6 Responses to North Korea in the News

1. Jon Allen
   May 7th, 2007 at 3:57 am

   The Wall Street Journal had a good leader about NK in Saturday’s edition. It mentioned the deadlines missed on the nuclear shutdown and the ‘external inquiry’ into UN programs in NK. It noted how difficult it had been to get any information about the audit ordered by Ban-Ki Moon from the UN press office and the board of auditors.

   It concludes:
   “Mr Ban is staying mum on the missed UN deadline. But on the evidence so far, Kim can be forgiven if he concludes that the world isn’t serious about enforcing any of its deadlines concerning NK”

2. Richardson
   May 7th, 2007 at 8:07 am

   Jon,
   I missed that one, but looked it up. A good read, and here’s the text for those who’d like it:

   North Korea Time
   May 3, 2007; Page A16
   It’s been two and a half weeks since the 60-day deadline passed on April 14 for North Korea to comply with the first part of the nuclear accord reached in February. That includes shutting down the Yongbyong nuclear reactor, letting in U.N. inspectors and providing a list of all nuclear programs. But so far no word from Pyongyang, and nothing from Beijing or Washington either. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both recently claimed their “patience” is not “endless,” contrary to all available evidence.

   Meanwhile, another North Korean deadline has been allowed to lapse. On January 19, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon ordered an “external inquiry” into all U.N. programs in North Korea, including the United Nations Development Fund, Unicef, the World Food Program and the U.N. Population Fund. Mr. Ban’s announcement followed our report on irregularities in UNDP programs in North Korea and U.S. concerns that tens of millions of dollars in hard currency were funneled to dictator Kim Jong Il.

   Mr. Ban imposed a 90-day deadline for the audit, but it appears to be lost somewhere in the U.N. bureaucracy. The auditors spent two weeks in March at UNDP headquarters in New York interviewing staff and looking at the books, but they have yet to set foot in North Korea, much less file a report. Oh — and the “independent” and “external” audit Mr. Ban ordered is being conducted by the U.N.’s own Board of Auditors, consisting of a team from South Africa, France and the Philippines.

   We had a challenge gathering even these details. The Board of Auditors refuses to talk to the press. The UNDP understandably feels it lacks standing to comment on an investigation of itself. And Mr. Ban’s press office can’t seem to get the facts straight, first telling us the auditors were in Korea and then informing us they weren’t. You’d think someone at the U.N. would show more interest in explaining one of the boss’s priorities to the public.

   It will be interesting to see how Kim Jong Il responds if the auditors get around to asking for visas. The dictator recently told the last two UNDP officials left in Pyongyang to get out. The UNDP suspended operations there in March, after our reports and after the Kim government refused to let aid officials visit the projects they fund.

   Mr. Ban is staying mum on the missed U.N. deadline. But on the evidence so far, Kim can be forgiven if he concludes that the world isn’t serious about enforcing any of its deadlines concerning North Korea.

3. Gerry
   May 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm

   Interesting? No one is doing anything, nothing is happening, no one is talking. Must mean something. Right? I’m confused.

4. Richardson
   May 8th, 2007 at 9:23 am

   I’d say it means business as usual from the DPRK, which means delay, stall, cheat, and delay some more.

   The U.S. is being careful not to do anything to catch the blame for the 13 Feb deal, and the Sep 2005 deal before that, falling to pieces. I don’t think anyone who is truly up to speed on this actually thought North Korea would really comply, but it is a bit surprising that they are doing this so soon.

5. Gerry
   May 8th, 2007 at 8:39 pm

   Its amazing to watch a country that prides themselves on being devious and dishonest. Willing to lose all rather than abide by world standards of decency. Surprising? They are at the end of thier rope yet have thier “Honor”to uphold. Bet the collapse card gets played again real soon.

6. usinkorea
   May 10th, 2007 at 7:24 am

   I beg the indulgence of DPRK Studies on this next comment:

   The Daily NK has a post up about another major NKHR conference in Seoul this month on the 21st.

   http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=2045

   You all know how much coverage the DC conference did not get.

   You probably read my moans about that and the need to take advantage of broadban video access on the internet to achieve one of the primary goals of these NGOs and the primary goal of a conference like this — getting the word out to people who are not already focused on the issue.

   So, like back in 2005, I am putting messages out around the K-blogpshere:

   if anybody in Korea is willing to film parts of this conference, I would love to do brief edits for them and get them up on the internet where they can be viewed 24/7. (With the spread of You Tube, and Korean society’s awareness of broadban access, perhaps there are already some people who are going to get parts of this conference up. My fingers are crossed…)

   I didn’t put messages out for the DC conference until just before it happened and didn’t get any replies.

   In 2005, we had about as much time before the conference when I started asking, and I did get 1 person who replied and the result was this webring:

   http://www.usinkorea.org/North_Korea/videos/conference/

   A tripod would have made the videos much more viewer friendly, but the two of us connecting through cyberspace got more video coverage of the 2005 event than I can find on the recent Washington conference…..

   If anybody might be interested in filming some of the conference is worried about permission, I emailed several of the NGOs and speakers who we filmed in 2005. None complained. Some sent me a text of their comments that I could include on the webpages. David Hawk was surprised to see he was taped but said he liked it.

   Some of the people connected to these NGOs might/probably read this blog and might read this message, and if capturing such lectures or panel discussions in film like this is taboo, you can let me know…

   It wouldn’t make sense to me since the point is to get the message out to a wider and wider audience.

   Anybody interested in filming these events could also ask for permission or I could send emails to the groups asking ahead of time or again like I did last time when I have finished getting them up for them to see what I did with them…

   I really hope someone will have the desire and opportunity to get parts of this conference up on the internet.

   With the amount of K-bloggers interested in North Korea - including their Human Rights abuses - and the amount of people who own camcorders these days - you would think 2 or 3 people could be lined up who can get some coverage of these events…..

   you can email me at usinkorea@hotmail.com

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