Voices from the Grave

Posted by Joshua Stanton on April 23, 2001 at 6:10 am · Filed under Uncategorized

This is a story that should start with a description of how it ended. Other than a few well-connected activists, most of those in the room had been a select group—congressional staffers, think-tankers, diplomats, attaches from embassies . . . even Nelson Mandela’s nephew, a pleasant enough man, now wearing the uniform of a general. Before the event had even begun, one bored staffer had whined to another, “I’m sooooooo ready for the weekend.” When the two men we had come to hear had finished telling us their stories, the people in the room split off into knots and cliques. “I hear he’s retiring after the next term.” “It’s never getting out of committee.” “I’m sorry, I know I remember you from somewhere.” “I’ll e-mail you.”

The small old woman and I were two of the few “ordinary” and undistinguished ones who didn’t belong to any other group, and as I left to go back to my son, more thankful than I had ever been that he was just an hour away, the woman asked me the way out of the labyrinth known as the Rayburn House Office Building. She must have been almost eighty and walked slowly, with difficulty. She needed my help to descend the steps to the street, even as she insisted that she could find her bus by herself, and that she didn’t need a cab. She was there for her brother—not the two who had served in World War II, or one who had been wounded in Viet Nam—but for the one who had never come home from Korea. The one who had been reported captured and who was never heard from again. I looked at her face and tried to imagine the face of the scared young American in the captivity of men hardened by war, and for an instant, I thought I saw him, innocent and vulnerable to a hundred reaching fingers of death in a cold, hungry, angry place–one that would never mark his grave or record the final moments of his humanity for those who would spend the next five decades seeking them.

And still, she hoped, for she had heard that one of the Korean men who had escaped that same hell had seen six Americans in August 1953, after the war had ended and was bringing prisoners of all sides back home across the Bridge of No Return. Indeed, the man did say he saw them, but had told us little else. He didn’t describe speaking to them, hearing them speak to others, or their features, clothing, or patches. The woman and I were both disappointed not to know more, but my own disappointment must have been nothing compared to hers. She had been active in the National Alliance of Families and obviously devoted years of her life to finding him. Listening to her, she clearly believed that he could still be alive. Anything is possible, of course, but the odds must surely be against anyone surviving fifty years in what is arguably the world’s cruelest place.

* * * * *

But of course, we had come to hear voices from the grave today, proving that the dead do speak. I won’t tell you their names, because they still have friends, perhaps even family, in the North. For the same reason, I won’t post the pictures I took today. I’ll call these two men C and K instead.

* * * * *

That being said, I wish I could show you C’s face. One look at the man and you understood how he’d made it. He stood like a statue of inextinguishable dignity and spoke with a quaking-yet-strong voice that seemed to have endured a thousand horrors just for the chance to tell everyone in that room, me, and you what he lived through and what it means for us. He told us that it was his duty to expose what he had seen and lived through, and he thanked us for coming to hear it, as if this chance to tell us what he had seen was his last remaining reason for having clung so stubbornly to life for so long. His next words were his heartfelt thanks to the U.S. Congress for passing the North Korean Human Rights Act, and to the American people for the lives they gave for the defense of his country.

C graduated from high school near Seoul in 1950 and entered one of Korea’s most prestigious universities. Two months later, North Korea invaded the South. C did not say how he survived until December, when U.N. forces reentered Seoul, but that month, he entered the Korean Military Cadet School and began a crash training program that ended just four months later, in April 1951, with his graduation and commissioning as a second lieutenant. C soon found himself at the front, assigned to an infantry division.

C’s military career was not a lengthy one. On May 19th, just a month after his graduation, he was taken prisoner of the Chinese Army. After making it through the summer and what must have been a harsh winter, in 1952 he found himself before a North Korean military court, which sentenced him to thirteen years of hard labor at a remote labor camp. For most who shared C’s fate, it would be a slow death sentence without the luxury of finality.

C spent those first thirteen years in the camp without a pillow, a blanket, underwear, or socks. He had nothing but his prisoner’s garb to keep him from freezing. There was no razor for shaving, no water for bathing or washing. An oil drum was the communal toilet. By the age of forty, C had lost all of his teeth. The camp was, he said, “a heaven for the fleas and ticks,” but hell for the men who lived and died there. The primary causes of death were starvation and disease—all of the other four officers POWs who shared C’s post-armistice captivity died there—but some were executed. Executions generally took place outside the camp, in front of members of the public, including family members of the condemned.

In 1964, C completed his military sentence and was sent to the first of two civilian mines where he worked. It was here that he took his first bath in thirteen years. He was still a forced laborer in a mine 1994, when he must have been in his late sixties, in a country where thousands were already dying of famine. It was then that C somehow escaped, though he told us agonizingly little of how he managed to become the first South Korean POW to get out of North Korea after the war’s end. He returned to the Republic of Korea in October 1995.

It was hard to tell where C’s descriptions of his camp life ended and those of North Korean society in general began, just as it often seems to an outsider that all parts of North Korea are different levels of security in one vast prison. C appears to have had little contact with the world outside of his camp until 1964. Even on the “outside,” North Korean society as C described it tolerated no form of dissent, criticism, or religious belief. He reported that from early childhood, North Koreans were taught that Americans were sub-human, like animals with two legs, or hyenas. His final comment was to call South Korea’s abstention from the U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution on North Korea “shameful and embarrassing.”

* * * * *

K was drafted into the South Korean Army in 1952, and was wounded and taken prisoner by the Chinese 11 months later, in July 1953. On the 27th of that same month, the Korean War Armistice Agreement was signed. The following month, K was released from a Chinese military hospital and sent to a prison camp. It is here that K reports seeing six Americans, although again, the details are unclear. First, K gave no physical description of the men. Second, he reports no contact with them that could corroborate such details as names, home towns, or units. Finally, he reports seeing the men in August 1953, which was within the 60 days permitted for the repatriation of prisoners under Article III, paragraph 51(a). From the little detail we have, it is entirely possible that the men were repatriated as required, or even that they were not American, or even allied, prisoners.

If there is doubt about who K saw in August 1953, there is little doubt about North Korean non-compliance with the armistice. K remained in his prison camp until 1956, when he was transferred to a mine. He worked in the mines for 36 years until 1992, when he had reached an age when most men would be retiring from such a difficult and dangerous occupation. Mining takes a high toll from rock falls, asphyxiation, explosions, and working around heavy equipment. K survived all these hazards under the most dangerous conditions imaginable, without safety equipment or training. Did I mention that he did this with one leg and one eye?

Why not simply return the prisoners as agreed? K describes an order numbered “143” by Kim Il-Sung that became a household term in parts of North Korea, and which ordered the retention of thousands of South Korean prisoners for reconstruction labor. Unlike the North Korean forced laborers who toiled beside them, a “143” or his family members were never eligible for rehabilitation to government jobs and party membership. Nonetheless, K reports that the discrimination against “143’s” was slightly relaxed many years after the end of the war.

Like C, K reports having little to eat and surviving horrific working conditions. A meal generally consisted of watery cabbage soup with a handful of millet. Conditions worsened dramatically in the 1990s. K reports that North Korea’s public distribution system ceased to function for most of the population in 1992, but that miners continued to receive rations to sustain them through their hard labor. This corresponds to when, according to Dr. Andrei Lankov, the regime began telling people to eat two meals per day. K reports that mass starvation began in his area in 1993 and 1994.

From 1992 to 1995, K worked at a farm, and does not report working thereafter. In July of 2000, he escaped into China.

* * * * *

Both C and K were angry that their government had forgotten the cause for which they fought and the nature of the regime that caused their suffering. K was particularly bitter that South Korea had grown prosperous and forgotten that the suffering of his generation at the hand of men like the North Koreans had made it possible. Yet he was humble enough to apologize that he and his fellow soldiers had failed in their duty to unite the country. This was one of several emotional moments as we heard from these men, and not a few of the Koreans in the audience were wiping away tears. Such men deserve better than to be forgotten, but they were. Hundreds of their comrades allegedly remain behind in North Korea while the South Korean government fails to make their release a condition of continued trade and aid.

Contrast this with the extraordinary lengths to which the United States government will sometimes to go recover a few bone fragments from a long-lost crash site, it is astonishing that South Korea simply tolerates this with hardly a word of protest.

My thoughts return to the old woman whose hopeful search for her missing brother will go on. He is a man whose name I may never know, and who may never be found, but whom I will never forget. Later, as my son blissfully ate the Happy Meal I’d promised him that morning, I thought of the men who had made it possible to enjoy our small ration of decadence.

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Back to NKZone

Actual post date: April 23, 2005

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Voices from the Grave

Posted by joshua on April 23, 2001 at 1:10 am · Filed under Uncategorized

This is a story that should start with a description of how it ended. Other than a few well-connected activists, most of those in the room had been a select group—congressional staffers, think-tankers, diplomats, attaches from embassies . . . even Nelson Mandela’s nephew, a pleasant enough man, now wearing the uniform of a general. Before the event had even begun, one bored staffer had whined to another, “I’m sooooooo ready for the weekend.” When the two men we had come to hear had finished telling us their stories, the people in the room split off into knots and cliques. “I hear he’s retiring after the next term.” “It’s never getting out of committee.” “I’m sorry, I know I remember you from somewhere.” “I’ll e-mail you.”

The small old woman and I were two of the few “ordinary” and undistinguished ones who didn’t belong to any other group, and as I left to go back to my son, more thankful than I had ever been that he was just an hour away, the woman asked me the way out of the labyrinth known as the Rayburn House Office Building. She must have been almost eighty and walked slowly, with difficulty. She needed my help to descend the steps to the street, even as she insisted that she could find her bus by herself, and that she didn’t need a cab. She was there for her brother—not the two who had served in World War II, or one who had been wounded in Viet Nam—but for the one who had never come home from Korea. The one who had been reported captured and who was never heard from again. I looked at her face and tried to imagine the face of the scared young American in the captivity of men hardened by war, and for an instant, I thought I saw him, innocent and vulnerable to a hundred reaching fingers of death in a cold, hungry, angry place–one that would never mark his grave or record the final moments of his humanity for those who would spend the next five decades seeking them.

And still, she hoped, for she had heard that one of the Korean men who had escaped that same hell had seen six Americans in August 1953, after the war had ended and was bringing prisoners of all sides back home across the Bridge of No Return. Indeed, the man did say he saw them, but had told us little else. He didn’t describe speaking to them, hearing them speak to others, or their features, clothing, or patches. The woman and I were both disappointed not to know more, but my own disappointment must have been nothing compared to hers. She had been active in the National Alliance of Families and obviously devoted years of her life to finding him. Listening to her, she clearly believed that he could still be alive. Anything is possible, of course, but the odds must surely be against anyone surviving fifty years in what is arguably the world’s cruelest place.

