25개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
If you want to copy/print the poster please check out (here you'll find also a version in Bangla): ☞ 224결의대회 poster (중국,방글라)
Since y'day, until the end of Feb., all N.K. citizens are celebrating(*) the birthday of the "Sun of the 21st Century", a.k.a. Kim Jong-il, well known as the "Dear Leader". (Oops~ before I forget it: of course the entire world population is doing the same!! What else??)
While the "ordinary" N.K. citizens are celebrating the birthday with mass rallies, mass dances etc, the N.K. security forces are performing mass executions - if we want to believe (..well, we don't have to do..) following strange story by today's Yonhap:
22 N. Korean drifters executed after return home
A group of 22 North Koreans who had been returned home after their boats drifted into South Korean waters were all immediately executed by North Korean authorities, a source here said Sunday.
Two fishing boats carrying the North Koreans -- 14 women and eight men including three teenagers -- drifted into the western waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island on Feb. 8 and were sent back home after South Korean interrogators found they had no intention of defecting, the National Intelligence Service said in a press release on Saturday.
The North Koreans were residents of Kangnyeong County, North Korea's southern coastal province of South Hwanghae, who went to sea to collect clams and oysters without authorization from the North Korean maritime agency, the intelligence service said.
The report of their return by South Korean authorities came after the mass circulation Chosun Ilbo broke the report in its weekend edition.
A source well-versed in North Korea told Yonhap News Agency, however, that the drifters were all executed immediately after returning home early last week. The provincial branch of North Korea's National Security Agency shot and killed them secretly, the source said.
Of the group, 13 were extended family members and nine others were their neighbors, according to the South Korean intelligence agency.
"A rumor spread in South Hwanghae Province that (the security agency) secretly executed the 22 people immediately after they were returned," the source said.
"People in the province are shocked by the fact that all of the 22 people were shot and killed without exception, such being sent to a prison camp," the source said.
South Korean intelligence officials, contacted by Yonhap News Agency, said they were not aware of the rumored execution and would try to verify it.
South Korean intelligence acknowledged there is a possibility that the returnees were executed because of their unauthorized fishing.
"I'm not aware of whether they were executed or not, but that's possible because they went fishing with no authorization from the North Korean maritime authorities," a government official said, requesting anonymity.
Given the large number of North Koreans spotted aboard, suspicions had been raised that they were seeking asylum but were returned. The fact that the majority of the drifters were women -- 14 out of 22 -- and that three students aged between 15 and 17 were aboard contributed to the suspicion of their defection attempt.
They were sent back home through a overland route after being brought to the port city of Incheon for interrogation.
The intelligence authorities denied the speculation.
The drifters "could have been sent back at the site where they were rescued, because they said they were drifting and they had no intention of defecting, but there was a large number of them, including women, so their boats were taken to Incheon for interrogation," another government official said.
Joint interrogation by the police and the National Intelligence Agency found that they were neither asylum seekers nor spies, he said...
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2008/02/17/95/0301000000AEN20080217001500315F.HTML
Marmot's Hole asked today:
☞ Were 22 Returned North Koreans Executed?
☞ What Are People Doing on Kim's Birthday? (DailyNK, 2.17)
* or better said: forced to celebrate.. (likely??!!^^)
"On every Saturday, migrant workers' supporters have a flea market at Strange Fruit Cafe, Hong-dae., Seoul from 2 - 6:30pm.
You can donate and buy some second-hand goods. All proceeds go towards the Migrant Trade Union." (seoulidarity).
Related:
☞ ..고양이시장 (미친꽃, 2.03)
☞ 홍대 이주노동자를 위한 고양이 시장에서 (2.06)
Some days ago one of my readers/visitors (or whatever..) asked - in connection to my latest contributions about the recent developments in and around the DLP - "Who cares?".. Well, at least the S.K. (bourgeois) media:
Labor Party Likely to Split Into Two (K. Times, 2.14)
The progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) will likely split as some lawmakers leading a major faction in the party have indicated they will soon leave the party.
DLP leaders are trying their utmost to patch up internal feuding over a party revamp plan and stop further desertions.
Reps. Sim Sang-jeong and Roh Hoe-chan had a closed-door meeting Wednesday night with about 40 party officials, who support their plan to deprive pro-North Korea party members of their membership.
As the proposal was rejected at a party convention on Feb. 3, they have agreed to create a separate party.
Most participants at the meeting said they needed to create a new party but argued over when to launch it, party sources said.
Some members claimed that they should form the party after the April 9 National Assembly elections because they need to take some time to consolidate the group.
Other members, however, insisted that the new party may not secure proportional seats if formed after the elections.
Sim and Roh, plan to announce their stance on whether or not to leave the DLP and create a new party by Sunday based on the results of the meeting.
Amid escalating speculation over a breakup, Rep. Chun Young-se, who is temporarily leading the party after Sim resigned, is scheduled to discuss ways to stop this with other party leaders next Wednesday.
However, his efforts will not likely stop further mass desertions.
A group of 145 have already relinquished their party membership, fueling the breakup.
The deserters who belonged to the party's Incheon district, said in a statement, ``The three percent of the vote that the DLP received in December's presidential election shows that the people wanted a radical change and revamping. But the party has refused to accept these calls.''
They also forecast consecutive desertion of party members while stressing that they will help create a new progressive party to protect social minorities.
The party which has nine seats in the 299-member Assembly has suffered from conflicts between two major factions since DLP candidate Kwon Young-gill was defeated in the presidential race last December.
The factional feud reached a climax after mainstreamers vetoed the party reform plan, of which a major bone of contention was whether or not to remove people engaged in pro-Pyongyang activities from party membership.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/113_18940.html
Related stuff:
☞ Massive Collective Defection from the DLP (NewsCham, 1.23/2.11)
☞ Democratic Labor Party's Strategy of Siding with Kim Jong Il (DailyNK, 2.11)
One Year Ago: Horrible Fire Disaster in Yeosu Deportation Center..
..and the gov't had not kept its promise to prevent reoccurrence and improvement of institutions (IBMK, 2.12)
It marks one year anniversary of the fire accident at Yeosu Detention Center on Feb 12. On the same day in 2007, the fire took 10 migrant workers’ lives and 16 were injured. The Emergency Committee and the Joint Action held a press conference in front of the government complex in Gwanghwamun. They protested that any promises that the government would prevent reoccurrence of similar accident and improve institutions or system had not been kept.
Joo Bong-hee, the vice chairman of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, reflected that 2007 was a desperate year for migrant workers at the press conference, referring to the incident that a Nepali migrant worker was transferred with his mouth taped and deported.
Torner Rimbu, the deputy chairman of Migrant Trade Union, said that Korean government was a bad government because a good government founded many schools but a bad government made many prisons. He insisted the Yeosu Detention Center should be shut down, warning another accident could break out.
Choi Hyun-mo, the president of the alliance for migrant human rights, told that the fire was a barometer of human rights in Korean society. He also criticized that the government hadn’t tried to change policies on migrant workers but had strengthened crackdown, detention and deportation. Right after the accident, the government seemed to legalize undocumented workers but it just established spring coolers at the center and revised the Immigration Law for the worse.
A pastor Choi Sung-gyu advised the president elect Lee Myung-bak to acknowledge the divinity of labor and make polices for migrant workers.
The Joint Action and the Emergency Committee submitted public proposal to the government to demand eradication of the center, supporting 16 injured people, legalizing undocumented workers, withdrawing the revision of the Immigration Law and adding the article of preventing discrimination according to nationality, skin color and language to the Anti-Discrimination Law.
http://211.47.69.86/~migrantsmulti/?document_srl=15343#0
Related:
☞ The Lethal End of the "Korean Dream"
☞ 여수보호소화재참사 1주기 추모제 (video)
☞ 2.11추모식.. 여수에서 (report, pictures)
☞ 언론이 주목한 "노무현 정부 하 이주노동자들의 죽음"(2003-2008.1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNfKXYbnq8
Few weeks ago a found a web site with some very beautiful pictures from Gaeseong (Kaesong/DPRK):
자남산에서 바라본 개성 옛도시
아름다운 작은 집/한옥
관음사 대웅전(觀音寺 大雄殿) 내부
Like everywhere in NK, also in Gaeseong: Big Brother Is Watching You!
But Gaeseong isn't just a really beautiful city, it's also - how A. Lankov yesterday wrote in Asia Times - "a breach in DPRK's iron curtain"..
Well, if you want to learn more about the reason why.. Please check out following stuff:
☞ A breach in North Korea's iron curtain (A. Times, 2.07)
☞ Eager S. Koreans Tour a Semi-Open City in the North (NYT, 1.04)
Somehow related:
☞ Bribery Required to Work in Kaesong (DailyNK, 2.04)
☞ 개성 관광
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i'm a member of 'Seoulidarity'. We made this video and another one 'militarism and resistance in s.korea' together.we wanted to make something for the world social forum(26.jan). we are recently focusing on migrant workers and writing on other issues in s. korea.
actually, we've visited your blog linked your blog on our
article! hope we could communicate and make a solidarity.
you can visit www.seoulidarity.net
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Hi, we are an Asian American group in Seattle that is strongly influenced and inspired by the Korean labor movement, particularly around resistance against US imperialism and neo-liberalism. In fact we are named after the anti-colonial March First Movement in Korea. I would have liked to email this information to someone in your organization/blog, but I couldnt find the information. We are organizing a rally in Seattle this Thurs 4/24, calling for US troops out of South Korea. We are demanding that our university, the University of Washington, pull out any investments from US military contractors supporting the USFK.I am attaching our press release in this post. I hope to be in touch with you all and that perhaps in the future we can build deeper connections in our solidarity organizing. We could also write a post on your blog about the turnout and progress of our campaign if that is possible
Sincerely,
March First Solidarity
Press Advisory: For immediate release 17 April 2008
University of Washington students call for divestment from U.S. Military contractors and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea
Who: University of Washington students and concerned community members
What: Rally to pressure UW to divest from military contractors that support the presence of US troops in Korea
Where: University of Washington, HUB Lawn
When: 12:00pm Thursday, April 24, 2008
Contact: Shemon Salam Tel: +1 734 673 4657 Email: m1solidarity@gmail.com
At 12:00pm on Thursday, April 24, 2008, University of Washington students and concerned community members will rally to demand that UW withdraw any investments it may have in U.S. military contractors that produce items used by the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
This rally is part of an ongoing campaign organized by March 1st Solidarity, a new anti-racist group on campus that opposes US imperialism in Asia. On April 7, 2008, March 1st Solidarity formally submitted a proposal demanding divestment. Members of the group believe the university should be a democratic institution where students, staff, faculty, community members, and fellow citizens have the right to make decisions regarding investments, foreign policy, and public ethics. We do not want our tuition and taxes supporting the production of weapons used to maintain US imperialism.
The presence of U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula limits the self-government of the Korean people. Since 1945, the US Forces Korea helped suppress South Korean movements for national reunification and genuine democracy. This resulted in the subjugation of the Korean people to U.S.-backed military dictatorships that lasted until 1987. UW students are rallying because we fear that the USFK could be used today to suppress the struggles of Korean workers and farmers against increased exploitation under the Kor-US Free Trade Agreement.
Today, the USFK is consolidating and relocating its bases in South Korea in order to solidify its military domination across Asia. The USFK is not there to protect the South Korean people; it is there to support the war on terror and the growing US rivalry with China. The Pentagon is redesigning US military bases in Korea to support deployment anywhere in Asia or the Middle East. The bases are used for training and logistical support for the Iraq war and USFK units have been deployed to Iraq.
To facilitate their consolidation of the U.S. military apparatus, the USFK and the South Korean government have collaborated to seize land from farmers in the Pyeongtaek region. Many villagers have refused reparations offers, resisted eviction orders, and engaged in civil disobedience against police and military efforts to remove them. They have gained widespread support from student anti-war activists from across Korea and around the world. In addition, many Korean citizens have protested against crimes committed by US soldiers and the oppressive international sex trade fueled by the presence of US bases.
On April 24, 2008, UW students and community members will be acting in solidarity with these Korean anti-war and anti-imperialist movements. We demand that UW divest from military contractors that support the USFK. UW has a large population of Asian American and Asian international students. US militarism in Asia is a threat to the peace and solidarity of our communities on both sides of the Pacific. In pursuing divestment we refuse to be subservient to US Empire and we stand for democracy and anti-racism in our communities
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