"South Korea mulls rights probe of North" by Chico Harlan | Washington Post, February 21, 2013
SEOUL — The United Nations’ human rights chief declared recently that it was time for a ‘‘long overdue’’ investigation into what she called unparalleled rights abuses in North Korea. The probe, unprecedented in scope, could help establish whether the North’s leaders are committing crimes against humanity.
I'm starting to wonder what government does not, and how distasteful to have some globalist blowhards and servants to Israel hurling the charges. The EUSReali members of the U.N. are war criminals themselves. UN has lost all credibility.
Navi Pillay’s January proposal has already drawn support from the United States. But the decision has proved sensitive in still-undecided South Korea, where leaders remain divided over whether to confront the North or try to somehow reduce tensions with it, even after Pyongyang detonated an underground nuclear device last week.
Related: North Korea Greets Kerry With Nuclear Bomb
Think of them as firecrackers and party favors, because that is pretty much what they are.
Relations between the two countries appeared to deteriorate further on Tuesday, when a North Korean diplomat, during a UN disarmament conference in Geneva, threatened the South with ‘‘total destruction.’’ That drew quick condemnation from South Korea and other nations.
Seoul’s support for the human rights investigation is critical, because farther-removed countries view Seoul as the leader on North Korea policy issues.
And now you know why I titled this post as I did.
See: The Iron Lady of Asia
Yeah, except she was flexible about peace -- unlike that other one.
The decision on the Commission of Inquiry comes at a particularly delicate time for South Korea, where a conservative new president, Park Geun Hye, takes office later this month, having vowed to both re-engage with the North and ‘‘improve living conditions’’ for its 24 million citizens. The looming decision on the investigation highlights a fundamental South Korean quandary: Those two goals, though both reasonable, are often at odds.
So what's with the U.N.? Why now?
Other countries ‘‘should understand the sensitivities faced by South Korea’’ when speaking out about human rights, said Song Min Soon, a South Korean foreign minister from 2006 until 2008, under liberal president Roh Moo Hyun. ‘‘Those countries, they don’t have a real need to sit down with North Korea. We do. The new South Korean government has a plan to talk with the North Koreans about denuclearization, economic issues. But if we lead efforts on the [commission], that won’t happen.’’
Park has blasted the North for conducting the much-anticipated nuclear test. But her incoming administration, according to analysts, is uneasy about burying any hope of civil ties with the North even before Park takes office. The nuclear test has only made South Korea’s decision on the UN investigation ‘‘more sensitive,’’ said one South Korean government official.
She is being manipulated by the big powers.
The North views any discussion of its human rights as a ‘‘grave provocation.’’
I find it in bad taste, but we can disagree.
The commission could be voted on at the next UN Human Rights Council meeting in March. But if Park opposes it, she will heighten frustration among activists and thousands of defectors in her country, including the several hundred survivors of political prison camps who often accuse the South of being more concerned about the North’s weapons than about its people.
Since Pillay requested the investigation in January, South Korea has taken no official position on the proposal. Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which technically is responsible for the decision, declined to comment.
UN officials and human rights advocates, as well as one Park adviser, said they are cautiously optimistic that South Korea will ultimately back the inquiry.
‘‘I think we will quietly support it,’’ said Ha Tae Keung, a National Assembly member with an interest in North Korea issues who advises Park’s transition team.
Other advocates say the nuclear test, coupled with the US support, has caused a momentum shift among members of the Human Rights Council, increasing the odds that South Korea ultimately will sign on.
--more--"
Related:
"Japan has strongly supported a human rights investigation into possible crimes against humanity in North Korea. The accusations of North Korean kidnappings of Japanese citizens remain an important human rights and political cause in Japan."
Didn't Japan use Korean women as sex slaves during WWII?
Have you guys apologized to China for the Holocaust of Nanking?
"N. Korea nullifies truce, but UN insists pact still valid; No hostile signs along border with S. Korea" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, March 12, 2013
SEOUL — The United States and South Korea are in the midst of two months of joint military drills....
But that's okay, you see. We are allowed to saber-rattle and spew, run planes by your borders and have ships firing out at sea. If anyone did that near our borders they would be blasted out of the sky in a second (unless they are transporting guns, drugs, or humans).
Stirring up a sense of crisis among its impoverished people, North Korea is also staging an unusually vigorous military drill of its own, South Korean officials said.
Gee, I know how they feel watching my ma$$ media mouthpiece at work.
