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Category: Human Rights

November 4, 2011

NKHR Film Festival, NKDB/US-Korea Institute Seminar

(seminar info updated below) NKnet is hosting a North Korean Human Rights International Film Festival in Seoul on November 10-11, 2011.  Let this also serve as the official OFK announcement that NKnet has a new English-language website ready for your consumption. _____________________________ The US-Korea Institute at SAIS and the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights are joining forces again for a seminar in Washington, DC, soon: Building a Strategy on North Korean Human Rights: International Perspectives with Keynote Address...
Categories Books & Films/Human Rights
May 25, 2011

On Behalf of Freedom and Human Rights for North Koreans

There are a handful of NKHR-related events going on the next few days in Seoul.  Of particular interest may be the last one on Saturday evening, at which two South Korean college students who happen to be former North Korean refugees will talk about their experiences and share their opinions.  There also is a concert at the National Assembly’s Memorial Hall on Thursday afternoon, a documentary screening Friday night (in Korean – alas, no subtitles), and a flea market fundraiser...
Categories Human Rights/Refugees
May 25, 2011

Defectors Accuse North Korea of Killing Handicapped Kids

I have no way of knowing whether reports like this can be true, but one thing I can say with confidence is that the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and Jimmy Carter will not demand an independent investigation to find out: Free North Korea Radio, run by North Korean defectors, reported last Tuesday on the murderous acts toward disabled children by the country’s own government. Disabled children who are born in the city of Pyongyang are taken...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Camps
May 10, 2011

Committee for Human Rights in N. Korea to Release Report on Abductions

I’ll simply post the press release and let it speak for itself: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 1725 Eye (I) Street, NW “¢ Suite 300 “¢ Washington, DC 20006 “¢ (202) 349-3830 www.hrnk.org PRESS RELEASE ****For Immediate Release**** On Thursday, the Washington-based bipartisan Committee for Human Rights in North Korea will release an extraordinary report, “TAKEN! North Korea’s Criminal Abduction of Citizens of Other Countries. The report, three years in the making, is based on numerous sources never...
Categories Abductions/Activism/Anju Links/Human Rights
May 7, 2011

Too Little, Too Late, But Better than Nothing: Amnesty International on North Korea’s Political Prison Camps

Six years after it breathlessly declared Guantanamo Bay “the gulag of our time,” Amnesty International has gotten around to concluding that North Korea “can no longer deny the undeniable:” “These are places out of sight of the rest of the world, where almost the entire range of human rights protections that international law has tried to set up for last 60 years are ignored. “As North Korea seems to be moving towards a new leader in Kim Jong-un and a...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Camps
May 3, 2011

Learn about North Korean Human Rights Crisis at JFNK Volunteer Orientation

For those of you in Korea, if you don’t know much about the human rights crisis that is North Korea (and spilling into China and South Korea) and/or if you want to learn how to get involved, there’s a great opportunity for you this Saturday in English or next Saturday in Korean (please encourage your Korean friends. coworkers, students to attend!). I volunteer with Justice for North Korea, and we’re holding our third round of informational orientation sessions for volunteers...
Categories Activism/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
April 21, 2011

North Korea Freedom Week Schedule: April 24 – May 1, 2011

Updated:   Updated the schedule and fixed a link below. For those of you who haven’t been checking the NK Freedom Coalition website on a near daily basis of late to get the greatly updated schedule for North Korea Freedom Week, it’s finally out! One thing that’s very interesting, and I’ll leave it to Joshua or Chris to comment on, the list of sponsors: The Ministry of Unification; the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; the City of Seoul; various newspapers...
Categories Activism/Human Rights
January 24, 2011

Blood and Libel

Some 500 people in North Korea attended a public execution of a man and a woman caught reading South Korean propaganda, an activist claimed Sunday citing sources in the North. Choi Sung-yong, the head of Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea said security services rounded up some 500 people including 50 family members of South Korean prisoners of war and abduction victims and made them watch the execution. The victims were a 45-year-old woman accused of reading a South Korean...
Categories Human Rights
January 16, 2011

Kim Jong Il’s Biggest Enabler Is Coming To Town

Passing on an email from Henry at the NK Freedom Coalition (note newly redesigned website) about what they’ll be up to in D.C. the night Kim Jong il’s biggest enabler will be dining at the White House.  For those not in or near D.C., we can participate, too: On the occasion of the White House State dinner that President Barack Obama will host for President Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China on January 19, 2011, the North Korea...
Categories Activism/America/China/Human Rights
January 13, 2011

Or, Maybe It’s Just the Same Old “Reign of Terror”

The other day, Adam found fault with a Chosun Ilbo report that claimed that North Korea’s cross-border slaughter of five refugees represented an escalation of its shoot-to-kill policy. I found the criticism rather pedantic and pointless, although the evidence on the whole suggests that crossing borders and shooting escapees are part of a long-standing pattern of North Korean atrocities. It’s too bad Adam didn’t wait a few days, because the Chosun Ilbo has presented him with a much softer target...
Categories Human Rights/Refugees
December 13, 2010

From Cradle to Grave, So Goes the Expression

There is no food emergency in the country now and things can only get better. — Alejandro Cao de Benos Theresa forwards confirmation, via the Daily NK, of my worst fears for a 23 year-old woman who all but recited her own obituary for the guerrilla cameras of Rimjingang: “It was discovered that, without a home, she had been wandering in the market and on the streets, before dying in a corn field,” the Asia Press spokesperson explained, “Since then...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Military
December 12, 2010

Vote for Justice for North Korea

For the last three years I’ve been an active volunteer with a small group called Justice for North Korea in Seoul.  JFNK currently is one of a dozen and a half NGOs in Korea competing for gift certificates valued at several thousand dollars to be raffled or auctioned off at a fundraising event. The online voting at 10 Magazine went up late last week and ends Tuesday, December 14th at 11:59 p.m., Korea time (that’s 9:59 a.m. EST on Tuesday)....
Categories Activism/Refugees
December 4, 2010

Stephen Solarz, Rest in Peace

I came to know the name of Stephen Solarz as a high school kid, observing a man I either agreed with (the Philippines) or disagreed with (Central America) strongly. After his electoral defeat in 1994, the next time I heard his name when I learned that he was one of the leading members of the board of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. I met Mr. Solarz once, after observing him making a rousing speech in front of...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/U.S. Politics
November 5, 2010

NKDB Seminar in DC Nov. 11, NKnet DC Conference Wrap-up

Looks like the Seoul-based NKHRs groups are making the rounds in Washington, D.C., this fall.  Next up: North Korean Human Rights Advocacy: Making the Most of Scarce Data Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 – 02:00 pm Rome Auditorium, 1619 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036 Welcoming remarks by: Jae H. Ku, Director, USKI Kim Sang Hun, Chairman, NKDB Panelists: Kim In Sung, Researcher and Lee Ja Eun, Senior Researcher, NKDB and Paula Schriefer, Director of Advocacy, Freedom House Thursday, November 11,...
Categories Books & Films/Human Rights
October 10, 2010

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. _______________________________ In the beginning of September Tim Peters chaired a panel and other OFK favorites (e.g., Chuck Downs) spoke at a...
Categories Activism/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
August 30, 2010

North Korea and South Africa: A Study in Hypocrisy

After less than three weeks, FIFA has closed its investigation into allegations that players and coaches of North Korea’s losing soccer team were subjected to criticism sessions when they returned home. But when you go to FIFA’s web site, it’s apparent that FIFA’s “investigation” consisted of opening and reading a letter from the North Koreans denying it. I have no inside knowledge of whether the allegations are true, but I know that FIFA has no more idea of the truth...
Categories Activism/Human Rights/Racism/Sports