Some administrative items:
First, I find that it would be appropriate to acknowledge my two readers from unspecified locations.
Second, I have to apologize for the lack of posts. There are two reasons for this: 1) Just a general lack of new developments to comment on with regards to human rights in North Korea 2) I am currently in school. That said, please suggest a topic that you would like to discuss in the comments section of any post..
Okay, let’s talk about something now:
This website appeared in my inbox a few days ago. http://www.unifykorea2009.com/index.php
This group (?) is calling for weekly demonstrations every Friday – drawing inspiration from the protests that they claim were a significant factor in bringing down the Berlin Wall. Let’s just forget about the general economic collapse of the Soviet Union for now…oh yea, not to mention that it was the Berliner citizenry that participated in the demonstrations. Still, I don’t have the heart to hyper-mock (or least to go on mocking) a group that has good intentions and wants to spread awareness of the humanitarian crisis in North Korea.
So while I think this group displays a nice, saccharine sentiment, I still have to point out a few things:
1) The groups claims that there are indications that genocide has occurred and is currently occurring in North Korea. This is a very bold statement. Unfortunately,
2a) The group does not back up their figures (really?! 7 million deaths from starvation, 1 million concentration camp deaths, etc.) with any sources or citations. I don’t want to go through every figure here, but you get the point.
2b) Also, merely listing human rights violations in North Korea does not magically make a case that genocide is occurring in North Korea. Why and how is it genocide?
3) I didn’t know the UN Refugee Convention was ratified in 1952 – news to me.
I only point these things out because it is inappropriate and dishonest to make the atrocities in North Korea seem more shocking by using inflated numbers and language. I am not denying that atrocities do occur in a systematic and massive scale, but this website actually does a disservice to us and North Koreans with some of their frankly outrageous figures. Obviously, the group is trying to make the case that there is genocide in North Korea to attempt to shame the public into action. But this is not the way to do it.
