Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is flying to Seoul for a fact-finding mission on North Korean human rights issues on November 22nd and 23rd. In Seoul, he will meet with human rights activists and defectors, and will conclude his visit with a press conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondent’s Club, Korea Press Center Building (Taepyongno-1Ga, Jung-Gu), 18th Floor, at noon on the 23rd. This is a point of some personal pride for me; I first...

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is flying to Seoul for a fact-finding mission on North Korean human rights issues on November 22nd and 23rd. In Seoul, he will meet with human rights activists and defectors, and will conclude his visit with a press conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondent’s Club, Korea Press Center Building (Taepyongno-1Ga, Jung-Gu), 18th Floor, at noon on the 23rd. This is a point of some personal pride for me; I first...

A new Korea blogger who calls himself Yi Sun Shin is keeping this running tally of Kim Jong-Il’s public appearances. I’m eventually going to get around to posting a link to this page, but for anyone who wonders whether the army brass has locked Kim Jong Il in his room, this might be a good place to keep checking. He has a pretty good blog, too.

A new Korea blogger who calls himself Yi Sun Shin is keeping this running tally of Kim Jong-Il’s public appearances. I’m eventually going to get around to posting a link to this page, but for anyone who wonders whether the army brass has locked Kim Jong Il in his room, this might be a good place to keep checking. He has a pretty good blog, too.

In a week of too-good-to-be-true reports from Korea, OhMyNews might just be the latest place to have removed a few of its portraits of Kim Jong Il. This report on journalism in North Korea is remarkable in that it’s researched, balanced, logical, and critical of Kim Jong Il’s regime . . . in short, pretty much a one-of-a-kind at OhMyNews. Can this be the first of a hundred flowers to bloom? If it is, where will I go for my...

I have a post up on NKZone, linking to a superb on the psychology of the liberation of oppressed people. Not surprisingly, he spends a disproportionate amount of his time talking about North Korea, possibly the perfect laboratory for absolutism. This essay is a must-read.

In a week of too-good-to-be-true reports from Korea, OhMyNews might just be the latest place to have removed a few of its portraits of Kim Jong Il. This report on journalism in North Korea is remarkable in that it’s researched, balanced, logical, and critical of Kim Jong Il’s regime . . . in short, pretty much a one-of-a-kind at OhMyNews. Can this be the first of a hundred flowers to bloom? If it is, where will I go for my...

I have a post up on NKZone, linking to a superb on the psychology of the liberation of oppressed people. Not surprisingly, he spends a disproportionate amount of his time talking about North Korea, possibly the perfect laboratory for absolutism. This essay is a must-read.

I had meant to blog about Iris Chang, who took her life last week, since I heard the terrible news. I started writing, and then the baby started to cry, and I found myself too disspirited to finish the post by the time I could go back to the computer. Reading the news coverage made me sadder still. In addition to being a brilliant woman, blessed with moral clarity, she was young and had a young family. I read of...

I had meant to blog about Iris Chang, who took her life last week, since I heard the terrible news. I started writing, and then the baby started to cry, and I found myself too disspirited to finish the post by the time I could go back to the computer. Reading the news coverage made me sadder still. In addition to being a brilliant woman, blessed with moral clarity, she was young and had a young family. I read of...

I posted a long, detailed update here at NKZone, which links to some great reporting from the Times of London. Today, at least, the Chosun seems to have better sources in Washington than in North Korea (where’s Kang Chol Hwan these days?), while the opposite is true of the Korea Herald. This Roger L. Simon blog post contains a summary of linked reports (admittedly from the Sankei Shinmun, not my favorite Japanese newspaper) that there is indeed a nascent resistance...

I posted a long, detailed update here at NKZone, which links to some great reporting from the Times of London. Today, at least, the Chosun seems to have better sources in Washington than in North Korea (where’s Kang Chol Hwan these days?), while the opposite is true of the Korea Herald. This Roger L. Simon blog post contains a summary of linked reports (admittedly from the Sankei Shinmun, not my favorite Japanese newspaper) that there is indeed a nascent resistance...

The Korea Herald reports that Pyongyang is growing increasingly desperate in its struggle to maintain control: [Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University] also said Pyongyang has recently bolstered its border patrols to stop North Korean defectors from crossing into China, which could be a sign the regime has begun to perceive threats to its once iron-fisted rule. The action, he said, was a stark contrast to Pyongyang’s past negligence about controlling defectors because it knew...

Monday’s LiNK event in Washington, attended by congressmen and key congressional aides, was a glimpse of the shifting (or perhaps, newly revealed) thinking of influential Washington conservatives about North Korea and China. In addition to the powerful film Seoul Train, the event included a panel discussion that was blogworthy for its more open advocacy of regime change in North Korea, and for its hints that Congress is thinking, perhaps seriously, about wielding some economic pressure against China. Continued . ....

The Korea Herald reports that Pyongyang is growing increasingly desperate in its struggle to maintain control: [Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University] also said Pyongyang has recently bolstered its border patrols to stop North Korean defectors from crossing into China, which could be a sign the regime has begun to perceive threats to its once iron-fisted rule. The action, he said, was a stark contrast to Pyongyang’s past negligence about controlling defectors because it knew...

Monday’s LiNK event in Washington, attended by congressmen and key congressional aides, was a glimpse of the shifting (or perhaps, newly revealed) thinking of influential Washington conservatives about North Korea and China. In addition to the powerful film Seoul Train, the event included a panel discussion that was blogworthy for its more open advocacy of regime change in North Korea, and for its hints that Congress is thinking, perhaps seriously, about wielding some economic pressure against China. Continued . ....

That is, the South Korean ones. Almost everyone seems to have forgotten them.

The South Korean government issues an arrest warrant for a policeman who posted anti-Roh messages on the Web. Then they fire him. Would the Korean right do this if it were in power? Given the authoritarian instincts they showed during the Roh impeachment fiasco, I’d say “yes,” but for the most part, they aren’t in power, and after all, Uri is the party that claims to be different from the others because it’s open and free. Now, I can understand...