* * * * *

But of course, we had come to hear voices from the grave today, proving that the dead do speak. I won’t tell you their names, because they still have friends, perhaps even family, in the North. For the same reason, I won’t post the pictures I took today. I’ll call these two men C and K instead.

* * * * *

That being said, I wish I could show you C’s face. One look at the man and you understood how he’d made it. He stood like a statue of inextinguishable dignity and spoke with a quaking-yet-strong voice that seemed to have endured a thousand horrors just for the chance to tell everyone in that room, me, and you what he lived through and what it means for us. He told us that it was his duty to expose what he had seen and lived through, and he thanked us for coming to hear it, as if this chance to tell us what he had seen was his last remaining reason for having clung so stubbornly to life for so long. His next words were his heartfelt thanks to the U.S. Congress for passing the North Korean Human Rights Act, and to the American people for the lives they gave for the defense of his country.

C graduated from high school near Seoul in 1950 and entered one of Korea’s most prestigious universities. Two months later, North Korea invaded the South. C did not say how he survived until December, when U.N. forces reentered Seoul, but that month, he entered the Korean Military Cadet School and began a crash training program that ended just four months later, in April 1951, with his graduation and commissioning as a second lieutenant. C soon found himself at the front, assigned to an infantry division.

C’s military career was not a lengthy one. On May 19th, just a month after his graduation, he was taken prisoner of the Chinese Army. After making it through the summer and what must have been a harsh winter, in 1952 he found himself before a North Korean military court, which sentenced him to thirteen years of hard labor at a remote labor camp. For most who shared C’s fate, it would be a slow death sentence without the luxury of finality.

C spent those first thirteen years in the camp without a pillow, a blanket, underwear, or socks. He had nothing but his prisoner’s garb to keep him from freezing. There was no razor for shaving, no water for bathing or washing. An oil drum was the communal toilet. By the age of forty, C had lost all of his teeth. The camp was, he said, “a heaven for the fleas and ticks,” but hell for the men who lived and died there. The primary causes of death were starvation and disease—all of the other four officers POWs who shared C’s post-armistice captivity died there—but some were executed. Executions generally took place outside the camp, in front of members of the public, including family members of the condemned.

In 1964, C completed his military sentence and was sent to the first of two civilian mines where he worked. It was here that he took his first bath in thirteen years. He was still a forced laborer in a mine 1994, when he must have been in his late sixties, in a country where thousands were already dying of famine. It was then that C somehow escaped, though he told us agonizingly little of how he managed to become the first South Korean POW to get out of North Korea after the war’s end. He returned to the Republic of Korea in October 1995.

It was hard to tell where C’s descriptions of his camp life ended and those of North Korean society in general began, just as it often seems to an outsider that all parts of North Korea are different levels of security in one vast prison. C appears to have had little contact with the world outside of his camp until 1964. Even on the “outside,” North Korean society as C described it tolerated no form of dissent, criticism, or religious belief. He reported that from early childhood, North Koreans were taught that Americans were sub-human, like animals with two legs, or hyenas. His final comment was to call South Korea’s abstention from the U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution on North Korea “shameful and embarrassing.”

* * * * *

K was drafted into the South Korean Army in 1952, and was wounded and taken prisoner by the Chinese 11 months later, in July 1953. On the 27th of that same month, the Korean War Armistice Agreement was signed. The following month, K was released from a Chinese military hospital and sent to a prison camp. It is here that K reports seeing six Americans, although again, the details are unclear. First, K gave no physical description of the men. Second, he reports no contact with them that could corroborate such details as names, home towns, or units. Finally, he reports seeing the men in August 1953, which was within the 60 days permitted for the repatriation of prisoners under Article III, paragraph 51(a). From the little detail we have, it is entirely possible that the men were repatriated as required, or even that they were not American, or even allied, prisoners.

If there is doubt about who K saw in August 1953, there is little doubt about North Korean non-compliance with the armistice. K remained in his prison camp until 1956, when he was transferred to a mine. He worked in the mines for 36 years until 1992, when he had reached an age when most men would be retiring from such a difficult and dangerous occupation. Mining takes a high toll from rock falls, asphyxiation, explosions, and working around heavy equipment. K survived all these hazards under the most dangerous conditions imaginable, without safety equipment or training. Did I mention that he did this with one leg and one eye?

Why not simply return the prisoners as agreed? K describes an order numbered “143” by Kim Il-Sung that became a household term in parts of North Korea, and which ordered the retention of thousands of South Korean prisoners for reconstruction labor. Unlike the North Korean forced laborers who toiled beside them, a “143” or his family members were never eligible for rehabilitation to government jobs and party membership. Nonetheless, K reports that the discrimination against “143’s” was slightly relaxed many years after the end of the war.

Like C, K reports having little to eat and surviving horrific working conditions. A meal generally consisted of watery cabbage soup with a handful of millet. Conditions worsened dramatically in the 1990s. K reports that North Korea’s public distribution system ceased to function for most of the population in 1992, but that miners continued to receive rations to sustain them through their hard labor. This corresponds to when, according to Dr. Andrei Lankov, the regime began telling people to eat two meals per day. K reports that mass starvation began in his area in 1993 and 1994.

From 1992 to 1995, K worked at a farm, and does not report working thereafter. In July of 2000, he escaped into China.

* * * * *

Both C and K were angry that their government had forgotten the cause for which they fought and the nature of the regime that caused their suffering. K was particularly bitter that South Korea had grown prosperous and forgotten that the suffering of his generation at the hand of men like the North Koreans had made it possible. Yet he was humble enough to apologize that he and his fellow soldiers had failed in their duty to unite the country. This was one of several emotional moments as we heard from these men, and not a few of the Koreans in the audience were wiping away tears. Such men deserve better than to be forgotten, but they were. Hundreds of their comrades allegedly remain behind in North Korea while the South Korean government fails to make their release a condition of continued trade and aid.

