From the category archives:

Human Rights

North Korean human rights and money laundering discussed in the Lords

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by Philip Gowman on 3 February, 2010

in DPRK, Human Rights, In the news

A transcript of the discussion in the House of Lords earlier this week
North Korea: Human Rights
Question
2.57 pm Tuesday February 2nd 2010
Tabled by Lord Alton of Liverpool
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of alleged human rights violations in North Korea following the publication of the report by the National Human Rights Commission in [...]

Tagged as: Parliament

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Nineteen Years in South Korea’s Gulag

3 December 2009 Book reviews: memoirs
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Suh Sung: Unbroken Spirits – Nineteen Years in South Korea’s Gulag
Rowman & Littlefield, 2001
Original Japanese version, (Gokuchû 19 Nen, Nineteen Years in Prison) 1994

We are all familiar with stories reporting the horrors of torture and starvation in North Korean prison camps. What we can forget is that over the past decades South Korea’s history of [...]

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From Gulag to Getaway: North Korean refugees tell their story in Parliament

5 November 2009 DPRK
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“In South Korea, we are taught English, Maths, things like that. We are taught nothing about North Korea.” I was talking to a young South Korean after a meeting of the North Korean All-Party Parliamentary Group. She was visibly shocked at what she had just heard. Two North Korean refugees – Jung Guang-il and Lee [...]

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Escaping North Korea – documentary on BBC

8 April 2009 DPRK
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Details of a showing of the Chosun Ilbo documentary about North Korean escapees and their flight to South Korea

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Escaping North Korea book launch

17 March 2009 Book reviews: DPRK
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An account of the book launch of Mike Kim’s “Escaping North Korea” held at SOAS in March 2009

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Escaping North Korea

9 March 2009 DPRK
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A reminder of the book launch events in Oxford and London this week. Mike Kim talks about his new book, Escaping North Korea

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Carpe Diem – Lord Alton and Baroness Cox report from the DPRK

26 February 2009 DPRK
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Two British parliamentarians return from the DPRK and report on the meetings they held with DPRK officials

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Lord Alton and Baroness Cox return from Pyongyang

7 February 2009 DPRK
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British Parliamentarians call on the new Obama administration to bring about a formal cessation of hostilities and normalisation of relations with DPRK

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The tears are not dried out yet

27 October 2008 Events news
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An organisation called The World Conference on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery is holding two discussion sessions on the Korean Comfort Women.
The conferences aim to recognise and understand the sexual enslavement of thousands of women by Japanese military forces throughout Asia during the Second World War.
3 November, 7:30 – 8:30pm, SOAS Room G2 & G3
4 November, [...]

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Chosun Ilbo border-crosser documentary footage shown on BBC

30 May 2008 DPRK

Newsnight last night screened a 17 minute extract from the Chosun’s documentary on North Korean border crossers in Northern China. A very brief extract, together with the BBC reporter’s write-up, can be found on the BBC website here.
The Chosun Ilbo website says that there will be more extended versions of the footage screening on BBC [...]

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Ambassador Ja in the House of Lords

5 March 2008 DPRK

In the very same room where, nine months ago, two DPRK defectors told their stories, last night the DPRK ambassador addressed members of both Houses of Parliament and answered questions.
It was disappointing that so few MPs were there [1], but their absence made sure there was plenty of room for members of the public — [...]

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North Korea: new approaches – conference report

23 January 2008 Chatham House

The panel and attendance list of the 8th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees was a who’s who of North Korean experts and Koreanists in general [1]. As expected, there was no representation from the DPRK embassy. Given that more than one panellist characterised past conferences as “people getting together to bash [...]

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Amnesty International spotlights Comfort Women issue

8 November 2007 Events news

Just received
Still waiting for justice after 62 Years Gil Won Ok (‘Grandma Gil’) and Ellen van der Ploeg were among many women used as wartime sex slaves by the Japanese military. They have campaigned unceasingly for justice and for an apology for 62 years. Amnesty International UK is the inal venue of a speaking [...]

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North Korea – Behind the Headlines

7 September 2007 DPRK

As often happens with events related to Korea, one has to make choices. On 20 September one has to choose between the Anglo-Korean Society Chuseok dinner and something more sombre.
Earlier this year two reports were published on North Korean human rights by Anti-Slavery International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Meanwhile the BBC have been working on [...]

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The fate of North Korean returnees

10 August 2007 DPRK
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“The only way I’m going back to Korea is in a coffin” said a North Korean woman now living in China. Her story, recently told in the Daily Telegraph, is typical of the experience of a certain category of North Koreans in China. What that category is called depends on your orientation — economic migrants, [...]

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