June 06, 2004
Controversial US Ex-President Ronald Reagan Dies After Long Bout With Alzheimers Disease
I have mixed feelings about Ronald Reagan. For the most part, I remember his steadfast refusal to realistically acknowledge many serious problems with his policies, or even, visibly inform himself about them, in what many would call his policy of "Plausible Denial".
To me, Reagan will always be remembered preferring to answer questions with "I Don't Remember" or "I Don't Recall That".
He was an expert at avoiding difficult questions, and pioneered a new, inaccessible leadership style, in which the media was managed skillfully by being kept a unprecedented distance away from the White House action. But this phrase "I don't remember" came up again and again, earning Reagan's term the nickname "The Teflon Presidency".
Perhaps his Alzheimers was already effecting him then?
Reagan, ironically, a former union leader and Democrat, was also a pioneer in today's "trickle down economics" - aggressively giving even more money to the already rich, supporting regressive tax structures like a 'flat tax' as well as vastly increased amounts of corporate welfare, and additionally, cutting taxes for corporations, in the still unproven theory that this income redistribution program would 'create jobs' and help the poor. But homelessness and poverty in the US, especially among the working poor, increasingly began rising during his term and has risen steadily since, and for working people, the era of stagnant wage growth or downright shrinkage that we now experience today began in his term.
However, his legitimacy was never a matter of question, he was a popularly elected president, elected by a majority of the people of the US, not appointed to his post by a panel of unelected judges, and in fact, he was legitimately elected by a popular vote to a second term.
To his credit, he believed very strongly in trying to work for global disarmamant and an eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, and as such, his administration laid the groundwork for an eventual one and a half decades in which the world worried much less about a global nuclear war.
Continue reading "Controversial US Ex-President Ronald Reagan Dies After Long Bout With Alzheimers Disease"June 05, 2004
Washington DC Area Hosts Several Showings of North Korea-Related Films Next Tuesday, June 8. Urgent RSVP Needed
These both look very interesting.
It's a major shame that they seem to both be on the same day..
However, the times don't conflict. If I lived in DC, I'd go to both.
The situation in Burma is also very bad, for those who don't know.
Please scroll down for info.
If anyone knows where I might be able to obtain videotapes of these films, I'd be very grateful..
Continue reading "Washington DC Area Hosts Several Showings of North Korea-Related Films Next Tuesday, June 8. Urgent RSVP Needed"June 04, 2004
On 15th Anniversary of Beijing Massacre, Thousands Turn Out to Support Democracy in Hong Kong, China
Bitter memories of Tiananmen Square remain for Hong Kong
By Dirk Beveridge
(Hong Kong)
Angered by China's hard line against democracy in Hong Kong, tens of thousands of people waved candles, sang and chanted yesterday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
"Hong Kong should be democratic," Rocker Tsui, a university student, said at the annual vigil, highly charged this year by a dispute over the territory's political future. "Hong Kong people should be ruling Hong Kong ourselves."
Bitter memories remain in Hong Kong of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing which were harshly dealt with by the authoritarian Chinese government, which used tanks and troops to quell protests, killing hundreds of people, on June 4, 1989.
Continue reading "On 15th Anniversary of Beijing Massacre, Thousands Turn Out to Support Democracy in Hong Kong, China"May 29, 2004
China Bans Video Game For Describing Historical Borders In Map
Can this be for real! It would be funny if they weren't serious. What is the point? All nations change, expand, contract. The US was once only thirteen colonies. We also have in the past, encompassed land that is now other nations, like The Philippines. A nation's borders is defined by the people's desires, and what they feel. You don't see California seceeding from the US, just as you now see the US leaving areas where we clearly are not wanted. Like China should do with Tibet. What IS their problem???
Computer Game banned for 'harming China's sovereignty' (Xinhua)
Original URL:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-05/29/content_334845.htm
Xinhua reports that China's Ministry of Culture has banned a computer game for "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity". The PC game, "Hearts of Iron", was accused of distorting historical facts in describing "Manchuria", "West Xinjiang", and "Tibet" as independent sovereign countries in the maps of the game. "All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations," the Ministry's Game Products Censorship Committee said. "The game should be immediately prohibited."
Hasuike Says That He and His Family Were Held In "Isolation" From 1997 Until Koizumi Visit Negotiations Freed Them
Interesting how the abductees who were said to have been seen in North Korea were all instructors at the spy school, and then were said to have died. The only ones said to have survived conveniently had hostag.. uh, children, isn't it!?
Abductees isolated since 1997
Yomiuri Shimbun
Former abductee Kaoru Hasuike and his family were kept isolated in North Korea from about 1997 until just before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi traveled to Pyongyang in 2002, apparently in a bid by the Pyongyang regime to keep the family out of sight as interest in the abduction issue snowballed in this country.
Speaking at a press conference in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on Tuesday, Hasuike avoided giving any details about where the family stayed or what they did while they were kept in isolation, but he said the segregation from North Korean society continued right up until Koizumi's visit in September 2002 for a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
When asked about their enforced segregation in North Korea, Hasuike said, "It began in about 1997, at about the same time as the abduction issue began to draw wider attention in Japan."
