Monthly Archives: January 2014

Rodman and Kim Jong Un – Ego or diplomacy?

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Two needy men are using each other to maintain their own fantasies about themselves. The fantasy of one of them is that he is justified in his role as the “supreme leader” of a military reign of totalitarian fear over nearly 25 million people. The much less dangerous fantasy of the other is that he’s still a star. Which raises the question: is there a force on earth more strange, sad and frightening than the human ego in full spate?

It’s easy to see what Kim Jong Un is getting out of the relationship. He was obsessed with US basketball as a child, and has been a long-standing admirer of Rodman. The fact that he can persuade this man to visit, to declare to the world that they are friends, to sing him happy birthday, to defend his grisly human rights record, can only be gratifying to his monstrous, childish, grotesquely swollen sense of self. No doubt, he will believe – probably with some justification – that an association with this famous American will only burnish him in the eyes of the population. The state propaganda machine is certainly doing its best to help with that, by supplying fawning headlines describing Rodman’s great admiration and respect for Kim.

Rodman’s own propaganda is not going so well. Presumably, he enjoys the publicity these trips afford him, even though it’s all negative. One can only assume that Rodman is able to ignore everything except the personal kick he must get from his association with Kim. Rodman, on these trips, is being feted by a world leader and treated as a visitor of immense importance, even if that world leader is despicable. How terrible to have such a craving for personal validation and flattery that you can dismiss in your search for it the suffering of an entire population and the disapprobation of the rest of the world.

Kim Jong-un and Dennis RodmanThere are many reasons why Rodman’s friendship with Kim is laughable, and all of them revolve around the idea of Rodman’s absurdity, as a trusting creature who is proud to have been selected to polish the crocodile’s teeth. Rodman longs for the days when he was at the center of a personality cult, and it has made him vulnerable. It has delivered him into the hands of a man who heads his own, far more sinister personality cult.

This strange relationship, this folie a deux, between a hereditary dictator and a world-famous sportsman, is almost poignant in its revelation of the emptiness and dysfunctionality that is so often at the root of a search for power and acclaim.

[Deborah Orr, writing in The Guardian]

North Korea’s Juche a major world religion

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The website Adherents.com classifies North Korea’s “juche” (self-reliance) ideology as a religion.

“From a sociological viewpoint, juche is clearly a religion”, considering that it is so influential in its adherents’ lives and that it is exclusive of other ideologies, Adherents.com states.

Furthermore, juche ranks in the top ten of the world’s major religions judged on the number of believers. Including the world’s four major religions — Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism — Juche (19 million followers) is number 6, just after Sikhism (23 million).

This means that juche actually outnumbers several better-known religions, including Judaism (14 million), Bahai (7 million), Jainism (4.2 million), Shintoism (4 million), and Zoroastrianism (2.6 million).

Juche has all the necessary religious elements, including a founder (Kim Il-sung), a successor (Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un), a sacred ground (Mangyongdae), an organization (Workers Party and the military), doctrines, and precepts.

A prevailing view in academia likewise considers juche a religion. Rhee Sang-Woo, former president of Hallym University, said, “Juche is in the same vein as a monotheistic religion. North Korea is a strict theocracy.”

North Korea has 10 principles designed to uphold its monolithic one-party system. Article 3, Clause 6 of these 10 principles — a set of guidelines for everyday life — stresses the need to “respectfully care for, and thoroughly protect, the Dear Leader’s portraits, statues, and publications.”

Shin Eun-hee, a professor of religious studies at Simpson College in the U.S., regards juche as a “spiritual force that has sustained the North Korean people since the 1990s.”

Regarding juche as a major religion, we are reminded once again that it is not easy to free the North Korean people spiritually.

[Excerpt of Chosun Ilbo article by Lee Seon-min]

Christian persecution worst in North Korea

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North Korea remains the world’s most restrictive nation in which to practice Christianity, according to the 2014 World Watch List released by Open Doors, a nonprofit organization helping persecuted Christians worldwide. The hermit kingdom is at the top of the rankings for the 12th consecutive year.

