Comments on: Amnesty International and Their Fraudulent Concern for North Korean Human Rights

By: Frank Kim

Frank Kim — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:25:05 +0000

I was wondering what was going on with Amnesty International. This clears up things somewhat but in a sad way. Thanks for writing this.

By: Fizzled Out? « North Korean Human Rights Matters

Fizzled Out? « North Korean Human Rights Matters — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:10:41 +0000

[...] king of pop deserves his homage), the dedicated few stragglers left to work behind the scenes, and the feigned concern of those who jump on the [...]

By: BS Buster

BS Buster — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:51:46 +0000

Excellent entry!

You're right, these organizations that claim to be for human rights in fact have their own agenda other than human rights. They are not very active in places where it is actually dangerous to operate and seem to have a problem with investigating regimes that are leftist.

I was never stupid enough to fall for Amnesty International and one of the things I am proud of is that I never signed up for that crap even when I was in high school.

By: nkmatters

nkmatters — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:31:10 +0000

I wouldn't go as far to say that T. Kumar is a fraud…

but I agree that AI, an organization whose sole mission is to investigate, report on, and mobilize letter writing campaigns, has been extremely lazy over the past couple of years with regard to North Korean human rights and refugee issues.

Also, I really do not understand the disparity between AI-South Korea and its coverage of North Korea. Ridiculous. That is like documenting South Africa while ignoring Darfur.

That Roseann Rife quote you posted only shows how ignorant she is. Examine the understatement — she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Human Rights Watch isn't much better…thanks for inspiring me to post on this. Coming soon.

By: GI Korea

GI Korea — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:40:55 +0000

Thanks for the link. That explains why I have been getting so much search engine traffic lately on that posting then.

By: DunkinDokDo

DunkinDokDo — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:16:53 +0000

AI is noticeably absent from my reading list on NK human rights. They seem to be more of an opportunistic organization driven by others' reports of human rights violations than an investigative one.

Their script seems to be to wait for a journalist or protester to be arrested, and then to try to amplify public reaction in response. Obviously this scheme is subject to manipulation, and there's a huge selection bias towards areas where news is easy to collect.

I suppose there's a certain threshold within which this model can be effective, namely Western-style democracies with free press, and in less democratic countries where Western influence is still strong. In these areas people can be shocked by small aberrations in civil rights, and the drama plays out well.

But, as Stalin said, a million deaths is a statistic, and AI's pop politics aren't much of a response to that.

By: mashimaro

mashimaro — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:42:57 +0000

WTF?? CNN ran another story you had talked about a month ago.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/11/veteran.i…

By: Cloying_Odor

Cloying_Odor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:14:44 +0000

I call for a boycott of all Korean goods until the Kaesong Slave Labor camp is shuttered. I bet the crap they sell doesn't say "Made in DPRK"… just like those Jewish slave made goods didn't say "Made in Aushwitz". And since you can't tell… boycott all Korean made products.

Any response from K-Swiss about their use of slave labor to make shirts?

George Bush had the ability to talk us into one war…and we went into Iraq!? Should have been regime change in North Korea!!

By: USinKorea

USinKorea — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:45:23 +0000

Obama mentions North Korea so it's time for AI to get into the act…neat…

You hit the nail on the head with this one — and the people in AI should honestly feel ashamed of themselves trying to speak out about NK now.

That doesn't mean I wish they'd be quiet. If they'd finally start covering NK like the should have been all along – it would be good.

But they can't escape being damned for what they haven't done and what they say they stand for.