 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The absence of freedom of religion and or belief in North Korea and the severity of punishment for those practicing Christianity is well-documented. But a story in the February Vantage Point contained information that was new, to me at least. (Sorry, but I cannot find the piece on the web to hyperlink.) The report begins [...]
We pass along the following information from our friends at the North Korea Freedom Coalition. Have a look at the upcoming events and attend if you are able. —– Please see below some upcoming events regarding North Korea’s freedom and human rights, but first a special request regarding this year’s North Korea Freedom Week 2013: We hope that everyone [...]
In an earlier post, my colleague Marc Noland provided an overview of the 2012 UNICEF nutritional survey, replete with all of the necessary caveats on coverage and representativeness of the sample. With the regime so clearly prioritizing the military, it is worth reminding ourselves—yet again—of the human costs of bluster. In the first figure below, [...]
At a conference several weeks ago at MIT, I had the chance to talk to Steve Levitsky (Department of Government at Harvard) about his current work with Lucan Way (University of Toronto) on authoritarian cohesion and durability. Levitsky and Way are the co-authors of a great book on “competitive authoritarian” regimes: intermediate regimes that are [...]
Thanks to the generosity of the Japan Foundation, I spent last week in Tokyo meeting with government officials, academics and journalists. Among the many issues of interest to the security and economic environment of Northeast Asia were discussions about the revision of Article 9 and the prospects for Japan’s entry into the TPP negotiations. The [...]
One reason we were motivated to write Witness to Transformation is to add in our small way to the collective memory. But nothing is more compelling than letting the refugees speak for themselves. In the attached TED talk, Hyeonseo Lee tells her story in a simple, direct and moving way: the indoctrination as a child, [...]
By consensus, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations has established a commission of inquiry into the human rights situation in North Korea (the resolution and background documents can be found here). With respect to the substance of the investigation, the agenda was set by the Special Rapporteur’s report, which we looked at in [...]
Over the past few months, North Korean state media has produced increasingly provocative anti-US propaganda videos with images including New York in flames, Jihadists burning flags, and now rockets blowing up the US Capitol building. In the video above, just before the 3:00 mark, rocket sights are trained on the White House followed by images of missiles [...]
We pass along information on the following as a courtesy to our friends the North Korea Freedom Coalition and NKUS, an organization of North Korean refugees in the United States. The concert, featuring North Korean defector and pianist Kim Cheol Woong, will take place this Sunday just outside of Washington in Burke Virginia. Be sure to [...]
Why is the US Treasury Department unilaterally sanctioning a bank that conducts no direct business with the United States? And why does this seemingly phantom action represent a major escalation on the part of the US? Park Hyun at Hankyoreh offers some particularly cogent reporting that correctly explains Treasury’s bet. Since it was established in [...]
