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Monthly Archive: October, 2009

October 19, 2009

North Korean official media denies that the camps exist and claims that all of its people lead “the most dignified and happy life.”

Yoon Sang-Hyun, from the ruling Grand National Party, said the North had 10 camps holding about 200,000 prisoners until the late 1990s when it closed down four of them amid mounting international criticism. “Currently, it holds 154,000 prisoners in six places,” he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. [AFP] I don’t know what a South Korean lawmaker is going on when he suggests that North Korea’s gulag inmate population might actually have fallen to 154,000, but when I...

Categories Human Rights/The Camps
October 19, 2009

Wanted: North Korean Assets

William Thomas Massie’s nightmares almost always begin in a dusty prison cell. His arms are lashed behind his back, and North Korean guards are karate-chopping his neck, kicking his groin and ankles, and smashing his face with fists and rifle butts. The frigid room is illuminated only by tannin-tinted light trickling through newspaper-covered windows. The guards are screaming. One thrusts an assault rifle into Massie’s mouth. The soldier’s finger is on the trigger. Sweat stings Massie’s eyes. He is terrified....

Categories U.S. Law/U.S. Military
October 18, 2009

Extortion for Domestic Consumption

This, coming from a regime that offers little more than propaganda for its people to consume: Upon seeing signs that the food situation is becoming serious, factory managers are moving to soothe workers, saying, “Great amounts of food will come from foreign countries in January, so don’t worry so much. However, the workers reactions are not ones of great relief, because it is not clear whether that foreign food aid would be distributed to workers even if it did arrive....

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Propaganda
October 16, 2009

China: The John Edwards of Diplomacy

[Update: According to this story, Wen put off signing an economic development deal with Pyongyang worth “several billion dollars” dollars after Kim Jong Il failed to provide a “clear” statement about returning to six-party talks. I can’t say whether China’s offer came with the Obama Administration’s tacit approval or provoked quiet disapproval, but if we’re back in the business of paying North Korea to come back to talks to stall and lie, we’re right back at square one. The only...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions
October 15, 2009

Anti-Kim Jong Il Posters Trigger Massive Dragnet in Small Farming Town

A story sourced to Open Radio (link in Korean) reports that in the small farming town of Kwaksan-Up, North Pyongan Province, anti-government posters were placed on the door and window of the local party office. The posters denounced the top local party official, complaining that in his ambition to curry favor with Kim Jong Il, he had created unbearable conditions for the local people. The posters were signed by a group calling itself “Seo namu dan,” or “pine tree group.”...

Categories Resistance
October 14, 2009

Interview with Kim Young-il, Executive Director of PSCORE

People for Successful COrean REunification (PSCORE; 성공ì ì¸ 통일을 만들어가는 사람들, aka 성통만사) is a small NGO that works on “democratization, human rights and social issues. [They] hope to bridge the gap between South Korea, North Korea and the international community.” They mostly aim their programs, such as essay contests, a one-on-one tutoring program, a summer English camp, and cultural outings, at students, but they’ve held at least one seminar for the public at large (last Spring). Mark your calendars...

Categories Defectors/Democracy/Human Rights/Reconstruction
October 14, 2009

Sanctions Update

Either Hillary Clinton reads The New Ledger or I’m not the only one who is worried that the Obama Administration will relax sanctions too early because of vaporous North Korean promises that it will return to talks. Either way, she seems to have wanted to put such fears to rest: “We have absolutely no intention of relaxing or offering to relax North Korean sanctions at this point whatsoever,” Clinton said. [AFP] Meanwhile, Chris Hill’s replacement as Assistant Secretary for East...

Categories Sanctions
October 14, 2009

Lankov in the NYT, on Changing North Korea

My friend Andrei begins by advocating “cultural exchanges” as a means to change North Korea, a topic we’ve often debated in the past. If only such exchanges had the potential he suggests they do. North Korea only permits them on an infinitesimal scale, with people whose loyalty is thoroughly vetted, and when it calculates that the regime-stabilizing financial benefits outweigh the risk that the participants will be corrupted. Look no further than the Kaesong experience, or that of the North...

Categories Deprogramming/Propaganda/Subversion/Sunshine
October 14, 2009

Two years from now, carpet-bagging traders from Chongjin could be buying up real estate in Kangnam

… if Jasper Kim is correct that Korea’s housing bubble is about to burst. There are some eerie echoes of the U.S. subprime mania as well. The first sign of trouble is the general consumer confidence that real-estate prices will go up. A recent Bank of Korea consumer survey index for housing found the highest level of optimism since the survey started a year ago. Purchasers of Korean real estate have a sense that a broader economic recovery is underway....

Categories South Korea
October 13, 2009

How North Korea Selects Family “Reunion” Recipients

The criteria for selection are political value and propaganda potential. South Korean prisoners of war and citizens who were abducted by the North are picked for their political value. North Korea believes that South Korean demands for the release of all POWs and abductees can be appeased if such people are included. [….] Once selected, North Koreans go through between one and three months of ideological education at the Unification Bureau. In the early days of the family reunions, the...

Categories Abductions/North-South
October 13, 2009

All Animals Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others

Because under capitalism, man exploits man. But in the Workers’ Paradise, it’s exactly the opposite! Affluent households get children from the lower classes to repair fences, harvest crops, produce charcoal briquettes and perform other household chores. For poor children, it serves as a good opportunity to get fed somewhat well. The trend is even clearer in rural areas; wealthy families ask children from poor families to cultivate their private fields, sowing them in spring and harvesting the crops in fall...

Categories Class Warfare
October 13, 2009

ROK Food Aid Policy Misses the Point

Is Seoul’s resumption of food aid about saving lives, national pride, or something else? The government has decided to resume food aid to North Korea, which was stopped in summer 2007, and is considering when to start and how much to give. [….] Another government official said the government is considering giving “10,000 to 30,000 tons” of food. If Seoul were to resume food aid on the scale of previous administrations, which was between 300,000 and 400,000 tons, it “would...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
October 10, 2009

North Korea Finally Finds a Minority to Persecute: Chinese

North Korean authorities have apparently stepped up regulations and monitoring of Chinese residents there since Beijing backed UN sanctions against the North in June. Sources in China and North Korea say North Korean intelligence officials are increasingly treating Chinese residents who recently visited their home country as spies. Sources say this has prompted many Chinese residents to avoid visiting China. The number of Chinese residents passing through customs in Rajin has dropped to one-third of the number seen last year...

Categories China & Korea
October 10, 2009

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (and How You Can Help)

I’m very glad I took Dan B’s advice and attended the presentation on the North Korean Database Center (NKDB) for Human Rights. The event was held at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, last Thursday. NKDB founders Kim Sang Hun and Yoon Yeo Sang gave the presentation. The NKDB has created an extensive database of alleged human rights abuses in North Korea, one that is both comprehensive and subject to detailed statistical analysis for journalists, policymakers, and perhaps...

Categories Activism/Human Rights