There were no signs, however, of hostility along the border between the two Koreas.
Say what?
South Korean officials said they were increasing their vigilance amid fears that North Korea might use the US-South Korean military drills and a fresh round of UN sanctions as an excuse to create an armed skirmish against the South.
BEWARE the FALSE FLAG, folks!! We have SEEN THEM in that part of the world many times. Anyone remember the Gulf of Tonkin?
“We must deal strongly with a North Korean provocation,’’ the South’s new president, Park Geun-hye, said during her first Cabinet meeting Monday....
She's gotta say that.
During the Cabinet meeting, Park also criticized senior military officers for playing golf last weekend amid the tensions with the North. Her office was investigating news reports that a military golf course in Seoul was crowded with senior army officers, including generals, on Saturday and Sunday....
They KNEW NOTHING was going down!
--more--"
Also see: N. Korea heats up rhetoric
As long as that's all it is.
"North Korea military on ‘highest alert’; Renews threats against South, US mainland" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, March 27, 2013
SEOUL — President Park Geun-hye of South Korea....
the latest threat....
Claw your way out of the corner, girl.
In South Korea, Park, the country’s first female president, showed her own resolve Tuesday, visiting a national cemetery to pay respects to the 46 sailors who were killed in 2010 when a South Korean navy corvette sank in an explosion the South said was caused by a North Korean torpedo attack.
Related: Sinking the Chances of Korean Peace
Ain't that a kick in the head?
‘‘I strongly urge North Korea to change,’’ she said in a nationally televised speech marking the three-year anniversary of the incident. ‘‘North Korea must immediately abandon its thought that nuclear weapons will protect its regime.’’
Although North Korea denied responsibility for the sinking and some South Koreans questioned the credibility of their government’s investigation, which assigned blame to the North, the 2010 episode has become for many South Koreans an emotional symbol of North Korean hostility.
Oh, dear readers, what that simple phrase and sentence say is so important.
THE WORLD KNOWS that the North was FRAMED by a FALSE FLAG!
Even the SOUTH KOREAN PEOPLE KNOW!!!
On Monday, the South’s conservative daily Chosun Ilbo cited unnamed government officials as saying that if North Korea launched a provocation like the Cheonan sinking, the South Korean military would retaliate by launching missiles at gigantic statues of Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and father, which are objects of worship in the North.
The South Korean Defense Ministry would not comment on the report, but vowed a ‘‘thousandfold, ten-thousandfold retaliation’’ against a Cheonan-like provocation from the North....
Talk about bellicose rhetoric.
--more--"
"South Korean president stumbles in first month on job" by Foster Klug and Sam Kim | Associated Press, March 28, 2013
SEOUL — President Park Geun-hye’s honeymoon was over before it even began.
A month on the job, Park has stumbled repeatedly in the face of opposition to policy proposals and her choices for top government posts.
Half a dozen Cabinet appointees have quit under fire. The latest is Han Man-soo, who withdrew his nomination for antitrust chief amid allegations he stashed millions of dollars overseas to avoid taxes. Other allegations that have brought down Park appointees include real estate speculation, a sex-for-influence scandal, bribery, and links to an arms broker.
What, are they working on the the U.S. model? I suppose race and gender doesn't matter when it comes to corrupt money junkies.
‘‘A couple of flops would’ve been acceptable, but having a total of six failures in the first few months means that the problem lies with her style,’’ said Lee Cheol-hee, head of the Dumon Political Strategy Institute, a think tank in Seoul. ‘‘She seems to think she can just hand down a list of people she prefers, without thinking hard about whether those people’s credentials and ethical records fit the jobs they will be handling.’’
Dictatorial tendencies?
Critics also complain that she is still short on specifics about how to deal with pressing issues including an increasingly belligerent North Korea and serious domestic anxiety about fewer stable jobs, heavy household debt, and a wide income gap.
Oh, they do have the same problems.
Park acknowledged the setbacks on Monday but said they should only make her administration more determined. ‘‘Because the launch of the new government has been delayed by one month, we should work harder to fulfill our vision,’’ she said.
The presidential Blue House did not answer calls seeking additional comment.
Her troubles have a lot to do with the fiercely divided political and social landscape. She also carries the heavy historical baggage of being the daughter of a dictator whose legacy still divides South Koreans.
She is the eldest child of late President Park Chung-hee, who led South Korea for 18 years in the 1960s and 1970s and is both denounced for human rights abuses and praised as a strong leader.