During this time, the family apparently was cut off from those around them, and only from just prior to Koizumi's visit to North Korea were they able to participate again in social activities involving contact with other members of society, he said.
May 28, 2004
North Korean Refugees Are Not The Only "Migrants" Prosecuted In China - Where Hereditary Apartheid System Condemns Millions To Life Of Poverty, Legal Limbo
What ever happened to the 80's era laws that - in many states - blocked the importation of products from countries that supported apartheid? Are they still on the books?
HRIC in Media
(Human Rights In China)
http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1249
Without residency rights, millions wait in limbo
NICOLAS BECQUELIN
South China Morning Post
February 27, 2003
Last month, the Chinese State Council issued a circular calling for the abolition of discriminatory policies against rural migrants working in cities, and urged the authorities to protect their rights and interests.
The announcement has been greeted with enthusiasm domestically and in the foreign media, which has started to foresee the impending dismantling of hukou - the hereditary system of household registration which locks the population into rural and urban categories. In other quarters, the move has been dismissed as little more than good publicity for Vice-President Hu Jintao.
Both arguments overlook the fact that control over migration is no longer in the hands of the central government, but in those of the local municipalities. Internal migration in China involves millions of people in every part of the country. Since the introduction of Deng Xiaoping's reforms, 120 million people have left the countryside. Currently, about 150 million are on the move. The government estimates that between now and 2010, 13 million new migrants will settle in cities - every year.
Chinese Security Police Moving To Tighten Control Over NK Refugees
Chinese Security Police's more strict control
of North Korean refugees
Recently the number of North Korean refugees is rapidly increasing because of the serious food deficit in North Korea. The Chinese Security Police is now more strengthening their control over these refugees especially around the regions by the border line.
Incidents like recently escaped North Korean refugee family being imprisoned at the refugee camp in Tumon by the Chinese government (Chinese Security Police) - arrested on May 8 at Yenji, Jirin-sung in China - and a yong North Korean man jumped out of his apartment and killed himself from a sudden attack by the Chinese Security Police are the examples of this.
One North Korean who traveled to China with South Korean passport was arrested by a Chinese Security Police without any reason, and he said that there were over thirty North Korean refugees at the prison.
Control over North Korean refugees is becoming more strict since the recent incident where a North Korean refugee had allegedly broke into a house of an old married couple in Sampyong, in Yenbyun autonomy area, killed them, and robbed jewelries and food. However, the problem is becoming more serious because they would arrest many innocent North Koreans, treating like criminals.
Regardless of the criticism from the world society, Chinese government continues to have more strict control on the North Korean refugees. The Chinese government is more generous to North Korean refugees who are exposed to the mass media than those who are not. However, they treat the rest of the North Korean refugees with violence and unconditional repatriation back to North Korea. A close interest from South Korean government and the global society is needed. / from the correspondent in Beijing
* If you do not want to this newsletter more, please send me your note via this e-mail; nkgulag@nkgulag.org.
May 27, 2004
Beijing Ramping Up Intimidation Tactics In Hong Kong In Attempt To Prevent Promised Moves Towards Democracy From Happening
CULTURAL REVOLUTION EXPERT SAYS FREE MEDIA CRUCIAL TO HONG KONG
2004-05-27
A Chinese-American academic who has carried out extensive research into China's bloody Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) has warned in a recent interview with RFA that media freedom is Hong Kong's key defense against the sort of political tactics encouraged by Mao Zedong during that period.
"Mao Zedong called for uniformity of the press," Normandale Community College professor Ding Shu told RFA's Mandarin service. "In other words, let the news media be uniform. This means all news media, including newspapers, radio, television, and magazines: all need to have one and the same voice."
"This is what the Chinese Communist Party needs. If Hong Kong conforms to 'uniformity of the press,' then we don't know what will happen," Ding said.
However, some fear that political tactics reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution era in Hong Kong have already begun to make an appearance in the former British colony, which was promised continued freedom of speech, assembly, and the media under the terms of its handover to China in 1997.
North Korea Cyberwarfare Unit Said To Attempt Penetration Of SK, Other Institutions
(Chosun Ilbo)
N. Korean Military Hackers Conduct War in Cyberspace
It has been officially confirmed for the first time that North Korea is using military hacking units to gather information in South Korea.
Lt. Gen. Song Yong-keun, commander of the Defense Security Command, said in an opening address of a conference on national defense information protection that, "On orders from National Defense Commission chairman Kim Jong-il, North Korea is operating a crack unit of hackers, and is strengthening its cyber-terror capabilities, collecting information from South Korean national bodies and research institutions through hacking." The DSC said last year that North Korea was training about 100 specialized hackers a year, but this is the first time the existence of a hacker unit or its information collection activities has been officially confirmed.
Song also said, "North Korea, through websites it directly operates or pro-North websites abroad, is strengthening its cyber-offensive, conveying guidelines for the struggle like issuing regime propaganda, condemning the "main enemy idea" (South Korea's designation of North Korea as the primary enemy) and calling for the withdrawal of USFK.
The SDC judges North Korean hacking skills to be good as those of the U.S. CIA, and is pursuing the establishment of a dedicated body to counter attempts to attack information and a system of cooperation between those bodies responsible for information protection. The SDC said North Korea directly operates eight websites, including "Uriminzokkiri" (www.uriminzokkiri.com), and there are 26 pro-North websites abroad, including the Voice of National Salvation (http://ndfsk.dyndns.org).
(Yu Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com )
May 26, 2004
Japanese Education Establishment Full Of Options to Help the Freed Abductees Children
Wow.. It's good to see them doing this. What happens in South Korea with the NK defectors children? Are they treated well?
Japanese Universities bend over backwards to help abducted couples' kids
NIIGATA -- Some of Japan's top universities are keen on waiving usually stringent entrance requirements for the children of Japanese abducted to North Korea, the Mainichi has learned.
Even the Education Ministry is prepared to take a softer stance than its usual hard line approach in dealing with those educated overseas.
And the offspring can look forward to tailor-made tuition, including offers of individual instructors who'll also help them adjust to life in Japan.
North Korea Constructs 400 KM Long Fence, Potentially Fatal "Tiger Traps" To Kill Defectors In Border Areas
I think that this policy is completely evil.
I hope that Kim Jong Il is caught in his own trap soon.
The trap of his own making.
The trap he is closing around himself by his lies.
I think he will be.
Karma.
North Korea Builds 400 Km Fence, Sets Traps to Stop Defectors
It has been learned that North Korea is building a 400 km wooden fence from Shinuiju, North Pyongan Province to Onsong, North Hamgyong Province in order to put a stop to the recent exodus of defectors from the country.
In a telephone conversation with this reporter, an officer in a North Korean border guard unit said, "In accordance with an order from the National Defense Commission calling for us to completely seal the border, border guard units and all the citizens of the border regions were mobilized and have been building a 2 meter high wooden fence since last month." Construction is first being done in those hard-to-patrol areas used by defectors to escape; wide-open, easily patrolled areas are being saved for later, he said.
The officer added, "The North Korea-China border is more that 1,000 li (about 400 km) long, and the reality is that it's impossible to block all of it. I can't understand who would present such an absurd idea."
Kim Myeong-shik (fake name), an ethnic Korean living in China who smuggles goods into the North, bitterly said, "Starting last month, the North Koreans began constructing something made of wood, and I was curious as to what was up. I found out it was something to stop defectors... When I heard that they were building this absurd wooden fence when they're busy just trying to survive, I was speechless."
Side by side with building the wooden fence, North Korea is also preparing traps at strategic spots along Yalu and Tumen rivers that are frequented by people.
A defector who recently crossed the border said, "The traps set up by the border guards are about 3 to 5 meters deep and have sharp metal or wood spikes at the bottom so people are killed or seriously injured when they fall into them."
These traps, which were installed outside political prison camps to stop inmates from escaping, have now made an appearance along the national border.
If work on the wooden fence and traps are completed, the North Korea-China border would be completely sealed off and the number of defectors escaping from the North would likely diminish markedly.
(Gang Cheol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com )
May 25, 2004
North Korea's MSS Rumored to Suspect Ryongchon Explosion Was Assasination Attempt, Bans Cellphone Use Nationally
I knew it couldn't last. The bottom line is that North Korea's leadership feels so threatened by any information it can't control that it's response is inevitable.
By the way, interesting factoid.. My father (who unfortunately, I never knew, since he died when I was very young) was one of the two inventors of the fundamental technology (spread spectrum communications) that made modern cell phones - and many other digital communications devices - possible. :) Told from either his or his co-inventors' perspective, it's an absolutely incredible story.. Either would make a good movie.. :)
He was also a composer and one of the first people to use machines in music. And he also predicted World War II, and many details of how it would play out.. accurately, several years before it started..
:o
North Korean Security Believes Ryongchon Explosion an Assassination Attempt
According to a source, North Korea's State Safety & Security Agency concluded that the massive explosion that occurred in the North Korean city of Ryongchon on April 22 had been conspired by anti-North Korean government forces to harm North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
China Breaking It's Promises On NK Refugees, Repatriating Average Of 150/Week
How can China get away with this? Doesn't anybody care?
China Forcefully Repatriated 150 North Koreans a Week: USCR
WASHINGTON, D.C. --
The American humanitarian group U.S. Committee for Refugees said Monday that China is strengthening its forced repatriations of North Korean refugees, and the East Asia refugee situation is getting worse as refugee's fleeing Myanmar's dictatorship continue to increase.
In the USCR's "World Refugee Survey 2004," the group claimed that China forcefully repatriated an average of 150 North Koreans a week last year, and said that the refugee situation in East Asia showed no signs of improvement; instead, the situation continues to worsen.
According to the report, despite the fact that China promised not to deport North Korean defectors unless they committed crimes, 150 defectors were forcefully repatriated every week last year. USCR also estimated that last year, an average of 2,500 refugees fled Myanmar for Thailand every month, and illegal Burmese immigrants in Thailand total 2 million.
Continue reading "China Breaking It's Promises On NK Refugees, Repatriating Average Of 150/Week"Bush Administration Official Emphasizes US Priority On Solving Nuclear Issue Over Human Rights In NK-US Relations
Rebecca over at NKZone recently attended a dinner where administration officials were present. She summarizes the discussion here.
However, one thing that bothers me never seems to get discussed. That is the "why" of it all.
I wish I didn't, but when I hear these discussions I think of gridlock.. and I also think of the potential dangers in the administration's headstrong rush to build the currently planned and arguably unproven - enormously expensive missile defense system. (The unstable situation with North Korea provides the major strategic justification for this system. )
So, in a sense, could there be a desire in some circles to keep the North Korea 'nuclear issue' UNresolved until the maximum amount of money has been extracted from the American public? -
If so, First, and most importantly, then that money goes to friends in the military establishment. Secondly, if spent as part of a newly enlarged US 'military-first policy' then it cannot be used for things like paying down the interest on the ballooning national debt, Social Security, education, health care for all or education so that our people, especially the education - so our children can get decent jobs- (all positive and important things that seem like anathema to what often seems like the currently dominant right-wing philosophy of 'every man for himself, except when I can get the government to give more from the taxpayers to me')
How convenient!
If I seem a bit cynical, forgive me. I am just really tired of seeing human rights in NK basically ignored, with the poor starving and oppressed North Korean people used almost as pawns in an international game.
For the second time..
God forbid that this problem might someday be solved!
Couldn't let that happen-
*Arrrgggh*
May 24, 2004
Please Help: South Korea Needs To Take North Korean Refugees Betrayed Into China's Grasp By South Korean Counsel In Beijing
I received the following message in email from Sin U Nam (snam@nkparchitects.com) tonight. It's unedited.
From: Sin U Nam
I received the following message from Mr. Moon Kook-han today. Please help!
To: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Copy to: Asian Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
From: International Coalition to save the NK refugee Yoon Woong-joo
Subject: Petition to the Republic of Korea government to save the NK
refugee Yoon Woong-joo
Greetings to the honorable government officials:
Mr. Yoon Woong-joo who tried to enter into the German Language Institute in
Beijing, China on February 23, 2004 as a refugee is now in danger of being
arrested by the Chinese police. We urgently request the assistance of the
Republic of Korea government to interfere and rescue this refugee. The
details and status of Mr. Yoon Woong-joo are as follows:
Hitomi Soga In Limbo As Diplomacy Fails To Address Jenkins Issue, Location for Intra-Family Talks
I agree. i think it would be difficult for the Soga family to speak freely in a Beijing guesthouse. I think that the talks should take place in a neutral third country. Two places that come to mind are Mongolia and the Philippines. Otherwise, it's quite possible that the family could be fearful of retribution for deciding to leave, and therefore intimidated into not making the trip at all.
Soga family reunion faces more delays
(Asahi Shimbun)
Arrangements for the long-awaited family reunion of repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga threatened to be bogged down as politicians on Monday disagreed on the site of the meeting.
Kyoko Nakayama, special adviser to the secretariat for abductee affairs, said it might take months before the family can actually live together again.
``What a tumultuous life mine has turned into,'' Nakayama quoted a despondent Soga as telling a close acquaintance.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suggested Beijing as the possible venue for the reunion during his meeting Saturday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
In Japan, Hasuike Children are told by once-abducted parents: "Everything You Know Is Different"
Wow! I think I can imagine a bit of how they must feel. It's probably a bit too much to assimilate right now, but I'm sure that it will sink in. One thing that will probably help - i am sure that now, in Japan, these 5 kids are going to be celebrities of one kind or another.
Also, lets not forget the many many ones who were left behind. I really feel for the families of the other abductees. this situation of watching these 5 get out must be torturous for them.
Hasuike tells kids about abductions
(Asahi Shimbun)
KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata Prefecture-With the emotional reunion over, the North Korean-born children of repatriated abductees Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike got a heavy dose of reality Monday.
Their father told them that he and their mother were abducted to North Korea, where the couple lived until they returned to Japan in 2002.
Speaking at a news conference here, Kaoru Hasuike, 46, said he told his two children earlier in the day about having been abducted.
Hasuike said his children seemed shocked by the news, but that his 19-year-old son, Katsuya, had suspected as much. He said the youth looked perplexed but remained silent when he learned how his parents arrived in North Korea in 1978. Hasuike then gave the same news to his daughter, Shigeyo, 22. Her reaction was similar.
Kim Jong Il Tells Koizumi That NK's Missiles "Are Not Aimed At Japan"
Kim says North Korean missiles do not target Japan
Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at 04:00 JST
TOKYO — North Korea's missiles are not targeted at Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at their meeting in Pyongyang on Saturday, government sources said Monday.
"Our missiles are not aimed at Japan. They are not for attacking Japan," Kim was quoted as saying. (Kyodo News)
12 North Korean Defectors Captured In Beijing - What Is Their Current Status?
North Korea defectors held by China police
Twelve North Korea defectors trying to enter the South Korean consulate in Beijing were caught by guards and handed over to Chinese police Friday afternoon, a diplomatic source in Seoul said yesterday.
The group consisted of three teenage girls, one adult male and eight women.
Officials at the Unification Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that they are looking into the event and have asked Beijing to grant the wishes of the people in a humanitarian manner if they are confirmed as North Korean defectors.
A family of North Korean defectors that had been handed over to Chinese police after trying to enter the South Korean consulate in Qingdao, China on April 19, succeeded in entering South Korea earlier this month through a third country.
North Korean Landmass Obscured From Space By Hundreds Of Fires
Are you thinking what I am thinking? Could this plethora of fires, which obscure the vew of the ground from space, be intentional?
"Heat signatures and some wisps of smoke from wildfires burning in Korean Peninsula are seen in the photo created by American commercial satellite, GFMC. While two forest fires and a normal fire have broken out in South Korea, it appears about 130 fires -- possibly forest fires -- are visible in the North. / Yonhap"
China Finds Internet Threatens Party's Stranglehold On Discussion, Information
Webmaster Finds Gaps in China's Net
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 24, 2004
GUANGZHOU, China -- When Wu Wei's Web site was shut down for the 23rd time, police in the western Chinese city of Chengdu replaced it with one of their own. For a few days last summer, people trying to reach his Democracy and Freedom discussion forum instead found an odd message in large red characters on their computer screens.
"Because this site contains illegal information," the message said, "the webmaster is asked to quickly contact Officer Hu of the Chengdu Public Security Bureau Internet Supervision Department." Helpfully, the officer left a phone number.
Wu, 34, a part-time college lecturer living hundreds of miles away in Guangzhou on China's southeast coast, ignored the request. But users across the country called and berated Officer Hu for closing the site.
Wu said the officer eventually called his cell phone and offered to reopen the site if he turned over data that could help police identify people who had posted essays there.
May 23, 2004
Free North Korea to Reduce Political Posts, Pull Back To Focus Only On Human Rights and Refugee Situation
Yes, you read it correctly.. since I feel as if the most crucial NK issues that were not very well known a year or so ago, I think are fairly well known now, I'm going to be posting a lot less here, and trying to keep that focus on the human rights aspects of the situation. I have never had that much time to devote to this board, and now, given my own need to deal with important things in my own life and the frustrating nature of the situation, I just don't have the time to devote even the small amount of time that I was a few months ago.
So, expect a change. I'm not going to even try to cover most of what I see as 'political' news items and instead, in the stories I do post, I will try to keep most of the content here focused on the human rights and refugee situations in NK (and related issues) exclusively. I may also post occasionally on human rights issues in general.
Any commentary that I think I can add that is unique and/or important - and that isn't on issues that I clearly see being addresssed more comprehensively elsewhere will still be posted, I'm not abandoning the issue. For those of you who email me material, i will still be checking my email here semi-frequently, and I will post news items.. But I may not post every day or even every week.
I'm sure most of you understand.
Hasuike and Chimura Children Arrive in Japan To Be Greeted by Parents - Meanwhile, Hitomi Soga's Pain Deepens
Confused kids arrive home at parents' house
The two children of a former abductee couple, Kaoru Hasuike and his wife, finally arrived at their parents' home on Sunday, just one day after coming from North Korea.
The 22-year-old daughter and the 19-year-old son will live with their parents in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.
The children came to Japan as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi asked North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to allow the relatives of five former abductees to come to Japan during his visit to Pyongyang Saturday.
Upon their arrival in Tokyo, Hasuike's children met their parents for the first time since the couple came home to Japan in October 2002.
North Korea, Ominously, Said To Be Source Of Libyan Uranium Supplies
Evidence Is Cited Linking Koreans to Libya Uranium
By DAVID E. SANGERand WILLIAM J. BROAD
WASHINGTON, May 22 — International inspectors have discovered evidence that North Korea secretly provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium in early 2001, which if confirmed would be the first known case in which the North Korean government has sold a key ingredient for manufacturing atomic weapons to another country, according to American officials and European diplomats familiar with the intelligence.
A giant cask of uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans earlier this year as part of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's agreement to give up his nuclear program, and the Americans identified Pakistan as the likely source.
But in recent weeks the International Atomic Energy Agency has found strong evidence that the uranium came from North Korea, basing its conclusion on interviews of members of the secret nuclear supplier network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory. Two years ago, the United States charged that North Korea was working to build its own uranium-based nuclear weapons, which would require the same raw materials.
Continue reading "North Korea, Ominously, Said To Be Source Of Libyan Uranium Supplies"May 22, 2004
More on Abductees Family - Jenkins, Allegedly Fearful That US Government Hard Line Would Mean Prison For Him, Still In Pyongyang - Real Story Hard To Discern While He Is Still In NK
I think that the US hard line on Jenkins is a strong indicator that the US may be planning a resumption of the military draft if George Bush is elected as US president in November. What do you think of that theory?
Progress on abductions, but nuclear crisis goes on
Yomiuri Shimbun
Although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Saturday made some progress over the abduction issue, a comprehensive settlement of the issue over the country's nuclear and missile development programs remains a distant prospect.
The major achievement of Koizumi's visit was that he succeeded in bringing five family members of four former abductees to Japan.
The remaining three family members--Charles Jenkins, husband of former abductee Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters--remain in North Korea and were unable to rejoin her Saturday.
One major obstacle has to be overcome before the three can be brought to Japan. The government will first have to reach an agreement with Washington on the treatment of Jenkins, a former U.S. soldier who is classified as a deserter by the U.S. military.
===
U.S. takes hard line on Jenkins
Jenkins disappeared during a patrol in South Korea in 1965. The U.S. government is certain to demand that the government hand him over to U.S. authorities in accordance with bilateral treaties if he enters Japan. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker has said Jenkins is a deserter and would be charged in accordance with U.S. military regulations.
Events Unfolding With Familes of Several Abductees - Controversy Over Remaining Abductees Still Big Issue
Abductees' kin arrive in Japan - 5 reunited with parents - Soga to meet family in 3rd country
(Yomiuri Shimbun)
Five children of four Japanese abductees arrived in Japan from North Korea Saturday night after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il agreed to let them go during summit talks held earlier in the day with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang.
The three children of Yasushi Chimura, 48, and his wife, Fukie, 48, and the two children of Kaoru Hasuike, 46, and his wife, Yukiko, 48, left Pyongyang's Sunan Airport on a government plane late Saturday evening.
NK To Let Soga Meet With Jenkins In China To Plan Response To US Policy On Jenkins
There is no denying that this is a positive development. I have a feeling that once the children of the abductees are free, that we will be hearing a lot more about this story that has hiterto been kept silent. i wish them the best of luck.
North Korea to Let Japan Abductee Relatives Leave
Sat May 22, 2004
By George Nishiyama
PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed Saturday to let all eight relatives of Japanese abducted decades ago leave the communist state, and five will be reunited with their parents in Tokyo Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said after a summit meeting.
Kim also pledged to work for a nuclear-arms-free Korean peninsula and a peaceful solution to a crisis over the North's nuclear programs through multilateral talks, Koizumi told a news conference.
"We must normalize our abnormal ties," Koizumi said. "It is in the interests of both countries to change our hostile relation into a friendly one, our confrontational ties into cooperative ties. That is why I went to North Korea a second time."
The five abductees were ordinary young adults when they were snatched from their home towns a quarter of a century ago and taken to North Korea to help train spies.
They came back to Japan in October 2002, a month after Koizumi's first landmark summit with Kim, but had to leave behind their seven North Korean-born children, aged 16 to 22.
Continue reading "NK To Let Soga Meet With Jenkins In China To Plan Response To US Policy On Jenkins"May 21, 2004
George Lucas's Dystopian Masterpiece THX-1138 Being Re-Released To Theatres, and On DVD
I don't know how many of you saw this film when it came out, but I did, and it influenced me strongly. It's a vision of a very scary, but still plausible, strongly dystopian future - not unlike Orwell's "1984", Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and Huxley's "Brave New World".
It is only by *understanding* what *could* happen that we can *prevent* it from happening.
I urge you strongly to see this film.
If you understand it, you will begin to understand what totalitarian regimes are all about..
The future is now for Lucas' 'THX 1138'
Before he revved up American Graffiti and blasted into Star Wars, George Lucas envisioned THX 1138, a futuristic take on a totalitarian 25th century. It became his first film, released in 1971, and now has a digital face lift.
The restored version — with cleaner video and Dolby Digital surround sound — gets a revival starting Sept. 10 with theatrical showings in 20 cities, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. On Sept. 14, the DVD THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut arrives.
The two-disc collector's edition ($26.99; a single-disc version, $19.97) includes a making-of documentary; a documentary on Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope studio, which made its debut with THX 1138; and Lucas' student short that inspired the feature.
"THX 1138 is how I saw 1970," says Lucas, who eventually gave the name THX to the theater sound certification company he founded. "It was designed as a metaphor for the way we were living at the time. The world has taken a strange twist from there, but I think the ideas we examined in THX 1138 are still valid in the 21st century."
Warner and Lucasfilm today launch a Web site (http://www.thx1138movie.com) that aims "to remind people about the power of this movie," Warner's Mike Radiloff says.
