| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: OCTOBER 27, 2003 Our statement on why northern Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT BLASTS NORTH KOREAN PRISONS PRISONERS TORTURED, FORCED TO EAT GRASS; CHILDREN AND BABIES KILLED The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea released a report on North Korea�s prison system last week, collecting testimony from several former prisoners and former guards lucky enough to escape the Stalinist regime. They reveal a terrifying, sickening land where prison guard repeatedly torture prisoners and force them to �eat plants and grass� (BBC). The treatment of children � that�s right, North Korea imprisons children � was especially horrifying. One former guard witnessed �between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners, mostly children� dying at his prison. Newborns in the prisons are �buried alive or left face down on the ground to die;� one was even �suffocated with a wet towel in front of its mother.� Of course, the North also profits from their torture via forced labor (Cybercast News). The Committee estimates the political prison population in the North to be at least between 150,000 and 200,000. Also reporting: Agence France Presse via Herald Sun (Aus.) OTHER WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION NEWS STALINISTS LIKE WHAT THEY HEAR IN U.S. OFFER North Korea, having heard President Bush give it the non-aggression pact it craved in all but name before they would have to denuclearize (see last NKR), announced over the weekend that they were �ready to consider� (CNN, BBC Transcript of North Korea response) the deal. Since the North no longer has to completely destroy its nuclear weapons before it gets the non-aggression assurances, the Bush Administration is now trying to see, as the Washington Post (10/21) put it, �what North Korea would have to accomplish before it qualified for protections.� Also reporting: BBC, Cybercast News, Washington Post 10/26 Meanwhile, the issue of verifying North Korea as nuclear-free may go by the wayside. Washington appeasers are now characterizing the verification issue as a tool by hawks �to ensure the negotiations fail.� All of this is to get North Korea to promise to do what it pledged to do in the 1994 Agreed Framework, and then reneged (see 10/21/02 NKR). CONGRESSIONAL TRIP TO NORTH KOREA PUT ON HOLD A Congressional delegation is holding off its trip to North Korea �after the White House expressed concern about it� (CNN). The trip was to be led by Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pennsylvania) who had earlier visited North Korea and floated an agreement between the U.S. and the Stalinists (see 6/2 and 7/9 NKR). Also reporting: BBC, Newsmax KERRY BLAMES BUSH FOR NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) implied that had President Bush chosen �to engage the North Koreans� (National Review Online) when he took office, the Stalinists would not have developed nuclear weapons. It should be noted that the North restarted its nuclear weapons development in 1998, over two years before Bush�s term began (see 2/17 NKR). THAI PM TO U.S. AND NORTH KOREA: TALK IT OUT Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, official host of this year�s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, called on the U.S. and North Korea �to resolve the nuclear stand-off through dialogue� (BBC). Also reporting: CNN Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: The U.S. is finally moving to cancel the two nuclear power plants from the 1994 agreement that North Korea�s broke. Keep the pressure on until the plants are cancelled! Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to kill the power plants. NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE BUSH PRAISES COMMUNIST CHINA�S ACTIONS ON NORTH KOREA President Bush praised Communist China for being �willing to take the same message to the North Koreans that the United States is taking to the North Koreans� (Washington Times). Bush did not mention that the cause is likely due to the U.S. message growing softer, not any toughening by the Communists (see last NKR). Also reporting: Washington Post WU BANGGUO TO VISIT NORTH KOREA Wu Bangguo, the Chairman of the Communist legislature and member of the Politburo Standing Committee, will visit North Korea later this week. The Communists called the trip a meeting of officials from �friendly neighbors� (Washington Post). OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS NORTH KOREAN AGENT CONFESSES John Joungwoong Yai, accused of being a North Korean agent (see 2/10 NKR) confessed to just that last week. According to court documents, �Yai worked as an agent in the United States from December 1997 to April 2000, obtaining classified information for North Korea and recruiting other agents to meet with North Korean officials