공지사항
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- '노란봉투'캠페인/국제연대..
- no chr.!
24개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Today's (beautiful) impressions from Gangjeong after 'Sanba', the 16th (devastating!!) typhoon(*) hit Jeju Island (photographed by Jo Seong-bong):
* Related reports:
☞ One dead as Typhoon Sanba slams southern S. Korea (Yonhap, 9.17)
☞ Typhoon Sanba pounds southern regions (K. Herald, 9.17)
Short before last year's Chuseok(2011.9.11~13) we got the order to leave "Cafe Mari"(occupied/squatted since beginning of June 2011 and the 'HQ' of the "Myeong-dong Tenants' Struggle Committee Against Forced Eviction", supported by "MDLF" and many other people).
Our 'HQ' 2011.9.08:
The same place, only 24 hours later:
The related report you can check out here!
Here some reports/impressions from the following days(2011.9.10~13):
☞ [9.09] "Happy Chuseok!!"
☞ [9.09] Last night at our new struggle place
☞ We got the eviction order for our new sit-in struggle tent
☞ The "final version"(^^) of our struggle tent
Since Prince Kim Jong-eun took over the power in Pyeongyang about 9 month ago, almost everyone (interested in/related to NK affairs) is expecting economic reforms. Some are expecting even significant reforms...
But a few of the reliable NK experts are more sceptical and in my opinion they're plain realists.
Like L. A. Petrov (lecturer in Korean studies at the University of Sydney)... Some weeks ago he wrote the following in Asia Times(HK, 8.04): "North Korea as we know it cannot be reformed. The problem is that the state is a hostage of its own history. So many lies and horrible crimes have been perpetrated during the 65 years of tyranny that the youngest of the Kims cannot open up the country without betraying his predecessors or jeopardizing the foundations of his own rule. Any attempt to reform the system will lead to a legitimacy crisis..."
Anyway, here's a selection of related articles/analyses, recently published in the S. Korean and int'l press:
☞ Kim Jong-eun comes of age... (Asia Times, 8.04)
☞ North Korea’s reform measures take shape (K. Herald, 8.09)
☞ N. Korea virtually ditched planned economy, state rationing (Yonhap, 8.09)
☞ N.Korea Praises Vietnamese, Chinese Reforms (Chosun Ilbo, 8.10)
☞ Economic reforms appear under way in North Korea (Hankyoreh, 8.10)
☞ North Korean leader, military waging ‘money war’ (K. Times, 8.14)
☞ Leadership shake-up adds to signs of change in N.K. (K. Herald, 8.22)
☞ Kim Jong-un Inherits Father's Taste for Bling (Chosun Ilbo, 8.22)
☞ Kim Jong Un Is No Reformer (Foreign Policy, 8.21)
☞ June 28th Policy: It's Regime Security, Stupid (DailyNK, 8.28)
☞ Fearing a Repeat of the Great Expropriation (DailyNK, 9.04)
☞ N.Korea to Let Businesses Keep 70% of Profits (Chosun Ilbo, 9.05)
☞ North Korea’s reluctance to change (Hankyoreh, 9.12)
No comment!!
Related report:
☞ Recent Testimony from Workers at Zhengzhou Foxconn (ChinaLaborWatch, 9.11)
Well, it seems that the Unified "Progressive" Party(UPP) is in the final stages...
A few days ago(9.07) DailyNK reported the following:
Kang Declares Death of UPP "Unavoidable"
Kang Ki-kab, the sitting president of the beleaguered United Progressive Party (UPP), has declared the break-up of the party to be unavoidable.
Kang, who went on hunger strike on the 3rd in a last bid to inspire reform and prevent the UPP’s complete disintegration, told a press conference at the National Assembly today, “I had hoped to create a miracle by giving up everything, even salt water, but the miracle didn’t happen and the time to extinguish my last hope has come.”
“I went from emergency reform committee chairman to party president, but I could not cleanse the UPP of its shameful mistakes, nor could I stop it from breaking up,” he went on, adding, “The breakup of the party is now inevitable.”
Lee Jeong-mi, a spokesperson for the UPP, told reporters, “Just now lawmaker Lee Sang-kyu, supreme council member Yoo Sun-hee and former policy head Lee Ui-yeop came to President Kang to discuss things, but they did not put forward a way to resolve the issue and simply apologized. The president has declared the breakup of the party, so the reformist group will proceed with that process.”
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00600&num=9768
Related articles - alas only - by the S. Korean bourgeois press:
☞ Kang calls it quits over UPP troubles (JoongAng Ilbo, 9.11)
☞ Leader of embattled progressive party steps down (Yonhap, 9.10)
☞ UPP expels four lawmakers (Korea Times, 9.07)
A record number of 10,000 delegates from more than 170 countries will participate in the 2012 World Conservation Congress that kicks off its 10-day run on Jeju Island on Thursday... Korea Times wrote five days ago(9.05).
But - thanks(^^) to the S. Korean Ministry of "Justice"(on behalf of the National Intelligence Service) and its Immigration(resp. Deportation!!) Service - not everyone was/is welcome...
Today's Hankyoreh reported the following:
Japanese activist given no grounds for denial of entry to Korea
A letter was sent to the Hankyoreh on September 9 by Takahasi Toshio, Secretary General of the Anti-US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma Group, who was refused entry by authorities at Incheon International Airport as he attempted to attend the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju Island. Takahasi harshly criticized the Korean government by saying, “the refusal of entry is a violation of human rights and the Korean government should be ashamed of itself.
Takahashi left Osaka airport on the morning of Sept. 5 and arrived at Incheon International Airport at 2:45pm. The Secretary General had been invited by Rep. Jang Hana of the Democratic United Party and was to speak at one of the symposiums of the conference under the theme, "Environmental Problems of American Military Bases in North Asia."
However, as he presented his passport at the airport, the officer made a gesture of hesitation and had him escorted to the immigration office at the airport. There, his passport was confiscated and his fingerprints were taken. At around 3:25 an immigration officer notified him of the following, "You are denied entry to Korea. I do not know the reason why. I have been notified by the Ministry of Justice that you must return to your country this afternoon." Takahashi asked that the notification and the reason for the rejection be provided to him in written form but the officer responded that such a system did not exist in Korea. The Secretary General had to take the first plane out to Fukuoka.
Takahashi said that he had traveled to Korea "thirteen times and this is the first time that something like this has happened." He suspects that he has been rejected entry because he participated in February of this year in a protest with the people of Gangjeong Village against the construction of a naval base there. "I believe that the Korean government is afraid that the human rights violations in Gangjeong Village will be exposed internationally," said Takahashi.
Another Japanese national, Umisedo Yutaka, representative of Japanese Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, was also refused entry with Takahashi. The Ministry of Justice commented that it "keeps a list of foreigners who could be dangerous to the security or go against national interest." The ministry failed to say how or on what grounds this list is compiled.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/550957.html
For more info please read:
☞ Gov't Denies Entry of Int'l Environmental Activists (Kyunghyang Shinmun, 9.07)
☞ Environmentalists Stifled in Jeju (FPIF, 9.07)
☞ Letter of protest to S. Korean Government (Okinawa Outreach, 9.06)
☞ Activists cry foul over blocked access to WCC (K. Herald, 9.06)
Impressions (photographs by Jang Seong-ryol) from last Friday's (9.07) "Plaza of Hope"(the main aim of the demo and culture festival: 'Let's unite our struggle to abolish irregular employments!') in Bucheon, a city between Incheon and Seoul:
Well, it seems that the entire S. Korean society is infected with the "Gangnam Style Pyrexia", incl. KCTU!! But the labor and resistance movements already created several alternative versions, called "Struggle/Workers' Style"(here you can listen to one example):
Source of the pics: Rchert Yoon
Related articles:
☞ 투쟁사업장 공동투쟁단, “우린 노동스타일” (NewsCham, 9.05)
☞ 민주노총 총파업, 충북노동자 일 손 멈추고 거리로 (MediaCC, 8.30)
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