Posted by Joshua on November 30, 2011 at 7:40 am · Filed under Anju Links
So, if I’d been asleep for the last six months, would I awake to find that the whole world had changed? Or would I roll over to see that the whole world was still snoring right there beside me? Via the AP:
North Korea has threatened to turn South Korea’s presidential palace into a “sea of fire” in response to any provocation, a day after Seoul’s military held a big exercise near the border.
The land, sea and air drill was staged on Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of a deadly North Korean attack on the South’s border island of Yeonpyeong, which sparked outrage among South Koreans and prompted international alarm. Pyongyang has always justified its bombardment on November 23, 2010 as a response to a South Korean artillery drill on Yeonpyeong, which it said dropped shells into the North’s territorial waters.
The North’s military Supreme Command said on Thursday the South should not forget the lesson of the Yeonpyeong attack. It described Wednesday’s anniversary drill as “little short of a new political and military provocation”. If the South dared in future to “fire one bullet or shell” towards the North’s territorial waters, air space and land, a “sea of fire” would engulf Seoul’s presidential palace. The North’s armed forces “are in full readiness to go into a decisive battle to counter any military provocation”, said the Supreme Command statement on Pyongyang’s official news agency.
Also announced by North Korea this week:
North Korea said Wednesday it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant, increasing worries that the country is developing another way to make atomic weapons.
Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said construction of an experimental light-water reactor and low enriched uranium are “progressing apace.” The statement added that North Korea has a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that “neither concession nor compromise should be allowed.”
More here.
President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, to reward it for its progress toward complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament. Hey, it was “worth a try.” Discuss among yourselves.
Update: So if you wonder why I question the judgment and competence of a large segment of our foreign policy brain trust, as well as the objectivity of some of the reporters covering this story, let me offer the example of Bruce Bennett of the Rand Corporation, who worries about Lee Myung Bak’s diplomatic “mistake” in stating that North Korea is “one of the world’s most well-armed and most belligerent countries.” Steve Herman of the Voice of America, for God’s sake, offers us Bennett’s perspective — and no others — to support a dubious narrative that Lee is engaging in “harsh rhetoric,” but without bothering to mention that the North Koreans had just threatened to flatten Lee’s residence. Maybe Bennett has adopted the Washingtonian custom of discounting North Korea’s rhetoric and detaching it from any consequence to diplomatic “relations” between North Korea and the world, but then again, it’s not his nation, personal residence, and family we’re talking about here. Nor does it seem wise to me, anyway, to discount the threats of a regime that killed 50 South Koreans last year, and which has recently engaged in a campaign of assassinations against activists in China and on South Korean territory.
Does anyone today really believe that the nuances of a South Korean President’s language, no matter how factual or how mild in their greater context, really have a material effect on Kim Jong Il’s behavior toward the rest of the world? Inexplicable as it may be to some of us uncredentialed observers, the answer is “yes.”
Posted by Christopher Green on November 25, 2011 at 10:32 am · Filed under China, Abductions, "United" Nations
Maruzki Darusman gave a press conference this morning to convey the results of his six-day trip to South Korea. The contents of my report on the event were published by Daily NK at the time, and are also republished below;
Maruzki Darusman, the UN’s special rapporteur on North Korean human rights issues, believes there has been no improvement since he took on the role in 2010, and has once again urged Pyongyang to take action to remedy its multitude of human rights failings.
Darusman, who gave a press conference at a Seoul hotel this morning, wrapping up a six-day visit to South Korea, noted that the only area in which any progress at all has been made with North Korea in the recent past is in terms of “cooperation with other UN entities, for instance the World Food Programme.”
Conversely, he slammed North Korea’s human rights record yet again, commenting, “The DPRK is perhaps the only country in the world today that does not recognize that non-cooperation with the human rights mechanism is not an option.”
Darusman’s criticisms of North Korea, derived from the fact-finding trip, include the prevalence of human rights abuses in the testimony of new defectors at Hanawon, the resettlement center for defectors south of Seoul, a 17% year-on-year increase in defector numbers reaching Seoul, the current separated family reunions freeze and the ongoing stonewalling by North Korea of calls for the repatriation of more than 500 South Korean abductees still thought to be being held in the country.
