A Question for President Bush on Concentration Camps
by Richardson ~ January 11th, 2008. Filed under: Defectors & Refugees, Diplomacy, Human Rights, Hunger & Famine, North Korea.President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel’s Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial’s chairman said.
Assuming that reporting is accurate, what about the concentration camps in North Korea RIGHT NOW (e.g. Camp 22)???
This cannot be something Bush is unaware of; he read the book “Aquariums of Pyongyang,” about a North Korean man’s experience growing up in a gulag and escaping to South Korea, and met the author, Kang Chol-hwan in June 2005.
Of course it would be impractical to start bombing North Korea’s concentration camps, aside from killing the occupants/victims, as bombing Auschwitz would have as well. But the intended sentiment – that we ought to do something concrete, now – rings rather hollow in light of what he’s saying and what current U.S. policy represents.
If Bush sends Condoleezza Rice to North Korea, it’ll complete the 2000 de ja vu I’m having these days.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
It’s just like how he sent someone to Myanamar while they were murdering monks. He’s not big on the moral outrage, really.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
This is just the latest in a string of disappointments from Bush. I realize we can’t bomb North Korea – and would not advocate bombing the camps, until liberated – but the disconnect between the rhetoric in Israel and (recent) policy on North Korea is too wide to let pass unmentioned.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I noticed the concentration camps in North Korea is sadly a non-issue in the large scheme of things. I wish it were more widely known, but sadly it is not.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:59 am
The US could have, but did not. And Secretary of State Rice’s links to Chevron, the oil company in Myanmar, means we will probably not see any action in that part of the world. The US could have, but did not.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/12/oil_giant_chevron_urged_to_cut
North Korea, of course, is paying attention to such details, unfortunately.