The list is compiled of countries where Christians face the most pressure and violence. In an interview with Fox News, Dr. David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, said in North Korea, “it’s very dangerous to identify yourself as a Christian.”

“In some countries there are some freedoms and violence against Christians is noted in news media … in North Korea the control is total,” said Curry. “Reports that have been getting out that have been identified and confirmed by the U.N.  about what is happening to Christians, the kinds of torture that are happening to them … is absolutely inhumane.”

Curry said Kim’s regime might feel threatened by people in North Korea practicing Christianity.

“There’s a weird theocracy that’s been developed over three generations … that’s is especially fearful of any sort of spirituality or personal faith that would run contrary to the fact Kim Jong-Un [and his predecessors] … consider themselves Gods,” said Curry.

[Fox News]

Bros Kim and Rodman

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Dennis Rodman first befriended Kim Jong Un, an avid basketball fan who inherited power from his father, during his first North Korean visit last year and has described the young dictator as a “very good guy.”

rodman sings happy birthday to kim jong unOn Wednesday, accompanied by his wife, Kim emerged in a stadium in Pyongyang to cheering crowds who for several minutes wished him a long life, stopping only when the leader hushed them. Rodman gave an impromptu speech and then led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to Kim.

After participating in the exhibition basketball game he had organized for about 15 minutes, Rodman got changed and went to sit next to Kim in the audience, where the two spent the rest of the game smoking and laughing together, said Sean Agnew, a tourist who attended the unusual sporting event with Koryo Tours.

“Kim Jong Un really seemed to be enjoying himself,” Agnew said.

dennis rodman bows to Kim Jong UnThe two unlikely comrades appeared to be getting along famously at the game organized for Kim’s birthday. The young leader, whose exact age is unknown, is believed to be in his early 30s.

Images released by The Associated Press also showed Rodman appearing to bow to Kim after singing Happy Birthday.

If we were to give Rodman the benefit of the doubt …

If we were to give Dennis Rodman the benefit of the doubt

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This week, we’ve been treated to the increasingly familiar sight of former NBA star and provocateur Dennis Rodman attending events in Pyongyang, North Korea. It’s his fourth trip in less than 12 months.

The Weird American Athlete Goes to Weird Country story is just too easy not to cover. The most passive player in this tragicomedy is Rodman’s home country, the United States. The U.S. State Department has deployed the rhetorical equivalent of an embarrassed teenager whose dad has shown up to dance at his prom. Something along the lines of “this has nothing to do with us” is what the State Department has said with every one of Rodman’s trip.

This is an understandably cautious position. After all, Rodman has professed his love and undying affection for Kim, and he is probably not a canny enough operator to spearhead any form of political outreach along the lines of the “Ping-Pong diplomacy.”

On this trip, Rodman addressed the unavoidably political nature of a relationship with North Korea, saying his visits could “open the doors” to “talk about certain things.” In the CNN interview, he argued that it’s a “great idea for the world.”

Rodman’s celebrity status and sporting prowess has given him access to Kim. At some point, when both the U.S. and North Korean governments are feeling a little brave, perhaps they can try to thaw the ice with more professional diplomats tagging along on cultural or sporting exchanges.

There are precedents. For example, the U.S.-China Ping-Pong diplomacy of the 1970s had its genesis in table tennis player by the name of Glen Cowan. Once he broke the ice, the governments began talking.

The kind of engagement that Rodman is pushing cannot always be seen as merely rewards for a naughty regime, as much as we appear locked into a carrot-and-stick way of thinking about relations with North Korea. It can be mutually beneficial. We have the potential to gain as much as they do. Breakthroughs might be sudden and surprising, but they are usually underpinned by creative thinking, dialogue and the mutual acceptance that no one can get exactly what they want.

Domestically, it is great PR for Kim Jong Un. He gets to appear gregarious and inclusive in front of his people. Notwithstanding his uncle Jang Song-thaek’s execution, this is the image he has been assiduously cultivating. He’s eager to promote his friendly, approachable image while at the same time enjoying watching some former stars play his favorite sport.

