While it has not made much of a splash in the news yet, Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) is in the middle of a two-week campaign in the Seoul area to try to move public opinion on North Korea’s human rights violations.
As part of that campaign they cornered Park Jae Kyu, who was unification minister under Kim Dae-jung, at a local hotel. After Park evaded their questions, they put it to him bluntly. His reponse was enlightening:
Finally, LiNK members asked him simply: “Our banners read that 6.5 million North Koreans are now without regular rations. That more than 200,000 North Koreans suffer in a network of over 12 political prison camps. That thousands of North Koreans in China are in hiding and in danger of repatriation. Can you at least tell us that these statistics are true?”
Mr. Park responded, “I have never seen these things with my own eyes.”
Mr. Park is today President of Kyungnam University, which features one of the leading schools on North Korean studies in Korea. The fact that he would not even confirm the very existence of concentration camps which have been attested to by survivors, former guards, thousands of refugees and satellite pictures was enormously disappointing, but not surprising.
Whether or not you agree with how they operate, it makes for interesting theater. Check out the rest, including pictures of a meeting with former president Kim Young-sam.
If family obligations permit, I hope to check out a LiNK symposium this Saturday (May 27) at 4:30 at Sookmyung Women’s University, Centennial Hall room 503. If you see a fat white guy there, say hi.
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13 Comments
He’s probably never seen his pecker with his own eyes either, but no doubt he believes it exists.
I might lumber-waddle on over for that as well, since it’s only a short schlep from where I live, and only two buildings over from where I work. I regret having missed the previous LiNK event at Smoo.
So if you see a fat, off-white guy there, say hi.
Kevin
One of the problems with stories about North Korea is just the amount of propaganda material that is coming from the anti-North Korean camp.
I am told that there is a famine in North Korea for example. Yet I have yet to see photographs of famine in North Korea taken by unsuspecting tourist. Of the photographs that I have seen, there are some “disturbing” traits.
1) They are mostly colored in Black and White. We live in the 21st century. Yet the photographs coming from North Korea that showed skinny people are still in Black and White. How come they are not coloured??? Must be some PR firm had touched them up to produce a more saddening effect. See for example: http://static.flickr.com/33/47.....b3c0d1.jpg
2) Many of the photograph have been doctored up. I have seen 3 versions of this photograph in various websites. The next version of the same photograph is in black and white, and the 3rd version had the child but with starry background. See:
http://www.nkmissions.com/10pa.....es/child08 copy.jpg
3) They talk about the famine, then they show photographs of North Korean children who are obviously not suffering from famine. Some of them even have chubby cheeks. They say one thing but show something else. See: http://www.humedica.org/news/e_Nord Korea 2001_1.htm
http://gbgm-umc.org/asia-pacif.....fsum2.html
4) Hear, they talk about famine Then inserted in it is a black and white photograph(again) and they are EATING. So no famine. I see. http://www.asiasource.org/news.....wsid=79637
Not to say that I don’t believe there is no famine. But on top of the “truth” is layered all these icings that causes more confusion and make the “truth” questionable for people like me who read things with a critical mindset. These things are more suited for the passive reader who are willing to believe what is being printed.
I have my own criticism about such practices on the Tiananmen incident that was aired on PBS. Eyewitnesses describe one thing, yet video footages show something else. You can read about it here, watch it online for free and rebut: http://rconversation.blogs.com.....l#comments
I have heard there is a country called Malaysia, but I have not been there to see it myself, and every photo I see shows tropical scenes that could be Thailand or Indonesia or skyscrapers that could be Singapore. Older black and white photos speak of a Malaya, but no Malaysia.
I’m not saying that Malaysia doesn’t exist, but ….
Wahaha, Slim! Nice sarcasm.
Mahathir, I’m beginning to wonder if I should bother responding to your ridiculous posts.
1) So the photo’s black and white. BFD. Did you bother to notice the children’s ribs protruding from their skeletal frames?
2)and 3) the links don’t work and probably show nothing other than your unique worldview
4) I am ROTFL. A photo of children eating proves there’s no famine? Are you being facetious or trolling?
Which country’s educational system are you a product of?
How did the conversation go down in Korean?
slim,
Those photos you see about Malaysia are not representative. They are designed to mislead you to think Malaysia is very beautiful and clean. Doctored by some PR firm. So from your comments, you are telling me I should expect the same from photos from anti North Korean camps disguised as press agency.
If journalists are allowed to doctor up photographs to produce more dramatic effects, there is no telling that they are not doing the same with the choice of words that they use.
sonagi,
you need to be more tech savvy. The links didn’t work because there are spaces in the filenames and the auto html linking from marmot’s hole does not accept spaces in html. you will have to cut and paste those links to view them.
i can’t be talking to someone who could not figure out such simple stuff.
Tell us a story about San Diego, Uncle M_kay. Is there really such a place? Tell us, tell us. Pretty please.
This is a hilarious recommendation. Physician, heal thyself. Learn to use HTML tags to control the links you embed, or find out about TinyURL.
Brenden,
You think you know it but you don’t. Here is where you erred again. The Marmot website auto inserts html tags when it recognizes that you are posting a link.
I intended to put the address of the link as plain text. But the Marmot website auto inserts html tags to make it linkable. I didn’t make it linkable.
You need to learn from the moral of this lesson and not jump into conclusions. Experiement is a good way. Try posting a html link as pure text the next time and observe the Marmot website autolinking it.
I jumped into a conclusion once. The conclusion was empty, so I got a contusion. Or was it a concussion? M_fan, let’s make a deal. We’ll promise to stop jumping into conclusions if you stop jumping into delusions.
Hey, I have a great idea. Let’s have a Survivor-style contest and vote off our least favorite troll. I cast mine for Mahathir fan.
The madasahatter_fan retains a high, almost admirably high, level of civility, especially for all the abuse he (deservedly) receives.
Then again, the content of his comments — especially the manifestly and aggressively ignorant ones about Chinese democracy, South Korea’s colonial status and North Korea’s mythical famine — suggest a deep contempt for his audience, if not for knowledge itself. It is that “quality” that got him put on a heavily moderated probation over at the Korea Liberator.