May 19, 2004
In Trial of Online Patriot, China Selects Day They Know He Will Be Defenseless - His Only Crime, Criticizing Corruption And Calling For Direct Election Of Nation's Leaders
CHINA TRIES INTERNET ACTIVIST IN SECRET, NO DEFENSE
2004-05-19
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei are trying a prominent Internet activist behind closed doors on a day when it was known that his defense lawyer would be unable to attend, RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese services report.
Former government official Du Daobin was detained in October 2003 and charged with incitement to subvert state power after posting several essays critical of the Chinese government on the Internet.
Du's trial was scheduled at the Intermediate People's Court at Xiaogan City on May 17, a day on which Du's lawyer Mo Shaoping had previously said he would be unable to attend, the New York-based nonprofit Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a statement.
One Abduction Story Subject Of Dutch Film
It appears that the story of one of the (possibly as many as 100 or more) Japanese nationals abducted by the North Korean government will be the subject of a film by Dutch filmmaker Mirjam van Veelen. This is interesting.
The Japanese, (and especially, the many more Korean) abductees have been largely ignored by the international media in the shadow of North Korea's other human rights abuses, but their stories will probably be very powerful once they surface.
Continue reading "One Abduction Story Subject Of Dutch Film"Military Stretched Thin, Desperately Looking For Men and Women to Serve Country in Iraq
It goes without saying that we need to increase the size of the military. But I It's clear that the military needs to be considering all of its constructive options to increase enlistment now. Increasing military pay, developing new programs to help soldiers build their futures after they leave - Any and all incentives to enlist need to be looked at..
Stressed Army desperate for warm bodies
by Joseph L. Galloway
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The Army is looking for a lot more than just a few good men, and it needs them in a hurry. Army manpower people are now looking at scraping everything out of the barrel to send to Iraq, because the Army is stretched thin and stressed to the max.
For the first time in recent history, a brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division (Mechanized) is being pulled out of South Korea and shipped off on a one-year rotation to combat duty. It will leave the division with just one combat brigade facing the Demilitarized Zone that divides South Korea from North Korea and Kim Jong Il's million-man army.
The soldiers who were six or eight months into their Korean tour, itself classed a one-year unaccompanied hardship tour, are looking at 12 more months, this time under fire in Iraq.
Continue reading "Military Stretched Thin, Desperately Looking For Men and Women to Serve Country in Iraq"May 18, 2004
US Deputy Sec. Of State Armitage Says Jenkins Case Is "Very Sensitive" - Could a resumption of the draft be in the planning stage?
My guess is that with the growing staffing shortages in the military making a resumption of the draft appearing possible, perhaps even probable, after the November elections, the US government doesn't want to say anything that might imply that desertion was in any way excusable under any conditions whatsoever, even if relations with a close ally hinge on it.
That is the only explanation that I can think of. Logically, the US can't be forgiving of Jenkins, because it would set a bad precedent if and when our young men and women start being called into military service.
What do you think?
Armitage says Jenkins case 'very sensitive'
(Kyodo News)
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 at 04:46 JST
WASHINGTON — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Tuesday that the case of Charles Robert Jenkins, a former U.S. soldier listed as a deserter to North Korea and the husband of a repatriated Japanese abductee, is "very sensitive."
"We have had discussions about this," Armitage told reporters after congressional testimony. "It is a very sensitive issue and one that we will look forward to discussing with our Japanese friends in the future." (Kyodo News)
US South Korea troop reduction could become permanent
Korea could lose troops for good
By Robert Burns
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is moving 3,600 U.S. soldiers from bases in South Korea to the conflict in Iraq this summer, possibly marking a permanent reduction in the size of the American military force that has helped deter war on the Korean Peninsula for the past half-century.
Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division will rotate into Iraq on one-year tours, senior Pentagon officials said Monday, confirming an announcement made earlier in Seoul.
The troops are among the 37,000 American troops permanently stationed in South Korea to deter an invasion by forces of communist North Korea. A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico, said the decision to move them to Iraq was made "at the highest levels of the U.S. government."
A senior defense official who discussed the matter on condition he not be identified said a decision has not been made yet on whether the 2nd Brigade will return to its post in Korea after its Iraq tour ends. He said it was possible that a similar-size Army unit from elsewhere in the world would fill the gap at some point - or that the gap would not be filled at all.
US State Dept Report Details Complexities Of Promoting Democracy Abroad, Details Successes, Failures
U.S. State Department Issues Report Examining Government Record On Promoting Rights
By Frank Csongos
The United States says advancing human rights and democracy around the world reflects its values and promotes its interests. The recent scandal involving U.S. troop abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghurayb prison has been a blow to Washington's image as a human rights standard-bearer. A report issued yesterday by the U.S. State Department paints a mixed picture of the work the U.S. government is doing to promote democracy and human rights in Iraq and elsewhere.
Washington, 18 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. State Department yesterday released its second annual report evaluating Washington’s efforts to advance human rights and democracy in 101 countries.
The 270-page "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy" report -- not to be confused with the State Department's annual country reports evaluating domestic human rights progress in countries around the world -- examines U.S. gains and setbacks in its efforts to promote rights abroad.
Yesterday's release came after a delay of several days sparked by the scandal over U.S. abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghurayb prison.
The State Department delayed the report out of fear its point would be lost amid the furor of the prison scandal. But Lorne Craner, the assistant secretary of state overseeing human rights, said yesterday that despite the Abu Ghurayb abuse, many people still look to the United States to push for rights in their countries.
“How can we talk about human rights if we fail to uphold the highest standard? You've heard the president [George W. Bush] talk about differences between how we will handle these abuses and how other countries don't," craner said. "To that, I would add only one thing -- who would be better off if we self-consciously turned inward and ignored human rights abuses elsewhere in places like Burma and Zimbabwe and Belarus?”
In Newly Released Secret Documents, Japan Government Admits Offshoring "Korean" Residents To North Korea To Solve Poverty Problem, In Full Knowledge That They Would Never be Able To Return
Sending Korean Residents to North Korea Was Expulsion Policy by Japan
MAY 18, 2004 21:37
by Hun-Joo Cho (hanscho@donga.com)
The program of sending Korean residents in Japan to North Korea, which was strongly supported by the Japanese government and non-governmental organizations starting from 1959 under the name of humanitarianism, was actually designed to mitigate the “causes of anxiety: the high crime rate and poverty,” Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported on May 18.
According to findings from Professor Kawashima Takane of Meiji University based on data from the Japanese Foreign Ministry, “Cabinet authorized” data of the Japanese government dated February 13, 1959 indicates that “the object of sending Korean residents to North Korea is based on the international common idea that the freedom of choosing one’s place of residence is a component of basic human rights.”
But a document titled, “Inside affairs for reaching cabinet authorization,” which has been kept top secret so far, emphasizes the political aspects of the sending program, saying that “Korean residents in Japan have higher crime rates, and about 1.7 billion yen is needed every year for supporting the 19,000 households that are categorized as livelihood-protection families. Public opinion is to send the problematic people to North Korea if they apply for it, and this overwhelmingly leads the opinion of the ruling party.”
May 17, 2004
Is the administration's policy on North Korea resulting in a dangerous paralysis while Pyongyang arms, kills?
This is an opinion piece from the International Herald Tribune
Warnings Go Unheeded Over North Korea Threat
By MICHAEL R. GORDON,
International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON --Imagine a former official who toiled behind the scenes on the most sensitive national security issues leaving the Bush Administration in frustration and now charging that White House policies have left the United States exposed to a dangerous and growing threat.
I am not referring to Richard Clarke, the former National Security Council aide whose criticism of the Bush Administration's counterterrorism policies rocked Washington, but to Charles Pritchard, a retired U.S. Army colonel and the former point man on North Korea for the U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell.
Seoul forum discusses the lack of Human Rights in North Korea
This is from the Korea Herald. Does anyone who was there have any impressions of the event? I'm particularly curious what specific ideas Michael Horowitz discussed in his talk on how we might pressure for change in the North. This is a crucial issue as people are dying there every day. Lots of people.
Global forum discusses N.K. human rights
A South Korean civic group known as "Save North Korea" held its first international conference in Seoul yesterday on human rights conditions in the North.
Speaking at the forum, Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow with the U.S. Hudson Institute, emphasized the need for a prudent observation of the dictatorship in North Korea.
"We will help North Korea only when we can be sure the Kim Jong-il government won`t hurt its people, and we must also be sure that it`s the people who get the food, not the army."
Continue reading "Seoul forum discusses the lack of Human Rights in North Korea"Japan Ignoring Known Facts On North Korea By Politely "Asking If the 5 Abductees Who Were Returned To Japan's Children Want To 'Visit' Japan"
The problem here is that it is a crime in North Korea to express a desire to leave. So NO North Korean in their right mind would say that they wanted to leave until they were already out of the country, along with their relatives. (One's blood relatives are also held responsible - and sometimes even executed! - but certainly held responsible in no small way - for any 'crime' that a sibling, child, parent or even grandparent commits! This concept is at the basis of North Korea's caste system.) One BIG crime is 'embarassing the Dear Leader' saying, doing, arguably almost even just THINKING anything that 'reflects badly' on North Korea - like saying you might want to leave.
ALWAYS remeber this when viewing the public actions of anyone who lives, lived or who has relatives still alive in North Korea. It is a not-at-all-subtle form of bloackmail, most easily comparable to the policies followed by Imperial China - the feudal era - and not by modern countries. Not even Stalin ever did anything like this, in my knowledge. (However, Pol Pot did kill whole families in retaliation, so did Saddam as well as many of the Latin American paramilitary death squads of recent history.)
You may notice that the five abductees that North Korea released of the hundred or so Japanese who they probably abducted, have never been seen in public saying that they wanted to leave. This is to protect their children, who could also be punished for such a declaration under North Korea eugenics-based 'collective responsibility' legal system. (The idea is to 'pull up by the roots' suspected class enemies and three generations of their families.)
