SEOUL — North Korea must respect human rights if it wants to improve relations with the United States and end its international isolation, a US envoy said Thursday.

Robert King, special envoy for North Korean human rights, said in a message to a Seoul seminar that the US government remains “deeply concerned” about the issue and the plight of North Korean refugees.

“Respect for human rights by the DPRK (North Korea) will have significant impact on the prospect of closer ties with the US and will be necessary for North Korea to fully participate in the international community,” King said in the message read at the seminar.

In its traditional New Year editorial, the North called for an end to longstanding hostile relations with the United States.

US ambassador Kathleen Stephens told the forum the State Department would provide three million dollars this year to promote human rights and fund radio broadcasts into the communist state.

“We will continue to fund radio broadcasts into North Korea to try to provide information about the outside world,” she said, adding that her government will also work to support North Korean refugees.

Almost all North Korean refugees flee first to China, which repatriates those whom it catches as economic migrants even though they face harsh punishment back home.

Parliament Speaker Kim Hyung-O urged South Korea’s conservative government to address the North’s security concerns.

“A declaration guaranteeing the security of the North’s regime is necessary… when the North begins to trust the South, inter-Korean ties will improve greatly,” he said in his welcome address at the seminar.

Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Location: UCLA Law School Building, Room 1347

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About the speaker Mr. Shin 

Until his escape in 2005 Shin Dong Hyuk had been a prisoner all his life: innocent of any crime, but born behind bars. Bearing the thick scars of his ordeal, Shin Dong Hyuk’s account of Total Control Camp No 14 reveals perhaps the darkest side of Kim Jong Il’s communist dictatorship – a labour camp where tens of thousands of political prisoners are subjected to torture, beatings and execution. 

___________________________________________________________

Hosted by Students Promoting Awareness About North Korea (SPAANK), LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), and the UCLA International Human Rights Law Program. 

SPAANK is a student run group at UCLA seeking to, above all, promote awareness about the human rights violations occurring everyday in North Korea. We hope to incite and mobilize students to take action against the injustices, on behalf of the voiceless and oppressed.

The International Human Rights Law Program at UCLA School of Law, the first program of its kind in southern California, brings together cutting-edge human rights education, scholarship, advocacy and policy-oriented research. As one of the finest research universities in the world, situated at a major global crossroads and in one of the most diverse regions in the country, UCLA is emerging as a vital center for international human rights work. 

LiNK’s work focuses on awareness through mobilizing the grassroots and telling these stories of hope and survival. We meet with governments, NGOs and institutions to advocate for the North Korean people, while working directly with refugees through a network of shelters in China and Southeast Asia – protecting, educating and assisting them to eventually find freedom and empower them to live new lives.

This year, February 14 meant a lot of different things for different people. Some relished in romance, chocolate and flowers, while some relished in their singleness and ate black noodles with a few other very single friends. To the East Asian communities around the world, February 14 was also a celebration for the New Year.  To North Korea, the variety of celebrations to be held on February 14 were out-shadowed by a single, particular event: Their beloved leader, Kim Jong-Il’s birthday.

On this internationally recognized “day of love”, North Korea celebrated the 68th birthday for their “beloved” leader. The irony of this cracks me up. Imagine your boyfriend bringing home cake and flowers “hey honey, happy kimjongil day” and places a pink cake in front of you in the shape of kim jong-il’s pink face.

North Korea is almost non-existent in the viral world today, but their main websites definitely did not miss this event. Checkout North Korea’s official DPRK news website

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

There’s an article that talks about celebrations held in “various different countries”. Apparently name-dropping is a big deal. Specialists from countries like Ethiopia, Mongolia, Iran, Democratic Congo etc…  claimed that “Kim Jong Il is a prominent thinker and theoretician recognized by the international community”.  I mean, I”ll be honest, I was surprised and thought to myself ‘really, North Korea has friends?” We all hear about big-name China, helping them out sometimes, but who knew the little countries like Ethiopia had relations with North Korea?

Clearly, there’s so much to be learned about this mysterious country. For now, thank God you were able to celebrate Valentines and Chinese New Year with family and friends and not forced to celebrate 68 years of tyranny.

The article is a bit ambiguous if these women knew that they were going to be trafficked in China or not but regardless, the quote shows what people will do in order to reduce hunger. Hunger, is declared as a violation of human rights by the UN Human Rights Council. Food crisis, not only in NK but any part of the world, is a man-made disaster with identifiable causes that obliged all States to act without delay to bring relief to the victims. In a world where we have enough food to feed twice the current world population, hunger is not inevitable.

___________________________________

This article was posted today (Feb. 12, 2010) on the front page of Chosun Ilbo (Major newspaper in S.Korea) English Page.

Border Guards ‘Key to Trafficking in N.Koreans’

uhhhh… WHAT!?!

Oh, come on.  We’ve gone berserker in the past for people messing with our citizens.  I’m pretty sure South Korea will do the same… wait what?

MHMMMM. read the article. it’s actually pretty ridiculous.

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For the haters out there eager for a chance to scream, shout, and insult someone:  No, I am not bashing on South Korea or its people.  It is unfortunate that the South Korean people are so indifferent to an issue so important to them and the world, and I wish they would get their mind out of their bubbles.  What I AM trying to say is that we just found ourselves another group of people to Promote Awareness to.  I never thought we would be promoting awareness about the North Korean atrocities to the South Koreans, but now we know.

“OH NO! So much more work!” Yeah, Yeah. Suck it up, and just do it.  If you want to know why, read the previous post.

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Article attached below for your convenience.

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S.Koreans ‘Indifferent to N.Korean Gulag’

South Koreans are largely indifferent to human rights abuses in the North such as labor camps, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday.

In an article titled, “Facing Apathy and Gulags: Ex-North Korean Inmates Struggle to Raise Concern in South,” the U.S. daily cites a former prisoner and erstwhile soldier, Jung Kyoung-il, who said he was stunned by questions from a group of young South Korean soldiers when he spoke to them about the North Korean gulag.

One soldier asked, “How many days of leave are North Korean soldiers given?” Another asked, “Are North Korean soldiers allowed to visit their girlfriends?” But none seemed interested in the brutal reality of the camps.

The daily pointed out that Seoul in a rare report recently acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are languishing in the camps but has made no public effort to pressure the Kim Jong-il regime. It said many South Koreans hold “deeply conflicted” feelings toward the North and are uncomfortable admitting that the camps exist.

Jung said many students sleep through his lectures, an indifference that still shocks him five years after he defected following three years in the notorious Yoduk camp, where he was subjected to back-breaking labor, a sparse diet and long nights of forced study of nation founder Kim Il-sung’s philosophies, the paper said.

About 200,000 North Koreans are presumed to be languishing in six concentration camps, and of 18,000 defectors in the South, 32 are former inmates, according to the article, often for trivial offenses.

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short post. it’s 4am right now on my clock. i’m tired.

North Korea fires more artillery toward sea border

It’s a front.  Unlike previous posts, the entire article isn’t posted upfront because there is no need.  (If you want to read the article, I made the headline a link.  It will direct you to the article at Yahoo! News.)

We see headlines with the words “North Korea, aggression, weaponry, artillery, smuggles, boom, bang, etc.” pop up (no joke) every other week.  And, honestly, we’re used to it.  Many of us (including myself) associate North Korea with “the man with a perm” and all the ridiculous things he does.  We rarely think of children picking up blackened rice grains from the ground, widespread starvation, gulags set in strategic locations throughout the country, and the many atrocities occurring in North Korea.

It’s all f&%*ing genius.  All the ridiculous “acts of aggression” that North Korea commits on a monthly (sometimes weekly) basis, aren’t North Korea trying to “show its might to the world.”  They know perfectly well that they will lose everything if their small skirmishes with South Korea escalates into an all-out war. NO. It’s not acts of aggression, all this is just a highly successful attempt to draw the world’s attention AWAY FROM the human rights crisis in North Korea.  We say, “No… no matter what they do, we will always know of the crimes against humanity that they are committing,” but how many times have we looked at a headline with the words “North Korea” and said “Ah. Whatever, they’re just acting up again.”?

And it makes sense; what North Korea wants the most right now is a stable relationship with the United States and the rest of the free world.  Kim is known to drive a Mercedes while bumping to to his iPod and drinking fine French wines.  If they’re rambunctious enough, the world will soon say “Stop with your useless saber rattling, and we’ll let you play with us.”

The United States and South Korea have both denounced North Korea’s appalling human rights record in official statements, but when they hold summits with or send envoys to North Korea, the subject of human rights is never brought up. Apparently, a nuclear free Korea is more important than the lives of millions.  A North Korea without nuclear weapons does make me feel better and help me sleep better at nights, but that doesn’t mean we should allow North Korea to get away with its crimes against humanity in exchange for denuclearization.

If I’m not mistaken, we did something like this before.   We turned a blind eye to a nation’s policy of systematic extermination of specific groups of people in exchange for God-knows-what, and it resulted in the death of approximately 6 million civilians. Sound familiar? Yes, I’m talking about the Holocaust.  And am I saying that this issue is as devastating and as bad as the Holocaust? No, I’m saying that this issue is far worse and will escalate into something far more devastating than the Holocaust.  Hitler had 10 years; Kim and his father has had 60 years and counting.  The Allied learned of the extent of the Holocaust AFTER invading Germany and German occupied states.  Same with us; we won’t know the true numbers until after North Korea decides to get its mind out of the gutter.  The numbers we get are mere estimates with possibly thousands more unaccounted for.