Contrast this with the extraordinary lengths to which the United States government will sometimes to go recover a few bone fragments from a long-lost crash site, it is astonishing that South Korea simply tolerates this with hardly a word of protest.

My thoughts return to the old woman whose hopeful search for her missing brother will go on. He is a man whose name I may never know, and who may never be found, but whom I will never forget. Later, as my son blissfully ate the Happy Meal I’d promised him that morning, I thought of the men who had made it possible to enjoy our small ration of decadence.

Back to OneFreeKorea

Back to NKZone

Actual post date: April 23, 2005

Comments (3)

111423268085853422

Posted by Joshua Stanton on April 23, 2001 at 12:07 am · Filed under Uncategorized

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111423268085853422

Posted by joshua on April 22, 2001 at 7:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

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North Korea Freedom Week, Seoul

Posted by Joshua Stanton on April 21, 2001 at 2:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Thursday, April 21, 2:00 PM, Myongdong Catholic Cathedrale, downtown Seoul; Speeches about North Korean human rights; March around the church, urging the new pope to try to go to North Korea

Friday, April 22, 12:00, noon, UNHCR-Office, downtown Seoul, Demo against the inactivity of the UN regarding North Korean refugees

Thursday, April 28, 12:00, noon, Across the Chinese Consulate, downtown Seoul in front of the Dongwa Duty Free Shop, Part of the 2. worldwide protest against China`s repatriation of NK refugees

(Actual post date, 21 Apr. 2005; sorry for the late post)

Comments

North Korea Freedom Week 2005

Posted by Joshua Stanton on April 21, 2001 at 2:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

NORTH KOREA FREEDOM WEEK CONFIRMED PUBLIC EVENTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2005:
—————————————————————————————————–
CAPITOL HILL FORUM HONORING ROK POWS
12 noon: Half a Century in the Hellish Nightmare: South Korean POWs Tell Their StoryChang-Ho Cho, the first South Korean POW to escape from North Korea in 1995, and Chang-Seok Kim, who escaped in 2000, will tell their stories for the first time in the United States. (There are an estimated 500 South Korean POWs still being held in North Korea!) Hosted by Dr. Thomas Chung of the Korean POW Rescue Committee and Defense Forum Foundation ($26 fee for lunch: *RSVP Required to skswm@aol.com)Location: B-339 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Special Guests: Ambassador James Lilley and representatives from the Embassies of the countries who fought for the democracy and freedom of the South Korean people

After the program, Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Korean War Memorial

TUESDAY, APRIL 26-SATURDAY, APRIL 30: NORTH KOREA GENOCIDE EXHIBIT
—————————————————————————————————–
10am-4 pm DAILY North Korea Genocide Exhibit Fairfax Korean Church, 11400 Shirley Gate Court, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 Special Events at the Exhibit:

Tuesday, April 26, 8 AM, Special VIP Ribbon Cutting and Opening Ceremony including Congressman Frank Wolf, National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, Pastor Kwang-Ho Yang, Moon Gook Han; North Korean defectors Soon-Ok Lee, Ahn Hyok, Dong-Chul Choi, and Seung-Min Kim; Teruaki Masumoto and Yoichi Shimada of the Japanese Rescue Movement and other VIPs9:30 am Meet with the leadership of the North Korean defectors organizations working for human rights

Wednesday, April 27, 9:30 AM: Meet the Author, Book Signing with Soon Ok Lee, author of Eyes of the Tailless Animals, her experiences as a survivor in the North Korea political prison camps

THURSDAY, APRIL 28: FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF NORTH KOREA FREEDOM DAY
—————————————————————————————————–
9:30 AM: Meet the Author, Book Signing with Colonel Gordon Cucullo, author of Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin

9:30 AM Washington, D.C., Premiere of Award Winning Documentary Seoul Train depicting plight of the North Korean refugees in China Welcome and Introduction by Congressmen Joseph Pitts (Pa) and Trent Franks (Az)with remarks and discussion led by Seoul Train Producers Jim Butterworth and Lisa SleethHosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition (RSVP to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org) Location: 2237 Rayburn House Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

12:00 Noon Protest to Stop China’s Violent Repatriation of North Korean Refugees
Hosted by the International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of the North Korean Refugees Location: Peoples’ Republic of China Embassy, 2300 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

(Corrected!)

(Corrected!)
2:30 pm Second Screening of Seoul Train hosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition
Welcome and Introduction by Senator Sam Brownback with remarks and discussion led by Seoul Train Producers Jim Butterworth and Lisa Sleeth
Hosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition (RSVP to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org)
Location: 385 Russell Senate Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

7 pm: Prayer Vigil for Freedom and Human Rights for North KoreaHosted by Pastor Dong Soo Shin Location: Fairfax Korean Church Fairfax Korean Church, 11400 Shirley Gate Court, Fairfax, Virginia 22030

FRIDAY, APRIL 29
—————————————————————————————————–
9:30 AM, Meet South Koreans abducted by North Korea and leaders of the Japanese abductee organizations including Teruaki Masumoto, Deputy Secretary General of the Japanese Abducted Family Association, hosted by Mr. Jae Hyun Bae of Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and Yoichi Shimada of the Japanese Rescue Movement
North Korean Genocide Exhibit is Hosted by Pastor Kwang-Ho Yang, Sin U Nam, Suzanne Scholte, rescuer Moon Gook Han of the International Coalition to Save the NK Slaves; The Exhibit, which opened in Seoul in November 2004 for its World Tour, includes displays depicting the plight of North Korean refugees in China, political prison camps, starvation, Japanese abductees, Korean abductees and other evidence of the horrific life for North Koreans under the Kim Jong-il regime; the award winning documentaries Seoul Train (about the underground railroad for the North Korean Refugees) by Incite Productions and the BBC’s Access to Evil and other videos will be shown continuously; the famous painting by French artist Jean-Baptiste Oh “Death and Despairand satellite images provided by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea are also part of the exhibit.

