaging the important issue itself through his own endeavours.
Thanks again for this piece.
Sorry but how would he know how many bodies have been found in North Korean rivers? I don’t think anyone would know for sure. He can’t exactly attack refugees from North Korea making claims about a figure, he doesn’t know himself either. No one does, except the regime of course.
Darren, I sympathize with your criticism, up to a point. I didn’t care much when Bassett attacked me, but I care very much that his writings have been deeply hurtful to Yeonmi Park. It’s traumatizing her and might have silenced her, and she has something important to contribute to our global conversation about this issue at a critical moment in history. Bassett has written about her with a meanness that demands explanation, and perhaps even understanding. Miss Park might have ignored Bassett but for the fact that a “journalist” saw fit to reprint his groundless libel. Bassett should admit that he was wrong, apologize, and leave Yeonmi Park alone.
Couldn’t she go after him for libel Joshua?
Hi Joshua,
I did not alter Ms. Park’s quote. It was taken directly from the Irish Independent: http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/one-young-world/why-is-the-world-allowing-a-holocaust-to-happen-again-brave-north-korean-shares-harrowing-story-of-escape-30673558.html
As you note, it is not exactly the same as that contained in the video interview. I can’t say whether this is because her words were edited, or if it is a separate quote from another part of the interview. I can’t say as I did not author the piece.
Regarding the bodies issue, I did in fact do research, including scanning the COI report for similar claims. Unfortunately, I did not come across the report you link to, which in hindsight I would have liked to have included in the piece as an example of a body found. That’s a failure on my behalf.
As for my intentions, they were simply to highlight one aspect of the North Korea debate and provide an opportunity for Ms. Park to address charges against her, a public figure, being made in the public sphere. She has now, for instance, accounted for some sources of suspicion in her account.
Thank you.
John Power
John, I don’t think your intentions were bad, but I don’t see that there was a legitimate story here either, and I think your story hurt Miss Park needlessly. I say this as someone who isn’t taking much joy in the fact that I’ve probably caused hurt to Mike Bassett (although I feel no remorse about Felix Abt).
A careful review of the available evidence would have revealed the lack of any legitimate controversy. To the extent that Bassett and Abt’s allegations deserved to be covered at all, it’s important to present the evidence accurately and completely so that readers are informed. As for Miss Park’s quote, I accept (and suggested in my post) that you took it from a secondary source, but I obviously wish you’d gone to the primary source for an accurate quotation.
I hope you will correct or update the story and point to the abundant extrinsic evidence that proves that Abt and Bassett are, at the very least, uninformed in making their allegations, and that Miss Park’s story–while it cannot be proven true at this point–is certainly plausible and consistent with the claims of many other refugees. As the story stands, it is damaging to Yeonmi Park’s reputation, and consequently to the important cause she supports. A correction would give her peace. Thank you for commenting.
My research contact with academics who work regularly in North Korea along with people from NGO’s completely correlates to the sorts the claims about bodies after winter made by Miss Park. I have little reason to doubt her account and it lines up with existing evidence and testimony. Certainly it was more frequent during the famine but starvation still appears to be an issue in outlying areas of the country. Happy to share my notes with people who want them.
Hi Joshua,
I think we will just have to agree to disagree on the news/public interest value of the story. I believe scepticism is part of the North Korea debate, both because of what it adds to our understanding and what it says about various actors themselves. This is especially the case when dealing with such an isolated, inaccessible and politically-charged place as North Korea.
Naturally, I cannot speak to the claims of Park and Abt that they, respectively, did or did not see dead bodies. I accept that the report you link to about a dead body is relevant. However, this does not preclude taking issue with the characterization of bodies floating in rivers “every morning” (which, I stress, is not to say that I challenge this claim myself personally.)
I would also note that the issue of whether, or to what extent, conditions have improved in North Korea is a subject of considerable debate, with a multitude of views: http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/how-capitalism-conquered-north-korea/
I would like to note finally that the quote does not come from a secondary source per se, but from the newspaper that interviewed her. However, as there seems to be a slight discrepancy with the video — which would appear to show the same conversation as reported in the article — I will ask my editor to attach a note with the raw version as well.
Those who defend communists are themselves guilty of the crimes against humanity the communists commit daily. I have no sympathy for them, or so-called “journalists” who attack traumatized teenagers from their ivory tower.
In fact, people like Mr. Power, with his intellectually-dishonest attitude toward the victims of the Kim regime, may actually be more contemptible than Abt or Bassett. By publishing what he did, applying a false equivalence between the positions of the Nork apologists and the refugees, he helps hide the truth and perpetuates the slaughter of innocents.
I hope he never experiences what Ms. Park did.
And while I admit that most folks with a US military background earned more respect than I did, may I point out that many of the most damaging traitors this country has seen sin Benedict Arnold have been military men of renown and stature?
*since
I’m also talking occasionally to NG0-representatives and business people traveling inside North Korea and ask them if they come across mass starvation and dead bodies in the streets and in rivers. No-one has confirmed it to me. That’s why I’ve challenged claims that there are countless bodies floating in the rivers of today’s North Korea. I also used to compare my observations with that of others (NGO, business people) when I was living in North Korea, but nobody would have noticed mass starvation then. Or was I just talking to the wrong people? In any case, my point was to shed some light on obviously exaggerated claims and not to defend the regime as my detractors claim.
And I should perhaps repeat here that I have never been a regime apologist. Those who know me better call me a change agent instead and call my detractors people who cement the status quo for their own reasons.
On a side note, Craig Urquhart (encouraged by Casey Lartigue, a Seoul-based American activist taking the moral high ground) has been trolling me with dozens of posts on Facebook and called me a criminal, a monster, a parasite carrying diseases and so on and wished that “tens of thousands should get into Stone-throwing moods” against me. They’ve succeeded and, unsurprisingly, Joshua Stanton has joined them. Jihadis united, bravo!
Felix, Yeonmi Park never claimed to have seen “countless” bodies. You claimed that she couldn’t have seen any. You were wrong. You should apologize to Yeonmi Park. Whatever others have said about you on other people’s Facebook pages isn’t my problem. What I called you is here on this page. You’re an apologist. The SCMP reviewer was correct.
Great article, Joshua. The combination of smarts, a lawyer’s ability to form persuasive arguments, and moral outrage is truly a force to be reckoned with. The pointed sarcasm is icing on the cake, and makes your points all the more forceful.
The Irish Newspaper ‘Independent’: “Yeonmi Park gestured out the window towards the view of the Royal Canal in Dublin, where an unsightly flotilla of plastic bottles floats on the surface, trapped by the lock.
If this was North Korea, it would be bodies,” she said. Like Pyongyang Ireland’s Dublin is the country’s capital and its largest city. “Every morning at riversides like this you can see dead bodies floating. If you go out in the morning, they are there,” explains Yeonmi Park. Did anybody see floating bodies in the Taedong and Pothong rivers in Pyongyang?
I took issue with this and I disagree with you, Josh, that I should apologize for this. If the journalist misquoted her, she should apologize. I sent her an email 10 ago asking her if Yeonmi Park did make these statements. I have not received any reply so far.
Source: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/one-young-world/why-is-the-world-allowing-a-holocaust-to-happen-again-brave-north-korean-shares-harrowing-story-of-escape-30673558.html
Well, it’s true that crazy people never think they’re crazy. Similarly, it must be true that no useful idiot ever thinks that he is a useful idiot. I’ve read Abt’s book. What a waste of perfectly good paper that thing was.
Felix everything in your posts has been answered within the article. One wonders if you are being purposefully intellectually dishonest. Your sock puppet comments on my own article in The Diplomat used the same style of argument.
Speaking from the perspective of credibility you are starting to become the Black Knight of North Korean commentary. You loose an arm, nothing happened. You get caught making statements that are completely irreconcilable with testimony within the UN, defectors and academia… Tis but a scratch. Then you just ignore whatever is placed against you and all you have left now is to threaten to bite our legs off. There isn’t enough of substance of you left for my distain to stick to.
Seriously, you have been denounced by just about everyone, you have no credibility and your own posts are often indistinguishable from KCNA stories. Take your bat go home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Robert, you wrote a piece about the “academic” (sic!) debate between those who are pro-engagement versus those who are against. As a partisan writer you clearly demonstrated your bias by misrepresenting the pro-engagement advocates who complained about it (I’m not the only one!). You hate being challenged but there is no need to resort to labels such as the Black Knight of the North Korean regime, that would simply be ridiculous and disqualify yourself.
I never called you the black knight of the North Korean regime. Rather, I stated you were starting to become the Black Knight of North Korean commentary. If you are going to complain about misrepresentation you could at least avoid indulging in it the same paragraph.
