Goodbye OFK. Hello, Korea Liberator.
by tdaxp ~ February 13th, 2006
Imagine my horror when I found out that one of my favorite blogs, One Free Korea, was shutting its doors
With this entry, posting at OneFreeKorea comes to an end.
But hopefully the future will be bright. Joshua, a fellow South Dakotan and an amazing guy has joined with the brains behind DPRK Studies and The Asianist to create a new grou blog, The Korea Liberator.
The Korea Liberator‘s mission statement reads:
Our Agenda Is a Free and United Korea
…
North Korea will only change when it reflects the will of its people. North Korea’s people want most of the same things people everywhere want: self-determination; freedom of expression, religion and association; food and clean water; good education for their kids; marriage and families; some frivolous entertainment; and the satiation of their intellectual curiosities. They want all of these things without fear of Thought Police, firing squads, or labor camps.
The North Korean regime has intentionally deprived the North Korean people of the fundamental necessities of life so that it could build a gargantuan army and nuclear weapons. Somewhere between 50,000 and 300,000 North Koreans want those the necessities of life so badly that they risked their lives, crossed over to China, and live like fugitives. We believe that many others, who cannot leave, also wish not to live under Kim Jong Il’s reign. We want what they want.
While not as muscular as Barnett or Curzon, Joshua is a resolutely pro-North-Korean (people and anti-DPRK (government) blogger. He has met with Secretary John Bolton, and is a daily read for tdaxp. My blogroll and rss reader have been updated.
Curious about North Korean news? Also read NKZone, or the US Army’s North Korea geography textbook (hat-tip Catholicgauze).
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
February 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Sonny,
The Korea Liberator is a great source for news.
The cheerleader gulag story [1] is sickening. Sickening news out of North Korea is routine. [2]
Meanwhile, our State Department thinks of reasons to keep Korean citizens living under Kim Jung Il away from freedom [3]
[1] http://www.korealiberator.org/2006/02/16/defector-nk-cheerleaders-sent-to-gulag/
[2]
[3] http://www.korealiberator.org/2006/02/17/will-us-finally-let-in-nk-refugees/
February 13th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Thank you, Joshua. OFK was one of the reasons I began blogging. Two of the very first tdaxp posts were on Korea. OFK set a high bar and a great example.
February 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Dan,
While readinf the news I came across this report on the CNN web site:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Twenty-one members of North Korean cheering squads who traveled to South Korea for international sports events are being held in a prison camp for talking about what they saw in the South, a news report said Friday.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/nkorea.cheerleaders.ap/index.html
I gave a cranium's up to the Korea Liberator guys.
I know the story includes cheerleaders and Asian babes, two of my favorite subjects (and it seems like the tdaxp readership shares my feelings), but this is not funny, in fact, in my eyes, this is a tragedy. Imprisonment in NK is pretty much a death sentence. Communism sucks!
February 13th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Thank you, Dan.