March 14th, 2013 at 4:15 am » Comments (5)

Christiane Amanpour interviews Blaine Harden as part of a piece she put together on North Korea: It’s one of Washington’s most truculent adversaries. North Korea’s nuclear tests and sharp rhetoric have raised concerns about the safety of South Korea and how the United States ought to respond. The North Koreans have even threatened to pull out of the armistice that ended the Korean War. Yet North Korea’s harsh treatment of its own citizens – up to 200,000 people are believed to live under brutal conditions in prison camps – is
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November 26th, 2012 at 6:22 pm » Comments (25)

(Note: This is a guest post by ROK Drop contributor John Mac.) What makes it interesting is the comparison to the Rwanda debacle. Still, even if nothing can or will be done about the wanton slaughter up north, it is good to at least acknowledge that it continues to take place: On April 6, 1994, in the aftermath of the assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a genocide in which Hutu militias slaughtered up to 1 million Tutsis over a 100-day period ensued. It eventually ended in the form of
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October 4th, 2012 at 5:54 pm » Comments (1)

Via a tip from the Korea Economic Reader comes the below article from long time North Korea watcher Bradley Martin that states that the notorious Camp 22 in North Korea may have been closed: The North Korean regime is feeling increased pressure over its abysmal human rights record. The latest challenge came to light Friday, in areport by a reputable Seoul-based online news organization saying that it had confirmed the closing of political prison camp number 22 at Hoeryong, in the far northeastern province of North Hamgyong, near the Chinese and
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July 23rd, 2012 at 5:39 pm » Comments (2)

China has finally released a prominent North Korean human rights activist that had been active in China: Kim Young-hwan, the prominent anti-North Korea activist freed Friday from detention in China, pledged to continue his fight for democracy and human rights in the communist country. Kim, 49, and his three colleagues arrived in Seoul on the same day China expelled them after 114 days of detention. They were arrested on March 29 in the northeastern border city of Dalian apparently for helping North Korean refugees. They were charged with “endangering national
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May 28th, 2012 at 3:24 am » Comments (1)

Amnesty International has actually found time out of their busy schedule of criticizing Lee Myung-bak and advocating for the return of Bradley Manning’s blanket to actually write a report about executions happening in North Korea: A new Amnesty International report paints a gruesome picture of summary executions, torture and ill-treatment in North Korea as Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father, Kim Jong Il, as the country’s ruler last December. The country used firing squads or staged traffic accidents to execute 30 officials involved in talks to unite North and South Korea,
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May 16th, 2012 at 3:28 am » Comments (2)

It looks like the Chinese are continuing with their crackdown on groups assisting North Korean refugees within China: South Korea’s foreign ministry says China has been holding four of its citizens in Dandong, activists linked to North Korean refugees, since their arrest March 29 in Dalian. Spokesman Cho Byung-je says Seoul is asking Beijing to handle the case in a fair and swift manner. “South Korea understands that the investigation is proceeding based on procedures under Chinese law,” said Cho, who did not comment on specific accusations because formal charges
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May 14th, 2012 at 3:24 am » Comments (8)

Long time Korea correspondent Donald Kirk has a good article published in the Christian Science Monitor that continues to highlight the often ignored human rights abuses going on in North Korea: The price for a North Korean woman named Kim Eun-sun, her mother, and sister, to escape to China was 2,000 Chinese yuan, slightly more than $300. Like thousands of North Korean women before them, they crossed the Tumen River into China and met a woman who said she would help them escape –only to discover that they’d been sold to a Chinese farmer who wanted
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May 3rd, 2012 at 5:52 pm » Comments (2)

Over at One Free Korea he has some good commentary about what should happen in regards to the Chen Guangcheng disgrace: My sense is that it’s too early to be certain, so let’s establish as much certainty as we can. That’s why Congress has the power to issue subpoenas and compel testimony. When Hillary Clinton returns from Beijing, she should be given enough time to unpack and freshen up before being summoned to testify. She should bring Ambassador Locke with her. It is just possible — but difficult — to
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December 6th, 2011 at 9:17 am » Comments (0)

Here is information via One Free Korea of protests planned in 5 countries against the ongoing massive human rights violations in North Korea: This is an international call to protest on December 9th, 2011, 63rd anniversary of the United Nations Genocide Convention which North Korea is violating in every possible way (For more information, please see “North Korea and the Genocide Convention”:http://hir.harvard.edu/north-korea-and-the-genocide-movement). Please organize protests and hunger strikes in front of DPRK/PRC/UN offices (or other location), and let us know about your demonstration at connect@stopnkgenocide.com. Confirmed Protests So Far: New
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October 20th, 2011 at 5:32 pm » Comments (30)

What a lot of people don’t realize is that the North Korean regime is economically dependent on the slave labor provided by their concentration camps especially for natural resource extraction:  Up to 200,000 political prisoners are languishing in North Korean prison camps, a sharp increase from 10 years ago, a United Nations envoy said Wednesday. Compared to 2001, the latest satellite pictures of the country indicate a “significant increase in the scale of the camps,” said Marzuki Darusman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in North
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