Of Conferences and Reports … and Reports from Conferences
10-10-10 has been another busy day for North Korea watchers, what with the military parade being broadcast live from Pyongyang and the passing of Hwang Jang-yop.
But I want to mention several things I’ve spotted over the last weeks and months and the upcoming NKnet conference in Washington, D.C., on October 21st. This will be in no particular order.
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In the beginning of September Tim Peters chaired a panel and other OFK favorites (e.g., Chuck Downs) spoke at a conference at the Marine Corps University in Virginia. Tim’s website linked to C-SPAN footage of the event — there’s a neat feature there that (sort of) lets you see just the video segments for the speaker you’re interested in.
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Han Voice of Canada joined with Citizens’ Alliance of South Korea to hold CA’s 10th annual international conference on NKHRs in Toronto in late August. Han Voice has posted the .
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Curious about ? I haven’t looked recently, but I always came up empty in past attempts to find a similar list for the State Department’s grants.
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In late July Angelina Jolie came to Seoul to promote a new movie (HT to Yuna). At the time I wrote up 2/3rds of a post about the UNHCR’s goodwill ambassador and her comments about the North Korean situation. Since I spent a lot of time looking for the actual video, I might as well at least pass the URL along. The question in Korean is at 10:43 followed by the English translation, then Jolie’s answer is 11:44 – 13:02.
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Friday, September 24th was Save North Korean Refugees Day, sponsored by the NK Freedom Coalition. They’ve published what they call “‘The List’ of North Korean refugees and humanitarian workers who are known to have been seized by Chinese authorities. It makes for chilling reading. Go to their home page for a file of LOTS of recent news reports and also testimony “from the Sept 23 Congressional Hearing, “Escaping North Korea: The Plight of Defectors,” hosted by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
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The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights compiled a report that the National Commission of Human Rights of Korea has just published in English: Survey Report on Political Prisoners’ Camps in North Korea. It’s currently the 3rd item listed.
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And last, but certainly not least, my new employer, NKnet (officially known in English as the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, whew), is holding a conference together with NED and the Sejong Institute on Thursday, October 21st, at NED headquarters in D.C. Robert King, Andrei Lankov, Kang Cheol Hwan, Marcus Noland, Roberta Cohen, Chuck Downs, and many others! RSVP by October 18th, mind you. All the details are here.
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As a post script, I leave you with some photos I took on September 28th in Daehangno, Seoul, of a press conference against the 3rd generation of the Kim clan getting power. It was held by three NK refugee/defector college students groups. Look for “ËœLil Kim getting his crown and his first nuke from dad.
Now that’s good political theater
The survey on political prisoner camps in North Korea would be fascinating if it were not so sad.
On pages 104-105, the paper discusses that North Koreans consider the products from these camps to be high quality and that the productivity of the workers in these camps is much higher than the average North Korean worker, because the political prisoners work longer hours and become skilled in their work.
This is yet another confirmation of my belief that North Korea is literally a slave society. It is not just a small elite exploiting the masses but the masses in North Korea are also exploiting the small minority who are unfortunate enough to be caught up in these camps. The North Korean economy seems to be dependent on slave labor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11509166
Absolutely shameful reporting by the BBC here. The reporter apparently is very impressed by the North’s strong, intimidating performance and fails to take any larger picture into consideration. It’s like squirrel-reporting if I may coin a term.
Jason, he was doing a live report, at the regime’s request. He had to choice but to make it sound good right then and there.
Thank you for the link to the updated list of refuggess and activitist that have been arrested by the Chinese. I have been looking for an updated list.