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Category: Activism

October 10, 2009

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (and How You Can Help)

I’m very glad I took Dan B’s advice and attended the presentation on the North Korean Database Center (NKDB) for Human Rights. The event was held at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, last Thursday. NKDB founders Kim Sang Hun and Yoon Yeo Sang gave the presentation. The NKDB has created an extensive database of alleged human rights abuses in North Korea, one that is both comprehensive and subject to detailed statistical analysis for journalists, policymakers, and perhaps...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
September 29, 2009

Obama Administration Says First Words About Human Rights in North Korea

Eight months, a missile test, and a nuclear test after President Obama’s inauguration, he has finally gotten around to nominating Bob King to be Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, a move mandated by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 and the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008. The United States said Friday it was “very concerned” about human rights violations in North Korea, as President Barack Obama named an envoy to focus on...
Categories Activism/Diplomacy/Human Rights/U.S. Politics
September 24, 2009

Demonstrations Around the World Today Against PRC’s Repatriation of NK Refugees

A little before 1 p.m. today across the street from the Chinese embassy in Seoul 40+ people gathered to remind the Chinese government of a commitment it made 27 years ago today.  On September 24, 1982, the PRC signed the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, the major international agreements which lay out how signatory governments say they will handle refugees. Today’s demonstration in Seoul was one of approximately a dozen scheduled for...
Categories Activism/China/Human Rights/Refugees
September 12, 2009

Lisa Ling to Appear at LiNK Benefit Gala Tonight

[Liveblogging below. Paul Song is speaking, and Laura Ling will appear at the gala.] Wonderful. And you can watch it all here, live at 6 p.m. Eastern. For all the understandable criticism of Laura Ling, Euna Lee, and Mitch Koss for crossing into North Korea, a sentiment I’ve never understood has been the hostility by some toward Lisa Ling, whom to my eyes is guilty of nothing whatsoever here. Some have even appeared to criticize her for using her access...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Ling/Lee Incident/Media Criticism
September 9, 2009

Seoul Train Screening, Weekly Demonstration, LiNK Gala Live Online

For those living in Seoul, a couple events of note.  Thursday, September 10th, 8-10 p.m., there is a screening of Seoul Train near Hapjeong Station (lines 2 & 6), take exit 5 to Yogiga Gallery.  After the documentary, a couple activists from the film will talk.  Translation will be provided, all are encouraged to attend.  (Disclosure – this is being organized by a member of Justice for North Korea, a group of which I am an active member.  We don’t...
Categories Activism/Books & Films/Human Rights
August 29, 2009

Wanted: Scholar, Writer, and Researcher

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is seeking a researcher and writer for an upcoming study of North Korea’s hereditary political caste system, known in Korean as “songbun.” The songbun system, though technically abolished years ago, continues to control each North Korean citizen’s access to employment, residence in the best-supplied areas, and by extension, food and medical care. What is not known is the degree to which the influence of songbun persists, or the extent to which the...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
August 7, 2009

In What Sense Is John Choe Morally Distinguishable from a Neo-Nazi?

John Choe, personifying the appellation “useful idiot” as pictured here, won’t shift U.S. foreign policy if he’s elected to represent a district in Queens in the New York City Council.  Technically, Choe is correct when he evades questions about his sympathies with North Korea’s regime and demurs, “I’m not running for secretary of state–I’m running to represent the 20th district in the City Council,” Choe said. That is true in the same sense that David Duke ran for governor of...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Fifth Column/U.S. Politics
August 3, 2009

The Damning of Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-hyun

Video presentations from May’s Oslo Freedom Forum are now online with North Korea represented by Park San-Hak, a North Korean defector who currently works as a democracy activist. It takes a while for Park’s presentation to gain momentum, but it’s well worth watching in its entirety if you can get through the introduction because his talk eventually heats up. About midway through his presentation, Park embarks on a crusade of stinging criticism directed toward former South Korea presidents Kim Dae-jung...
Categories Activism/Defectors/Human Rights/North-South/Sunshine
July 5, 2009

