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Category: Activism

September 3, 2007

In Lafayette Park Now: Reading the Names of 83,000 Abductees

[Update 3:   This demonstration came up in a State Department news briefing today.  From the comments of both the spokesman and Chris Hill, State is clearly backing away from calling these abductions acts of terrorism.  After unambiguously calling the abductions terrorists acts in 2006, State is now airbrushing this issue out of the record.  To a degree, you can understand this in the case of South Korea — tragic as that may be —  because in the end, it...
Categories Abductions/Activism
August 20, 2007

The Shenyang Six Are Freed

Do you still remember their story, the arrest of Adrian Hong and the courageous LiNK activists, and the shame on our Consul General in Shenyang?  I  had given up all hope, but others did not, and their persistence  has been  repaid with six lives.    WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 20 – Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) today announced that six North Korean refugees imprisoned by Chinese authorities last December were recently released from a prison in Shenyang. The six – which...
Categories Activism/Refugees
July 25, 2007

LiNK Seeking Resettlement Volunteers for North Korean Refugees in the United States

This is from LiNK‘s latest newsletter:  As the number of North Korean refugees arriving in the US for resettlement increases, we can also expect increasing numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors (children or teenagers), many of them orphaned entirely, and all who will be starting new lives in America. We are seeking families to become foster families for these children that can help to serve as a bridge between two very different cultures. Families with a Korean-American background or Korean-speaking ability...
Categories Activism/Refugees
July 24, 2007

Forgetting Someone?

The Korean War Abductees Research Institute (KWARI) will hold a press conference next  Thursday, July 26, 2007, at  2 p.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club in Washington.  The subject will be  whether the return of abducted South Koreas should be a prerequisite to a North-South peace treaty.  It’s  a question you can hardly believe anyone would have to ask — isn’t the first prerequisite to peace  that  each nation ends its continuing  offenses against the other...
Categories Abductions/Activism
July 16, 2007

Reminder: ‘Let My People Go’ Rally, Noon Tomorrow on the West Lawn of the Capitol

The Korean Church Coalition picks up an impressive and somewhat  surprising endorsement in advance of tomorrow’s rally.  As always, you need not be present to win.   If you have an  Internet connection or a phone, you can pester your Senators, your Representatives, and your pals at the Korean and  ChiCom Embassies: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn / Tel.: (202) 328-2500 (Why should you do this?) http://www.dynamic-korea.com/embassy/meet.php / (202) 939-5600 (Why should you do this?)
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Religion
June 8, 2007

Freedom House Panel on N. Korean Gulags

If you couldn’t make it to the Freedom House panel on the North Korean gulags, “Concentrations of Inhumanity,” Freedom House was kind enough to send of some of the remarks, the bios of the panelists, and even a few pictures.              One of the two  most salient points I take from the discussion is human rights scholar David Hawk’s explanation of why operating these camps is a “crime against humanity,” as defined by the Rome...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Camps
April 26, 2007

North Korea Freedom Week 2007: Bringing Attention to an Unreported Genocide

[Updated below with a report on the Congressional briefing. There was some very chilling testimony today.] [Update, 4/26:  Some great news about refugees in Thailand, and a video link to one of Tuesday’s events.] First, please digg this post, and please tell your friends to do the same. For those who don’t know why this issue needs more attention — including yours — please witness Camp 22 and its horrors, learn the grim fate of refugees sent back to North...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
April 16, 2007

Anju Links for 16 April 2007

*  My latest K-blog discovery is “Six Happy Feet,” a superb photoblog with a great  name.  You’ll want to put this one on your blogrolls.  It’s hard to read  it without concluding that this is just a genuinely nice family. *   A Nation’s Conscience.   Some South Koreans are demanding freedom for those North Korean refugees in Laos — the ones the South Korean government refused to help.  *   Heal Thyself, Part 1.   I can understand why...
Categories Activism/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/WMD
April 11, 2007

Anju Links for 11 April 2007

*   Are You Effing Kidding Me?   The Bush administration, reversing a six-year-old North Korea policy based on deep mistrust, said it will now rely on Pyongyang’s “good faith” to ensure that funds released yesterday from a Macao bank are not misused…. Mr. McCormack said the North Koreans had promised “to spend the money for the betterment of the North Korean people,” and not for the personal benefit of its officials. [Wash Times] Stupidity with malice aforethought is its...
Categories Activism/Anju Links/Appeasement/Kremlinology/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
March 21, 2007

Freedom House to Hold Geneva Event on N. Korea Human Rights

If you plan on being in Geneva this weekend, click the thumbnail to see the full-size flyer.  Thanks to a reader for sending.  Adrian Hong of Liberty in North Korea and Elizabeth Batha of Christian Solidarity Worldwide will speak, in addition to David Hawk and Jared Genser of DLA Piper.  Although Europe has not led on this issue, I tend to agree that strong European condemnation matters — it would inspire a more responsible European approach to business and investment,...
Categories Activism/Europe
March 17, 2007

‘Abduction’ Film Updates

This beautifully produced film, created by two National Geographic alumni, will air on BBC 4’s “Storyville” series  on March 22nd at 10:30 p.m.  I’d add that since absolutely nothing is open at that time in Britain, there’s no excuse not to watch. The film is also coming to DVD in May, with digitally remastered sound and subtitles in eight languages.  More at AbductionFilm.com.
Categories Abductions/Activism/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Japan & Korea/Terrorism (NK)
March 1, 2007

Why You Have to Read this Blog: Yonhap Gets Lefkowitz’s Testimony Wrong

Standing amid a crowd of journalists today, a thought entered my mind at such velocity that it shattered  a tumor of remorse forming around the idea that any of them has a thousand times my audience.  True, I thought.  But unlike them,  every word I write will be published.  Oh, the power!   It fills and swells my cranium!   And no sooner do I see the stories they’ve filed, the frustrated resignation hits me all over again.  Because they’re...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Media Criticism/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 28, 2007

I Wonder What They’ll Look Like on a SAM-2 Radar Screen

Plenty of armchair psyoppers, myself included,  have talked about ways to  fly leaflets and other items into North Korea, but here’s the most ambitious concept I’ve seen yet. A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago.  [Pravda] Yes, Pravda!   Not only does it still exist,  but now reports on capitalist conspiracies to  infitrate future...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Japan/Japan & Korea
February 8, 2007

‘Asia’s Darfur’

The better the words Jay Lefkowitz speaks, the more the rest of this administration seems to be drifting toward appeasing the regime at any cost.  I admire his efforts to attach the plight of the North Korean people to a worthy cause that has received so much attention from the media, Hollywood, and the Human Rights Industry, but I’ve come to the conclusion that  Lefkowitz’s approach is all wrong.  What Lefkowitz and others need to grasp is this:   hatred of...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
January 26, 2007

Shenyang Six Update

LiNK sends: Hello Friends,     …. It feels strange to be back here in Washington at LiNK headquarters, typing away at a computer. For those of you who have been following the news, the past few weeks have not been calm and restful- they have been rather dramatic and urgent. On December 21, 2006, myself, two LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees were caught and imprisoned by Chinese authorities. I was taken into custody in Beijing, and...
Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
January 13, 2007

Shenyang Six Update

From LiNK: We know how agonizing it is to think of the possible fate of the Shenyang Six if things do not go well in negotiations with People’s Republic of China. Please rest assured that we are doing all that we can. The instant there is a role for us all in the grassroots to play, you will hear about it, and we will mobilize internationally for the six. At the moment, we are waiting on high-level discussions and working...
Categories Activism/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees
January 7, 2007

Chinese Police Raid LiNK Refuge, Arrest Three U.S. Activists and Six Refugees

Update 1: I’m going to bump this post up a few times. Meanwhile, I second Kyochan’s advice: Digg the story. I didn’t have an account, but it only took a few seconds to sign up. And I see that Reporters Without Borders is e-mailing half the world over … Saddam Hussein’s execution! Well, here, here! Let’s exhume the old bus-bombing rapist. Scroll down to see my response, and RSF’s reply to that. They claim not to have an opinion on...
Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees