February 26, 2006

What Ban Would Bring to the U.N., and to His Party

The U.N.: No Values Necessary What could say more about what’s wrong with the United Nations when a candidate for its top post – an experienced diplomat – would say this publicly? “I don’t think a specific issue like North Korean human rights has a direct connection to the bid for the UN secretary-general’s seat,” Ban told reporters. Asked by a CBS reporter whether the way the South Korean government handles human rights conditions in North Korea could hurt his...
Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Uncategorized
February 25, 2006

True to Form, World Food Program Caves in to NK Demands

When she’s not exposing the U.N.’s corruption, Claudia Rosett is exposing its general fecklessness and worthlessness on matters of substance. Ms. Rosett’s favorite case-in-point is North Korea, where she nails – dead-on – what’s wrong with the World Food Program’s approach to feeding the hungry. North Korea, unrestrained by any regard for the lives of its less-privileged citizens, pushes for more control over the food and less U.N. monitoring. The U.N. bureaucrats lack the testicular fortitude to push back, go...
Categories Appeasement/Defectors/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 23, 2006

Caught in the Act!

I wonder what Roh Moo-Hyun will say this time. Rogue diplomats? North Korean diplomats were caught attempting to smuggle US$1 million and 200 million yen into Mongolia on Tuesday, the Mongolian press reported. Reports said the North Koreans told Mongolian authorities they were planning to put the money in a Mongolian bank account, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The paper said that it was unclear whether the money was counterfeit or not, and what measures the Mongolian authorities will take....
Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Japan/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 22, 2006

Congress Criticizes State Dep’t on NK Refugees

[Updated; scroll down] Thanks to a dedicated group of Congressional staffers who forwarded me a scanned copy, which is signed by members of both parties and both houses. I’m going through WordPress hell trying to publish the entire text, but in the meantime, here’s a scanned copy on the Committee’s site.The executive summary is that Congress believes that State is turning away refugees, thus flouting its unanimous will and throwing away America’s credibility on this issue. Update: OK, full scanned...
Categories Activism/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 22, 2006

LiNK Benefit March 1st; Win Cool Stuff!

Update and Correction:   I’m officially a bonehead.   I originally and  incorrectly gave today as the date for the event below; in fact, tonight’s event was at  LiNK’s new office.  The event  described below will take place March 1st.  My deepest, most sincere apologies and a cup of coffee on me to anyone who went to the wrong place!   To make matters worse, I dashed this post off before a day of meetings without  Internet access,  so I had...
Categories Activism/China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
February 21, 2006

Anti-Kim Jong Il Leaflets Reported at Onsong

Via the refugee-run DailyNK: Feb 10, Onsung-gun, North Hamkyung province, anti-Kim Jong Il flyers were found, reported North Korean internal source on Feb 17. The source said the flyers read, “Stand Kim Jong Il Upside Down” and tens of them were found near the Wangje Mt. Grand Monument and the Security Agency along with other government agencies. Read the rest here.
Categories Defectors/Inside NK/North Korea/Refugees/Resistance
February 21, 2006

House Staffer: Congress to Demand Progress on NKHRA Implementation

If historians were both omniscient and judicious, they would record that Doug Anderson was a great friend of the North Korean people. Anderson, a thin, quiet, and precise young lawyer and staffer for Rep. James Leach, never misses a House hearing on North Korea policy. He is also a key behind-the-scenes advocate of more humane treatment for the people North Korea (meaning I’m not sure he’d want this kind of recognition, warranted though it may be). I’ve never heard an...
Categories Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 21, 2006

A Modest Drumbeat

The Chosun Ilbo and the  Donga Ilbo are looking at their calendars and seeing a slew of events that will further publicize human rights conditions in North Korea.  Will this be the year our nascent movement finally demonstrates some media sophistication? March:  The State Department  will publish its new human rights report (although I don’t have any reason to suspect anything earth-shaking to come of it).  March 23rd:  European Parliament hearings on North Korea; Freedom House conference in Brussels (we’re...
Categories Activism/Appeasement/Europe/Human Rights/Korean Politics/North Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 19, 2006

Europe Takes Up N.K. Human Rights Mantle

The EU’s human rights dialogue with North Korea’s regime may be predictably “moribund,” but  a new report shows that Europe is outperforming the United States in accepting refugees: Seven European nations have granted asylum to 280 North Korean defectors since the mid-1990s, Radio Free Asia reported on Saturday. RFA said Germany, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway gave asylum to 280 out of 700 North Korean refugees who applied there. Germany topped the list, accepting 232 out of...
Categories Defectors/Europe/Human Rights/Korean Politics/North Korea/Refugees
February 19, 2006

‘Why I Published Those Cartoons’

Fleming Rose, Editor of the Jyllands-Posten, explains.  Meanwhile, there is more fuel for my “paxil in the water” proposal: Attacking a U.S. embassy over Danish cartoons. “God Bless Hitler.”  A German newspaper thinks the message this sends is unclear. Nigerian Muslim mobs burn churches, kill three kids and a priest.  Fifteen dead, total.  What’s most noticeable about all this isn’t the existence of extremism.  It’s the lack of a moderate response. Tigerhawk is through with asymetic sensitivity.  My own feeling...
Categories Terrorism/Iraq/WTF?
February 19, 2006

When Power Comes from the Wire of a Modem

The Washington Post has a fascinating look at how the Internet forced the Chinese government to retreat – partially – in its censorship of the journal “Freezing Point” (previous posts here). Why didn’t Beijing simply follow Mao’s old “barrel of a gun” formula this time? Because the Chinese economy must sustain sufficiently high growth to absorb a flood of excess laborers from rural areas to preserve social stability, which places China between the Scylla of rising dissent and the Charibdis...
Categories Censorship/China/Geopolitics/Human Rights/NK Economics/WTF?
February 18, 2006

Sec. Rice: Lefkowitz Will Be More Vocal

It’s the latest suggestion that the Administration is less worried than ever about upsetting Kim Jong Il: The United States will have its North Korea human rights envoy become more active in coming days to get more international attention on the issue, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. “We are going to get him out more,” Rice said at a U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee hearing. “We need the rest of the international community to also...
Categories Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 18, 2006

A ‘Freezing Point’ Thaw?

The backlash against Beijing’s closure of the journal “Freezing Point” is growing in both the number and the bravery of those supporting that backlash. The reaction – in no small part due to the focused attention of the New York Times – initially forced Beijing to allow the paper to reopen, but without its two fired editors. Now, those editors have published a scathing and fearless response to the censors in the Forbidden City:
Categories Censorship/China
February 18, 2006

Comrade Chung Dong Young Wins Uri Leadership

Via Kyodo news, Comrade Chung has won an early test of his strength going into the 2007 presidential race. Chung, former unification minister, was elected by a vote at the party’s national convention in Seoul, defeating seven other candidates. He garnered 4,450 votes, beating his main rival and former Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun Tae who obtained 3,847 votes in the eight-man race, according to Yonhap News Agency. “The Uri Party and I will fiercely compete with the (opposition)...
Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Washington Views
February 18, 2006

Joongang Ilbo on Biracial Koreans

The Joongang Ilbo’s Kim Soe-Jung has a very long, thoughtful, and comprehensive piece on the subject.  It never lost my interest for a moment.  What makes this article unlike so many in the Korean press since the Hines Ward phenomenon is that it deals more with the question about how people should be treated than the question of who is Korean.  There are also facts you may not have known, such as the explosive growth in mixed marriages in Korea,...
Categories Korean Law/Korean Society