VIDEO North Korean refugees in China’s Yanbian autonomous
county
Background
The video below was taken in 2007 before the Beijing
Olympics. The situation in North Korea is likely to be worse now
following its botched currency reform in January this year. China
regards the North Korean refugees as economic migrants and deny the
United Nations High Commission for Refugees access to them, more
than 70 percent of whom are women.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/06/08/video-north-korean-refugees-in-chinas-yanbian-autonomous-county/
By Takashi Yokota from Newsweek
The two Koreas seemed headed for a dangerous collision ever
since international investigators determined that North Korea had
torpedoed its Southern neighbor’s warship Cheonan.
The North’s National Defence Commission called the
investigations a “farce” and threatened “all-out war” if Seoul and
the international community imposed sanctions.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak responded by promising to
push for sanctions at the United Nations, to cut off trade with the
North, and to resume anti-North propaganda along the demilitarized
zone. Adding to the alarm, four North Korean submarines left a
naval base along the Sea of Japan, putting the South Korean Navy on
high alert.
This fracas may not be all it seems, however; because North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il seems to be seeking a face-saving way
out.
Even as the North’s fire-breathing generals threatened war, the
political leadership is adopting a more diplomatic, if not quite
conciliatory, tone.
The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which
claimed to be speaking on behalf of the entire government, said it
would react to sanctions by freezing inter-Korean relations, as
well as scrapping the North-South non-aggression agreement.
The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement dedicated mostly to
blasting the United States, but ending with a claim that its broad
aim remains to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Translation: the softer side of Kim Jong-Il’s regime wants out
of this mess.
Seoul, which wants to ease tensions before hosting the G20
summit this fall, made sure to offer the North a way out. In his
statement, Lee demanded that Pyongyang “apologize and punish those
responsible for the attack,” laying down relatively easy terms for
the North to resolve the conflict.
Pyongyang may be preparing to comply. Even before the North was
officially blamed for sinking the Cheonan, the National Defence
Commission dimissed Kim Il-chol, its highest-ranking naval officer,
citing his “old age.”
Kim is said to be in his late 70s, but so are many commission
members. Observers speculate that Pyongyang may cite Kim’s
dismissal to claim it has already punished the man responsible, and
perhaps to set the stage of an apology.
Kenneth Quinones, a former State Department negotiator and a
Korean expert, says a “similar dynamic” guided North Korea’s
response when one of its submarines infiltrated South Korean
territorial waters in 1996.
Ultimately, moderate elements in Pyongyang persuaded the
military hardliners to apologize. And Pyongyang’s declaration that
it will no longer deal with the South while Lee is in office may be
read as a call to China to step in and mediate.
Far from escalating, says Quinones, Pyongyang officials “seem to
be trying to keep some hope open for negotiations.”
As long Kim can do so without looking weak, he seems to be
serious about finding a way out.
Source: Newsweek