10 am: Press Conference with the North Korean Defectors Organizations represented by Ahn Hyok, Seung-Min Kim and Dong-Chul ChoiHosted by Peter Hickman and the Morning Newsmaker Committee, NPCLocation: Murrow Room, National Press Club, 529 14th Street, N.W.

12 noon Capitol Hill Forum with the Leadership of the North Korean Defectors Organizations North Korean defectors will describe their work promoting human rights and freedom for North Korea and their plans for a democratic and free North Korea post Kim Jong-il. Hosted by the Defense Forum Foundation ($26 fee for lunch: *RSVP Required to skswm@aol.com) Location: 2168 Rayburn (Gold Room) House Office Building, Washington, D.C. (*RSVP required)

SATURDAY, APRIL 30
—————————————————————————————————–
7-10 pm: North Korean Human Rights Conference with North Korean defectors, special guestsHosted by the Maryland Koreans Association and Jubilee Campaign (RSVP to eunhaemary@yahoo.com)Location: New Covenant Fellowship Church,18901 Waring Station Road, Germantown, MD 20874

(Actual post date: 21 Apr 2005)

Comments

North Korea Freedom Week, Seoul

Posted by joshua on April 21, 2001 at 9:56 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Thursday, April 21, 2:00 PM, Myongdong Catholic Cathedrale, downtown Seoul; Speeches about North Korean human rights; March around the church, urging the new pope to try to go to North Korea

Friday, April 22, 12:00, noon, UNHCR-Office, downtown Seoul, Demo against the inactivity of the UN regarding North Korean refugees

Thursday, April 28, 12:00, noon, Across the Chinese Consulate, downtown Seoul in front of the Dongwa Duty Free Shop, Part of the 2. worldwide protest against China`s repatriation of NK refugees

(Actual post date, 21 Apr. 2005; sorry for the late post)

Comments

North Korea Freedom Week 2005

Posted by joshua on April 21, 2001 at 9:42 am · Filed under Uncategorized

NORTH KOREA FREEDOM WEEK CONFIRMED PUBLIC EVENTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2005:
—————————————————————————————————–
CAPITOL HILL FORUM HONORING ROK POWS
12 noon: Half a Century in the Hellish Nightmare: South Korean POWs Tell Their StoryChang-Ho Cho, the first South Korean POW to escape from North Korea in 1995, and Chang-Seok Kim, who escaped in 2000, will tell their stories for the first time in the United States. (There are an estimated 500 South Korean POWs still being held in North Korea!) Hosted by Dr. Thomas Chung of the Korean POW Rescue Committee and Defense Forum Foundation ($26 fee for lunch: *RSVP Required to skswm@aol.com)Location: B-339 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Special Guests: Ambassador James Lilley and representatives from the Embassies of the countries who fought for the democracy and freedom of the South Korean people

After the program, Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Korean War Memorial

TUESDAY, APRIL 26-SATURDAY, APRIL 30: NORTH KOREA GENOCIDE EXHIBIT
—————————————————————————————————–
10am-4 pm DAILY North Korea Genocide Exhibit Fairfax Korean Church, 11400 Shirley Gate Court, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 Special Events at the Exhibit:

Tuesday, April 26, 8 AM, Special VIP Ribbon Cutting and Opening Ceremony including Congressman Frank Wolf, National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, Pastor Kwang-Ho Yang, Moon Gook Han; North Korean defectors Soon-Ok Lee, Ahn Hyok, Dong-Chul Choi, and Seung-Min Kim; Teruaki Masumoto and Yoichi Shimada of the Japanese Rescue Movement and other VIPs9:30 am Meet with the leadership of the North Korean defectors organizations working for human rights

Wednesday, April 27, 9:30 AM: Meet the Author, Book Signing with Soon Ok Lee, author of Eyes of the Tailless Animals, her experiences as a survivor in the North Korea political prison camps

THURSDAY, APRIL 28: FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF NORTH KOREA FREEDOM DAY
—————————————————————————————————–
9:30 AM: Meet the Author, Book Signing with Colonel Gordon Cucullo, author of Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin

9:30 AM Washington, D.C., Premiere of Award Winning Documentary Seoul Train depicting plight of the North Korean refugees in China Welcome and Introduction by Congressmen Joseph Pitts (Pa) and Trent Franks (Az)with remarks and discussion led by Seoul Train Producers Jim Butterworth and Lisa SleethHosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition (RSVP to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org) Location: 2237 Rayburn House Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

12:00 Noon Protest to Stop China’s Violent Repatriation of North Korean Refugees
Hosted by the International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of the North Korean Refugees Location: Peoples’ Republic of China Embassy, 2300 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

(Corrected!)

(Corrected!)
2:30 pm Second Screening of Seoul Train hosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition
Welcome and Introduction by Senator Sam Brownback with remarks and discussion led by Seoul Train Producers Jim Butterworth and Lisa Sleeth
Hosted by North Korea Freedom Coalition (RSVP to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org)
Location: 385 Russell Senate Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

7 pm: Prayer Vigil for Freedom and Human Rights for North KoreaHosted by Pastor Dong Soo Shin Location: Fairfax Korean Church Fairfax Korean Church, 11400 Shirley Gate Court, Fairfax, Virginia 22030

FRIDAY, APRIL 29
—————————————————————————————————–
9:30 AM, Meet South Koreans abducted by North Korea and leaders of the Japanese abductee organizations including Teruaki Masumoto, Deputy Secretary General of the Japanese Abducted Family Association, hosted by Mr. Jae Hyun Bae of Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and Yoichi Shimada of the Japanese Rescue Movement
North Korean Genocide Exhibit is Hosted by Pastor Kwang-Ho Yang, Sin U Nam, Suzanne Scholte, rescuer Moon Gook Han of the International Coalition to Save the NK Slaves; The Exhibit, which opened in Seoul in November 2004 for its World Tour, includes displays depicting the plight of North Korean refugees in China, political prison camps, starvation, Japanese abductees, Korean abductees and other evidence of the horrific life for North Koreans under the Kim Jong-il regime; the award winning documentaries Seoul Train (about the underground railroad for the North Korean Refugees) by Incite Productions and the BBC’s Access to Evil and other videos will be shown continuously; the famous painting by French artist Jean-Baptiste Oh “Death and Despairand satellite images provided by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea are also part of the exhibit.

10 am: Press Conference with the North Korean Defectors Organizations represented by Ahn Hyok, Seung-Min Kim and Dong-Chul ChoiHosted by Peter Hickman and the Morning Newsmaker Committee, NPCLocation: Murrow Room, National Press Club, 529 14th Street, N.W.

12 noon Capitol Hill Forum with the Leadership of the North Korean Defectors Organizations North Korean defectors will describe their work promoting human rights and freedom for North Korea and their plans for a democratic and free North Korea post Kim Jong-il. Hosted by the Defense Forum Foundation ($26 fee for lunch: *RSVP Required to skswm@aol.com) Location: 2168 Rayburn (Gold Room) House Office Building, Washington, D.C. (*RSVP required)

SATURDAY, APRIL 30
—————————————————————————————————–
7-10 pm: North Korean Human Rights Conference with North Korean defectors, special guestsHosted by the Maryland Koreans Association and Jubilee Campaign (RSVP to eunhaemary@yahoo.com)Location: New Covenant Fellowship Church,18901 Waring Station Road, Germantown, MD 20874

(Actual post date: 21 Apr 2005)

Comments

Jing’s Rules of Discourse

Posted by Joshua Stanton on April 18, 2001 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

The infamous commenter Jing of Marmot’s Hole fame has started his own blog. Not being one who subscribes to the theory that decorum requires us to conceal the abhorrent beneath a blanket of smiley equivalency, I’d like to welcome Jing to this tough room we call the blogosphere by engaging in a little Maoist criticism of what I like to call Jing’s Rules of Discourse:

1. If someone criticizes your position, go for the anti-Semitic angle:

Ahh the covetous shylock on the attack. Don’t mind [ZF], he seems to have a strange China fixation that is unhealthy to say the least.

Comment by Jing from — August 22, 2004 (Sunday) @ 2:10 pm

I wouldn’t know about calling Mr. [Thomas] Barnett a hard-nosed realist, as quite frankly he does qualify as a neo-conservative. However, unlike ersatz-Likudniks such as Krauthammer et all, policy need not be determined solely by the security concerns of Israel. . . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 13, 2004 (Saturday) @ 11:36 am.

If I was being anti-semitic, I would have called him a jew. As it stands, I was imply using a literary metaphor to more effectively and colourfuly convey a message. One does that in English yes? I understand it could be construed as anti-semitic, but as I don’t even know if the person in question is Jewish or not it makes it somewhat irrelevant.

Got a problem with that Jewgar of Jewlingrad?

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 4:46 pm

2. Be a class act, and show it.

Wonsanghetto, I’m not going to even bother with civility. Where the hell did I even mention Jews at all you dumb ass?

As for Tron . . . [s]uffice it to say, I’m tired of having to repeat myself and am not even going to bother correcting your errors and will leave other people to read what they will. If they are stupid enough to believe your crap, then so be it.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 7:03 am

You really are an idiot [ZF].

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 5:29 am

I know a lot of you are American conservatives who are naturally predicated toward either a)stupidity b)china bashing but you only need to examine the facts as they stand at present to see that China has no nefarious designs on Korean territory. Instead of conjuring half baked theories about the next red menace.

Comment by Jing from — August 18, 2004 (Wednesday) @ 12:20 pm

You know what, fuck you WonsanGhetto. If you want to think I’m some sort of anti-semitic fascist racial supremacist. Go right on ahead. Maybe from now on I should simply refer to you as Hymie Kimstein and make things easier for you. For anyone else who wants to have an actual discussion that doesn’t involve flying accusations and childish non-sequiturs then proceed.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 1:40 pm

3. Threaten peoples’ kids. People think that’s funny.

“Those who dare oppose us will stand knee deep in the blood of their children.”

Nice words, coming from someone who’ll almost certainly never have any. Starts off as aspirational (and cliche), then veers right to the kid-killing. Always an effective tool of persuasion, and chicks really dig it.

4. Remind your neighbors that you aspire to colonize them. It’s funny when you do that, too. Exhibit A:

Oy vey, you try to discuss something serious and what do I get? Naked mercantalism and sheer ignorance! . . . As for your wish to see the economic collapse of China, well I won’t bother with deconstructing this but suffice it to say… Perhaps the evil Chinese militarists should seek to forelay any economic collapse by gearing their industries for war. Afterall, we need our lebensraum too and the Korean peninsula looks mighty tempting. . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 5:32 am

Exhibit B: This map of China ought to get plenty of laughs in Japan and Korea. Readers in Korea, I beg of you–read Jing’s site every day and internalize its wisdom.

5. Defend the indefensable, in this case, the use by Chinese police of cattle prods against North Korean refugees:

Both those weapons the officers carried were specifically designed for security duty and not to coral [sic] cows. Cattle prods aren’t even resigned for “putting down” big animals, they are designed to irritate them enough to get them moving in a certain direction.

I fully admit that the likely fate for these would be defectors will be “unpleasant” to say the least and I wish China would not send them back to North Korea. Unfortunately nothing can be done and the world is full of unpleasantries that most people would rather not know about. . . .

Comment by Jing from — October 26, 2004 (Tuesday) @ 7:51 am

Don’t worry about a little credibility, Jing. You can always get more later.

6. Always, always, always–toe the Party line:

About the number of Chinese Catholics, I am really skeptical that there are actually several million “underground” Catholics as is claimed. There really is no statistical data to validate this (as far as I am aware) and I’ve never heard anyone actually provide any evidence to substantiate this figure. [Link]

No statistical evidence on the number of religious dissidents in a repressive fascist state? Nope, I can’t explain that.

7. When confronted with uncomfortable facts, run.

Jing–probably the most effective propagandist the CIA never paid.

Comments

Jing’s Rules of Discourse

Posted by joshua on April 18, 2001 at 11:26 am · Filed under Uncategorized

The infamous commenter Jing of Marmot’s Hole fame has started his own blog. Not being one who subscribes to the theory that decorum requires us to conceal the abhorrent beneath a blanket of smiley equivalency, I’d like to welcome Jing to this tough room we call the blogosphere by engaging in a little Maoist criticism of what I like to call Jing’s Rules of Discourse:

1. If someone criticizes your position, go for the anti-Semitic angle:

Ahh the covetous shylock on the attack. Don’t mind [ZF], he seems to have a strange China fixation that is unhealthy to say the least.

Comment by Jing from — August 22, 2004 (Sunday) @ 2:10 pm

I wouldn’t know about calling Mr. [Thomas] Barnett a hard-nosed realist, as quite frankly he does qualify as a neo-conservative. However, unlike ersatz-Likudniks such as Krauthammer et all, policy need not be determined solely by the security concerns of Israel. . . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 13, 2004 (Saturday) @ 11:36 am.

If I was being anti-semitic, I would have called him a jew. As it stands, I was imply using a literary metaphor to more effectively and colourfuly convey a message. One does that in English yes? I understand it could be construed as anti-semitic, but as I don’t even know if the person in question is Jewish or not it makes it somewhat irrelevant.

Got a problem with that Jewgar of Jewlingrad?

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 4:46 pm

2. Be a class act, and show it.

Wonsanghetto, I’m not going to even bother with civility. Where the hell did I even mention Jews at all you dumb ass?

As for Tron . . . [s]uffice it to say, I’m tired of having to repeat myself and am not even going to bother correcting your errors and will leave other people to read what they will. If they are stupid enough to believe your crap, then so be it.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 7:03 am

You really are an idiot [ZF].

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 5:29 am

I know a lot of you are American conservatives who are naturally predicated toward either a)stupidity b)china bashing but you only need to examine the facts as they stand at present to see that China has no nefarious designs on Korean territory. Instead of conjuring half baked theories about the next red menace.

Comment by Jing from — August 18, 2004 (Wednesday) @ 12:20 pm

You know what, fuck you WonsanGhetto. If you want to think I’m some sort of anti-semitic fascist racial supremacist. Go right on ahead. Maybe from now on I should simply refer to you as Hymie Kimstein and make things easier for you. For anyone else who wants to have an actual discussion that doesn’t involve flying accusations and childish non-sequiturs then proceed.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 1:40 pm

3. Threaten peoples’ kids. People think that’s funny.

“Those who dare oppose us will stand knee deep in the blood of their children.”

Nice words, coming from someone who’ll almost certainly never have any. Starts off as aspirational (and cliche), then veers right to the kid-killing. Always an effective tool of persuasion, and chicks really dig it.

4. Remind your neighbors that you aspire to colonize them. It’s funny when you do that, too. Exhibit A:

Oy vey, you try to discuss something serious and what do I get? Naked mercantalism and sheer ignorance! . . . As for your wish to see the economic collapse of China, well I won’t bother with deconstructing this but suffice it to say… Perhaps the evil Chinese militarists should seek to forelay any economic collapse by gearing their industries for war. Afterall, we need our lebensraum too and the Korean peninsula looks mighty tempting. . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 5:32 am

Exhibit B: This map of China ought to get plenty of laughs in Japan and Korea. Readers in Korea, I beg of you–read Jing’s site every day and internalize its wisdom.

5. Defend the indefensable, in this case, the use by Chinese police of cattle prods against North Korean refugees:

Both those weapons the officers carried were specifically designed for security duty and not to coral [sic] cows. Cattle prods aren’t even resigned for “putting down” big animals, they are designed to irritate them enough to get them moving in a certain direction.

I fully admit that the likely fate for these would be defectors will be “unpleasant” to say the least and I wish China would not send them back to North Korea. Unfortunately nothing can be done and the world is full of unpleasantries that most people would rather not know about. . . .

Comment by Jing from — October 26, 2004 (Tuesday) @ 7:51 am

Don’t worry about a little credibility, Jing. You can always get more later.

6. Always, always, always–toe the Party line:

About the number of Chinese Catholics, I am really skeptical that there are actually several million “underground” Catholics as is claimed. There really is no statistical data to validate this (as far as I am aware) and I’ve never heard anyone actually provide any evidence to substantiate this figure. [Link]

No statistical evidence on the number of religious dissidents in a repressive fascist state? Nope, I can’t explain that.

7. When confronted with uncomfortable facts, run.

Jing–probably the most effective propagandist the CIA never paid.

Comments

Jing’s Rules of Discourse

Posted by joshua on April 18, 2001 at 11:26 am · Filed under Uncategorized

The infamous commenter Jing of Marmot’s Hole fame has started his own blog. Not being one who subscribes to the theory that decorum requires us to conceal the abhorrent beneath a blanket of smiley equivalency, I’d like to welcome Jing to this tough room we call the blogosphere by engaging in a little Maoist criticism of what I like to call Jing’s Rules of Discourse:

1. If someone criticizes your position, go for the anti-Semitic angle:

Ahh the covetous shylock on the attack. Don’t mind [ZF], he seems to have a strange China fixation that is unhealthy to say the least.

Comment by Jing from — August 22, 2004 (Sunday) @ 2:10 pm

I wouldn’t know about calling Mr. [Thomas] Barnett a hard-nosed realist, as quite frankly he does qualify as a neo-conservative. However, unlike ersatz-Likudniks such as Krauthammer et all, policy need not be determined solely by the security concerns of Israel. . . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 13, 2004 (Saturday) @ 11:36 am.

If I was being anti-semitic, I would have called him a jew. As it stands, I was imply using a literary metaphor to more effectively and colourfuly convey a message. One does that in English yes? I understand it could be construed as anti-semitic, but as I don’t even know if the person in question is Jewish or not it makes it somewhat irrelevant.

Got a problem with that Jewgar of Jewlingrad?

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 4:46 pm

2. Be a class act, and show it.

Wonsanghetto, I’m not going to even bother with civility. Where the hell did I even mention Jews at all you dumb ass?

As for Tron . . . [s]uffice it to say, I’m tired of having to repeat myself and am not even going to bother correcting your errors and will leave other people to read what they will. If they are stupid enough to believe your crap, then so be it.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 7:03 am

You really are an idiot [ZF].

Comment by Jing from — August 23, 2004 (Monday) @ 5:29 am

I know a lot of you are American conservatives who are naturally predicated toward either a)stupidity b)china bashing but you only need to examine the facts as they stand at present to see that China has no nefarious designs on Korean territory. Instead of conjuring half baked theories about the next red menace.

Comment by Jing from — August 18, 2004 (Wednesday) @ 12:20 pm

You know what, fuck you WonsanGhetto. If you want to think I’m some sort of anti-semitic fascist racial supremacist. Go right on ahead. Maybe from now on I should simply refer to you as Hymie Kimstein and make things easier for you. For anyone else who wants to have an actual discussion that doesn’t involve flying accusations and childish non-sequiturs then proceed.

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 1:40 pm

3. Threaten peoples’ kids. People think that’s funny.

“Those who dare oppose us will stand knee deep in the blood of their children.”

Nice words, coming from someone who’ll almost certainly never have any. Starts off as aspirational (and cliche), then veers right to the kid-killing. Always an effective tool of persuasion, and chicks really dig it.

4. Remind your neighbors that you aspire to colonize them. It’s funny when you do that, too. Exhibit A:

Oy vey, you try to discuss something serious and what do I get? Naked mercantalism and sheer ignorance! . . . As for your wish to see the economic collapse of China, well I won’t bother with deconstructing this but suffice it to say… Perhaps the evil Chinese militarists should seek to forelay any economic collapse by gearing their industries for war. Afterall, we need our lebensraum too and the Korean peninsula looks mighty tempting. . . .

Comment by Jing from — November 14, 2004 (Sunday) @ 5:32 am

Exhibit B: This map of China ought to get plenty of laughs in Japan and Korea. Readers in Korea, I beg of you–read Jing’s site every day and internalize its wisdom.

5. Defend the indefensable, in this case, the use by Chinese police of cattle prods against North Korean refugees:

Both those weapons the officers carried were specifically designed for security duty and not to coral [sic] cows. Cattle prods aren’t even resigned for “putting down” big animals, they are designed to irritate them enough to get them moving in a certain direction.

I fully admit that the likely fate for these would be defectors will be “unpleasant” to say the least and I wish China would not send them back to North Korea. Unfortunately nothing can be done and the world is full of unpleasantries that most people would rather not know about. . . .

Comment by Jing from — October 26, 2004 (Tuesday) @ 7:51 am

Don’t worry about a little credibility, Jing. You can always get more later.

6. Always, always, always–toe the Party line:

About the number of Chinese Catholics, I am really skeptical that there are actually several million “underground” Catholics as is claimed. There really is no statistical data to validate this (as far as I am aware) and I’ve never heard anyone actually provide any evidence to substantiate this figure. [Link]

No statistical evidence on the number of religious dissidents in a repressive fascist state? Nope, I can’t explain that.

7. When confronted with uncomfortable facts, run.

Jing–probably the most effective propagandist the CIA never paid.

Comments