abroad� (CNN). OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS GRAND NATIONAL PARTY ENSNARED IN CAMPAIGN MONEY SCANDAL The SK Group election money scandal that has rocked dovish President Roh Moo-hyun (see 10/13 and last NKRs) hit the hawkish opposition last week. Choi Don-woong, a lawmaker with the Grand National Party, admitted to taking $8.5 million from the conglomerate, which also paid a top aide to Roh. Report: BBC AID FROM SOUTH KOREANS TO STALINISTS DRYING UP South Korean charities giving aid to famine-wracked North Korea have seen their donations dry up. One organization saw its leader quit: �He wanted to stop [aid to North Koreans] because of the nuclear and political issue,� according to one aid worker (Washington Times). HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL NEWS KIM JONG-IL POPS UP FOR FIRST TIME IN OVER A MONTH Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il �a military-run farm on Monday� (BBC). It was his first appearance in over a month. COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON NORTH KOREA AND NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY Parapundit founder Randall Parker (Member since 2003) puts the North Korean regime, and its dovish apologists, in the crosshairs. Rich Lowry, National Review Online, takes issue with John Kerry�s assertion that President Bush�s previous policy on North Korea led to the current nuclear weapons situation (see Weapons of Mass Destruction News). One of Parker�s source links, Henry Rowen of the Hover Institution, calls for a number of moves, including pushing for reform and replacing Kim Jong-il, but comes up short of supporting liberation in Policy Review. Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, has no illusions on Kim Jong-il, but can�t seem to support liberation either. The final source, Max Boot of the Weekly Standard, calls for peaceful regime change of North Korea. Boot�s plan involves �the active cooperation of other countries, especially China,� making it unlikely to succeed without forcing the PRC to heel. Nikolas K. Gvosdev, of the Nixon Center, recommends threatening regimes such as North Korea with �total annihilation� if it uses a nuclear weapons against us in National Review Online. Still, why do we have to wait for such a disaster to liberate northern Korea? Michael Moran, MSNBC, examines the Bush Administration�s shift on North Korea, and the reaction in Washington. Donald Lambro, Washington Times, actually claimed that President Bush �out-dealt� the Stalinists. Neither seemed to notice that the demand that North Korea destroy its nuclear weapons before winning a non-aggression deal is gone. ON THE ABYSMAL HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN NORTH KOREA Claudia Rossett, Wall Street Journal, details the horror of North Korea�s prison camps (see Top Story), and calls on America to stop �scrambling for ways to make Kim (Jong-il) feel more secure . . . there comes a point at which right and wrong really do matter.� Anne Applebaum, Washington Post, asks why no one seems concerned about the mass imprisonment and torture � including children victims � in North Korea. She then provides the answer: to know this information �would make it impossible . . . to conduct any policy toward North Korea that did not make regime change its central tenet.� Indeed. ON NORTH KOREA AND IRAN Gabriel Schoenfeld lays out the danger that is North Korea, its ties to the Islamic regime of Iran, and why liberation is the only answer, in the Wall Street Journal. HOW SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT ROH�S SUPPORT FELL John Larkin and Donald MacIntyre, in Time Asia, detail how dovish South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun plunged from the heights of popularity among his people. Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, also examines Roh�s quick fall, and if he can regain his stride. ON KIM JONG-IL Mr. Parker (sea above) finds a New York Times profile of Kim Jong-il �fascinating.� Judging from the excerpt, he�s probably right (note: registration required for the Times story). ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE Patrick Buchanan, in World Net Daily, says North Korea is where we will see the Communists� true intentions for the United States: �If she will not (help us), we should take another look at the regime we are helping build into a Great Power.� Meanwhile, the editors of the National Post (Cdn.) call on the PRC to cut off its support for North Korea. Check out the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. Sign the petition for an American boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Miss an Update, Week's Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it via our home page. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. Please feel free to send any news on Communist China or North Korea that you happen to find to the same address. |