He also agreed to look into the case of Shin Suk Ja, saying, “The case of Oh Gil Nam is an emblematic case that illustrates the seriousness and magnitude of the problem and reminds us of the need to resolve the issue of abductions urgently.” It is the internment of Dr. Oh’s wife Shin and their two children in a North Korean political prison camp which forms the inspiration for the ongoing ‘Save the Daughter of Tongyeong!’ movement in South Korea.
However, disappointingly for the supporters of the movement, Darusman did so by saying that he plans to collect information on the case before “engaging the UN human rights mechanism, including the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances in Geneva,” rather than lending his voice to calls for Shin and her daughters to be released.
“I will continue to be in touch with this matter on occasions” so as to “bring it forward to its resolution, hopefully in the near future,” he added.
Darusman also initially refused to cite China directly for its role in repatriating defectors to face torture and imprisonment inside North Korea, instead noting simply that many defectors are “forcibly refouled or returned by the neighboring countries.” However he did, responding to a later question, note that “China would certainly be one of those countries.”
But I don’t think the original content really represents the nuance of the event. Although my headline was soft around the edges for reasons of unity with Daily NK’s Korean page, I personally believe the core of the story actually lies in the last two paragraphs.
For me, it is wholly indicative of the failure of the UN as it pertains to North Korea that the organization’s own special rapporteur on North Korean human rights would be able to talk about the repatriation of defectors for five full minutes without mentioning China, and then not even mention the abductions issue in his recommendations despite having met Oh Gil Nam during the trip. Any headline on this press conference that you have read will have led with the contents of the post-press conference Q&A, and as such we should remember; if the press had not pushed Darusman on these two points, there would have been no mention of China at all and almost none of Shin Suk Ja.
I was not a huge fan of Darusman’s predecessor Vitit Muntarbhorn, but that may have been simply because acting as the UN special rapporteur for this issue is such a thankless task in so many ways. However, to his immense credit, Muntarbhorn seemed clued up on the problems which he was required to address from the beginning. Darusman does not. He seemed uncomfortable to be responding to a question about Oh Gil Nam, at one point even seeking clarification of the question, and didn’t even appear all that sure how many children Oh and Shin Suk Ja actually have. He then tried quite hard to avoid namechecking China.
It was not an encouraging scene.
Posted by Dan Bielefeld on November 4, 2011 at 11:49 am · Filed under Human Rights, Books & Films
(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 by Dr. Kim Moon-soo,
Governor, Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea
November 15, 2011
9 AM – 2:30 PM
Kenney Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036
The US-Korea Institute at SAIS and the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights will convene a seminar on November 15, 2011 that will explore both the status of the human rights and humanitarian challenges in North Korea and international efforts to address them. Featuring a keynote address by Dr. Kim Moon-soo, Governor of Gyeonggi Province in South Korea.
Agenda coming soon.
See link to RSVP.
Update:
Wow, looks like they will have an A-List of speakers. The page for the event now has a link to a PDF with the following:
AGENDA
8:30–9:00 Registration
9:00–9:15 Welcoming Remarks
9:15–9:30 Opening Address
Han Duk-soo, Ambassador to the United States, Republic of Korea
9:30–10:00 Keynote Address
Kim Moon-soo, Governor, Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea
10:15–12:00 Session I: Status of Human Rights and Humanitarian Efforts in North Korea
Chair: Suzanne Scholte, Executive Director, North Korea Freedom Coalition
Panelists:
• Lee Ja-eun, Researcher, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights
• Lee Won-woong, Professor, Kwandong University
• Randall Spadoni, Country Program Manager (North Korea), International Programs, World Vision
12:00–12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 14:00 Session II: Developing a Human Rights Strategy
Chair: Jae H. Ku, Director, US-Korea Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Panelists:
• Gisella Gori, Senior Political Advisor, Political, Security and Development Section, European Union External Action
• Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director, U.S. Committee on North Korean Human Rights
• Ben Rogers, East Asia Team Leader, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
• Kang Cheol-hwan, President, North Korean Strategy Center
14:00 – 14:15 Closing Remarks
Kim Sang-hun, Chairman, Board of Directors, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights
