CINA

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First of all: today's MTU rally in front of Seoul's Immigration Office in Mok-dong was joined by about 300 activists (more about it likely tomorrow)!!

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..supported by:

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A new opinion poll conducted by Hankyoreh (12.01) showed that the conservative presidential frontrunner Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party is still "enjoying" a high approval rating of 40.2 percent, followed by independent (extreme conservative, or better said reactionary) Lee Hoi-chang at 19.2 percent and Chung Dong-young of the liberal United New Democratic Party at 14.6 percent.. The "progressive" candidat Kwon Young-ghil (Democratic Labor Party) could get 2.7 percent..

 
Last week (11.29) Asia Times (HK) published following article about the latest developments in the S. Korean election campaign:

Korea's choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans
 

Caravans of limousines and sound trucks are careening through the streets of the capital and cities and towns throughout the country blaring out the virtues of a dozen candidates for president. Schoolgirls form colorful choruses on the fringes of rallies, shouting slogans and singing campaign songs, Buddhist monks bang on wooden drums, and television comedians cavort and joke on portable stages as the candidates themselves dance along to the rhythm of the moment.

It's an orgy of democracy in action that won't stop until December 19 when voters decide on the candidate to succeed President Roh Moo-hyun, who can't run for a second five-year term under the constitution promulgated in June 1987 after decades of near-dictatorial rule. The election is significant as a test of the popularity of a left-leaning leadership that has relentlessly pursued reconciliation with North Korea ever since Roh's predecessor, the firebrand Kim Dae-jung, won by an eyelash in December 1997 at the height of the economic crisis that forced South Korea to beg the International Monetary Fund for a US$58 billion bailout plan.

Against a backdrop of campaign debate over the economy and North Korea, however, the issue of corruption hangs over the campaign as a glowering reminder of the forces behind Korea's rise as an economic power and their influence over every corner of society.

On the same day that the candidates formally opened their campaigns, Roh had to deny having accepted any bribes while promising not to veto a bill calling for investigation of Samsung companies through which the group's former lawyer accuses top executives of channeling slush funds for bribes. Meanwhile, Lee Myung-bak, the front-running conservative who calls Roh a "leftist" and blames him for economic ills, waits anxiously as prosecutors investigate a jailed businessman who says that Lee was linked to investment funds implicated in bribery and embezzlement.

Accustomed though Koreans may be to allegations of bribery in high places, the coincidence of campaigning and investigations definitely adds a fission of excitement that might otherwise be missing both in the legal cases and on the campaign trail. The question is whether the investigations will have some unforeseen effect on an election in which the winner will be lucky to get 40% of the votes.

"All eyes are on the case of Kim Kyoung-joon, the investment fund manager who was extradited from the US to face fraud and embezzlement charges in Korea," writes conservative lawyer Kim Sang-chul. "The fear is that the investigation may determine the outcome of the election. The essential issue in this year's presidential election is whether the leftist political power will come to an end or continue in power."

The worst nightmare of conservatives is that Chung Dong-young, the candidate of the United New Democratic Party, with a popularity rating of less than 20%, will zoom up in the polls while conservative votes that would have gone to Lee Myung-bak, the candidate of the Grand National Party (GNP), drift over to Lee Hoi-chang, the losing GNP candidate in the 1997 and 2002 elections, now running as an independent.

Chung, a former TV anchorman who served as Roh's unification minister, is dedicating his campaign in part to his record in working for North-South Korean rapprochement and his pledge to follow through on wide-ranging agreements reached between Roh and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il at their summit in Pyongyang in October.

That message, however, has only limited appeal. Support for North-South rapprochement was not enough to stop the factional infighting that tore apart the Uri Party that lofted Roh to the presidency five years ago. Chung's United New Democratic Party is a hastily contrived organization, formed just a few months ago from quarreling elements of the Uri Party as well as the remnants of Kim Dae-jung's old Millennium Democratic Party. Its sole purpose was to be able to field a single candidate to oppose Lee Myung-bak (M B Lee), whose popularity in the polls appeared unbeatable.

A resurgence of conservatism, however, is working against M B Lee at a time when he most needs loyalist support to keep his candidacy from eroding during the investigation of his links to suspect investment funds.

The independent Lee Hoi-chang (H C Lee), besides counting on a record for integrity as a former supreme court justice, is playing on right-wing sentiment, campaigning as a "true conservative" with a "clean record". H C Lee, still well behind M B Lee in the polls, has no trouble blaming North Korea's nuclear program on "the ambiguous stance" of the current government, that he accuses of having coddled North Korea's nuclear ambitions by its willingness to compromise. H C Lee's conservative appeal has forced M B Lee and the GNP to pull back from what had appeared as a carefully moderate view on North Korea.

The GNP has had to mute its advocacy of a "middle way" in dealing with North Korea, preferring not to offend deeply conservative members to whom H C Lee still offers the best hope, despite his two previous losing runs at the presidency. Having offered conditional support for moves toward reconciliation, M B Lee now says he doesn't exactly support the outlook of his own party on North Korea and will demand North Korea give up its nuclear weapons program as a prerequisite for aid, but he prefers to talk mostly about economic reform.

Following both these conservatives as they campaign through this frantically capitalist capital, one might get the impression that South Korea is in the midst of a severe economic slump rather than growing economically at a rate of several percent a year. Both of them promise economic reforms that they say will elevate employment among young people angered over the difficulties of finding jobs commensurate with their education levels, and both say the government is at fault for socialist policies that discouraged the business groups or chaebol that form the backbone of the Korean economy.

M B Lee, on the basis of his incredible rise as a young man to the chairmanship of Hyundai Engineering and Construction in the 1970s, is more far more specific than H C Lee about what he will do. At the heart of his economic program lies what he sees as the need to loosen restraints that keep the chaebol from controlling banks or holding more than limited stakes in other companies in their groups.

The scandals surrounding both the Samsung group and his own financial dealings, however, may curb any appetite for a reversal of government policies that many critics believe give the chaebol overweening power to the detriment of small and medium enterprise, not to mention millions of people on corporate payrolls.

M B Lee's supporters shrug off charges of his alleged financial misdeeds. A common refrain is that "they won't make any difference" to voters. People who offer that type of comment are quick to add, however, that "no one knows what will happen".

The Samsung case has yet to touch any of the candidates directly but fosters anti-chaebol sentiment. "The business community is worried," says a government finance official. "This is kind of a pity for us, but we think we will get over this."

While conservatives are mired in explaining away the scandals, Chung has no trouble stressing the need to "move forward" and build on the record of reconciliation with North Korea. His campaign slogan, "Happy Family", suggests an aversion to the power of the chaebol that lord it over the economy.

At one rally, enthusiasts were seen holding placards saying "Free Hugs", as Chung hugged a succession of middle-aged women who rose to join him on stage. He might have been saying Koreans should embrace North Korea too while rejecting the angry talk of the conservatives who still reign supreme in Korean society.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK29Dg01.html

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STATE TERROR AGAINST MTU!!

Y'day (12.01) Znet published following article, written by Jamie D. (TwoKoreas Blog, for more solidarity.., please see below the article):

Reckless inequality: Dramatic arrests of Migrant Trade Union leadership highlight South Korea’s failed labour and migration policies

Entire MTU leadership arrested

 
On Tuesday, November 27th, the entire executive of South Korea’s Migrant Trade Union was arrested by immigration officials in three co-coordinated morning actions targeting these migrants at their places of work and residence.

 
The MTU is a courageous union of undocumented migrant workers, supported by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) that has been active for three years in advocating for migrant workers rights. In recent months they had held a mass memorial service for migrants that had died in Korea, whether on the job or off. They also won a precedent-setting case at the Seoul High court which had ruled that the government must accept the legal registration of the Migrant Trade Union, something which the government failed to do, preferring instead, it seems, to arrest the union’s leadership rather than recognize it legally.

 
At roughly 9:20am on November 27, MTU President Kajiman was leaving home to attend a planned protest in front of the Seoul Immigration Office when more than 10 immigration officers who had been hiding confronted him in front of his house.

 
General Secretary Masum also left his house the morning of the 27th in order to attend the protest in front of the Seoul Immigration Office. As he walked down the street, four 4 large men passed by who were laughing amongst themselves. He originally did not pay attention to them; however, immediately after, roughly 10-20 immigration officers and other people came up from behind and surrounded him.

 
At roughly the same time 4 immigration officers in front of the factory where he worked confronted Vice President Raju. When he demanded to see the officers’ identification cards, they presented him with a detention order and arrested him. Within hours, all three men were sent to a detention center in Cheongju, Northern Choongjeong Province, south of the capital Seoul.

 
In response to the arrests the KCTU has issued a petition for the release of the MTU leadership and have charged that the simultaneous arrest of three MTU leaders is a clearly a targeted attack, part of an intensification of the immigration crackdown against undocumented migrants in South Korea since the beginning of August of this year.

 
During this time more than 20 MTU members and officers of the MTU have been arrested. As with previous crackdowns, the authorities have admitted that the numbers of undocumented workers have not significantly decreased. The number of foreign residents in Korea has recently approached 1 million with some 230,000 said to be undocumented.

 
Failed migration policy reform

 
These numbers have swelled in recent years with the expansion of the Employment Permit System (EPS), an increase in the number of transnational marriages, and new laws governing the migration of ethnic Korean Chinese.

 
The EPS, designed to replace the discredited Industrial Trainee System, remains flawed in protecting migrant’s rights and encourages illegality as it has not been configured to factor in the actual costs of migration to individual workers (in the sense of hidden and illegal recruitment and brokerage costs that persist for migrants from particular regions; short, 1-3 year time horizons for employment that leaves both workers and employers with incentives to overstay the contract; and problems associated with the initial implementation of the EPS which ignored the majority of undocumented migrants in Korea by excluding them from access to permits).

 
Thus, a large portion of the increase in the number of undocumented year by year consists of overstayers rather than new migrants. Rather than correcting the system, the government, largely at the behest of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Government and Home Affairs, has chosen to pursue crackdowns on the undocumented while recruiting newer workers from overseas.

 
As has been documented by South Korea’s own National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) [1], immigration officials routinely ignore legal procedures for dealing with migrant workers such as arranging prior warrants and disclosing their identification, and the immigration detention centers are often ill-equipped to deal with the large number of migrants they arrest in terms of safety, space, and medical care.

 
This message was brought home this past February when a fire at the Yeosu detention center left nine migrants dead and more injured. The fire exposed the shoddy safety conditions of migrant detention centers and the way in which the migrants who survived were treated (deported with slight compensation and before their injuries had fully healed) shocked many in Korean civil society and the public in general, spurring a further investigation by the NHRC.

 
The be fair, the government has attempted to make progress in terms of programs for transnational brides and children of migrant workers and Koreans as part of its anti-discrimination policies. Civil society groups have even participated in this reform and in designing service delivery. However, a number of grassroots organizations have been critical of the ways in which these services have been designed (such as education around traditional manners for foreign brides rather than education in their legal rights and resources in cases of abuse) and delivered (the creation of separate programs for ‘Kosians’ -- children of Korean and other Asians -- rather than anti-discrimination education in schools and workplaces, etc).

 
Fundamentally, however, anti-discrimination policy will remain stalled unless it can deal with the issues of migration policy design and the procedural violation of migrant’s rights inherent in this unjust crackdown and in the Employment Permit System itself.

 
As the national daily Hankyoreh reported earlier this week, progressive reform to immigration legislation does not seem likely in the near future; in fact, the opposite seems the case:

 
- An even greater problem is that earlier this month the government revised the Immigration Law to allow agents to question foreigners based on suspicion alone, without regard to time and place, further angering migrant workers. It is not that one cannot understand wanting to provide in the law some tools to work with while enforcing it, but it is a problem when the law just gives agents wide-ranging authority and includes no stipulations on procedures.

 
A law governing the national police requires that a police officer present identification and identify himself when stopping someone for questioning. Similarly, at the very least, immigration officials need to be required to prove who they are. It was in 2005 that the National Human Rights Commission officially recommended that immigration be given clear conditions, parameters on authority, and procedures for arresting illegal aliens.

 
This failure of immigration law reform has led, as the MTU and other migrant groups have complained, to a near permanent state of immigration crackdown targeting migrants in their places of work, residence, and in public space.

 
One of the reasons why the MTU has been targeted, perhaps, is that they have been the most vocal in creating an organization led by the people most effected by the crackdown -- the undocumented themselves – and, along with Migrant Worker’s Television and a handful of other grassroots groups, have been the most vocal in representing their plight. Their struggles has been recognized in statements by leading Korean unions and NGOs, as well in their interaction with international organizations including Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants, and the International Labour Organization, among others, which have brought attention to the Korean government’s migration policies.

 
However, as has been reported in Znet and elsewhere over the last few years, the MTU and its predecessor, the ETU, have lost the majority of their leadership over the years to targeted crackdowns and government repression.

Reckless inequality

 
If one steps back for a minute, it is easy to see that a lot of the suffering caused immigration law is part of a larger symptom of Korean labour market policies that attempt to create flexible labour markets with little concern for those affected.

 
Since the 1997 crisis, and indeed before, labour law has been used to flexibilize the employment relationship and has contributed to rocketing social inequality that harmful for both politics and the economy, undermining democratic process and making the Korean economy more dependent on exports and financialization to maintain domestic demand.

The ‘participatory government’ of former labour lawyer Roh Moo Hyun has used an incomplete tripartite committee (passing agreements without consent of the largest trade union federation), unpredicted use of damage claims against workers for illegal strikes, and repression of union protests in order to get these reforms past.

 
For what it is worth, the KCTU has attempted to assist workers affected by these policies but has encountered its own difficulties both internally and externally. These contradictions were exposed this summer after the new labour law on irregular work was passed and strikes and sit-ins of a largely female-led force of irregular workers proliferated. In the weeks after the events, the ability of the KCTU to mobilize solidarity did not live up to what was promised and the strikes fizzled and were marginalized.

 
Some attribute the lack of solidarity for grassroots struggles from the KCTU to be a matter of a dominant and nationalist oriented leadership faction that dominates both the KCTU and the Democratic Labour Party, but the reasons are complex and also involve the rise of more bread and butter concerns in some of the dominant sectoral unions of the KCTU whom are affected by neoliberal restructuring, and whose concerns about job security make it difficult to organize across both place and industry.

 
These criticisms aside, the KCTU does remain more mobilized than national confederations in most developed countries even if it remains internally and externally fragmented, and it is important to keep this in mind. Worker’ s protests on November 11 of this year saw pitched battles between police and workers in the downtown streets of Seoul, and extreme government efforts to silence dissent such as roadblocks, water cannon, and brute force. These protests came during the yearly national day of action commemorating the death of labour activist Chun Tae Il, whose suicide during the repressive dictatorship days helped spur the largely female-led democratic trade union movement of the 1970s.

 
On a tragic note, the week before the protests had seen two more worker-suicides in protest of the situation of irregular workers and the new labour law. Lee So-Seon, mother of Chun Tae-il and a heroic activist of her accord, took the opportunity to criticize both the tactic itself – “Don't die any more, instead, live and fight” – and point to the lack of unity between labour and progressive groups, and lack of a progressive media, as contributing factors to the sense of despair among workers.

 
On a brighter note, the KCTU has been able to start to break out of enterprise level confinement and begin the slow process of establishing industrial level unions. Earlier this fall, the Korean metal workers federation announced a collective agreement that included wage negotiations not only for regular unionists but also agreements on wages and working conditions for irregular and migrant workers working in metal industries. Collective agreements have also been signed in medical and financial industries, so progress in political rights at an aggregate level among regular workers is improving but more grassroots activists within the labour movement worry about how the situation of more marginal workers without industrial or enterprise representation can remain a priority if the trade union movement becomes more concerned with sectoral issues than grassroots struggles.

 
Obviously there are no easy answers to these questions, gains in industrial level agreements notwithstanding, the growing majority of workers are irregular workers (recent estimates put this figure at 53% of the labour force) and in a climate of trade liberalization and labour market reform the situation for workers outside of heavy industries and strategic sectors looks difficult. Added to this is the problem of real-estate bubbles caused by financial liberalization and urban redevelopment that dramatically affect the urban poor, as has been evidenced by the struggles of venders and urban residents affected by redevelopment schemes.

 
It may be a bit of a cliché to say that Korean progressive movements find themselves in a crisis because of these developments. Indeed, if one looks back upon the last 30 or 40 years of the Korean labour movement, it is hard to find when a period without crisis has been the norm, but the question of how to improve the situation is not invalidated by this insight. Certainly, a large degree of the current problems can be related back to the inequality that exists between workers, citizens and the more powerful segments of Korean society.

 
More so, efforts by grassroots social movements to change the direction of government policy and corporate power has been further limited by the degree of participation afforded to them even by the ‘participatory government’ of Roh Moo Hyun, and the speed and scope of neoliberal reform embraced by that regime. Even those progressives from the 80s democracy movement who went into the current government have found many of their progressive reform efforts stymied both internally and by the opposition and entrenched economic bureaucracies. Thus, even the president’s more moderate former advisors have lashed out at this ‘turn to the right’. Lee Jeong Woo, former chairman of the Presidential commission of policy planning, criticized the government’s rush to sign the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement in an editorial earlier this past summer in the Hankyoreh:

 
- The ‘‘Participatory Government’’ of Roh Moo-hyun has, over the last four years, worked in its own way to overcome a culture where ‘‘growth is everything’’ and ‘‘the market rules above all,’’ and I praise it for its efforts. The results have been a greater emphasis on harmony between growth, the re-distribution of wealth and the role of the public sector. Now, however, it is saying that it is suddenly going to trash that philosophy and go back to the familiar priorities of growth and the market. Put simply, it has turned to the right, and there ahead lies the cliff. Right now what is right for Korea is a greater turn towards the left. It is the Scandinavian social democratic model that has been judged the best of all the market economy experiments the human race has experienced so far. In public opinion surveys as well, it is the Scandinavian model that Koreans say they like the most. Though of course it would be difficult to move to that model right away, we should be gazing toward Scandinavia to get there. A free trade agreement with the U.S. means we are going to go in the wrong direction.

 
A “politics of solidarity”?

 
The broad liberal-left, however, seems at the current moment more fixated on a potential conservative conquest of political power than it is introspective on how some of this very inequality has permeated its own ranks: either in terms of the pursuit of neoliberal policy by economic reformers without the effective participation of those affected by it (which has served to eliminate much of the difference between liberals and conservatives on directions in economic policy, at least regarding labour if not trade and investment), or through neglect by more powerful and dominant actors in the political parties and union federations of grassroots struggles, often in favor of a political pre-occupation with the ‘national interest’ (in terms of ending the cold war division system) that has seen the bargaining away of much of the progressive content of the left-liberal platform and calls for progressives to unite around candidates whom seem set to pursue further neoliberal reform but have a pro-engagement stance toward the North.

 
Only a few on the progressive left have publicly stated that in a vibrant economic and political democracy (that could create more viable dimension to any post-division political configuration) there needs to be more to progressive politics than furthering of neoliberal reform and the politics of growth. To this end, many hope, that whatever the results of the upcoming presidential election, a ‘politics of solidarity’ prevails on the left which puts the problem of marginalized political groups on the agenda, and includes genuine participation as a tool for achieving this – something which is going to require a genuine transformation of tendencies on the current liberal-left.

 
No doubt there is room for greater coordination at multiple levels between progressive forces interested in these sorts of political and economic issues, be they migrant and irregular workers’ rights or trade and financial liberalization. One place to start may be with the case with the leadership of the Migrant Trade Union currently being held in detention. Seeing as their case represents an important component of any politics of solidarity that involves the configuration of politics within and beyond national borders, it seems an appropriate place to start, perhaps both for Korean social movements and their international allies.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14417

The same article has been published in interlocals.net (HK):
☞ Reckless Inequality

More INT'L SOLIDARITY:

☞ S.K.: MTU Leadership Arrested (This Tuesday, 11.28)

☞ End SK gov't crackdown on MTU (OTHERWISE, 11.28)

☞ S.K. Migrants' Trade Union Leadership Arrested (KEIN.ORG, 11.28)

☞ Korea: Represje wobec związku imigrantów (CIA/Poland, 11.29)

☞ Korea: Stop Gov't Crack-Down on MTU! (Asian Food Worker, 11.30)

☞ Funktionäre der MTU verhaftet (LabourNet, Germany)

☞ Full list of Solidarity Statements (MTU)

☞ Crackdown of Migrant Organizers in S. Korea (IMC, int'l)

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2003.11.30: THE BATTLE OF CHEONGGYECHEON

In the early summer 2003 the then mayor of Seoul Lee Myung-bak - yeah, likely the next president of S. Korea!!! - published his idea to restore the former Choenggyecheon (i.e. Cheonggye Stream). In the 1960s it was filled up and a huge elevator street was built there. Since that time 1970s thousands of street vendors found their daily income by selling goods and food beside the new built Choenggyecheon Street. But after Lee presented his idea (to reconstruct the stream) to the public it was clear that the street vendors there would be the first victims of the project. Because in Lee Myung-bak's plans for the New Cheonggyecheon was definetely no place for poor people - i.e. the street vendors.

And just few months later - after the (now well organized) street vendors appealed, demanded, protested for an acceptable solution of their problems - it became clear that the Lee Myung-bak administration (i.e. the Seoul Metropolitan Gov't) will finally solve this problem by force - the eviction of the street vendors.

Street vendors' protest..

..summer 2003, Cheonggye 8-ga

In late November 2003 the municipality announced that Nov. 30 would be the deadline for the street venors to leave the area..

So in the late hours of Nov. 29 hundreds of street vendors prepared for the (likely) final clash between them and the state power.

Nov. 30, in the early morning hours 5000 riot cops, backing 3000 gangsters (according to independent reports), hired by the Seoul Metropolitan Gov't arrived at the scene (Cheonggyecheon 8-ga). And after some hours of fierce battles between them and few hundred of street vendors, many of them were elderly people, the "state power" "defeated" the resistance..

2003.11.30, 4AM, Cheonggye 8-ga - before the battle

Just one hour later: Criminal gangs, backed by thousands of cops..

..attacked few hundred of street vendor resistance "fighters"

After the battle (2003.11.30, 10AM)

Related video documentaries:

Before the Battle

☞ "청계천을 지켜내자!!" (숲속홍길동同志, 2003.11.16)

☞ [청계천 노점상 생존권 사수 투쟁] 제1부 (숲속홍길동同志)

☞ 30일 새벽, 청계천 한때 불바다.. (참세상TV, 2003.11.30)

☞ [청계천 노점상 생존권 사수 투쟁] 제2부 (숲속홍길동同志)

Related article:

☞ 노숙자 동원한 청계 노점 철거 (Hankyoreh, 2003.11.30)

 
But with the Battle of Cheonggyecheon the "promblem" just began! Only a short time later the Lee Myung-bak administration started with the idea to destroy entire residential areas, located in in the direct neighbourhood, such as Samgak-/Suha-dong..

..led to the eviction of at least one thousand of residents (incl. the complete destruction of their basis of existence):

☞ 자본주의는 반사회적 이다 (철거민 투쟁) (2004.12.12)

☞ 철거민투쟁. (2005.01.11)

☞ "날마다 전쟁" - 삼각, 수하동.. (2005.01.18, 숲속홍길동同志, video docu..)

☞ The Cheonggyecheon Project, #1

☞ The Cheonggyecheon Project, #2

☞ The Cheonggyecheon Project, #3

And last but not least (^^):

☞ Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project (Seoul Metro. Gov't)

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Last week (11.20) in Seoul the new ("NK underground") magazine Rimjingang has been presented to the public. Today DailyNK published (the first part) of an interview with Jiro Ishimaru (Asia Press, Japan), one of the main organizers/founders of the Rimjingang project:

North Korean Underground Journalists

and the "Rimjingang"

   
Mr. Jiro, who has been collecting data on North Korea since the.. 1990s, said that “The media is a kind of social infrastructure for making a democratic society. Therefore, I think it is necessary to fertilize North Korean society with the seed of journalism.”

Mr. Jiro also said, “I was very concerned about establishing a media source within North Korea, as it is really dangerous. However, the North Korean reporters insisted that they need a means of informing the North Korean civilians about news from the outside world as well, saying that ‘We will never get out of this delapitated state if there is no such thing as independent media.'”

- What is the purpose of publishing the "Rimjingang"?

Firstly, the purpose is to plant the seed of journalism. It is the demands of time that spurs on North Korea’s necessity for independent journalism. Media is indeed an essential element in creating a democratic society. The outside world must know what is taking place inside North Korea, and it is the insiders that must release this information to the outside world.

Secondly, North Korean underground journalists need some medium for their journalism activities. Thus far, North Korean residents have released inside information as messengers for South Korean or international newspapers. With the establishment of Rimjingang, they can now release more accurate and up-to-date information directly through their own medium and their own articles.

Lastly, I wanted to establish a path of communication between the North Koreans and the South Koreans.

- It does not sound like an easy task to educate North Korean citizens to be journalists..

I have been collecting data on North Korea since the 1990s. However, North Korea was so secured that foreigners could not easily enter North Korea and gather information freely. I eventually thought to establish some contacts inside North Korea for this purpose.

In the beginning, I needed someone to inform me of inside stories and to take photographs, but later I decided to educate them as professional journalists.

Finally, in 2002 I met Lee Joon, a North Korean citizen aimed at doing something to change North Korean society. I started educating him in the field of journalism, and soon after, he began reporting on news happening inside the country. Since 2004, he has been capturing video footage as well.

From that point on, he began educating North Korean youth in order to create a new trend of journalism. His students are the current reporters of “Rimjingang.”

- Can you give me a detailed description of the other reporters?

There is no one from the privileged class. They are simply urban residents who are well-educated, ordinary North Korean citizens who understand the value of this information.

Those who I have educated in China have entered North Korea, organized and educated people who wanted to participate in our activities. New reporters occasionally visit China to keep a relationship with other reporters. There are several groups of reporters. They cannot be mobilized at the same time for the sake of security.

They are working around Pyongyang and the central districts of different provinces. Those in border areas must take extra precautions because the surveillance near the border has recently become very strict.

http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02500&num=2970

Related:

☞ 지하 잡지 '림진강' (11.22)

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STATE TERROR AGAINST MTU!!

Today KCTU issued following appeal for Int'l solidarity with MTU:

Urgent Call for the Release of MTU Leaders!
Stop Crackdown on Migrant Workers!

Migrants’ Trade Union Leadership Arrested on November 27th.
Stop the Repression against KCTU affiliate Migrants’ Trade Union!
Free President Kajiman and other Imprisoned Union Officers!
Stop the Crackdown and Deportations!

1. Background

On the morning of November 27, MTU President Kajiman, Vice President Raju and General Secretary Masum were arrested, in what was clearly a targeted crackdown against the leadership of MTU. We, the KCTU and the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union call on the international labor and human rights community to do whatever in their power to secure the release of the MTU leadership and end this labor repression against MTU.

At roughly 9:20am on November 27, President Kajiman was leaving his home in order to attend a plan protest in front of Seoul Immigration Office (*) when he was confronted by more than 10 immigration officers who had been hiding in front of his house. The immigration officers restrained the Korean activist with President Kajiman and then encircled the president. After protesting strongly, President Kajiman was eventually arrested, his shoulder hurt in the process.

General Secretary Masum also left his house the morning of the 27 in order to attend the protest in front of Seoul Immigration. As he walked down the street he was passed by four 4 large men who were laughing amongst themselves. He originally did not pay attention to them; however, immediately after roughly 10 immigration officers came up from behind him. He was suddenly surrounded by nearly 20 people and despite protesting was eventually arrested.

 
At roughly the same time Vice President Raju was confronted by 4 immigration officers in front of the factory where he worked. Upon seeing the vice president, the immigration officers immediately attempted to handcuff him, but failed due to his forceful protest. When Vice President Raju demanded to see the officers’ identification cards, they presented them along with a prepared detention order. Despite his protests the vice president was also eventually arrested.

 
Soon after all three men were sent to a detention center in Cheongju, Northern Choongjeong Province, south of the capital Seoul...

For the full statement/appeal, incl. a sample protest letter to the MoJ please read:
http://nodong.org/bbs//view.php?id=eng_action&no=53

Also today the "left"-liberal daily newspaper Hankyoreh published following editorial:

Stop the crackdown on migrant workers
 

Another reckless crackdown on migrant workers is underway. Yesterday three key officers in the Migrants’ Trade Union (Iju Nodongja Nodong Johap) were taken away by immigration agents. The three were clearly targeted. Just the other day two ethnic Koreans from China jumped off the roof of a Chinese speaking church in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, while trying to ditch agents there to arrest them, who then broke their legs and ankles. For how much longer is the government going to continue this inhumane crackdown?

The reason the government is going after foreign laborers with such zeal is said to be because of the rapid increase in the number of undocumented migrant workers. This kind of ruthless crackdown, however, is as bad a policy as one could have. There are said to be some 230,000 undocumented migrant laborers in Korea; is the government going to continue this way until it has grabbed them all?

An even greater problem is that earlier this month the government revised the Immigration Law to allow agents to question foreigners based on suspicion alone, without regard to time and place, further angering migrant workers. It is not that one cannot understand wanting to provide in the law some tools to work with while enforcing it, but it is a problem when the law just gives agents wide-ranging authority and includes no stipulations on procedures.

A law governing the national police requires that a police officer present identification and identify himself when stopping someone for questioning. Similarly, at the very least, immigration officials need to be required to prove who they are. It was in 2005 that the National Human Rights Commission officially recommended that immigration be given clear conditions, parameters on authority, and procedures for arresting illegal aliens.

Has the government already forgotten the appeal and recommendation issued by their Korean brethren in Germany? Eleven Koreans who went as migrant workers to Germany 30 to 40 years ago issued a statement earlier this month in which they said “all migrants should be recognized as members of society and granted rights that correspond to residents.” The government needs to take this suggestion into consideration and reexamine its proposed revision to the Immigration Law, then come up with a reasonable policy alternative that, instead of being all about cracking down, is enough to make our society feel some sense of pride about our immigration policies.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/253237.html

Related statements, articles, videos..(in Korean):

☞ 이주노조 지도부 연행 경과 및 현황 (MTU)

☞ [기자회견문]이주노동자노동조합 까지만.. (KCTU)

☞ 이주노조 지도부 줄줄이 연행 (VoP)

☞ 출입국, "불법이니 단속하라 했다" (참세상, article)

☞ 이주노조 간부 표적연행 규탄 (참세상TV, video)

☞ 노골적인 이주노조 말살 정책의 시작인가? (MWTV, video)

☞ 이주노조 집행부 표적 연행.. (이주노동자방송국, video)

* [11월 27일] 이주노조 집행부 표적 연행 규탄 집회 (다함께)

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STATE TERROR AGAINST MTU!!

Since the establishment of the MTU in spring 2005 migrant workers in S. Korea and their supporters in labour unions, (left) political organizations, human right and civic groups are struggling against its (MTU's) oppression by the government (i.e. the MoJ, Immigration authority, police).
Now, short before the current gov't must give up its "power" (next month a new president will be elected), it seems that the Roh Moo-hyun administration wants to close the "MTU file" - by FORCE!(*) It - most likely - means that the gov't just wants to smash MTU by arresting (and deporting) the leading activists of the organization.

MWTV reported today about following latest alarming development: "In the midst of the increasing crackdown on migrant workers, MTU (Migrant Worker's Trade Union) President (Kajiman), Vice president (Raju) and General Secretary (Masum) were all arrested at 9:30 am this morning (November 27) in front of their homes/workplaces.  They were arrested without any formal charges and are being held at detention center in Cheongju.."

Kajiman, Raju and Masum in Cheongju Immigration Detention Center

(source: 이주노동자방송국, 11.27)

The fact that the arrested comrades were transfered to Cheongju - far away from Seoul, where the majority of MTU's activists and their supporters are based - proves that this may be a first - or "better" the final - deadly attack against the migrant workers' movement in S.K.

Detailed infos about it you can read here (in Korean): 

☞ 이주노조 위원장 까지만,서울지부장 라주 오늘 아침 표적 단속! (MTU)

☞ 출입국, 이주노조에 또 “표적 단속”했나 (참세상)

☞ 불법체류 ‘토끼몰이 단속’ 여전 (한겨레)

☞ “이주노조에 대한 탄압에 저항하며 끝까지 싸울 것” (이주노동자방송국)

Solidarity statements:

대통령 선거전 첫날, 이주노조 임원 전원연행!

by 전국비정규노조연대회의

이주노동자 운동 지도자 구금과 추방 강력히 규탄한다!

by 민주노동당

노무현정부의 이주노동자 운동 와해 책동을 강력 규탄한다!

by 사회진보연대

까지만·라주·마숨 동지를 즉각 석방하라

by 다함께

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Uri Avneri, the "grandfather" of the Israeli peace movement, on the eve of the Middle East "Peace" Conference - starting and also ending tomorrow in Annapolis(USA) - wrote following article/analysis:

THE ANNAPOLIS conference is a joke.

Though not in the least funny.
 

Like quite a lot of political initiatives, this one too, according to all the indications, started more or less by accident. George Bush was due to make a speech. He was looking for a theme that would give it some substance. Something that would divert attention away from his fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something simple, optimistic, easy to swallow.

Somehow, the idea of a "meeting" of leaders to promote the Israeli-Palestinian "process" came up. An international meeting is always nice - it looks good on television, it provides plenty of photo-opportunities, it radiates optimism. We meet, ergo we exist.

So Bush voiced the idea: a "meeting" for the promotion of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Without any preceding strategic planning, any careful preparations, anything much at all.

That's why Bush did not go into any details: no clear aim, no agenda, no location, no date, no list of invitees. Just an ethereal meeting. This fact by itself testifies to the lack of seriousness of the entire enterprise.

This may shock people who have never seen close up how politics are actually conducted. It is hard to accept the intolerable lightness with which decisions are often made, the irresponsibility of leaders and the arbitrary way important processes are set in motion.

FROM THE MOMENT this idea was launched, it could not be called back. The President has spoken, the initiative starts on its way. As the saying goes: One fool throws a stone into the water, a dozen wise men cannot retrieve it.

Once the "meeting" had been announced, it became an important enterprise. The experts of all parties started to work frantically on the undefined event, each trying to steer it in the direction which would benefit them the most.

Bush and Condoleezza Rice want an impressive event, to prove that the United States is vigorously promoting peace and democracy, and that they can succeed where the great Henry Kissinger failed. Jimmy Carter failed to turn the Israeli-Egyptian peace into an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Bill Clinton failed at Camp David. If Bush succeeds where all his illustrious predecessors have failed, won't that show who is the greatest of them all?

 
Ehud Olmert urgently needs a resounding political achievement in order to blur the memory of his dismal failure in the Second Lebanon War and to extricate himself from the dozen or so criminal investigations for corruption that are pursuing him. His ambition knows no bounds: he wants to be photographed shaking the hand of the King of Saudi Arabia. A feat no Israeli prime minister before him has achieved.

 
Mahmoud Abbas wants to show Hamas and the rebellious factions in his own Fatah movement that he can succeed where the great Yasser Arafat failed - to be accepted among the world's leaders as an equal partner.

 
This could, therefore, become a great, almost historic conference, if …

Please read the full article here:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1195337091

Related articles:

☞ Palestinian official: Israelis aren't serious (Yedioth..)

☞ Hamas: Abbas' policy failed, dangerous (..Ahronoth/IL, 11.27)

☞ The Real Two-state Solution (Der Spiegel/D, 11.26 MUST READ!!)

☞ Children of the Palestinian intifada.. (IHT, 3.11)

☞ Groups promise 'rocket rain' (Ynet/IL)

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About the first (provisionally) "defeat" by the French working class, in particular the railway workers (after nine days of strike), in their struggle against Sarkozy's "reform" plans The Guardian (UK) published y'day following article: