Temper Tantrum

South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak has been unimpressed by North Korea's recent threats and abuses. North Korea, upset with Mr. Lee's stance of only engaging with the North when it dismantles its nuclear capabilities, has threatened confrontation. According to the Economist, North Korea has "expelled most South Korean officials from the Kaesong industrial complex, a symbol of economic co-operation. In late January it repudiated a 1991 agreement on reconciliation, non-aggression and co-operation between the Koreas. It says it will no longer honour the western maritime boundary between the two countries, known as the northern limit line, long disputed by the North. This week South Korea’s press reported that the North Korea seemed to be making preparations to test-fire its Taepodong-2 missile." Mr. Lee has acknowledged the threats as serious but "not new".

Kim Jong-Il is likely employing these threats as a means of stirring up nationalism within North Korea while trying to maintain the attention of the United States as President Obama attempts to address domestic concerns, rather than to instill fear in the South Korean people. The
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has directed her attention to the North as she joined Yu Myung Hwan of the RoK's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to assert their dedication to the Six Party Talks to achieve a verifiable end to the North's nuclear program. Clinton called upon the North to uphold is agreement to the 2007 Joint Statement of the Six Party Talks. Additionally, Clinton stated North Korea can not expect to have a productive relationship with the United States if it continues to abuse and threaten South Korea.

In related news, Clinton announced that Ambassador Stephen Bosworth is to be the special envoy to North Korea and will assume the position of U.S. chief negotiator at the Six Party Talks. Bosworth has served as a U.S. ambassador to South Korea most recently at the turn of the millennium, as well as to the Philippines and Tunisia. He was the executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) from 1995 to 1997, a group that, according to the Daily NK, "is in control of the aborted building of two light-water nuclear reactors in the North as part of a previous denuclearization deal".

North Korea's New Cold Front

South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, and his ministries are experiencing newfound difficulty in progressing discussion with North Korea and its leaders. South Korea's unification minister, Hyun In-taek, the constructor of Lee's policy of offering aid and investment under the condition of the North's giving up of its nuclear arms. However, North Korea has obviously viewed this policy as an presumptuous infringement on their sovereignty, as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has refused to talk to the South for months now. According to The Economist, North Korea has vaguely threatened “all-out confrontation” in January, blaming the Republic of Korea's president for raising tensions. This hostile tone from the North is not a surprising response, given that the rumors of political instability following their dictator's stroke and resulting health complications have forced the North Korean government to present a stoic face to the world, as the nations of the globe speculate as to the future of the DPRK.

In other news, LiNK is preliminarily preparing for a screening national tour of the award winning film, Crossing. Acting as South Korea's official submission to the 2009 Academy Awards' Foreign-Language Film category, this film poignantly depicts a North Korean father and his epic journey as he is forced to travel into China to retrieve medicine and money for his ailing family. A trailer subtitled in English is available on YouTube here. The LiNK Crossing Tour: West will reach the following cities on the following dates:

March 15th-March 18th: San Diego, CA
March 19th-Marchl 24th: Orange County, CA
March 25th-April 3rd: Los Angeles, CA
April 4th-April 6th: San Louis Obispo/Santa Barbara, CA
April 7th-April 11th: Sacramento/San Francisco, CA - Bay Area take note!
April 13th-15th: Eugene, OR
April 16th-April 18th : Salem, OR
April 19th- April 25th: Portland, OR
April 26th-April 29th: Tacoma, WA
April 30th -May 5th: Seattle, WA
May 6th: May 8th: 21st: Spokane, WA
May 9th: Boise, ID
May 10h-May 11th: Salt Lake City, UT
May 12th –May 15th: Las Vegas, NV

More details are to come.

Liberty Live Tour 2008 Comes to Berkeley

Start: Sunday, October 12, 2008 7:30 PM

Location: Julia Morgan Center for the Arts
2640 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

Directions to the Julia Morgan Center

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) Outreach: Bay Area will be hosting Spiralnote Records and LiNK's Liberty Live Tour as it makes a stop from traveling across the States to grace us with the harmonious sounds of the Philly rock band Miss Vintage and LA rock-pop sensation Andy Grammer, playing music and raising awareness about the present humanitarian crisis in North Korea.

The third-to-last of their 22 stops will be right here in the East Bay at the Julia Morgan Center in Berkeley.

Our lives are not through just yet, so lets help turn this tour into the genesis of an exciting campaign to bring this issue to the attention of America at large and empower a movement that will one day allow for liberty in North Korea.

Tickets are $10 Pre-Sale! They are available now online at http://www.linkglobal.org/libertytickets.html
Tickets are also available at the door for $15.

UPDATE:
In an attempt to make this event more affordable for all, tickets are now
$8 dollars Pre-Sale and $10 at the door! All the more incentive to bring all your friends for a great show!

Inside North Korea Documentary Screening this Week

Our first event come Autumn 2008 will feature a National Geographic documentary, offering a very comprehensive look at the state of North Korea, this Wednesday. The film follows Lisa Ling as she poses as an undercover medical coordinator and is closely guarded/watched throughout her trip inside the dictatorship.

The film will be shown on the UC Berkeley campus in the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB). Details of the showing can be found above on the flier. So nice, we printed it thrice.

Born and Raised in a Concentration Camp: North Korean Defector Shin Dong-Hyuk Shares

Start: Monday, May 12, 2008 7:00 PM
End: Monday, May 12, 2008 8:15 PM

Location: Valley Life Science Building, Room 2040, UC Berkeley
2040 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA 94720

Directions to Berkeley

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) will be hosting North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk on a speaking tour entitled, "Born and Raised in a Concentration Camp." He will recount his experiences as a North Korean who was born into slavery as a political prisoner in a North Korean concentration camp. Shin was born on Nov. 19, 1982 and called the camp home until 2005. While at the camp, he endured daily beatings, torture, starvation-level rations, saw forced abortions and even witnessed the public execution of his mother and brother in 1996. Shin described his life of total isolation from the world: "In South Korea, although there is disappointment and sadness, there is also so much joy, happiness and comfort. In Kaechon, I did not even know such emotions existed. The only emotion I ever knew was fear: fear of beatings, fear of starvation, fear of torture and fear of death." LiNK's Executive Director Adrian Hong will accompany Shin on the tour and will be speaking about the broader issue of human rights in North Korea, as well as the current refugee situation and LiNK's resettlement activities. Liberty in North Korea is an international non-governmental organization devoted to human rights in North Korea and the protection of North Korean refugees.

6:45 PM Registration
7:00 Speakers: Shin Dong-Hyuk, North Korean defector
Adrian Hong, LiNK
8:00 Q&A

Speaker Biographies:

Shin Dong-hyuk: Mr. Shin was born and raised in Political Prison Camp No. 14 until his escape in 2005. Based in South Korea, he has testified before Britain's House of Lords, and published a book in 2007 entitled "I Was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea" published by the DataBase Center for North Korean Human Rights. Mr. Shin aspires to attend college and hopes to become a policeman.

Adrian Hong: Adrian Hong currently serves as Executive Director of Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK, an international NGO devoted to human rights in North Korea, and the protection of North Korean refugees all over the world. In December of 2006, Mr. Hong was arrested along with 2 LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees in the People's Republic of China and imprisoned before being released and deported.

A Second "Arduous March"?

Dr. Andrei Lankov has an article up on Asia Times about the prospects of another major famine in North Korea.

Among the North Korean population there is widespread talk about a "second Arduous March" (the "Arouse [sic] March" being a somewhat pompous official name for the "Great Famine" which killed between 500,000 and 1 million people between 1996-1999). International experts seem to agree. Tony Banbury, the World Food Program (WFP) regional director for Asia, said in mid-April: "The food security situation in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is clearly bad and getting worse. It is increasingly likely that external assistance will be urgently required to avert a serious tragedy."

This change of mood is dramatic. Merely a year ago, North Korean leaders were optimistic. The good harvest of 2005 persuaded them that food shortages were behind them, and that North Korean agriculture had begun to recover. The 2005 harvest was merely 4.6 million tons, well below the 5.2 million tons which are necessary to keep the entire population alive. Still, it was clearly an improvement.

It's looking more and more like a perfect storm of rising food prices, posturing against the new South Korean administration, and a poor harvest could lead to a very bad next few years in North Korea.

Read the whole article for more info. It's a little long, but well worth the read.

Day 2 of Fast for NK Week

We'll once again be out on Sproul today. Come and stop by our table if you haven't already!

In the meantime, please read up on your North Korea facts. Today, check out this link right here. It's a collection of articles on human trafficking in and around North Korea.

And if you have any questions for us, our email address is linkbayarea@gmail.com.