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Category: Activism

July 27, 2006

How a Party Rooted in Authoritarianism Can Grow a Conscience

Cardinal Kim Soo-Hwan seems to have very little use for President Roh Moo-Hyun and Unifiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, and he’ll get neither an argument nor any points for originality from me there. The most important words he spoke were for the Korean right, which has been much too busy boycotting the National Assembly to use its seats there to propose a better direction for Korea. I hope the GNP (and everyone else) heeds the Cardinal’s words: Cardinal Kim also urged...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society
July 27, 2006

LiNK Update

Lot of great stuff over at the LiNK site, including a video. Keep scrolling. If you live in Seoul, Andy Jackson is asking for passing along LiNK’s request for volunteers to teach English to North Korean refugees (I use the term intentionally). It’s easy to miss the potential importance of this, but English is key to connecting North Koreans to the greater world and allowing them to describe their experiences in their own words.
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Refugees
July 19, 2006

An Image I’ll Never Shake

… the head of a murdered child, laid out in a field in a North Korean village, with residents brought down to see if anyone knew whose child this had been. Like twelve other wandering, homeless children before him, he had been lured into one of the last remaining restaurants in the starving district. Once the owner lured the children in, she would bathe them, and then strangle them. And butcher them. And then, she would sell their flesh to...
Categories Activism/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Washington Views
July 7, 2006

The Wrong Kind of Attention

[Update: You MUST read this IHT op-ed by Grace Kang and David Scheffer, on raising the issue of prosecuting Kim Jong Il for crimes against humanity. I tend to agree that this would go nowhere in the U.N., which (and this is me talking now) would be a perfect demonstration of the institution’s worthless as a global law-giver. Thanks to a commenter.] Two and a half years ago, I left the Army and started a blog called OneFreeKorea to bring...
Categories Activism/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
June 29, 2006

NK Freedom Watch, Issue 4

… courtesy of Freedom House. This issue discusses Europe’s increasing concern for the North Korean people, but focuses on human trafficking. Their definition of human trafficking doesn’t just involve the movement of enslaved people, but also involves the movement of things enslaved people are forced to make. I particularly recommend this issue to those interested in such issues as Kaesong and other exports from the North; this issue contains accounts of gulag inmates being made to produce products for export.
Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Human Trafficking
June 26, 2006

Kim Jong Il Becomes a Liability for China

Wasn’t it just yesterday when the United States had finally begun to reduce the U.S. military footprint on Okinawa, after years of local residents’ demands? That was then. Tokyo and Washington will deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles in Japan for the first time, officials said Monday amid concerns North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile. The U.S. and Japan reached an accord on the interceptors this month after reports of the possible test-firing became public, and...
Categories Activism/China/Geopolitics/Japan/NK Military/Taiwan/U.S. Military/WMD
June 20, 2006

The End of Sunshine?

[Update 6/20: As predicted, the North Koreans aren’t taking this well.] “We have the right to speak.” — North Korean government official, talking about South Korean politics Has international pressure has finally forced South Korea to abandon years of official apathy about the phobocracy that is North Korea? Finally, South Korea declares, it will ask the North to treat the lives of its people with a modicum of respect.
Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 17, 2006

Freedom House Update: The Power of Information

Freedom House forwarded the latest edition of NK Freedom Watch, which I’m pleased to graf and link: “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. ~ Goethe These words ring especially true as we examine the abuse and exploitation of North Korean citizens under the heavy hand of Kim Jong Il. As North Korean defector, Tae San Kim, explained to the European Parliament in March of 2006, “North Korea is the world’s most closed society....
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Uncategorized
June 7, 2006

Yodok Story Coming to Washington

Confirmed by a reliable source: the U.S. debut for Yodok Story will be Wednesday, September 27th at the National Theater. There will be seven shows, through Sunday, and the plans (still not final) are to move to New York and the West Coast, probably L.A., after that. Freedom House and Sen. Sam Brownback both helped bring the production here. I had a chance to meet the director, very briefly, in April. My impression was that he’s physically very small, stylishly...
Categories Activism/Censorship/Human Rights/Korean Society
June 6, 2006

