News and policy articles concerning the reunification of North and South Korea http://www.kpolicy.org http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:36:43 -0700 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:35:52 -0700 FeedForAll v2.0 (2.0.2.9) http://www.feedforall.com Former President Jimmy Carter deserves great credit for traveling to Pyongyang and securing the release of a U.S. citizen, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally entering North Korea. The Obama administration had gone out of its way to assert that Mr. Carter was on this mission as a private citizen and that he carried no message from the White House. The North Koreans also made clear to Mr. Carter before his departure that he would not be able to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. In fact, Mr. Kim left for China shortly after Mr. Carter's arrival. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100902donaldgreggtestingnkwaters.html 421DEF3D-B429-4F9D-83EF-6AB8660D65DD Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:35:52 -0700 In response to the March 26 sinking of the South Korean ship, the Cheonan, allegedly by a North Korean submarine, the United States is poised to adopt even more stringent sanctions against North Korea. Robert Einhorn, the U.S. State Department's special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control, recently announced in Seoul that after legal and other questions were sorted, sanctions would be in place "in the next several weeks." http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100821christineahnhaeyoungkim60years.html 82BC3780-F605-4E36-8805-D9B43C02287B Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:25:21 -0700 For those who survived the Korean War, the sight of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington leading a fleet of U.S. and South Korean ships along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula on the 57th anniversary of the temporary armistice is alarming indeed. In a move intended to punish North Korea for its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, the United States and South Korea are flexing their military might by mobilizing American and South Korean ships, over 200 aircraft, including the F-22 Raptor fighters, and 8,000 troops. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100801christineahndangerouswaters.html FF103D3D-754B-45A7-8DD6-A6183EDE32D2 Sun, 1 Aug 2010 20:05:27 -0700 On the night of March 26, 2010, the 1,200 ton Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy corvette Cheonan was severed in the middle and sank off Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea (or Yellow Sea). Forty-six crew members died in the incident. After almost two months of investigation, the ROK government released an interim report that traced the cause of the Cheonan's sinking to the explosion of a North Korean (DPRK) torpedo.1 The report, however, contains a number of inconsistencies that call into question the government's conclusion and the integrity of its investigation. In order to address these inconsistencies and to restore public confidence in the investigation, the ROK government must form a new team to restart the investigation from the beginning. We recommend that the international community continue its insistence on an objective and thorough investigation while reiterating its commitment to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/policy/100721seunghunleejjsuhrushtojudgment.html 9C4393A3-4F12-4A70-8144-FEBA8717C36C Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:11:21 -0700 Rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula at this time prove again the urgency and the necessity of achieving permanent peace in Korea. The best way forward in realizing this important objective is the replacement of the outdated, temporary cease-fire agreement of 1953 with a long-deferred peace treaty. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/oped100625johnkimhightime.html 14F53566-5558-46FC-A214-12AEC665911C Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:15:10 -0700 Last fall, I woke up in the middle of the night, and instead of continuing to toss and turn, I decided to switch on my computer. On the homepage of The New York Times read the headline, "North Korea Opens Dam Flow, Sweeping Away 6 in the South." North Korea had lifted the floodgates of a dam on the Imjin River, sending a tidal wave south and killing six South Koreans, including an 8-year-old boy. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/oped100625christineahn60yearsisenough.html 477D749F-79DB-4286-95DD-80C961795477 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:45:21 -0700 Urging China to support punitive actions against North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean naval war ship, the Cheonan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implored China last week to read a 400 page report concluding that a North Korean midget submarine torpedoed the Cheonan on March 26, 2010 in the West Sea, killing 46 sailors. Yet the South Korean government has failed to release the full 400 page report to the National Assembly and has sought to silence dissenting opinions. "If a report provided to a country overseas is not presented to the National Assembly, this demonstrates an unbelievable disregard for the legislature and people of South Korea," decried a Hankyoreh editorial, May 28, 2010. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100603paulliemhonorchoenandead.html 7618D425-B560-4666-839B-38938A10C7AD Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:37:58 -0700 A series of events regarding the sinking of the Cheonan naval warship shows that peace and security on the Korean Peninsula is facing a serious threat even about 60 years after the Korean War. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100524womenmakingpeace.html 2B2A6D45-8014-4662-AEB8-C9E7A9B29878 Sat, 29 May 2010 17:31:50 -0700 Ms. Hye-ran Oh is the Director of the Peace and Disarmament Team of Solidarity for Peace and Reunification in Korea (SPARK). Formed in 1994 SPARK, a non-governmental organization based in South Korea, works towards national self-determination, peace and disarmament, establishment of a peace structure on the Korean peninsula, and the reunification of Korea. While attending the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York this month, SPARK also presented in several educational forums including "North Korea's Bomb and the Road to Peace" on May 12th, with representatives of the American Friends Service Committee and the National Campaign to End the Korean War. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/100523jttakagiinterviewhyeranoh.html 0DD067CE-71E7-4DF0-8326-A744638EA240 Sun, 23 May 2010 10:09:10 -0700 This Power Point presentation on human rights and economic sanctions was delivered by Korea Policy Institute Fellow, Sanghyuk S. Shin, at the American Public Health Association Conference in Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2009. The slides were authored by Shin, Christine Ahn, Ricky Y. Choi, Haeyoung Kim and Terry Park. The authors recommend that use of economic sanctions should be opposed based on principles of health and human rights; that a policy of diplomatic engagement is needed for sustained improvements in human rights; that human rights organizations must broaden discourse and activism on human rights; and that leadership from the public health community is needed to contribute health consequences of sanctions to public discourse. http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/media-av/091109sanghyukshinatoolofwarfare.pps 8663F634-AB8D-4C49-A26B-B72DBFF61C0F Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:00:58 -0800 As we watched the Berlin Wall tumble down, "we wept from the heartbreak of sorrow mixed with joy," recalls Jungran Shin, a financial advisor in Los Angeles. Separated from relatives in North Korea, Shin felt a longing to "break down into pieces...the barbed-wire fences that block the 38th parallel." Rev. Syngman Rhee, co-chair of the National Committee for Peace in Korea, says the fall of the Berlin Wall ignited among Koreans new hope for peace and reconciliation, "even though we fully realized that the German situation was quite different from the Korean situation." http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/policy/091230paulliemkoreasberlinwall.html 29312834-4EC3-4C5B-A708-49223198AD45 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:08:54 -0800