5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Our much-loved(^^) Chosun Ilbo published today the following (batshit crazy!!) horror story:
N.Korea 'Plotting Biochemical Attack'
North Korea is trying to launch a biochemical attack against the South prior to the G20 Summit in Seoul in November, a conservative activist claimed Thursday citing a North Korean source.
Choi Sung-yong of the group Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea said the North is preparing to send 20 different deadly biochemical weapons attached to balloons and parachutes across the border. He said the campaign is led by Gen. Kim Kyok-sik, who commands the North's frontline fourth corps, at the orders of leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent Kim Jong-un.
Choi said the story came from "an active soldier in the North Korean Army." Kim Kyok-sik was chief of the General Staff of the People's Army before being demoted to his current post and is thought to have masterminded the torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan.
Choi also claimed a number of North Korean mines found south of the border after recent floods were deliberately floated down the Imjin River by Kim Kyok-sik's men at Kim Jong-un's orders.
"The source said the frontline fourth corps is collecting mines from all over North Korea, not only in Hwanghae Province where the fourth corps is located but from as far afield as North Hamgyong Province. It floated the mines down intentionally but blamed it on floods," Choi claimed.
Asked about the claim, a National Intelligence Service spokesman was noncommittal, saying, "It's possible to imagine a number of scenarios, but we can't draw any conclusions at the moment." The Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to comment.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/08/13/2010081300932.html
Anyway, enjoy your weekend!!
Impressions from MTU's second last "Candle-light Culture Festival" against the ongoing crackdown campaign against migrant workers in the name of the next G-20 Summit, staged July 30 in front of Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul:
Nice Idea But - Unfortunately - Moribund!
The "Int'l Cooperation of Environmental Youth" released y'day the following stuff:
Jonathan Lee, a 13 year old youth environmental activist from the United States, is entering the reclusive North on a humanitarian environmental mission – to suggest peace. A bold move, particularly with the strains between the DPRK, it's southern neighbor (South Korea) and the United States. In spite of the danger and warnings, Jonathan is determined to at least try. After all, he has no political agenda. No nefarious motive. He just wants there to be peace for the sake of the children, the innocents in this 60 year conflict.
How does he propose for a peaceful coexistence? Through the creation of a peace forest in the most dangerous part of Korea – the DMZ. What is the DMZ? It is short for “Demilitarized Zone” and is the place where North meets South and South meets North with barbed wires and military personnel. A peace forest in this area would be a stark contract to the surrounding area. But, Jonathan has in mind a “Children's Peace Forest,” one in which chestnut trees would be planted - trees that would not only help the environment, but would also provide food for the North Koreans.
While Jonathan knows many think this is a crazy idea, he feels it's worth a try. After all, he has nothing to lose. Not really. He will be in the North with approval, so there should be no problems with his entry (along with his parents). If his suggestion is met with disapproval, then nothing is lost. But, with the remote chance that the illusive leader of the North should decide to go along with it, then everything can be gained.
The proposed motto of the Children's Peace Forest is as bold as the idea of entering the north to speak to the government – Above politics; Above conflicts; Above borders; Above ideology; It's all about giving hope to people and children around the world.
For more info, incl. J. Lee's (naïve)statement on video, check out:
☞ Hopes to Suggest a Peace Forest in the DMZ
Related article:
☞ Teenager seeks to meet NK leader for 'Peace forest' (K. Times, 8.10)
Thousands of seasonal migrant workers from Asia, most of them from China, Vietnam and Thailand, come to Sweden - the "homeland" of the "social market"/(capitalist) "welfare state"(^^) - each summer to pick wild berries in the north under mainly difficult working conditions.
And since last Friday(8.06) some of them are protesting against what they (and many others) characterize as a kind of slave labour.
"Last Friday night, around 170 Chinese berry pickers sat down on the road to protest," Kerstin Asplund, who is in charge of social services in the northern municipality of Storuman, told the media and added "It's criminal how they're treated, they're treated just like slaves".
The protesters carried out their sit-in after marching 15 kilometres, carrying signs reading "SOS" and "Help," near the wooded area where they had been forced to pick berries, not far from the Arctic Circle.
The demonstrators are part of a group of hundreds of Asian berry-pickers who arrived in Sweden's isolated northern region in recent days.
Last Friday's Stockholm News published the following short report:
Chinese berry-pickers in protest march
Berry-pickers who recently arrived to north-Sweden, have started a 30 km protest march towards the city Storuman. The berry pickers who come from China, have for some reason not gotten any payments yet from their China-based staffing company.
Around 200 Chinese berry pickers went along in the protest march starting in the village Långsjöby (in Lapland) towards the small city of Storuman. Some of them held up home made placards with the words 'SOS' and 'HELP'.
Volonteers handed out food
Ture Rönnholm, saw the protest marsh passing by just outside his home.
- From what I have heard, they have been cheated in some way. I don't if it is the enlister in China or by the travel agent, says Ture Rönnholm to news tabloid Extressen.
Ture Rönnholm did also volontarily, together with his daughters, hand out food to the protesting berry-pickers. This until today when the local authorities got involved.
After 15 km of protest marching the local municipality arranged a bus transport for them to a village called Stensele. The municipality have arranged so that they can live temporarily in a school where they will have access to showers, toilets and kitchen facilities.
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=5762
Related article:
☞ Hungry migrant workers shoot birds for food (The Local, 8.02)
Last week it has been reported in the S. Korean media that the cops "arrested pro-Pyongyang activists on charges of starting a campaign to remove a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur from a park in Incheon under orders from North Korea"(*).
And the conservative (i.e. reactionary!!) JoongAng Ilbo(editorial, 8.06) got a f*cking great idea how to teach them (and possibly all the other anti-LMB activists??) a lesson: "It would be better if people like them could be deported to the North Korea they like so much, rather than sending them to prison at the cost of taxpayers’ money."
* For more please "enjoy":
☞ Rallies over MacArthur statue were North plot (JoongAng Ilbo, 8.06)
Related stuff:
☞ Demonstration against MacArthur’s statue at Inchon (KIO, 2005.7.17)
During the past days the S.Korean media addressed the ongoing/increasing STATE TERROR - related to the next G-20 Summit in Seoul - against "undesirable minorities", such as migrant workers, poor street vendors, homeless people...
Three days ago the bourgeois Korea Times reported the following:
Tight security for G20 Summit to deepen woes for minorities
With 100 days to go before the G20 Summit in Seoul, the National Police Agency said Tuesday more than 400,000 policemen will be mobilized around the event’s main venues to ensure security.
Tight security measures will be taken at all summit-related venues, including conference rooms, hotels and roads through which leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies will pass through, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
But human rights advocates warn that such measures put many underprivileged people and immigrants at risk of losing their space to make a living, planting a seed of social unrest.
“The most-affected people are street vendors, the homeless and migrant workers,” said Lee Young, a human rights activist. “The government is risking the well-being of a great number of poor citizens in order to form ideal conditions to host a meeting for a small number of leaders.”
The Ministry of Justice, police and other government offices have teamed up for months to “wipe out” unauthorized street vendors and homeless people spotted around meeting venues in central and southern Seoul.
At the same time, they have launched large-scale crackdowns on unregistered migrant workers nationwide, deporting many confirmed to have lived here with expired visas.
“These actions clearly show that the government views immigrants and poor citizens as people who can challenge the security of the meeting at any time,” Lee said.
To protest the crackdown, unionized migrant workers have issued statements and staged rallies in central Seoul.
During a recent rally in front of Myeongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul, Michel from the Philippines, the chief of the Migrants’ Trade Union, condemned the ongoing crackdown, saying, “The Korean government is using the G20 Summit as an excuse to trouble minorities. We want the government to end their oppressive behavior. End the crackdown!”
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/117_70762.html
Two days ago the "left"-liberal Hankyoreh published the following cartoon:
G20 human rights sweep
A street cleaning car labeled “Successfully Hosting the G20 Summit” sweeps up a street vendor and a migrant worker with its giant whirring brush.
Meanwhile, a police officer, stained with criticism for the weak punishment of a police officer responsible for the torture of innocent civilians, orders the driver, “Clean everything perfectly!”
Related articles:
☞ Human rights abuses behind a G20 smokescreen (Hankyoreh, 8.04)
☞ G20 정상회의 D-100일...떨고 있는 외국인 노동자 (VoP, 8.04)
Neo-fascism/nazism in Mongolia? For insiders(incl. some "antifa"activists) it's not really new but its continuity and increasing influence is - nonetheless - shocking... Just check out the following unpleasant report, published in yesterday's Guardian!
Mongolian neo-Nazis: Anti-Chinese sentiment
fuels rise of ultra-nationalism
Alarm sounds over rise of extreme groups such as Tsagaan Khass who respect Hitler and reject foreign influence
Their right hands rise to black-clad chests and flash out in salute to their nation: "Sieg heil!" They praise Hitler's devotion to ethnic purity.
Mongolian neo-Nazi group the Tsagaan Khas ('White Swastika') salute
on the streets of the capital Ulan Bator
But with their high cheekbones, dark eyes and brown skin, they are hardly the Third Reich's Aryan ideal. A new strain of Nazism has found an unlikely home: Mongolia.
Once again, ultra-nationalists have emerged from an impoverished economy and turned upon outsiders. This time the main targets come from China, the rising power to the south.
Groups such as Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, portray themselves as patriots standing up for ordinary citizens in the face of foreign crime, rampant inequality, political indifference and corruption.
But critics say they scapegoat and attack the innocent. The US state department has warned travellers of increased assaults on inter-racial couples in recent years – including organised violence by ultra-nationalist groups.
Dayar Mongol threatened to shave the heads of women who sleep with Chinese men. Three years ago, the leader of Blue Mongol was convicted of murdering his daughter's boyfriend, reportedly because the young man had studied in China.
Though Tsagaan Khass leaders say they do not support violence, they are self-proclaimed Nazis. "Adolf Hitler was someone we respect. He taught us how to preserve national identity," said the 41-year-old co-founder, who calls himself Big Brother.
"We don't agree with his extremism and starting the second world war. We are against all those killings, but we support his ideology. We support nationalism rather than fascism."
It is, by any standards, an extraordinary choice. Under Hitler, Soviet prisoners of war who appeared Mongolian were singled out for execution. More recently, far-right groups in Europe have attacked Mongolian migrants.
Not all ultra-nationalists use this iconography; and widespread ignorance about the Holocaust and other atrocities may help to explain why some do.
Tsagaan Khass points out that the swastika is an ancient Asian symbol – which is true, but does not explain the group's use of Nazi colours, the Nazi eagle and the Nazi salute; or the large picture of the Führer on Big Brother's cigarette case.
Nor does it seem greatly relevant, given their unabashed admiration for Hitler's racial beliefs.
"We have to make sure that as a nation our blood is pure. That's about our independence," said 23-year-old Battur, pointing out that the population is under three million.
"If we start mixing with Chinese, they will slowly swallow us up. Mongolian society is not very rich. Foreigners come with a lot of money and might start taking our women."
Big Brother acknowledges he discovered such ideas through the nationalist groups that emerged in Russia after the Soviet Union's fall; Mongolia had been a satellite state. But the anti-Chinese tinge is distinct and increasingly popular.
"While most people feel far-right discourse is too extreme, there seems to be a consensus that China is imperialistic, 'evil' and intent on taking Mongolia," said Franck Billé of Cambridge University, who is researching representations of Chinese people in Mongolia.
Hip hop tracks such as Don't Go Too Far, You Chinks by 4 Züg – chorus: "shoot them all, all, all" – have been widely played in bars and clubs. Urban myths abound; some believe Beijing has a secret policy of encouraging men to have sex with Mongolian women.
Yet Tsagaan Khass claims it welcomes law-abiding visitors of all races, and Big Brother can certainly be hospitable.
Enthusiastically shaking hands, he says: "Even though you are a British citizen, you are still Asian, and that makes you very cool."
He says the younger members have taught him to be less extreme and the group appears to be reshaping itself – expelling "criminal elements" and insisting on a good education as a prerequisite for membership. One of the leaders is an interior designer.
But critics fear ultra-nationalists are simply becoming more sophisticated and, quietly, more powerful. Tsagaan Khass say it "works closely" with other organisations and is now discussing a merger.
"Some people are in complete denial … [but] we can no longer deny this is a problem," said Anaraa Nyamdorj, of Mongolia's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre.
The US state department has noted increased reports of xenophobic attacks since the spring. The UN country review cites a recent vicious assault on three young transgender women. When one of the victims publicly blamed an ultra-nationalist group – not Tsagaan Khass – death threats quickly followed.
"They are getting more support from the public," added Enkhjargal Davaasuren, director of the National Centre Against Violence, who fears that ultra-nationalists are growing more confident and victims too scared to come forward. She pointed to a YouTube video posted last year, showing a man roughly shaving a woman's long hair. The victim's face is buried in her hands, but her hunched body reeks of fear.
Others in Ulan Bator suggest the movement is waning and suspect the groups' menacing stance and claims of 3,000 members are bluster. Billé thinks there is "a lot of posturing".
"We have heard of instances [of violence]. They are not necessarily all right or all wrong," said Javkhlan, a Tsagaan Khass leader. But the group is simply a "law enforcement" body, he maintained: "We do checks; we go to hotels and restaurants to make sure Mongolian girls don't do prostitution and foreigners don't break the laws.
"We don't go through and beat the shit out of everyone. We check our information and make sure it's true."
They rely on police and media pressure to reform such businesses, he added. And if that failed? "We try to avoid using power," he said. "That would be our very last resort."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/mongolia-far-right
Mongolian fascist propaganda, by M.Y.A. ('Mongolian National Group')
Related articles:
☞ The Neo-Nazis of Mongolia... (Time, 2009.7.27)
☞ The Naivety of Mongolia's Nazis (UB Post, 2008.12.04)
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