Why North Koreans Can't Write Research Papers

Born and raised in Seoul, Suki Kim posed as an English teacher at an all-male university in Pyongyang run by evangelical Christians; she spent six months teaching the 19-year-old sons of North Korea’s ruling class. In this excerpt from her investigative memoir, she describes the experience.

“Essay” was a much-dreaded word among my students. It was the fall of 2011, and I was teaching English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in North Korea. Two hundred and seventy young men, and about 30 teachers, all Christian evangelicals besides me, were isolated together in a guarded compound, where our classes and movements were watched round the clock. Each lesson had to be approved by a group of North Korean staff known to us as the “counterparts.” Hoping to slip in information about the outside world, which we were not allowed to discuss, I had devised a lesson on essay writing, and it had been approved.

I had told my students that the essay would be as important as the final exam in calculating their grade for the semester, and they were very stressed. They were supposed to come up with their own topic and hand in a thesis and outline. When I asked them how it was going, they would sigh and say, “Disaster.”
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N. Korea to execute 33

North Korea has ordered the death of as many as 33 people because of their alleged contact with a missionary, South Korea’s largest news organization has reported.

The 33 North Koreans are charged with attempting to overthrow the regime by setting up 500 underground churches, according to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, which cited an unnamed source. The newspaper said they are accused of working with Kim Jung-wook, a South Korean arrested by North Korean authorities in October on suspicion of trying to establish underground churches.

The executions will be carried out in a secret location administered by the State Security Department, Chosun Ilbo reported.

Kim, a Baptist missionary, appeared on North Korean television on Feb. 27 and said he was working at the direction of the South Korean National Intelligence Service, and that his goal was the collapse of the Pyongyang regime. It’s unknown whether Kim’s TV appearance will earn his release.

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US Lawmakers React on N. Korea Negotiations

Michael Bowman April 14, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's suggestion of negotiations with North Korea has provoked a mixed reaction from U.S. lawmakers.

Speaking in Tokyo Sunday, Secretary Kerry reiterated America's longstanding commitment to Japan's defense. At a news conference with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishada, Kerry urged dialogue with Pyongyang.

"Hopefully, North Korea will hear our words, and recognize that for the future of its people and for the future stability in the region, as well as on the [Korean] peninsula itself, there is a clear course of action that they are invited to take. And they will find in us ready partners to negotiate in good faith to resolve this issue."

In Washington, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin applauded the Obama administration's offer of negotiations.

"I think Secretary Kerry has it right. We are willing to step forward, but we want to see some positive measures from the North Koreans that bring down this harsh and hot rhetoric."

Speaking on the Fox News Sunday television program, Durbin said efforts to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula would be strengthened by more robust efforts from China, North Korea's main economic partner.

"It is time for you [China] to step up and show some leadership in this region of the world. We are prepared to work toward a common goal of peace. But we need the Chinese to tell the North Koreans that if they want to continue this escalation of rhetoric, it is at the expense of the safety of this world as well as their own economy."
Some U.S. lawmakers are wary of possible negotiations with North Korea. Also appearing on Fox News Sunday, Republican Senator John Cornyn said the United States must not reward Pyongyang's belligerence.

"I am not for paying an unhinged leader like Kim Jong-un ransom in order for him to tone down his rhetoric. It is like a bad movie. We keep seeing the re-runs."

Monday, Kerry meets with Japan's prime minister. Japan is within range of North Korean missiles.


From here.

Arms Treaty Blocked by Iran, N.Korea and Syria

NEW YORK, March 29 (RIA Novosti) – Delegations from 193 UN member states failed to reach unanimity on the first international treaty establishing rules for cross-border conventional arms trade, due to objections from Iran, North Korea and Syria.

The three states have criticized the draft as "unbalanced" and giving an advantage to the world's biggest weapons exporters.

The negotiations at the UN headquarters in New York lasted ten days. Peter Woolcott of Australia, who presides the Final UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), suspended the final session for last-minute consultations with the three nations.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today was "deeply disappointed" by the failure to agree on the treaty, according to a statement attributable to his spokesperson.

"The treaty had been within reach, thanks to the tireless work and spirit of compromise among Member States," the statement reads.

Russian Foreign Ministry Security and Disarmament Department Director Mikhail Ulyanov said the treaty contained "no provisions that would be absolutely inadmissible" for Russia. He added, however, that it has "many loopholes" and other drawbacks, and thus requires improvement.

The document will be put to a General Assembly vote.

"We are set to thoroughly study this draft [treaty] in Moscow, and then we will decide on our stance toward it, including on whether we should join it," he said.

The idea to establish standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons was voiced by a group of Nobel Prize laureates in 1995, but the UN General Assembly started preparations for this year's conference only in 2009.

According to the draft text, the treaty applies to all conventional arms, including not only small arms and light weapons, but also battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers.

It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.


Source: GlobalSecurity


 

N. Korean Doctors Murdered by Boko Haram

Assailants in north-eastern Nigeria have killed three North Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians, in the latest attack on health workers in a nation under assault by a radical Islamic sect, officials said on Sunday.

The deaths on Saturday night of the doctors in Potiskum, a town in Yobe state, comes after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.

The two attacks raise questions over whether an extremist, sect Boko Haram, has picked a new soft target in its guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings across the country. The sect has carried out a number of attacks in Yobe in the past 18 months.

The attackers apparently attacked the North Korean doctors inside their home, said Dr Mohammed Mamman, chairman of the hospital managing board of Yobe state. The doctors had no security guards at their residence and typically travelled around via three-wheel taxis without a police escort, officials said.

By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they found the doctors' wives cowering in a flowerbed outside their home. At the property, they found the corpses of the men, all bearing what appeared to be machete wounds.

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Related reading:  Boko Haram is a Terrorist Group; Nigerian Muslims Condemn Boko Haram; Maiduguri Buckles Under Boko Haram Presssure; Boko Haram Kills Polio Workers; Boko Haram to Christians: Convert of Die