Wall Street Journal (March 17)
“Unlike most U.N. documents,” the report on human rights abuse in North Korea “demands action.” Much credit is due retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, who chaired the commission that wrote the report. By chronicling widespread abuse with “evidentiary rigor,” they created a report with “striking emotional power.”
Tags: Abuse, Australia, Human rights, Michael Kirby, North Korea, Report, U.N.
New York Times (February 26, 2014)
Recent cross-border family reunions “reinforced the stark differences: South Korea is an economic powerhouse and democracy; North Korea is the most totalitarian and isolated state on earth. That reality is unlikely to change soon, but when it does, North Korean leaders must be brought to justice” for the atrocities recently disclosed by a special commission of the United Nations.
Tags: Atrocities, Democracy, Isolated, Justice, Leaders, North Korea, Powerhouse, Reunions, South Korea, Special commission, Totalitarian, UN
Washington Post (February 20, 2014)
“North Korea’s camps and methods of political repression rival the worst of the 20th century’s totalitarian crimes: Hitler’s concentration camps and Stalin’s prison system. This is happening not in the 1940s or 1950s but in our own time…. North Korea’s leaders must be held accountable.”
Tags: Accountable, Concentration camps, Crimes, Hitler, Leaders, North Korea, Prison, Repression, Stalin, Totalitarian
BBC (December 13, 2013)
The purge and execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle Chang Song-thaek has provided fodder for speculation, such as whether the dramatic events herald a broader purge. “Such a public display of state brutality is unprecedented, but the ultra-secretive nature of the state means that observers can never really claim to know exactly what happened and when,” let alone forecast what will ensue.
Tags: Brutality, Chang Song-thaek, Execution, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Observers, Purge, Secretive, State
Washington Post (November 1)
The dysfunctional relationship between Japan and South Korea “threatens to undermine U.S. security interests, including dealing with a rising China and an aggressive North Korea.” Relations between the two countries “have descended to another low, fueled by issues of wartime history and the still-poisonous legacy of Japan’s harsh colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945. The two countries’ leaders have not met since May 2012, and polls show that three times more Koreans view China favorably than Japan.” The U.S. is going to have to abandon neutrality and encourage a solution. “The reality is that neither Japan nor South Korea seems capable of finding a path toward reconciliation on its own.”
Tags: China, Japan, North Korea, Reconciliation, Relationship, Security interests, Solution, South Korea, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (July 28)
“North and South, on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, couldn’t be more different.” When the armistice ended the war in 1953, “one-third of all homes and two-fifths of all factories were destroyed. Seoul, Pyongyang and all other cities were little more than rubble. Food was scarce, orphans plentiful.” Today, not that much has changed in the North, but everything has changed in the South, which is now the world’s 12th largest economy. “There is no more inspiring story in the world over the past half-century—or a more compelling example of how political decisions can shape people’s lives.”
Tags: Armistice, Food, Inspiring, Korean War, North Korea, Orphans, Pyongyang, Seoul, South Korea
Chicago Tribune (April 12, 2013)
“Imagine a world with not one rambunctious and nuke-emboldened North Korea, but two…. On the day that Iran declares to the world that it has defied Western red lines and is capable of building its first nuclear bomb, the Middle East will become immensely more dangerous and unstable.” The time has come for “a complete banking and trade embargo against Iran.”“Imagine a world with not one rambunctious and nuke-emboldened North Korea, but two…. On the day that Iran declares to the world that it has defied Western red lines and is capable of building its first nuclear bomb, the Middle East will become immensely more dangerous and unstable.” The time has come for “a complete banking and trade embargo against Iran.”
Tags: Iran, Middle East, North Korea, Nuclear bomb
Washington Post (April 12, 2013)Washington Post (April 12, 2013)
“One unlikely benefit of the North Korea crisis is that the world may be getting fed up with the country’s pugnacious young leader, Kim Jong Un. In his belligerent talk of war, Kim appears to have crossed a line, upsetting traditional allies such as China and Russia as well as the United States and South Korea.”
Tags: China, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (April 10, 2013)
South Korea should capitalize on the North’s latest threat to boycott the Kaesong special economic zone. It’s time to say “good riddance” to a zone which “merely props up the Kim regime…. South Korean President Park Geun-hye should seize this opportunity to declare Kaesong a misguided experiment and shut it down for good.”
Tags: Boycott, Kaesong, North Korea, Park, Shut down, South Korea, Special economic zone
Washington Post (April 6, 2013)
“Pop stars, bourgeois lifestyle commentary and funny videos often seem to interest young South Koreans more than Pyongyang’s latest provocation.” As North Korea tries to “to intimidate its neighbor… South Korea has already won the fight.” Young people do talk about “the risk of a second Korean war. But, even if this week’s chest-thumping has them a bit jittery, they typically mock Kim Jong Un and dismiss his war declaration as hot air. It’s a distraction from more pressing matters — not a particularly high bar for a youth culture obsessed with the latest Korean pop girl group or Samsung gadget.”
Tags: Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Provocation, South Korea, War, Youth
