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DailyNK

DailyNK

The Globe and Mail North Korean Economy Watch New Connexion Pacific Northwest's Journal of Conscious Living One Free Korea About Joshua: Attorney practicing in Washington, DC. U.S. Army Judge Advocate in Korea, 1998-2002. About Daniel Bielefeld: A former resident of Washington, D.C., Dan moved to Seoul several years ago to study the Korean language. I recently had taken a trip to South Korea, and as I kept up with news from the country, I inevitably found myself reading about North Korea. Dan has volunteered and helped raise funds for LiNK and a handful of groups in Seoul working on various aspects of the North Korean crisis. Disclaimers: The views expressed here are not those of any other person, organization, or entity; they are the author’s alone. Discussion of legal subject matter is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. When I link to published articles, papers, posts, or other sources, I presume them to be reliable unless I say otherwise. I don’t accept ads or donations (as if). Comment Policy: That said, I especially welcome dissenting views.

FRANCE 24 Pyongyang unwrapped By Index on Censorship / 19 December, 2011 Technology has revolutionised reporting on North Korea. David McNeill reveals how a clandestine network is getting the word out despite restrictions North Korea remains one of the world’s black holes: a vast sealed experiment in information control. According to Reporters Without Borders, just four per cent of the population has access to the country”s heavily censored internet, which is entirely under state control, along with all newspapers, radio and television. On a visit last September with a group of undercover journalists, we could only send short emails from the five-star Yanggakdo hotel by giving the recipient’s address to a clerk, who typed it into a computer (and charged a euro per line of message). Naturally, that makes verifying the scant information that trickles out a vexing matter. The implications are potentially profound, says longtime Pyongyang watcher Bradley K. Why Chinese phones? Money is a headache for all these outlets.

North Korea Today - Good Friends Le Monde North Korea: Another Country This extremely useful book provides us with evidence that undermines the stereotypes that pass for knowledge of the DPRK. Cumings is a professor of history at the University of Chicago, and is the foremost historian of the USA’s long war against Korea.He cites a CIA study that “acknowledged various achievements of this regime: compassionate care for children in general and war orphans in particular, ‘radical change’ in the position of women; genuinely free housing, free health care and preventive medicine; and infant mortality and life expectancy rates comparable to the most advanced countries until the recent famine.” The government also gave land to the peasants, and provided free education.Cumings shows that the war in Korea was part of a long civil war and that the invasion in June 1950 did not start the conflict, so it did not define the conflict. The UN fell for the US and British governments’ lie that it was an invasion. It was also a war against the foreign occupier.

Radio Free Asia: North Korea articles Press Room | About | Contact North Korea Opens More Secondary Schools for Gifted Students But the schools are no longer a guaranteed route to elite universities, sources say. North Korea Moving Towards a 'Criminal' Market Economy: Report A new study examines the nuclear-armed nation's illicit activities that earn valuable hard currency. North Korea Cracks Down on Curfew-Violating Cabs Sources say the strict enforcement targets foreigners and the wealthy. Senior Officials From Dismantled North Korean Department Demoted After working under Jang Song Thaek, they are reassigned to insignificant positions. North Korea Artillery Fire Prompts Military Response from South The shelling comes amid ongoing joint South Korea-US drills in the region. North Korean College Students Ordered to Adopt Leader Kim's Haircut Students are 'disgruntled' by the instructions, a source says. South Korean-Made Dress Fabric a Hit in North North Koreans shell out hundreds of yuan for China-smuggled cloth for ‘hanbok’ dresses.

London News Tariq Ali · Diary: In Pyongyang · LRB 26 January 2012 In this podcast, Tariq Ali reads extracts from his Diary about North Korea. The full article is below. Forty-two years ago, I was mysteriously invited to visit North Korea. Pakistan’s military dictatorship had been toppled after a three-month struggle and in March 1970 the country was in the throes of its first ever general election campaign. The letter came via a local Communist known as Rahim ‘Koreawallah’, secretary of the Pak-Korea Friendship Society. I was on my way to what was then East Pakistan. I had other reasons not to go. When I returned to Dhaka after two gruelling weeks in the countryside, a problem had arisen. My suitcase and I were too much for the emaciated driver. In Beijing posters decorated the streets, loud music blared from speakers and groups of children bowed before portraits of the Great Helmsman. Later that afternoon, I packed for the two-day train journey to Pyongyang and we set off for the station. Six weeks ago I inspected a police jail in Inchon.

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