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What are European legislators reading on the North Korean human rights situation? We were recently alerted to a EU Parliamentary briefing (in .pdf) from last September that provides a useful overview in its own right. The document, prepared by Anete Bandone in the Directorate-General for External Policies, takes an unsparing look at the human rights [...]
More than a month after North Korea fired a missile in contravention of two existing UNSC resolutions, the Security Council passed UNSC Resolution 2087, condemning the use of ballistic missile technology in launch and saying the “act violated United Nations sanctions, expresses determination to take “significant action” in event country proceeds with further launch.” First, [...]
Kim Joo-il is a former captain in the Korean People’s Army. He is an activist residing in the UK. This week Parliament Street, a British think-tank, issued Kim’s report on how to foster democracy in North Korea. He makes four recommendations. First, “the UK and other European countries must actively lead an international initiative to [...]
In an earlier post we presented updated data on China’s unwillingness to implement the ban on luxury goods exports to North Korea under UNSC Resolution 1718. We’ve now calculated the figures for the EU. As one can see in the chart above, European luxury goods exports to North Korea were falling even before the sanctions. [...]
The US is not the only country in the midst of a presidential election. In an earlier post, I reprinted some snippets of Ahn Cheol-soo’s musings on North Korea taken from his book. Opposition rival Moon Jae-in has made a major policy speech on North Korea; Karin Lee at the National Committee on North Korea [...]
Sanctions are a complex technology with correspondingly complex macro- and microeconomic as well as political effects. Iran is currently facing quite draconian oil-related sanctions, most notably the EU decision in January 2012, to wind down purchases of Iranian crude oil by July 1, 2012. But the country has also been hit by a wave of [...]
A second entry today on human rights events that may be of interest, this time in Seoul. European countries—individually and collectively—have a perspective on the Korean peninsula that is not weighted down with the same strategic baggage as the Five Parties. As a result, humanitarian and human rights issues have figured prominently in European thinking, [...]
Earlier I wrote a piece on the rising costs of unification. According to Yonhap, the South Korean government continues to putter away on its “unification tax” proposal. Maybe we should import some National Assembly members to serve in the House of Representatives… It never ends: South Korea’s Maeil Business news is reporting that 35 million [...]
We now have a bit more information on the European decision to provide food assistance to the DPRK; a .pdf of the decision can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/funding/decisions/2011/dprk_01000_en.pdf I learned in Seoul from a European colleague that the €10 million Euro figure was not entirely related to the perceived level of need. Rather, that amount [...]
We have made what we believe is a measured, eyes-open, risk-averse case for aid. The limited evidence we have on aggregate supply, commercial trade, existing stocks, the likely performance of the summer harvest and prices—both international and domestic—point to ongoing shortages that will almost certainly have adverse effects on vulnerable portions of the population. These [...]