Christian Group Threatened Over Faxes to North Korea

Remember when, several months ago, I published a long list of fax numbers for North Korean entities of various kinds, both inside and outside North Korea?  I wondered if any of those faxes would actually get though.  I guess we have our answer: North Korea has threatened a Christian ministry to stop sending Gospel messages to the country through fax, saying the consequence will be “very bad,” amid testing of seven missiles on U.S. Independence Day.  Voice of the Martyrs...
Categories Activism/Religion/Terrorism (NK)
June 4, 2009

Korean Church Coalition to Hold Nationwide Prayer Vigil Tomorrow; News media embargo the T-word

Laura Ling and Euna Lee are having their sham trial as we speak, so if you believe that prayer helps, this would be the time to pray for them: korean-church-coalition-press-release-for-june-5-2009-event.pdf I’m one who tends to think that tracking down and freezing all of their bank accounts would help much more, and Executive Order 13,224 would be a way to do that that doesn’t mix this case up with other sanctions under contemplation for nuke and missile tests.  The Administration is...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Media Criticism/Terrorism (NK)
June 3, 2009

Nationwide vigils for Ling and Lee to take place tonight

[This post will be updated as necessary.] Today is June 3 and that means tonight it will be June 4 in North Korea, where detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be tried in a North Korean court for supposed crimes of illegal entry into North Korea and unexplained “hostile acts.” In a show of support for the two women, vigils are taking place nationwide this evening and also tomorrow. Some vigils will include celebrity appearances, speakers and public...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
May 28, 2009

Vigils Called for June 3 in Support of Ling and Lee

The Facebook page for Laura Ling and Euna Lee (which Lisa Ling has now taken over as administrator) is calling for vigils to take place everywhere on June 3, U.S. time, which is June 4 in North Korea – the date of the scheduled trials for Ling and Lee. So far, vigil locations include Washington, D.C.; New York, NY; Birmingham, AL; Portland, OR; San Francisco and L.A., CA. Organizers are also asking for help from willing volunteers. Contact information is...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
May 21, 2009

Smart, Tough Diplomacy: Hillary Clinton Asks Bloggers to Free U.S. Journalists from North Korea

Because if there’s one thing Kim Jong Il simply cannot withstand, it’s that lethal instrument of soft power known as “snark:” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged women students to use the Internet to campaign for the release of two American women journalists held in North Korea. Clinton urged graduates of Barnard College, a women’s university in New York City, to show their opposition to Pyongyang’s detention of the two journalists who are due to go on...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Diplomacy/Unintended Humor/WTF?
April 29, 2009

Study: N. Korea Reduced Public Executions in Reaction to S. Korean Criticism

Does Kim Jong Il care what South Koreans, Americans, or other earthlings say about his regime? Citing interviews with about 50 North Korean defectors who fled their homeland between 2007 and 2008, the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a report that North Korea appears to be mindful of criticism from the international community about its human rights condition and has responded with limited changes. According to the annual report “White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2009,”...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Uncategorized
April 28, 2009

It’s North Korea Freedom Week

The list of events this year looks extremely interesting. For most of these, you have to be in Washington D.C. I only wish I had time to attend more of these. More here. One that I’d especially like to attend is a screening of “Kimjongilia,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Calls for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee will also be heard, but so far, Lisa Ling is maintaining her public silence. Sort of. Their families...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
April 1, 2009

Reporters Without Borders Petitions for the Release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee

Fittingly, Reporters Without Borders has launched an online petition for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who are now facing a North Korean “trial” for allegedly crossing the border between China and North Korea. Regardless of which side of the border Ling and Lee were on, or your views about North Korea policy, every reasonable person should agree that holding Ling and Lee is unjustified; indeed, it’s clear that North Korea is holding them as “bargaining chips,” which...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Media Criticism/Refugees
February 26, 2009

Japanese Human Rights Group Launches Spam Fax Campaign Against N. Korea

The Japanese NGO ReACH, which advocates for the return of abducted Japanese citizens and for human rights in North Korea, has assembled a long list of known North Korean fax numbers, which I’ve published here for all the world to see, below the fold. REACH is calling on Japan’s massive community of netizens (and you, too!) to send spam faxes to these numbers, and offers some recommendations to maximize the subversive/disruptive effect if you decide to join the fun: –...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Japan & Korea