Abt, you’ve been able to mince words and be highly selective on how you respond to criticism since you published your book. Unfortunately, as I predicted, the more people you interact with and the more that read your book, the more and more people will take grave offence at your attacks on refugees.
Had you decided to refrain from commentary and advocacy for the regime, readers would have let it slide with negative reviews on Amazon . Unfortunately, you’ve repeatedly gone rabbit hunting for defectors.
I’m not sure why you feel the need to do this. Is it guilt? Are you trying to discredit other narratives which put the lie to yours? Are you simply unaware of the disingenuous, deceitful tone you bring to every discussion.
You say something, deny you said it, imply , then deny the implication- it’s the same manner you used in the book. You say one thing, then qualify it again, but then -schizophrenically- slip right back and say what you intended.
You did this with almost everything in your book. You can’t maintain that South Korea and the US started the Korean War- it’s objectively untrue- so instead of parroting the North Korean lie that they were invaded, do you just default to , ” it’s complicated”; you know that themasz of evidence is that the cheonan was sunk by North Korea, but you disingenuously evade responsibility for claiming it was staged by throwing up your hands.
It’s hard not to conclude that you’re doing everything in your power to carry water for the regime, trying hard to stay close enough inside the propaganda lines to avoid offending North Korean regime sensibilities.
You wiggle so much it’s amusing to watch . You’re not being clever about it.
One minute you’re saying you never attack refugee stories and the next you’re saying they’re all e Gfersted and North more isn’t a that bad. You want to be given credit for being “neutral” without having to take respobdiviry for your actual words. An immortal movie moment conex to mind when you claim neutrality.
” I do not think that word means what you think it means.”
Either own what you say and defend it without shifting in your chair and trying to weasel out of it or stop.
You’re just embarrassing yourself.
I don’t care about the validity of Abt’s claims as his book speaks for itself in it’s discrepancies, or at least its very objective way of looking at North Korea. However, he has an opinion that is in the public sphere that is open for discussion. However, attacks endorsed and made by Casey Lartique are of a personal nature and have no place within the realm of North Korean human rights advocacy.
Casey Lartique needs to tone down his hijacking of Yeonmi’s journey, even if he was an important part of it. The public sphere related to North Korean HR advocacy is an important area that nobody ‘owns’ and I feel Casey’s relentless justifications (that are sometimes of a snide manner) does more damage to Yeonmi than support her. In this case, I am sure the truth will align itself.
Yeonmi Park is an incredible 21 YEAR OLD (!!) that displays traits that will eventually associate her with some of the great advocates of the past. She will be a force in the area of NK advocacy and i am excited to see where she goes. She is young but must understand that if she wants to be public figure, there are some people who won’t be nice to her and some people that will challenge her.(I am not even talking about the ‘target on her life’ – that is a whole different level I could not imagine accepting). These people put themselves back into their own boxes, as this article testifies, but a proverbial cotton wool wrapping of Yeonmi (which this seems it is) does more to damage her advocacy than support it and her.
Casey Lartique, a great fighter needs an even better cornerman, Fight her corner, don’t fight the fight for her, you will both be disqualified otherwise!
Felix, here’s a thought for you.
Try being honest. Try arguing with the intent to clarify, not obfuscate. Try owning the things you say and having the courage of your opinions , if not convictions.
These things seem foreign to the person who wrote your book, as evidenced by the book itself, and to the person who makes the insinuations and accusations you’ve been making.
They do, however, have the merit of being creditable and inspiring good faith.
François Genoud… Jesus, what a piece of work that guy was.
2013, but this is the country Felix Abt wants us to think is just slightly misunderstood.
It’s all just exaggeration and hype. Religious leader cult, abusive and indoctrinating regime, obsessive security, absolute lack of freedom, starvation and social abuse: These things are, according to Abt, just, … misunderstood quirks of a regime honestly trying to cope with the world.
Any refugees telling lurid tales are lying.
The only thing Abt doesn’t say is “All hail the Great Leader”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2nhmI8ihAQ
Joshua: Thanks for your reply, your response is duly noted!
I also look forward to reading Mr. Lartigue’s cryptic responses to his detractors (and hopefully the deleted comments, too) in the Korean Times! 🙂
Abt’s book, “A Capitalist in North Korea” was the definition of the banality of evil. It was full of half-truths, contradictions, arrogance, pettiness, vanity, and overall vapidness.
