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It’s been so long since I wrote one of these, and have such a backlog of material, I don’t even know where to start.
Well, let’s start with some important stuff. The North Korean penal system plays a significant role in Witness to Transformation and is an important ongoing concern of this blog. In his recent report to the General Assembly, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Marzuki Darusman observes that human rights groups have used satellite imagery to document an apparent “significant increase in the size of these camps.” He goes on to report that these camps hold up to 200,000 people. His concluding paragraph on this topic is worth quoting in its entirety:
“It is time that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea permitted independent international organizations to access the countries prisons and monitor conditions therein, as over a decade has elapsed since the last visit of any recognized international non-governmental organizations.”
You can listen to the Special Rapporteur’s press conference here.
Grace Oh at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea gave us the head’s up on an interesting story in the Chosun Ilbo. The paper claims that it obtained official records on 2 million residents of Pyongyang. According to the story, the city’s population is disproportionately female, and not surprisingly contains a disproportionate share of Korean Workers Party members.
Americans begin speeches with a joke, Asians with an apology. So let me close with something light and something apologetic. Recently we blogged that Kim Han-sol, Kim Jong-il’s reputed grandson, had entered a university in Mostar, Bosnia. Now Grace Oh has followed up with a Chosun Ilbo story that is beyond satire. The orange-haired Kim laments “guilt by association” and makes the priceless observation that being Kim Jong-il’s grandson “comes with a lot of baggage.” Sort of reminds one of a possibly real world version of the hysterical “interview” that Uncle Jong-un gave with the Onion.
Lastly, I have to admit that I felt a twinge of guilt over using former President Jimmy Carter and the other “Elders” as human piñatas after their hapless tour of Northeast Asia. So when they get something right, we should acknowledge it. Recently the group made a splash campaigning against child marriage through the “Girls Not Brides” platform with its “Let girls be girls and not brides” dictum. You go, Jimmy. You too, Mary.