Derailed on the Underground Railroad

[Update 7 Jun 06: A hopeful sign? Personally, I think we need to keep the pressure on. My heartfelt thanks to those of you — and I’m hearing from a number of you — who have sent letters, and to the journalists I contacted who have shown great interest in the story. That especially goes for the Yonhap correspondent.] Via the Christian activist Tim Peters, one of the founders of North Korean refugees’ underground railroad, and reader/teacher/activist Brendan Brown, eight...
Categories Activism/Refugees/Southeast Asia
June 3, 2006

Your Dream Job?

Jae Ku, Director of Freedom House’s North Korea program, sends: Dear Friends, I am in need of a Korean speaking intern (native, read and write) for this summer. This is a paid internship, to commence immediately. If you know of anyone, please have that person send me his/her resume. I am looking for someone who is mature and responsible. It is helpful but not necessary to have a background in human rights or North Korean issues. Thank you, Jae Jae...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
June 2, 2006

S. Korean Students Will Hold Summit on N. Korean Human Rights

[Updated 6 Jun 06] In the heart of hostile territory, no less — North Cholla Province! The Young Students’ Solidarity for North Korean Human Rights (YSS) announced on June 1, “We will hold the “˜College Students’ Progress Assembly for Improvement in North Korean Human Rights and Democracy,’ which is the first time college students alone have held a meeting related to North Korean human rights. Founded in May 2003, the organization has a membership of over 500 students at 25...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Education
June 1, 2006

The ‘Streets Ingore,’ the Chosun Ilbo Doesn’t

Sort of a bad news/good news proposition: a few dozen passersby turn away, but a few million citizens read a sympathetic portrayal of your message and see your photogenic messengers in full color. The article depicts LiNK as a lonely voice in the wilderness, but in fact, Project Sunshine was media exploitation brilliance. LiNK is the flip side of the lesson Hanchongryon forgot: effective activism isn’t about numbers. It’s about using the numbers you have effectively.
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society
May 29, 2006

Operation Sunshine Continues

LiNK is asking for your help to shame South Korea’s government into showing some concern for the 23 million Korean citizens living North of the DMZ: LiNK is amassing a giant collection of “messages to the president” which we shall put on a banner to be delivered to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to show him that the people of Korea and the world are watching how he deals with the North Korean human rights crisis. Here’s how it works:...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Education/Korean Politics/Korean Society
May 22, 2006

Modern-Day Comfort Women Describe Escape and Survival

In a follow-on to interviews they gave here, some of the first six North Korean refugees are talking about their escapes from the North. Here is an excerpt from the Dong-a Ilbo’s report: A woman who shared the same cell with Chan-mi died of malnutrition with her whole body swollen; another woman she witnessed was beaten to death. Chan-mi wept when she said, “When I was pardoned last year in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party...
Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 21, 2006

LiNK ‘Operation Sunshine’ Events This Week

Adrian Hong sends: ================================================================= SEOUL ““ On Tuesday, May 23, 2006, at 10:30 am, some 30 members of a delegation of members of LiNK, Liberty in North Korea, an international grassroots NGO, will be meeting with former President Kim Young Sam, at his residence in the Sangdo neighborhood of Seoul. LiNK is a group devoted to raising awareness of the North Korean humanitarian and human rights crisis, and engages in activism and advocacy on the issue. The delegation of LiNK...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
May 19, 2006

Coming to a Congress Near Me…

… the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Ban Ki Moon doesn’t sound very enthusiastic: “A protest expedition by certain organizations could inconvenience all of our people as it may have a negative effect on our efforts to negotiate the visa-waiver program with the United States,” said the statement, also signed by Deputy Prime Minister for Finance Han Duck-soo. The minute one of them pulls out a stick or a pipe, I say ship the lot of them to Gitmo. In...
Categories Activism/Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea