“North Korea prison camps fill up”

North Korea prison camps fill up amid crackdown on attempted defectors
(CBS – 6. 12. 2013)
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

“North Korea’s prison population has swelled in recent years with those caught fleeing the country under a crackdown on defections by young leader Kim Jong Un, according to defectors living in South Korea and researchers who study Pyongyang’s notorious network of labor camps and detention centers.”

Please continue to read the rest of the article here.

 

 

Repatriation of nine NK refugees

(5. 31. 2013 – WSJ)

Nine North Korean kotjebis between the ages of 15 and 23 in Laos were forcibly repatriated to China, then to Pyongyang this week. Laos rejected criticism for the repatriation, saying that “South Korea was informed of the detentions but made no attempt to help, an assertion a South Korean official disputed.”

“It’s thought to be the first time Laos—a common transit point for North Koreans fleeing their homeland via China—has handed over defectors to agents from the North.

In previous instances, escapees caught inside Laos were moved to a third country, often Thailand, to be sent to Seoul under an unofficial agreement between Laos and South Korea, a former South Korean diplomat to Laos said.”

“Because the nine North Koreans and the two South Koreans crossed the Sino-Laotian border without passing an immigration checkpoint, authorities treated them as illegal immigrants, Laotian officials said.

Both North and South Korean embassies were notified of the refugees once their identities were revealed, and at the North’s request, the nine were released into its custody, according to the ministry’s account.”

 

(6. 2. 2013 – Los Angeles Times)

“The young North Koreans were arrested by Laotian authorities May 10 just across the border from southwestern China, in Laos’ Oudomxay province.”

“We have received credible information that the nine young North Korean defectors were subsequently returned to [North Korea] via China,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva in a statement. “We are dismayed … especially given the vulnerability of this group, all of whom are reported to be orphans.”

“The surprising expulsion of the defectors shows Pyongyang’s determination to get a hold on the defector issue.’’

North Koreans who are repatriated after failed defection attempts face sentences in labor camps and sometimes execution, especially if they are found to be working with Christian groups.

 

 

Sanctions delay NK nuclear program, U.N. says

The increasingly stringent financial sanctions and arms embargo on North Korea have hindered its nuclear arms program, according to “a confidential report by a U.N. panel of experts [Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee] seen by Reuters” on May 14th 2013.

In regard to the latest round of U.N. sanctions adopted in March, the latest annual 52-page report  by the U.N. sanctions-monitoring group claimed that

“While the imposition of sanctions has not halted the development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it has in all likelihood considerably delayed (North Korea’s) timetable and, through the imposition of financial sanctions and the bans on the trade in weapons, has choked off significant funding which would have been channelled into its prohibited activities.”

“UN diplomats said that China, North Korea’s principal ally and trading partner, continues to play a key role in enabling Pyongyang to skirt sanctions, though this is not discussed explicitly in the panel’s report.”

The rest of the article via Reuter is found here.

 

Seoul Train [Doc Film]

 

Escape from North Korea (Intro)

Melanie Kirkpatrick, a Hudson Senior Fellow and former Wall Street Journal editorial board member, has recently published her book Escape from North Korea (Encounter Books). She has also previously published an article calling for an informational invasion into North Korea.

To quote from The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea on her book:

“Escape from North Korea (Encounter Books) is a rare good-news story from the world’s most repressive state, a compelling account of the people who dare to escape and the Good Samaritans who help them.

“Just as escaped slaves from the American South educated Americans about the evils of slavery, the North Korean fugitives are informing the world about the secretive country they fled. They are also sowing the seeds for change within North Korea itself by channeling news back to their information-starved homeland. They are a bridge to a free and unified Korea.”

“Author Melanie Kirpatrick was delighted to meet with South Korean correspondents in Washington, D.C. and Korean American journalists in our area, hoping that this press briefing will help inform the South Korean public and the Korean American community on the valiant efforts to rescue North Koreans and bring attention to the plight of North Korean refugees in China and beyond.”

Jump to 6:15 for the beginning of her discussion on North Korea.

Perspective on ‘The Real North Korea’?

(4. 22 – Asia Times Online)

The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov.

From John Feffer’s Book review

Andrei Lankov “studied in Pyongyang in the mid-1980s as a Soviet exchange student. He’s fluent in Korean and now teaches in South Korea. He seems to have more on-the-ground contacts than most North Korea experts. And he has written extensively on many North Korean subjects, from history to economy to politics.”

Lankov turns a very critical eye on the North Korean system: the ideological conformity, the human rights abuses, the economic failings. But he is sufficiently attuned to the practice of such regimes that he can perceive even the system’s advantages. Constant surveillance, for instance, turns out to convey certain collective health benefits. Regular health checks and immunizations ensure that North Korea’s overall health statistics are remarkable given its current per capita GDP. Nor is Lankov deaf to the advantages of the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ), even as other critics of the regime describe it as a “slave labor camp”. This description, he retorts, “is grossly unfair: even after the deductions, the KIZ jobs are by far the best paid regular jobs in North Korea.”

Perhaps the most important achievement of Lankov’s book lies in its humanizing of North Koreans. They are not “brainwashed automatons” or “docile slaves.” Nor does he make the mistake of so many observers by applying categories from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and assuming that North Koreans are all “closet dissenters.” Instead, he talks to a variety of North Koreans both inside and outside the country to paint a picture of “normal” North Korean life.

If Feffer’s description of the book’s content were true, then Lankov’s claim that the constant surveillance has produced certain collective health benefits is very questionable. The reason that he can make such assertion is perhaps that he stayed in Pyongyang during his study in North Korea in the 1980s. I doubt that the same connection between surveillance and health benefits can be made in other places like Kaechon, Yodok, and Chongjin where some of the  political prison camps are based.

North Korea accepts drug aid from S. Korean group

(4. 11 – Yonhap)

Despite the brewing tension in the peninsula, North Korea received anti-tuberculosis drugs from a private South Korean charity organization.

Under South Korean government’s assent, the local charity group Eugene Bell Foundation shipped 678 million won (US$600,265) worth of medicine through the Chinese port of Dalian and the shipment arrived in the North Korean port of Nampo in early April.

To quote from the report by Yonhap,

North Korea’s acceptance came only five days after the country sharply escalated tensions with the South by announcing that “from this moment, the North-South relations will be put in the state of war.”

It may indicate the North’s possible intention to separate the humanitarian aid issue and the broader aggressive actions against South Korea, analysts said.

KIC Closed; Ryoo reaffirms South Korean goals

(4. 11 – Daily NK)

Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC; 개성공단) has stopped operating since April 8^th as North Korea withdrew its workers as a protest against the “anti-Republic moves” by the South and the United States.  

In response, the South Korean government keeps its unyielding stance, yet leaves the door open for talk.

The suspension of KIC directly threatens the livelihood of 50,000 workers and their families.

The Minister of Unification Ryoo Khil-Je (류길재) said,

“The temporary suspension of the KIC, which is a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation, will not help any of the issues regarding the future of the people,”

According to Ministry of Unification officials, “this statement put forward a process of dialogue with North Korea. Not dialogue for its own sake, but if North Korea suggests a dialogue to solve these problems then we have no reason to decline.”

Third Nuclear Test Imminent

(1. 24 – Daily NK “Satellite Warns of Impending Nuclear Test”

1. 31 – Daily NK “Lee Warns NK of Further Sanctions”

1. 31 – 한국경제 “北 핵실험 임박…정부 “초강력 제재” (Korean)
)

North Korea has recently finished all the required preparations for its third nuclear test.

“The South Korean government has warned North Korea that it faces sanctions over and above those imposed under UN Resolution 2087 if it chooses to conduct a third nuclear test.” (Daily NK – “Satellite Warns of…)

“A government source explained, “North Korea has filled in a tunnel dug for the purpose of a nuclear test with dirt and concrete brought in from elsewhere. It has also been confirmed that a cable has been run out from the tunnel.” (Daily NK – “Lee Warns NK of…)

“The primary value of a nuclear test [for North Korea] is more likely to be political through enhancing the prestige of the government, attracting international attention and allowing the North to enhance its bargaining leverage in future negotiations with the United States and its allies.”  – BBC: Analysis: What is driving North Korea’s nuclear test plan?
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21231204)

Reports of Cannibalism in NK

Clendestine reporters in NK have been constantly telling the incidents of cannibalism in North Korea amidst severe famine and starvation.

Becky Evans of Daily Mail UK reports.

North Korean parents ‘eating their own children’ after being driven mad by hunger in famine-hit pariah state

• Undercover reporters found a ‘shocking’ number of cannibalism incidents
• Up to 10,000 people feared dead after ‘hidden famine’ in farming provinces
• Drought and confiscated food contribute to desperate shortage, reports say
• Reports of men digging up corpses for food and murdering children

A starving man in North Korea has been executed after murdering his two children for food, reports from inside the secretive state claim.A ‘hidden famine’ in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae is believed to have killed up to 10,000 people and there are fears that incidents of cannibalism have risen.

The grim story is just one to emerge as residents battle starvation after a drought hit farms and shortages were compounded by party officials confiscating food.Undercover reporters from Asia Press told the Sunday Times that one man dug up his grandchild’s corpse and ate it. Another, boiled his own child for food.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2269094/North-Korean-parents-eat-children-driven-mad-hunger-famine-hit-pariah-state.html#ixzz2JGDj04ZP

Also, here, a testimony from a NK refugee via Inside NK, a Seoul-based discussion channel.