CINA

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For more informations/latest news please check out:

☞ The 13th Seoul Human Rights Film Festival (in Korean and English)

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A few days ago Amnesty International(ai) released its annual World Report.
Here's the summary about the current human right situation in S. Korea:

Riot police used excessive force when dispersing largely peaceful protesters...

Large numbers of irregular migrants were deported amid reports of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment during arrest...

There was heightened concern about freedoms of expression, assembly and association of protesters, unionists and journalists...

The S. Korea report (by ai) you can read here!

Related:
☞ Amnesty Sees S. Korea’s Human Rights Backpedaling (K. Times, 6.02)

☞ 국제앰네스티, 2009년 연례보고서에서 한국 이주노동자 문제 지적 (MTU, 6.03)

☞ 120 SNU Professors Call for More Democracy (K. Times, 6.03)

☞ Police ban assemblies of Lee administration’s critics (Hankyoreh, 6.04)

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Almost twenty years after the collapse - forced by the "PL"A - of the democratic student movement/revolt in Beijing The Guardian (UK, 5.20) published following interesting report about the transformation process in China's "Communist" Party:

The Communist Party's Quiet Revolution

World's largest political party has consolidated its iron grip by transforming itself and its relationship with the Chinese public

Jerry, a bright undergraduate, has been trying to join for three years. Hope, pursuing a philosophy doctorate, dreams of changing society. Tina just wanted a job.

These young, well-educated, cosmopolitan women are the new face of the Communist party: an institution popularly regarded abroad as ageing, male and moribund.

It's become commonplace to contrast China's economic revolution with its lack of democratic progress. Since the bloody suppression of 1989's student protests, political reform appears to have stalled.

Last week, in posthumously released secret memoirs, Zhao Ziyang – the reformist leader ousted due to that movement – warned that China must move towards western-style democracy.

But the party's number two, Wu Bangguo, ruled that out this spring. Censorship is increasingly sophisticated. A groundbreaking intellectual call for reforms, Charter 08, gained thousands of signatures and was quashed; five months on, one of its authors, Liu Xiaobo, remains in detention. Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer, gave a detailed account of torture by the authorities. Now he has simply disappeared.

But behind this apparent stasis lies a more complex tale: of an evolving party that has consolidated its iron grip precisely by transforming itself and its relationship with the public.

With more than 74 million members – up from 50 million in the early 1990s – it is the largest political party in the world. There are millionaire members, branches in Wal-Marts and plans to open a branch on the first Chinese space station. Senior cadres remain overwhelmingly male, but there is now a compulsory retirement age and even (very low) quotas for women.

In recent years, it has concentrated on targeting the best and brightest. The party has largely transformed itself "from a mass organisation designed for mass mobilisation and ideological campaigns, into a technocratic leadership corps", said Professor Jeremy Paltiel of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Paltiel, an expert on party membership, said that in the 1980s recruits were looked down on by peers as careerists and probably second-rate students.

Some elite students still consider the party – with its attendant political meetings – boring and irrelevant. But between 30% and 50% apply to join the party. An approval rate of about 5% reinforces the desirability of membership: recruiters seek those with top grades, leadership potential and youthful idealism – albeit feigned in some cases.

To rise through the governmental hierarchy, membership is a must.

But it shines out for other employers, too. The draw was not your ideological purity, explained Tina; more the evidence of your accomplishments.

"To be honest I'm a bit embarrassed," the graceful 24-year-old admitted with a blush, twining a long strand of hair around her finger.

"Other people joined because they wanted to help the party and country … My main reason was because it was very hard to find a job."

Spin and polling

Outwardly, the party remains rigidly ideological; members are drilled in Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three Represents and current president Hu Jintao's Scientific Development Outlook. Hu has, in fact, stepped up political education – perhaps because of an evident disconnect: to many, what the party really stands for is personal advancement, social stability and national unity.

"There's a difference between believing in Marxism and being a party member," one said drily.

For the last two decades, the party's mission had been to "maintain the brand but change the content", suggested Anne-Marie Brady, associate professor of political science at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Experts have been called in to study political change overseas, culling lessons from New Labour and French and German socialists – and using Gorbachev's reforms as an example of what not to do.

"That learning from the west has been brought back into China and used to maintain and enhance the strength of the current political system," Brady said.

The government has modernised its techniques as well as its cadres.

It is now an assiduous user of opinion polling and sophisticated spin techniques, showing greater responsiveness to public opinion. Unlike its models overseas, it does not require votes: but it needs at least tacit support.

Allowing people more space to challenge the status quo may, in fact, help to perpetuate the system, providing outlets for frustration and dissent – as long as there are no attempts to organise independently; what the party fears most are alternative power structures.

When public outrage becomes widespread and dangerous – over tainted baby milk, for example – authorities often seek to assuage it before stamping it out. Bloggers may be allowed to have their say before the shutters come down. Official heads may roll. New initiatives may be announced.

The demands of Chinese citizens have carved out greater – albeit variable – space to criticise lower-ranking officials or hold them to account, engage in public affairs, debate ideas and take part in an emerging civil society.

Yet lawyers, activists and dissident intellectuals are routinely harassed and threatened. Even parents who lost their children in the Sichuan earthquake have been bullied and detained for protesting about shoddily built schools.

"If [people] don't touch the line, they can do a lot of things. But there is a line there," said Hope.

She's a softly spoken, thoughtful young woman, who chooses to meet in an artsy cafe near one of the country's top universities, where as many as two-thirds of her classmates are party members.

Like others, she asks to be identified only by her English nickname. But she is candid about her initial hesitation when invited to join, and her ultimate decision to do so.

"It's easy to be a critic, but then maybe you can't change society. You can do more inside the system than without," she said.

"Students can see its problems, but still think China can do much better under its leadership. They want to go into the system and maybe make a little change. Maybe some people have an underlying motive: more desire for power. But quite a lot really want to do something to change the country."

For most, she thought, a priority was freedom of information and the rule of law; only some wanted multi-party elections.

"Chinese people don't hope to go the western way – but hope for a powerful government to restore social justice," she suggested.

Using the D-word

It is hard to generalise about what a diverse nation of 1.3 billion people without freedom of expression really think; and impossible to know what they might believe without government censorship and propaganda.

But the Asian Barometer study of political attitudes, the most comprehensive to date, came up with some surprising findings. In mainland China, 53.8% believed a democratic system was preferable.

Then came the kicker. Asked how democratic it is now, on a scale of one to 10, the Chinese placed their nation at 7.22 – third in Asia and well ahead of Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.

"Chinese political culture makes people understand democracy in a different way, and this gives the regime much manipulating space," concluded Dr Tianjin Shi.

To the confusion of some western observers, Hu's speech to the last party congress used the D-word more than 60 times.

"They would like to talk about democracy with Chinese characteristics. My problem is that no one really can offer a definition of what that is," said Dr Yawei Liu of the Carter Centre's China Programme, which works with Chinese officials to improve elections and civic education.

"If you look at civic activism, what's taking place in cyberspace and what's going on in 600,000 villages in China [with grassroots elections] they all seem to indicate there's still a push from the top and most importantly from the bottom to expand political reform … The problem is how grassroots efforts could be elevated to a higher level and whether the leadership has the wisdom and courage to move forward with an agenda."

Since the mushrooming and then suppression of the Tiananmen democracy protests amid a split between reformists and conservatives, China's leaders have concluded that cracks at the top can only lead to disaster.

Maintaining consensus – at least in public – has been central to their operation. If anyone is pushing for major reform, it is not evident.

Hundreds of millions in China already go to the polls to choose low-level representatives. But efforts to promote and expand village elections – widely lauded in the 1990s – appear to have stalled.

Recent experiments, such as the use of deliberative democracy in setting budgets and awarding a greater say in the selection of local party secretaries, offer clues to possible routes towards or alternatives to a multi-party system. Yet so far, they stand alone.

Optimists suggest that economic rights lead inevitably to greater hunger for political freedom. But others fear that capitalism has created vested interests that entrench the system.

Professor Sun Liping, a sociologist at Tsinghua University – and the doctoral supervisor of vice-president and heir apparent Xi Jinping – warned earlier this year that China's greatest danger was not social instability, as authorities say, but instead "social decay", with rising inequality and alienation.

"The fundamental cause … is the marriage between political power and capitalism," he wrote.

"The two have joined hands in China … We thought power would be constrained in a market economy. But we have now seen that power has acquired higher value and greater space for exertion."

If you can't beat 'em

"The economy is improving, society is improving but there is no improvement in elections," complained Yao Lifa. He could be the mirror image of Tina and Hope: a 50-year-old, largely self-educated man from the provinces who tried to beat 'em, not join 'em.

He began competing for a seat in his local people's congress in Hubei in 1987, when the election law was first promulgated. After 12 years of harassment and dogged campaigning as an independent candidate, he won. Later he was turfed out again. He has been detained on "at least" 10 occasions, often for promoting voting rights.

The elections are fake, he argues, because the system can't tolerate genuine democratic contests.

"The law only states that people have the right to vote; there are no rules to protect this right. When your right to vote is harmed, you can't even set up a case in the court," he said.

"But there is no reason to say western democracy does not fit China. Chinese authorities say people's education level is too low and our economy is still not developed. But how was the economic and educational situation in the west hundreds of years ago?"

How many compatriots share his views is another matter.

People in China complain bitterly about official corruption, inefficiency and brutality. But – as the government reminds them – multi-party elections do not guarantee good governance or stability. After decades of turmoil, many seem willing to settle for a quiet life and economic wellbeing – at least for now. There's little sign that the current economic downturn is leading to widespread social unrest – still less open opposition to the government.

"Basically, I think they're doing a very good job," Tina said earnestly.

"China's so big, but it's not wealthy. The leadership have helped it develop fast. I looked at the G20 meeting in London and felt kind of proud of the government; foreign countries really hope that China can help.

"Maybe other people think oh, China, there's no freedom. But it's not easy to make everything perfect."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/china-changing-communist-party

Related article:
☞ Tradition statt Revolte (taz, 6.02)

☞ Forget Tiananmen, thus spake Confucius (A. Times, 6.03)

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Yeah, the party goes on!
Since some days int'l experts are assuming that N.K. is preparing for another ICBM test: North Korea May Launch Ballistic Missile (K. Times, 6.01)

Meanwhile the nuclear expert Sigfried Hecker (co-director of the Center for Int'l Security and Cooperation, Stanford Univ.) believes that N.K. could go ahead with another nuclear test... (*)

Well, no problem! Because: "US Army can fight N. Korea if necessary" (^^)

So what? Already one week ago KPA announced "We're ready for the battle!" (^^)

Related articles:
☞ 'Good discussion' on tougher North Korea sanctions (Haaretz, 5.29)

☞ DPRK F.M. Clarifies Its Stand on UNSC's Increasing Threat (KCNA, 5.29)  

☞ North Korea threatens action if UN punishes it (Y. Ahronoth, 5.29)

Meanwhile the ('special') relationship, resp. its possible future, between Beijing and Pyeongyang is attracting more and more attention in the int'l media:
☞ Beijing weighs its options (Asia Times, 5.28)

☞ North Korea's nuclear test puts China in a tight spot (Guardian, 5.29)  

☞ China may test N.K. sway after nuclear test (K. Herald, 5.30)

☞ Interview with Prof Sun Zhe/清華大學 (Spiegel, 6.01)

☞ China anger with North Korea echoes in the press (Reuters, 6.02)

* My 'proposal' for the Dear Leader: "Please combine the next ICBM test with the likely planned nuclear test(i.e. launch a ICBM + nuclear warhead)!"
And ALL your problems(incl. your health problems!!) will be solved very soon!^^

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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)