The following link is my review of this excruciatingly awful book.
http://thekoreanforeigner.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-capitalist-in-north-korea.html
Thank you Joshua and thank you John for speaking some much needed reason.
Darren, Why do you and “Mullers” have the same IP address?
Same institute, same router, different colleague, similar disenchantment, similar valid content. If you would like a personal email from both of us confirming this, I could (reluctantly!) organise it at the promise of anonymity (I do not want to get the type of emails Mike Bassett was getting – Refer to his fb page) but I hope you could just take my word for it. 🙂
What price did we pay to get Bae and Miller out of North Korea? President Obama sent intelligence chief James Clapper with a letter saying that the release would be a positive gesture. The North Koreans were disappointed, but they went ahead with it. Calvin Woodward has the big story.
When I saw there were 33 comments on this thread, I knew I was about to watch something amazing. I was not disappointed.
Many unfortunate folks mentioned here. Let’s not lose sight of the issue: North Korea is a horrific place that decent people want to see changed as quickly as possible. There is no need to attack personalities (we all have flaws): the regime and those who defend it are evil enough.
They are embracing evil so well that both feature in an article by KCNA on this very issue!
Its a well known fact that defectors are payed well to tell their histories. Before invasion of Iraq hundreds of defectors from Iraq ” witnessed”about Iraqi WMD and it was taken as true. Im very sceptical about Yeonmi Park since she had delivered several different histories. Media reported that Kim Jong Un had killed her former girlfriend. After some months she appeared on TV. I think some of the defectors are on same moral ground as those Iraqi defectors that ” witnessed” about Iraqi WMD. This blog are just a popagandaoutlet for preparing public opinion for a military attack anainst North Korea.
Fanatic ideologues and demagogues on this blog go as far as comparing me to the Swiss Nazi François Genoud. Others, like Katie Broder whom I don’t know, answers all my detractors: “The wrong label for a North Korea pioneer and agent of change” – here:
http://www.flipkart.com/reviews/RV2FU5LH89SZF8HQ3#
Here’s my favorite part: “0 of 0 users found this review helpful.”
Felix does have quite a few reviews on his book on Amazon Joshua, mostly positive ones at that. But one should disgard most Amazon reviews as people mindlessly rate anything they like 5 stars anyway.
“The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park. A high-profile North Korean defector has harrowing stories to tell. But are they true”? Here’s the answer:
“The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park. A high-profile North Korean defector has harrowing stories to tell. But are they true”? Here’s the answer:
http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-park/
“Eric” and “Felix” seem to feel some compulsion to attack little girls. I understand there is counseling for that.
I don’t know, Setnaffa. The fact that Felix made a demonstrably false claim about conditions in North Korea doesn’t make everything Miss Park said true. Mary Ann Jolley cited several alleged inconsistencies in Miss Park’s accounts. She offers a serious criticism that deserves a serious answer. I understand Miss Park is preparing one, so I’ll reserve judgment until I read it. Conversely, whatever the effect on Miss Park’s credibility, we already know we can’t trust Felix.
Seriously, Josh Stanton wanted me to apologize to “the defector who fooled the world”
http://jooparkblog.blogspot.kr/2014/12/yeonmi-park-defector-who-fooled-world.html
Thankfully, Mr. Abt, no matter what close examination reveals about Yeonmi Park, there are many tens of thousands more refugees than Ms. Park. Perhaps you should try meeting at least one before you throw your peanuts into the Great Leader’s jar.
Your near-total myopic blindness would be harmless if you weren’t such a contemptible moral coward.
Craig Urquhart, you’ve trolled me for weeks on Facebook and elsewhere, labeling me a criminal, liar etc. All I can say to the rest of the readers here is that I talked to a few defectors, and to one even here in Vietnam.
On another note, it must be shocking for those who want to freeze North Korea in a state of total isolation and maintain the status quo until it collapses when they notice that it’s quietly, and by its own standards, dramatically changing. More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30812237
In 1999-2000 I worked with a guy who grown up in Dandong, had recently been there, his family all still lived there, and he told me that it was quite strange living near North Korea. he told me about he dead bodies. That the soldiers on the NK side could fairly often be heard shooting at people who were trying to cross and that people would constantly find dead bodies by or in the (Yalu) river. That people there were still starving although not as many. That he felt sorry for them. That NK seemed horrible and bizarre, even to Chinese. That was his opinion.
There is no way that he was making this up. He was a scientist, and as far as I know was completely apolitical. He had no reason whatsoever to lie.