For now, little will come out of Rodman’s visits other than extraneous news. But as Pyongyang continues to devote resources and energy to sports development, its appetite for athletic exchanges will increase. Let’s warily hope, to use Rodman’s phrase, that this can “open the doors” to other things.

[Excerpts from a CNN opinion piece by Andray Abrahamian, executive director of a nonprofit that provides educational training in business and economics for young North Koreans.]

 

Reaction to Dennis Rodman statements on Kim Jong Un and Kenneth Bae

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Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday that he was “disappointed” with Rodman’s basketball trip because it was “being used propaganda-wise by the regime.”

“I think Dennis has drank a little too much of the Kool-Aid from the North Koreans,” said Richardson, who has traveled to the country several times.

On Monday, before boarding a flight in China for North Korea, Rodman told CNN, “I’m going to try and interact with him (Kim) on that point of love for sports … He loves sports. I like the guy, and he’s an awesome guy to me.”

Concerning Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, Rodman suggested in a CNN interview Tuesday that had done something wrong but did not say what that was. Bae has been held prisoner for more than a year for reasons that are not clear.

Rodman “crossed the line” by implying Bae might be guilty of a crime that justified his detention, Richardson said.

Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, held a news conference Monday to call on Rodman to call off the game. With a mother and daughter who escaped North Korea standing next to him, Engel called it “very ill-conceived,” according to Time.com. “I don’t think we should ignore the real suffering in this gulag state,” Engel said. “And Dennis Rodman wants to go there and play basketball. It would be like inviting Adolf Hitler to lunch.”

Georgetown University Professor Victor Cha, a former director for Asian affairs at the White House, told CNN Rodman’s trips could be helpful to experts and analysts who study Kim. “In spite of all the criticism of Dennis Rodman, every time he meets with the North Korean leader, that’s more information that we know about him because we know so little about him,” Cha said.

Given the unpredictability of the Kim regime, it’s possible North Korea could decide to release Bae as a favor to Rodman. Cha said. “It’s entirely possible that he (Kim) could do something like that, and if he did all of us would stop criticizing Dennis Rodman,” he said.

[CNN]

 

Dennis Rodman sings Happy Birthday to Kim Jong Un

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, his wife Ri Sol-Ju and former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman talk in Pyongyang
Kim Jong-Un, and former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman during his earlier visit to Pyongyang

Dennis Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before leading a squad of former NBA stars in a friendly game Wednesday as part of his “basketball diplomacy” that has been criticized in the United States as naive and laughable. Some members of the U.S. Congress, the NBA and human rights groups, however, say he has become a public relations tool for North Korea’s government.

Rodman dedicated the game to his “best friend” Kim, who along with his wife and other senior officials and their wives watched from a special seating area. The capacity crowd of about 14,000 at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium clapped loudly as Rodman sang a verse from the birthday song.

Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet Kim. He has carefully avoided getting involved in overtly political activities, saying that he is not a statesman and instead is seeking only to build cultural connections with the North through basketball that may help improve relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Rodman has been slammed in particular for not using his influence with Kim to help free Kenneth Bae, an American missionary in poor health who is being confined in the North for “anti-state” crimes. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Rodman implied that Bae was at fault for being held captive.

Bae’s sister, Terri Chung, said his family couldn’t believe what Rodman said. “Here’s somebody who is in a position to do some good for Kenneth and refuses to do so,” Chung told KOMO Radio in Seattle on Wednesday. “And then after the fact, instead, he decides to hurl these unqualified accusations against Kenneth. It’s clear he has no idea what he’s talking about. I’m not sure who he’s talking to, where he’s getting his information, but he’s certainly no authority on Kenneth Bae.”

The game is a new milestone in Rodman’s unusual relationship with Kim, who inherited power after the death of his father in late 2011 and rarely meets with foreigners. He remains a mystery to much of the outside world and until recently, his birthday was also not widely known, though it was quietly observed elsewhere around the capital Wednesday.

Along with Rodman, the former NBA players included ex-All Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson and Vin Baker. Also on the roster were Craig Hodges, Doug Christie, Charles D. Smith and four streetballers.

Members of the team, who average in their late 40s, said they came because they believed the game would be a good opportunity to create a human connection with the people of the isolated country. But some said they have been concerned by the negative reaction they have seen from the media and critics back home.

To keep it friendly, the Americans played against the North Koreans in the first half, but split up and merged teams for the second half.

The North Korean team scored 47 points to 39 for the Americans before the teams were mixed. Rodman played only in the first half and then sat next to Kim during the second half.

[Source: AP]

Scaling up of North Korea’s repressive prison camps

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North Korea has showed no signs of scaling back its fearsome labor camp system, with torture, starvation, rape and death a fact of life for tens of thousands of inmates.

According to human rights group Amnesty International, satellite images purportedly show evidence of expansion, including the construction of new housing blocks and production facilities, at two of the isolated regime’s largest camps or “kwanliso” –15 and 16 — used to hold political prisoners.

Amnesty commissioned the images from DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite imagery vendor. In their release, Amnesty claims that up to 200,000 prisoners, including children, are being held “in horrific conditions in six sprawling political prison camps.”

The rights group says it has shared the evidence with the U.N. Commission of Inquiry investigating human rights abuses in North Korea.

Amnesty claims many prisoners are allegedly being held for nothing more than watching foreign soap operas or holding a particular religious belief, while others are incarcerated simply for having a family member deemed politically undesirable.

Pyongyang denies their existence, despite satellite images and testimony from witnesses.

Kim Jong Un’s executed uncle eaten alive by hungry dogs?

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JANG SONG THAEK-court
Jang Song Thaek being dragged into court by uniformed personnel, prior to his execution last month.

Little was known about the execution of Jang Song Thaek, until now.

It was assumed that a firing squad was used to carry out the execution of Jang and his five closest associates. However, NBC News is reporting that the young North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may have fed his uncle to a pack of starving dogs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful uncle was reportedly thrown into a cage and eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs, according to a newspaper with close ties to China’s ruling Communist Party. The Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po reported that Jang and his closest aides were set upon by 120 hunting hounds which had been starved for five days. The newspaper added that Jang and other aides were “completely eaten up.”

According to this unconfirmed report from Wen Wei Po, Jang Song Thaek and five of his aides were stripped naked and then tossed into a cage where the hungry dogs waited. The gruesome event was reportedly witnessed by the North Korean dictator, his brother and as many as 300 people.

U.S. officials told NBC News on Friday that they could not confirm the reports. “This is not ringing any bells here,” said one senior official.

The official North Korean account from Dec. 12 did not specify how Jang was put to death.

Kim Jong Un’s New Year message for 2014

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This week Kim Jong Un praised the recent purge of his uncle and former protector, saying it brought greater unity within secretive, nuclear-armed North Korea. Kim’s speech Wednesday is the first time he has publicly commented on the purge.

“In the seething period of the effort for building a thriving country last year, we took the resolute measure of removing the factionalists lurking in the Party,” Kim said in a New Year’s address, referring to the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

“As our Party detected and purged the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists at an opportune time and with a correct decision, the Party and revolutionary ranks were further consolidated and our single-hearted unity was solidified to the maximum,” Kim said, according to the text of the speech carried by North Korean state media.

North Korean state media attacked Jang’s character and detailed an extensive list of his alleged crimes, describing him as “despicable human scum.”

In his speech, Kim also warned that if war were to break out in the region, it would spiral into a nuclear confrontation.

“The U.S. and South Korean war maniacs have deployed legions of equipment for a nuclear war in and around the Korean Peninsula and are going frantic in their military exercises for a nuclear war against the North,” Kim said. “This precipitates a critical situation where any accidental military skirmish may lead to an all-out war.”

“Should another war break out on this land,” he said, “it will result in a deadly nuclear catastrophe and the United States will never be safe.”

But his words stopped well short of the alarmingly threatening language that peppered North Korean statements in early 2013 as tensions spiked over the regime’s nuclear test in February and the resulting U.N. sanctions.

[CNN]