CINA

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Before y'day 500,000 people gathered on Seoul's City Hall Plaza for the funeral ceremony of Roh Moo-hyun.

But only one day later the "national unity"^^ (JoongAng Ilbo) was over.
The "5.30 Protest Rally for Peace, Political and Social Justice" - planned for Sat. afternoon by many trade unions, student solidarity groups, the Yongsan Coalition, civil and human right organisations - was in fact banned by the gov't. 14,000 riot cops (plus 8 water cannons..) prevented, partly by using massive violence, any potential protester from entering the City Hall Plaza (a detailed report, incl. pictures and several videos you can read here).

Related articles:
☞ 범국민대회 원천봉쇄... 시민-경찰 곳곳 충돌 (OMN)

☞ 5.30 범국민대회 원천봉쇄...연행 (NewsCham)  

☞ 5.30대회속보.. (KCTU)

☞ 경찰, 무력 해산 시도…70여명 연행 (Redian)  

Photo reports:
☞ 5월30일 새벽5시 시청광장 상황

PS:
K. Times reported that 72 "Roh supporters" were arrested.. But I doubt that every protester who is in opposition to the ruling system in S.K. is automatically a supporter of the former Roh administration!!

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For more informations please check out:
☞ 5.30 서울시청에서 범국민대회

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Yesterday's Guardian (UK) had following piece about Absurdistan's (aka D.P.R.K.) "news" agency:

Twitter with Kim and co: a portal into a paranoid state

North Korean state news agency's feed offers a glimpse into the mind of a repressive regime

North Korea is renowned for many things – not least surprise nuclear tests – but it can hardly claim to be at the forefront of the information technology revolution.

While the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, boasts of being a whiz on the web, internet access is otherwise all but unknown in a country where the state keeps the tightest of grips on the flow of information. Pyongyang, the capital, has a couple of – heavily monitored – internet cafes, while North Korea's recently allocated .kp country code only came into existence in 2007.

It thus comes as a slight surprise to browse Twitter and find a feed from the country's state press organisation, the Korean Central News Agency.

If you have never previously perused its daily digest of news, available in English and Spanish, as well as Korean, KCNA at first looks astonishingly anachronistic, a shrill blast of propaganda reminiscent of the depths of the cold war. Americans are always reviled as the "imperialists", while South Korea is the "puppet regime" which, to use a phrase from one of today' stories, is "dancing to the tune of the US".

(A quick note: KCNA's fairly basic website does not have separate addresses for stories, meaning none of the examples here can be directly linked to. For the curious, the NK News blog collates KCNA stories into a searchable archive.)

While some stories are clearly important, for example the confirmation yesterday of the country's second successful nuclear test, many other headlines range from the oddly banal ("DPRK's important day celebrated in Italy) to the downright bizarre ("Pro-Japanese lackey's behaviour slashed").

Many of the most curious tales are in praise of Kim, or his father, Kim Il-sung, who ruled until his death in 1994. Many stories about the younger Kim recount spontaneous natural wonders, such as rainbows, waterspouts in lakes and trees blossoming in autumn, occurring in honour of his birthday or a visit.

One story released earlier this week outlined a supposed tale from 1972, when Kim decided to climb Paektu, or Baekdu mountain, a high peak seen as a national symbol, during a fierce blizzard, against the advice of his officials. As the party neared the summit, KCNA explains, Kim spread his arms and the snows immediately ceased, revealing a calm, blue sky.

"'Mount Paektu opened its gate to its master and revealed its gigantic and graceful sight. What a wonder of Mount Paektu!' shouted the officials to themselves in solemn feelings," the story ends.

There is, of course, a temptation to find such crude and fruitily written hyperbole amusing. It's thus important not to forget that, ridiculous though all this might seem, the North Korean regime remains one of the world's most repressive and brutal, where human rights are all but unknown while torture and arbitrary detention are routine.

Still, subscribing to the KCNA feed is as good a way as any for an outsider to tap into the curious mix of rage, paranoia and leader deification that makes North Korea the country it is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2009/may/26/knca-portal-into-north-korea

Latest "news" by KCNA:
☞ CPRK Regards S. Korea's Full Participation in PSI as Declaration of War..

☞ KPA Panmunjom Mission Clarifies Rev. Armed Forces' Principled Stand

☞ Rodong Shinmun: End the Fascist Dictatorship in S. Korea!

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1. Now, since three days consecutive N.K.'s activities are leading the headlines in the int'l media (slowly the Dear Leader should be satisfied with his efforts to get international attention..)!

"The Terror-Dwarf

Blackmails the World"

Frontpage(5.26) of Berliner Kurier
(German mass-circulation newspaper)

2. S.K. announced y'day its full-scale participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and - promptly - Pyeongyang's answer followed:

Korean Peninsula in State of War 

(as today's KCNA has been quoted)

S.K.'s Yonhap news agency reported today in the morning following:

 
North Korea said Wednesday it was nullifying the Korean War armistice and warned of an immediate military strike should South Korea attempt to interdict any of its ships, blasting Seoul's participation in a U.S.-led security campaign as a "declaration of war."

The statement, issued by the North's permanent military mission to the joint security area, also said the country can no longer guarantee the safety of South Korean and U.S. military ships and private vessels moving along the western sea border.

"As declared to the world, our revolutionary forces will consider the full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative by the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors as a declaration of war against us," the North Korean military mission said, referring to the South Korean president, in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)...

Related news reports:
☞ Military on High Alert for N. Korean Provocations (K. Times)  

☞ Russia fears N.K. conflict could turn nuclear (Haaretz/Reuters)  

3. Meanwhile N.K.'s recent activities are attracting attention in another troubled region - the Middle East:
Israel, via Yedioth Ahronoth:
☞ The North Korean lesson

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Well, N.K.(i.e. the KJI regime) not only fears the U.S. military (nuclear) power, as you can see the following piece from Asia Times (HK, 5.21):

Pyongyang chokes on sweet capitalism

 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may face a more pernicious challenge than either a "preemptive strike" by the United States or a power grab by generals eager to fill the power vacuum created by his illness.

Think Choco Pie, the thick wafer-like confection, all pastry and cream, served in the Kaesong Industrial Complex as a daily dessert for the 40,000 North Koreans who toil for 100 South Korean companies with factories in the complex.

 
"North Koreans love Choco Pie," said Ha Tae-keung, president of NK Open Radio, which beams two hours of news daily into North Korea from its base in Seoul. "It's an invasion of the stomach."

North Korean workers, and the friends and family members for whom they save their daily treats, may salivate over Choco Pie, but it's giving a severe stomach ache to senior officials fearful of the infiltration of South Korean culture in all corners of their Hermit Kingdom.

Choco Pie - along with other favorite South Korean cakes and candies as well as instant coffee - has come to symbolize the image of the capitalist South as a multi-tentacle beast that may be impossible to digest.

For Kim Jong-il, suffering from diabetes, recovering from a stroke and hoping to survive a few more years while grooming his neophyte youngest son, in his mid-20s, to succeed him, the best way to deal with the Kaesong complex, 60 kilometers north of Seoul and just above the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, may be to spit it out.

It's for this reason, said Ha, that North Korea has precipitously scrapped the agreements under which South Korean companies operate in the complex, built and managed by Hyundai Asan, an offshoot of the sprawling South Korean Hyundai empire.

"He's come to see Kaesong as a burden rather than an asset, and is inclined to shut it down," said Ha.

Kim signaled his strategy in a meeting on April 24 at which he congratulated those responsible for developing and launching the long-range Taepodong -2 missile on April 5, a mission that North Korea still insists was to put a satellite into orbit.

The danger of South Korean cultural infiltration apparently trumps the need for the hard currency that the North makes from the South in the form of pay for the workers and rent for the land occupied by South Korean factories. Or, as Ha put it, "It's money versus regime stability."

It's partly for this reason, South Korean media are reporting, that Kim ordered the execution last year of Choe Sung-chol, the senior official responsible for dealing with South Korea's Unification Ministry, Hyundai Asan and South Korean companies with factories in the Kaesong complex.

The 53-year-old Choe vanished from his post as chief vice director of the Unification Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party at about the time that Lee Myung-bak was inaugurated in February 2008 as president of South Korea.

When it became apparent that Lee would not shower the North with several hundred thousand tons of food and fertilizer each year, as had the two presidents who preceded him, the North began branding him "a traitor" and “lackey” of the United States.

North Korea, elevating the rhetoric after the United Nations Security Council condemned the launch of the Taepodong, has indicated it's preparing for another nuclear test similar to its first such test on October 9, 2006.

South Koreans believe Choe may have been an easy target for bribery, at least judging by the ease with which company managers are accustomed to paying off North Korean officials they come in contact with in the Kaesong complex.

"Now North Korea is afraid the North Korean workers are corrupted," said Paik Sung-joo, director of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

The taste of Choco Pie, moreover, apparently is spreading like a poison that is contaminating the system. Since businesses in the complex began serving the snack four years ago “to boost morale", said Chosun Ilbo, the South's biggest-selling newspaper, it's had “explosive popularity among workers”.

A staffer in the complex estimated that 150,000 Choco Pies "are probably consumed each day at the industrial complex", according to Chosun Ilbo, and Orion, the South Korean manufacturer, ships between 10,000 and 20,000 boxes of Choco Pies each day.

Most disturbing, however, is the sale of Choco Pies on black markets near Pyongyang. Since failing to stop the flow of Choco Pies from Kaesong, one South Korean official was quoted as saying authorities "are now turning a blind eye".

Choco Pies, the official told Chosun Ilbo, are "sweet symbols of capitalism".

Choe, relegated to work on a chicken farm after his disappearance as a senior official, suffered the same fate as thousands of North Korean officials who have fallen out of favor over the years, including a number of generals for failing to conquer the South in the Korean War of the early 1950s and an agricultural minister held responsible for the massive famine that killed two million people in the mid- and late-1990s.

But encouraging favorable sentiment toward South Korea in the North, as reported in South Korea, was not Choe's offense. Rather, he failed to anticipate and effectively combat the South Korean government's shift from the "Sunshine" policy of reconciliation initiated by Kim Dae-jung during his five years as president from 1998 to 2003 and perpetuated by his left-leaning successor, Roh Moo-hyun, president from 2003 to 2008.

When it comes to South Korean cultural infiltration, however, North Korea has far more to fear from the entry of goods from China than from the Kaesong complex. South Korean DVDs and CDs, even soft-core porn movies made in the South, are now distributed surreptitiously throughout North Korea. Electronic gadgetry, MP3 and MP4 players, TV sets, radios and rice cookers, also shipped via China, are also available for those with the money to pay for them.

"The most important invasion is from China," said Ha Tae Keung of NK Open Radio. "It gets around the whole country."

Much of the traffic in electronic products and food is done surreptitiously with goods sold on the black market, often to members of the North Korean elite. North Korea can do little to stop such trade in view of its dependence on China, its only real ally.

South Korea's Trade-Investment Promotion Agency reported that North Korean trade last year reached US$3.8 billion, not including trade via sea with South Korea. That figure represents a jump of nearly 30% in trade with China, which enjoys a hugely favorable balance. China last year imported $750 million in North Korean products while exporting products worth $2 billion to North Korea.

While the North's exports are shrinking this year, said the report, "China's influence on the North Korean economy is likely to grow further."

Analysts believe the shrill attacks on South Korea, including demands for a new contract for doing business in the Kaesong complex, are an attempt to blame South Korea when Kim Jong-il finally closes it.

The arrest nearly two months ago of a Hyundai Asan engineer, accused of badmouthing North Korea, suggests this strategy. North Korea has not revealed the charge against him, but he's believed to have flirted with a North Korean waitress to whom he boasted of the good life in the South. The worker is to go on trial some time next month.

"Kim Jong-il wants to blame South Korea,” said Ha Tae Keung. "Choco Pie is aggravating the problem."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KE21Dg01.html

Related:
☞ Invasion of the Choco Pies (TMH, 5.20)

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Today's TOP STORY from KCNA:

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way as requested by its scientists and technicians.

The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology.

The successful nuclear test is greatly inspiring the army and people of the DPRK all out in the 150-day campaign, intensifying the drive for effecting a new revolutionary surge to open the gate to a thriving nation.

The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the region around it with the might of Songun.

While two days ago S. Korea(resp. Roh Moo-hyun's suicide) produced a top story (actually only one among many other..) in the int'l media, today N.K. produced definitely the TOP STORY no. 1 in the int'l media.

For example in Germany: "North Korea Provokes the World" (Berliner Zeitung), "Kim's Nuclear Test Shocks the World" (Der Spiegel) etc..

But finally the N.K.'s nuke test is achieving (until now) only leading headlines in the int'l news, international condemnations(*) and warnings of tougher U.N. sanctions! What a surprise!!^^

* According to a CNN report from Beijing, even the Chinese gov't is reacting very angry about the latest news from Pyeongyang! Xinhua: Chinese gov't resolutely opposes DPRK's nuclear

To be continued..

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"Memorial in Roh Moo-hyun's Honor"

During his (presidential) election campaign in late 2002 Roh promised quite a lot!
- a "labour-friendly" policy
- to improve the human rights in S.K.
- the refusal to support the then planned aggression against Iraq
- to revise the SOFA (status of the USFK)
- to improve the living conditions of the poor/most exploited people
etc, etc..

But from the beginning of his presidency Roh proved that he's just another obidient representative of the ruling (capitalist) class in S.K.!

Nov. 2005: bloody attack against farmers' protest rally in Seoul

- The workers/labor union movement was (partially extreme bloody) oppressed, just like before! Hundreds of trade union activists were imprisoned.
- Tousands of (un-documented) migrant workers were haunted by immigration officers and riot cops, arrested and deported. No small number of migrant workers, threatened by this policy, were forced to commit suicide! ETU-MB and later the MTU became the subject of permanent repression by the "authorities".
- Only few weeks after Roh's inauguration he announced that his gov't is going to support the Iraq War. Later, despite the strong opposition by a majority of the S.K. public, the gov't sent S.K. troops to join the occupation of Iraq.
- The anti-militarist/anti-USFK movement (e.g. in Pyeongtaek/Daechu-ri) has been (partially bloody) suppressed.

May 2006: S.K. army and riot cops terrorizing anti-USFK protesters in Daechu-ri

- During Roh's presidency thousands of tenants were (frequently forcibly) evicted. Thousands of street vendors were (frequently forcibly) expelled and deprived of their basis of existence... etc, etc..

Related article:

☞ Roh Moo-hyun (Guardian, 5.24)

PS: Of course that's not a reason to cheer Roh's suicide!!

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1. Struggle News #1 - part of IMC S.K. and Media Redevelopment Action Radio's project, broadcasting from the Candle Light Media Center in Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea.

Struggle News #1 (5.19) covered the last week of actions and events that took place in South Korea:

2. Tomorrow's struggle day(afternoon/night) in Seoul

* according to 촛불시민연석회의. There you can find some more infos about tomorrow's struggle day dates!

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"Redevelopment" Without Resistance: Mass Eviction!

First of all: Y'day in the morning - once again - seven activists who are resisting the "redevelopment" project in Seoul's Yongsan district were arrested, according to IMC S.K.!

Meanwhile in Seoul's towntown area - between Sejong-no and Dongdaemun/Eulji-ro and Jongno-gu - the destruction of entire residential quarters are in progress without pause!

"Under the city's New Town plan, up to 98,742 homes are expected to be torn down in the year 2010 alone", Korea Herald wrote Feb. 5. This means that tens of thousands of families will be evicted until the end of next year!

But while the resistance in Yongsan is now (more or less) well documented, the fate of many other areas (including their residents) is possibly unknown/unoticed..

For example Samgak-/Suha-dong.
The residential area was located between Eulji-ro and Cheonggyecheon.

2004, November 7, it was a Sunday, at 4 o’clock in the morning about 1.000 criminal gangsters (hired by the construction mafia) as usual backed by large units of the riot cops (unit 1001…), stormed the area. By using massive violence they drove the people, mainly still in their beds, out off their homes. After 13 hours the gangsters left the area and 150 shops, offices, workshops and restaurants were almost complete destroyed (the entire story, incl. many pics, you can read here!).
 

Now, almost five years later, despite massive organized...

...resistance by the residents, Samagak-/Suha-dong is complete abandoned and "ready" for "redevelopment".

Impressions from the area before/during and after the eviction:

MUST SEE ("Hong Gil-dong's.." video about the struggle in Samgak-/Suha-dong):

☞ [철거민 투쟁 다큐] "날마다 전쟁"

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New figures from Germany's domestic intelligence agency show that the number of far-right crimes in Germany increased by 16 percent in 2008. Officials warn of the rise of Black Bloc-style "anarchist"(*) neo-Nazis who actively seek violence at demonstrations. The German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel wrote yesterday following:

German Authorities Warn of Rise of 'Anarchist' Neo-Nazis

Authorities in Germany have warned of a worrying new tendency within the far-right scene -- the rise of violent 'anarchist' neo-Nazis.

* "National Anarchists"(NA) joining a Nazi demo in Berlin, summer 2001. As you can see it's not a new trent, but since some years the "Autonomous Nationalists" - not the NA - became a mass phenomenon.

Heinz Fromm, the president of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warned Tuesday of a "new phenomenon" within the far-right scene. Presenting the agency's 2008 report in Berlin, he said that over the last two years a scene had emerged of 'anarchist' neo-Nazis who dress similarly to the so-called Black Bloc of far-left anarchists and who deliberately seek violence at demonstrations. He put the number of so-called "right-wing anarchists" at between 400 and 500 people.

The report also reveals there were 19,894 far-right crimes reported in Germany in 2008, an increase of almost 16 percent over the previous year. Of those, 1,042 were acts of politically motivated violence, an increase of 6.3 percent over 2007. Most of the other crimes were propaganda offenses.

The number of people with extreme far-right views in Germany is estimated by the agency to be around 30,000 in 2008, a slight decline over 2007, when it was around 31,000. Of that number, around 9,500 are thought to be prepared to use violence. However the number of active neo-Nazis in Germany increased significantly in 2008, from 4,400 to 4,800.

According to the report, membership of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) declined slightly last year, from 7,200 to around 7,000 members. However the role of neo-Nazis within the party has grown, said Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "The neo-Nazi part of the spectrum is gaining greater influence within the NPD," he said. The NPD, which has seats in two state parliaments, officially rejects violence and avoids explicit Nazi references...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,625756,00.html

Related:
☞ Interview: "Neonazis vom Web 2.0" (taz, 5.20)

But also the "ordinary" daily racism in Germany and other EU countries is very alarming as the following example, published last week in The Guardian (UK), is showing:

Roma still face racism

Last month, the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency found that racism and discrimination across the EU is far more widespread than previously thought, with Europe's estimated 12 million Roma, or Gypsy, population particularly affected. Earlier this month it was reported that Roma in Hungary had taken to the streets in self-defence after a wave of attacks led to five of their community being murdered in 10 months. Here, Helene Weiss describes life as a Romany in Hamburg, where her family have lived for 600 years, but still suffer discrimination today:

My name is Helene Weiss. This is my name in Germany and it is the name which is written down in my passport. But my other name is Meuni, which is what my familiy and all my friends call me – family and friends who are Roma or Sinti like me. I grew up bilingually, but the Romany language is my first.

If somebody asked which place in the world I call my home, I would answer: Hamburg. I was born here and have lived here all my life. My ancestors came to this city more than 600 years ago.

Today, I work as an assistant for the Rom und Cinti Union, an organisation that stands up for the rights of the Sinti and Roma people. We advise and support our clients in every day questions, problems with integration and difficult tasks they must sort out with officials. Sometimes we talk to people who are afraid to be deported.

In contrast to this, my everyday life is quite average. In the morning I wake up and head off to my office. In the afternoon I meet my friends and my family. Three times a week I go to school to get my general secondary leaving certificate.

Still, sometimes I feel that people are suspicious of me because of my origins. Some weeks ago I went shopping in the city centre and I suddenly realised that one of the shop assistants had started following me. She observed every step I made. At one point, I turned around and said: 'Excuse me, I am not going to steal anything and I am going to leave your shop now and as fast as I can!' The woman didn’t react, but I could see that she was relieved when she saw me walking away. I have never stolen anything in my entire life and her suspicion still hurts me.

Maybe this is the reason why I don’t like to be called a 'zigan' or Gypsy, because people connect mostly negative stereotypes with this expression. Either 'gypsies' are considered rotten thieves roaming the city or people think about beautiful women, romantic music, adventurous movies and us travelling the country in our mobile homes. Well, yes, we do play great music and I did watch movies about so-called gypsies myself. But we are more than just this.

We are people, like everyone else who is living here, leading a normal live. And we definitely aren’t criminals that don’t care about their children. I don’t know anybody who lives in a mobile home. My friends all live in apartments.

There is one memory I still recall when it comes to discrimination. Four years ago, when my grandmother turned 90, she became very ill and we took her to hospital. She had to share her room with another old German lady. As we unpacked my grandmother’s things, this woman said: 'Hitler must have forgotten to put all of you up against a wall and shoot!' I was terrified. How could she say this? My father tried to talk to the doctor to make him move my grandmother to another room, but the only thing he said was: 'I don’t have time to discuss this right now.' So we took her home at once. A few days later she died.

I was close to tears when I heard what this woman said. I mean, during National Socialism the Nazis deported my grandmother and her whole family to a concentration camp. She was a young woman then. The Nazis abused her and my grandfather and even let their son, who suffered from an infection, die in front of her eyes. I grew up with her horrible memories of those days. I would find her sitting at home crying so many times. Even towards the end of her life, she knew she wouldn’t be able to die peacefully.

When I was about eight years old, I went to a new secondary school. It was a terrible experience. One morning, I entered the classroom and suddenly all the other children started shouting, calling me a 'dirty Gypsy'. I ran home and asked: 'Why do they call me a dirty Gypsy, daddy?' I never was a scruffy person – and I spoke German fluently. Maybe the children didn’t know how cruel they were being to me. I sometimes wonder whether they just repeated what they heard from their parents at home.

As I turned older, the situation got worse. I only had one friend in my class, an African-American girl. We did everything together, maybe because we suffered from a similar problem. We went to the canteen to have lunch and sometimes we would hang out together. My other classmates ignored us. Even the teacher didn’t do much to support me. One afternoon, my brother was beaten up after class. I simply didn’t want to go back to this place. Finally, we were moved to a special school – when I was fourteen.

Since then, I have somehow made it through life. I feel much more accepted now than I felt when I was a child. But I am grown up now and I know how to defend myself.

I don’t want to give the impression that I face racism every day. Neither am I afraid whenever I walk down the street. But the moments I have described, they make me wonder a lot whether I, as a Sinti woman, will ever be totally accepted. I hope that one day I will.

But then again, recently when we wanted to move office, we couldn't find anything. Everybody we called said: 'We will get back to you soon'. And, of course, they never called again. I started wondering: 'Are they not calling back because we are Sinti and Roma, because they don’t want us to rent their office?' To me, the answer is quite obvious.

http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=1073&catID=9