He was assassinated in a CIA coup, but why tell us that?
Related: Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Oh, right.
UN not calling for an investigation there?
--more--"
Related:
"North Korea cut off the last remaining military hotlines with South Korea on Wednesday, accusing President Park Geun-hye of South Korea of pursuing the same hard-line policy of her predecessor. South Korea’s president stressed both firmness and reciprocity in North Korea policy. Her new unification minister, Ryoo Kihl-jae, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, later told reporters that his government was willing to consider lifting trade embargoes imposed on the North after the deadly sinking of a South Korean navy ship in 2010 — but not before North Korea takes responsibility for the sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors."
Even if they didn't do it?
Why this next article had to be a near total rewrite and reedit is beyond me.
"U.S. Sees North Korea Blustering, Not Acting" by MARK LANDLER and CHOE SANG-HUN, April 1, 2013
WASHINGTON — South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-hye, ordered her country’s military to deliver a strong and immediate response to any North Korean provocation,
Cut:
the latest turn in the war of words that has become a test of resolve for the relatively unproven leaders....
Why?
Ms. Park’s blunt comments contrasted with the usually dismissive tone that South Korean leaders take toward the North’s threats, and reflected the criticism directed at her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, when the South was seen as not retaliating after North Korea aimed an artillery barrage at a South Korean island in 2010, killing four people. Ms. Park’s election campaign last year focused on a promise not to be blackmailed by the North.
Since Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011, the North has launched a three-stage rocket, tested a nuclear device and threatened to hit major American cities with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. The Korean Peninsula, Mr. Kim declared, has reverted to a “state of war.”
The imposition of the sanctions coincided with the allies’ joint military drills, during which Washington publicized the training missions of B-52 and B-2 bombers, as well as F-22 stealth fighter jets.
Related: United States flying B-52s over South Korea
Cut:
The Pentagon said Monday that the United States sent two F-22 stealth fighter jets to take part in the ongoing military drills. It was the fourth time the F-22s have been deployed to South Korea.
Last week, two American B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on a South Korean island as part of the drills. Also Monday, the US military said Navy guided-missile destroyer capable of shooting down ballistic missiles had been positioned slightly closer to the Korean peninsula.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the United States has not detected any military mobilization or repositioning of forces from Pyongyang to back up its bellicose rhetoric.
Wow, we are already dropping bombs and moving in ships as the North Koreans do nothing.
Oh, readers, my s*** hole ma$$ media mouthpiece all these weeks.
Washington also concluded three years of negotiations with Seoul and signed an agreement last week to respond jointly to North Korean provocations,
Related:
"The mutual defense treaty with South Korea obligates the US military to fight to defend its ally if a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula."
Cut:
amid fears that possible military skirmishes between the two Koreas could blow out of control....
Some people sure the hell are hoping.
At the same time, there are signs that he is interested in turning his attention to the economy, including the promotion of an economic technocrat, Pak Pong Ju, to a key post.
In the North, Pak Pong Ju, an economic technocrat, was made a full member of the Politburo on Sunday and was given more power Monday when the rubber-stamp Parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, made him premier, a post in charge of the economy.
The best-known top military leaders under Kim were given lesser promotions....
Adding to the sense that the leadership wants to address its economic troubles, it has not followed through on threats to close the industrial park in the town of Kaesong, which it operates jointly with the South. The complex is a source of much-needed hard currency.
They aren't showing up for work, but they haven't closed the place.
North Korea has been alternating between tentative experiments with reform and crackdowns on market activities. Pak served as premier from 2003 and 2007, pushing for some autonomy in factories and farms and easing state price controls on daily goods, as well as sharply increasing government spending on agriculture.
But he was fired when the growth in market activities threatened the old guard.
Really?
If you are hungry for more: Slow Saturday Special: North Korea's Gnawing Hunger
Which is strange after the West flooded them with counterfeit currency.
Rewrite adder:
The American vessel recently deployed to waters off the Korean Peninsula, an Aegis cruiser, will remain there “for the foreseeable future,” said a Defense Department official. Two ballistic-missile ships, which carry powerful tracking radars and interceptor missiles, had been in the area for a recent joint exercise with the South Korean military, but they had returned to Japan after that exercise ended.
I guess it's a good sign the ballistic missile ships sailed away (if they really did).
--more--"
I think she got out of that corner.
