UPDATE II: For those of you coming in from Instapundit, welcome to the Marmot’s Hole, where it’s Korea 24/7. BTW, if you’re interested in news from the Korean Peninsula and you’ve got a moment, be sure to check out any of the blogs on my Korea and Asia Blog lists — they’re an invaluable source of information about this very fascinating part of the world.
(Thanks go to Glenn and Plunge)
Now, on to our feature presentation…
Just so you know, my translating duties at the Chosun occasionally extend beyond Lee Sabi and naked ajumma stories. Anyway, the Chosun has been covering a conference on North Korean human rights in Warsaw, and today, five defectors testified to the truly brutal conditions in the Workers Paradise. Read the piece on your own, but just to give you some idea of what they described, I give you the following:
27-year-old Han Bong-hee, who came to South Korea in August 2001, escaped North Korea by crossing the Tumen River into China together with her family. Chinese police, however, caught her mother and father and forcefully repatriated them to North Korea. She has yet to hear from them since.
Fighting back tears as she recalled his family’s history, Han said, “I was moved when I came to Poland and saw that foreigners are paying attention to the human rights situation in North Korea,” and, “I ask the international community to show even more interest so that North Koreans can quickly find freedom.” 22-year-old Kim Hyeok, who was born in Cheongjin, North Hamgyeong Province, lost his parents at an early age and was raised in an orphanage. When he was teenager, he began crossing back and forth across the Chinese border in order to make a living. At the age of 16, he was caught and forced to spend time in prison. While he was in prison, he saw an engineer — a university graduate — brought in on charges of eating children. “At first, I thought, ‘How can a person eat other people?’ But as I starved, I began to experience hallucinations in which people appeared as beasts, too. I became extremely frightened of myself.” When Kim was released from prison, he crossed over the Chinese border once again, and with the help of locals, reached South Korea in 2001. 23-year-old Byeon Nan-i’s older brother was publicly executed, and even though she crossed over into China together with her family, circumstances separated them. Bursting into tears, she said, “I went to China to get word of my parents who returned to North Korea, and I heard that because of my older brother who was publicly executed, the state took away their home. They put up a plastic tent in the mountains, and live by picking and eating grass. They’re now bedridden.”
The star of the show, however, was this man:
Foreign media attention has been particularly focused on 41-year-old Lee Yeong-guk, who in 1978 was selected as a bodyguard for Kim Jong-il at the tender age of 16. He served in that capacity until 1989.
Lee attempted to defect in October 1993, but was arrested by North Korean authorities and subjected to extreme torture. Afterward, he spent four years at Yodeok Political Prison Camp. Discussing life at the camp, Lee said, “We ate an average of 120g of corn gruel a day and had to endure 15 or 16 hours of forced labor. Men and women had to lay face down, wearing only their underwear, and were beaten with ash tree branches until 10 [branches] snapped.”
He told of how starving inmates would catch snakes, frogs, and mice, and eat them in their entirety — snake skin, mice fur, guts and all. He testified that while he was at Yodeok, there was a prisoner who was charged with having salt in his pocket. The guards killed the man by chaining his ankles to a car and dragging him until the flesh from his head and back had been stripped off. Now and then, guards would kill prisoners by beating them with rifle butts or kicking them with their boots until their heads cracked open.
Horrifying. Of course, the defector disclaimer applies, which is to say that North Korean defectors have a tendency to sex things up a little bit for their audience. Which is fine, of course, considering how the South Korean Ministry of Unification does the same exact thing every time Minister Jeong Se-hyeon goes out and tells us how much North Korea is changing and really, really wants to open up to the outside word and become a normal country.
UPDATE: Original Korean version here.
20 Comments
“was the woman actually arrogant enough to refer to Polish people in Poland as “foreigners”?”
Huh? What kind of mental midgit would ask that question? Are you a North Korean sympathizer or a liberal? (oh ya, same thing)
Marmot, your flippant headline contrasts with your assessment that the story is “Horrifying.” One of these 2 pieces is false, but I can’t figure out which one it is.
Marmot– good article. A couple of questions. Firstly, is this being publicised in the Korean-language media? Or does the Sunsham Policy preclude that? Also, in the following quote, was the woman actually arrogant enough to refer to Polish people in Poland as “foreigners”? It wouldn’t surprise me as I have been called a foreigner by Koreans while in American territory (I’m American).
Fighting back tears as she recalled his family’s history, Han said, “I was moved when I came to Poland and saw that foreigners are paying attention to the human rights situation in North Korea,”
tmc1233 — this piece was originally in the Korean-language media. The Chosun Ilbo, in fact. All I did was translate it.
Kwangju — making flippant headlines are one of the few ways people keep their sanity covering crap like this.
the woman wasn’t refering to polish people as foreigners in poland she was recounting her feelings of the time she was there.
But yes, I’ve had other educated south koreans tell me that they met lots of foreigners while in Australia, or Canada or wherever…
Hey, would you mind putting in the Korean links as well as the English ones? Not like we have to check your translation or anything…but at times, it would be nice to read it in Korean.
Thanks!
Plunge, here’s the Korean original (judging from the first paragraph):
http://www.chosun.com/w21data/.....10270.html
Proud to see the name of the capital of my country used in that context.
For those who wonder what “Helsinki” is doing in the name of the Polish foundation, it comes from the 1975 conference on security and peace and whatever, which was supposed to have secured peace (and Soviet-formed borders) in Europe. Human rights issues were also included in the resolutions, and these ended up helping human rights struggles in the communist countries, in which several “Helsinki committees” were founded.
Nice and timely article and thanks Marmot.
Cheers!
i congratuate you on your work, as you find yourself in employment of quite some historical importance bringing these refugees stories to the publc. however, i question whether your own use of these politcal victims might belong to something else, different and disturbing.
while we wish we could bring succor to these victims, there is a horrible contridiction in using detailed reports of violence to call upon the USA to dispose of yet another horrible regime. while most here on this blog may choose to ignore or rationalize such facts, the rest of the world is quite well versed in the details of state violence perpetrated on civilians by the USA. in terms producing detailed reports of pornographic violence, the air power of the USAF must be acknowledged as the most hardcore.
in short, the USA fights for its sovereignty and leaves mutilation in its path. The DPRK does the same. Fomenting disgust at one while ignoring or justifying the details of others (a failure of the right and left, indeed) suggests a nefarious use of these victims as ideological tools, a use further degraded by the shocking and horrific detail involved.
I can imagine that your justification that you are “uncovering hidden knowledge” and “letting the truth out,” noble deeds in and of themselves but all the more so when dedicated to a cause you believe in. If it is violence itself you wish to condemn, please do it fairly. If it is unjust violence you wish to condemn, then please make that clear and provide at least a comparison for us to begin to standardize our disgust. Otherwise, your disgust appears as little more than an emotionally manipulated instrumental strategy. The power of violence (and espcially state violence) is such that it operates well beyond the intial victims. Be careful with that power Marmot.
“in short, the USA fights for its sovereignty and leaves mutilation in its path. The DPRK does the same.” - chubbybee
In one breath, you are saying that North Korea and the US are both equally bankrupt of morals? Naivety, thy name is Chubbybee.
A couple of things. Firstly, Marmot, I understand that you translated it. My comment was more rhetorical than anything. It touches a nerve when I hear Koreans or any people go to another country and refer to the locals as foreigners. I have had Koreans call me “foreigner” while in my own country’s territory, and did not appreciate it. My question, I guess was more of a comment. I was not trying to impugn your translating skills.
Secondly, Arty, whoever you are, lose the attitude buddy. If you know anything about Korea and Koreans, you would realise that this is not an uncommon thing for SOUTH Koreans to do. I was a bit taken aback that NORTH Koreans also go to other countries and call the locals foreigners. I don’t see how that makes me a mental “midgit” [sic] or a liberal. Maybe the next time you want to call somebody a mental “midgit” you should look in the mirror and then fire away with your lame attempts at insulting, poor spelling and all.
Also, Marmot– Keep up the good work. I for one appreciate your hard work at the Chosun as well as on this blog.
Fomenting disgust at one while ignoring or justifying the details of others (a failure of the right and left, indeed) suggests a nefarious use of these victims as ideological tools, a use further degraded by the shocking and horrific detail involved.
Chubbybee, instead of picking on the Marmot, you should be telling this to the New York Times - or here in Korea, KBS.
Chubbybee — Firstly, allow me to say for the record that I didn’t “uncover hidden knowledge,” all I did was translate it. The original piece was run in South Korea’s largest daily paper, so it’s not like I discovered anything. Put into the English language medium, yes. Uncover? No. One can possibly argue that the Chosun was trying to push an ideological agenda by highlighting victim suffering, but then again, I can think of other Korean news agencies that do the same thing, mostly by ignoring the suffering of North Koreans and highlighting the suffering of Iraqi and Afghani victims of American military action. But hey, as you pointed out, both the left and the right tend to do this, and just because KBS and the Hani do something doesn’t mean the Chosun should (and visa-versa).
As for linking it to my blog, well, look, I thought it was a worthwhile piece for people to read. I do not favor military action against the North Koreans, least of all for its human rights record, as I generally feel that as long as a state A’s political system doesn’t gravely threaten state B, B has no real reason to try to impose political change in A. My very stark (and if I may say so, frank) view of international relations can be easily seen in the comments section of this post. And yes, I can probably accompany my blog post with links to atrocities committed by American forces or regimes supported by the Americans in an effort to “be fair,” although I’m not sure what that would do, precisely, except to water down what is transpiring in the North so those who favor “engagement” (i.e. pumping money in the North and enabling what you read to continue) feel better about themselves. Now, to be fair, we on the right do the same thing when we ignore some of the more unpleasant aspects of our partners in the War on Terror (or some of the more unpleasant aspects of the war itself). And, I guess, I can translate and link to articles like this to perhaps take the edge off a little (besides, she’s kinda cute in a tough sort of way). But then, wouldn’t that also be trying to manipulate facts and emotions in a politically manipulative sort of way? Hmmm….
chubby sounds like a classically trained commy south korean college student. all he left out was “AMERICANS CAN SMELL THE BLOOD OF KOREANS AND ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS KILL, KILL, KILL.
Marmot, firstly let me say that this is not a dig at you. I admire what you do and I understand what you have done on this ‘article’.
Whether State A’s politcal system threatens State B or not is irrelevant when it comes down to Human rights issues. I’m not talking about human rights as in a States legal system but in the social system. When it is documented fact that people are dying of starvation, malnutrition, lack of medical care, etc… while the powers that run the country, and their cronies, are living it up then surely it is the best interests of the people of that state that the leadership be forced to rethink or ‘retire’. Anybody that sits back and says ‘it is not our problem’ when confronted with political abuses of people of another state may as well condone genocide in the Balkans, mass extermination of the Jews (ok, that one is a bit ‘out there’ since the Nazis were doing it outside their own boundaries but it’s still relevant), Stalins purges, the Red Army reforms, the war in Rwanda,… In N. Korea, the major explosion of a train the other day followed by the international communities offer of aid shows this for what it is. If the country was run properly, economically and politically then 1. This disaster would probably never have happened and 2. N. Korea would not have needed aid to deal with something, which on a disaster scale, is quite small really. If we are prepared to accept N. Koreas (mis)treatment of it’s people then we should cancel all aid and let them fend for themselves and see how long they last. Is that what some voices here are suggesting? Maybe it would be a good thing because if left to go it’s own way then the majority of the people would probably die from starvation or, they would rise up against the dictators where a lot of them would probably be killed by the army and the rest would go home and die of starvation. If Dictators have nobody to Dictate to then they are out of a job and have nobody to steal from. You know what? Some of you guys think too much but you don’t think enough. You read too much, but you don’t read enough!
Finally, I have no desire to see military action against N. Korea and I do not think it is required. However, it was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the Balkans, all for similar reasons.
TMC1233, please excuse the spelling, grammar and vocabulary. I am merely an engineer.
Who the HELL cares if the woman referred to the natives as ‘foreigners’. There are much worse things people do to eachother than that on a daily basis. Americans can be so superficial and downright annoying about some things when they have so much rudeness and crap they put up with in thier own way. I grew up here in america and boy are people here rude as hell, its the american way and its accepted. HYPOCRISY.
this isn’t a google web searc page
Also, in the following quote, was the woman actually arrogant enough to refer to Polish people in Poland as “foreigners”? It wouldn’t surprise me as I have been called a foreigner by Koreans while in American territory (I’m American).
Though I can understand where you’re coming from (because calling someone a foreigner whilst in their country isn’t exactly the most tactful or intelligent conclusion one can make), I don’t think it was an issue of arrogance.
Generally speaking, Koreans are xenophobic. This attitude is, naturally, reflected in the language. The term “wegugin” (and yeah, I probably romanized that incorrectly, go me) is the term used for people who are not ethnically and culturally Korean.
My point: It is most likely that she used the word “Wegugin” not out of deliberate arrogance, but because that’s just how the language works. With her use of the word “wegugin”, I think it’s most probable that she was indicating all non-Korean people (as she mentions the international community just afterwards), not just Polish people.
Generally: non-korean=foreigner (to them, they are foreign, hence foreigner)=wegugin. So really, I suppose it is a kind of arrogance in that all the words are created in relation to themselves (Korean people), but that’s the way the language has been for centuries, and it’s the local lingo. They probably don’t even recognize it as offensive - if you’re familiar with Japan, it’s similiar to the whole ‘gaijin’ thing.
They say “foreigner” because they are speaking of people who are foreign in relation to themselves.
But yeah, it is not a system of speaking that would garner them a lot of love from non-koreans.
And yes, I realize this topic was in April, but on the off-chance that someone might read this, I figured I’d just throw in my own 2 cents.
P.S. - tmc1233 - are you sure they didn’t call you “migugin” (american)? To my experience, most Korean people I meet ask whether I’m wegugin initially (when they hear me speak terribly accented Korean, haha), but when I speak english, they all switch to, “Oh, sorry, are you migugin?” Not that I it isn’t within the realm of possibility that they’d call you migugin, but the above is usually my experience.
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