Whenever I think about people who did nothing as they witnessed and/or heard about the Holocaust and did nothing about it, I want to ask “Why didn’t you do anything?  Even just saying, “That’s not right,” could have changed something.”

Think about it: 50 or so years down the line, when your grandchildren come home after learning about the human rights crisis issue in North Korea and how long it lasted, they’ll ask you “Why didn’t you do anything?  The teacher said the whole world knew about it.  Couldn’t you have done something… anything?”

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has toughened laws and increased punishments in recent years for those caught trying to leave the reclusive state, a U.N. human rights envoy said on Friday.

Human rights have been a flash point in tense ties between North Korea and the Western world, but the issue has often been overshadowed by Washington’s attempts to prod Pyongyang back to sputtering nuclear disarmament talks.

“Over the past year plus, I’ve noted stricter punishment against people leaving the country of origin and we note generally a decline of outflows from the country of origin into neighboring countries,” said Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have fled the state as its troubled economy has been made worse by years of Pyongyang’s bungled policies and sanctions imposed to punish it for rattling regional security, rights groups have said.

“The example of people trying to leave and being punished for trying to leave or sent back and being punished more severely, this is a very worrying state of affairs and that’s gotten worse over the past couple of years,” Muntarbhorn told reporters in Seoul after a week-long visit to South Korea.

Muntarbhorn is in the final year of his six-year mandate during which he has tried to enter North Korea for research but has been refused entry by its communist government.

He saw some relaxation of laws in recent years related to human rights in the North but the change has only been in form.

More people are attempting to flee the North due to a worsening economy, with brokers and activists becoming more skilled in helping them.

Most people who flee the country typically cross a narrow river from a northeastern province into China, where they then seek passage to a third country for their asylum bids.

China considers them economic refugees and forcibly repatriates them. Once back, the North Koreans face prison, where torture is common and the chance of death is high due to the brutal conditions, human rights workers said.

Source (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60E0ZF20100115)

thoughts later

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/04/journalist.north.korea/index.html#cnnSTCText?iref=werecommend

The guy spent 2 years in prison!  and he was definitely being used as a bargaining chip.  Hmmm…..

(CNN) – Two U.S. journalists who were detained in North Korea while covering the plight of defectors living along the China-North Korea border have been sentenced to 12 years in labor camps, the country’s state-run media said Monday.  

The Central Court of North Korea sentenced Laura Ling and Euna Lee for the “grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

As a result, the court sentenced the women to “12 years of reform through labor,” meaning they will serve out their sentence in a labor camp.

The U.S. State Department said it had seen the reports of the convictions and was trying to confirm it with Korean authorities.

“We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release,” said spokesman Ian Kelley in a statement. “We once again urge North Korea to grant the immediate release of the two American citizen journalists on humanitarian grounds.”

Ling and Lee were taken into custody March 17. They are reporters for California-based Current TV, a media venture of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. 

According to media reports, the trial began Thursday. Much of the time, the only news coming from the secretive and isolated communist nation is relayed through the state media.

he U.S. State Department was informed by the Swedish ambassador to North Korea that no observers were allowed in the courtroom

Sweden represents the United States in North Korea, because the two countries, which fought on opposite sides during the three-year Korean War in the 1950s, do not have diplomatic relations.

The State Department was notified the reporters had a defense attorney, but was not given the lawyer’s name.

Several senior administration officials said the idea of sending either Gore or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Pyongyang on a mission to get the journalists released has been floated to the North Koreans.

No answer has come so far, but the expectation is that once the trial ended the North would accept a visit by either Gore or Richardson to secure their release.

Richardson served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary during the Clinton administration, and he has maintained contacts with North Korea. He took several trips there as ambassador, and he has worked for the release of people held by the North Koreans in the past.

North Korea charged the reporters with illegal entry into the country, “hostile acts” and spying.

The women’s families broke months of silence last week, making public pleas for their release.

“When the girls left the United States, they never intended to cross into North Korean soil. And if they did at any point, we apologize,” Laura Ling, Ling’s sister, said Wednesday.

“And we know that they are very, very sorry. And we ask that you show mercy today,” added Ling, a special correspondent for CNN.

Contact with the women has been extremely limited.

The Swedish ambassador was allowed to see them three times.

Despite the limited communication, the families said they’d heard enough to know the women were “terrified” and “extremely scared.”

I don’t know what to say.  I am truly hopeful that negotiations will be successful [especially since I am sure they are just using the reporters as a bargaining chip for their own personal gain] but something has got to change….