Editor, The Chosun Journal
July 14, 2002 (updated October 18, 2006)
Click for Korean translation
I know that the contents on this site at first glance can be overwhelming. That the disheartening facts made available here can cripple the soul.
So how does one overcome the sense of paralysis that takes over all of us when we […]

(edit made in last sentence, August 5, 2002)
North Korea has a treaty with China under which the PRC has agreed to repatriate refugees back to the prison country.
Why does South Korea not have a treaty with Mongolia to grant N. Korean refugees asylum to the South? That is the million dollar question, in more […]

When I came upon the photo of two elderly sisters at a recent North-South family reunion, I just sat there staring, letting the moment sink in - their age, their time apart, their brief time together again, the stories they’d share and wouldn’t be able to share (due to the only time that Pyongyang […]

The time is right to encourage Beijing to reevaluate its policy of forcibly returning N. Korean refugees, which is in conformity with its treaty with Pyongyang but is in contravention to human rights norms. In recent months, there has been a rise in N. Koreans seeking asylum at various embassies in China. Accordingly, there […]

It has been one year since The Chosun Journal began “informing, provoking, mobilizing consciences for the sake of human rights in North Korea.” Some things have improved, other things have stayed the same.
From Dr. Norbert Vollertsen’s bold and sustained media blitzes since his ejection from N. Korea to the daring escape of Jang Gilsu’s […]

The European Union has joined the rest of the world in lambasting George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address as “unilateralist” and “absolutist and simplistic.” Kim Dae Jung’s party has castigated W’s remarks for creating “a war atmosphere.” The media has focused attention on the “unease” that the statement has made in Asian […]

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” Winston Churchill
Many people in academia and the media have still not learned to overcome their naievete in favor of appeasing totalitarian regimes like North Korea even after their analysis of the Soviet Union, especially during the Reagan era, was […]

President Bush has repeatedly referred to Osama bin Laden as “evil” because the terrorist plotted the deaths of thousands of American civilians. Naming evil has been passé for some time. When President Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” there was an outcry from academia and media pundits of cultural insensitivity and diplomatic […]

Pyongyang routinely calls for the removal of U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula and criticizes Seoul for being unduly influenced by the United States. What the recent attack on the World Trade Center helps reveal is why Pyongyang is antagonistic towards South Korea’s political and cultural alliance with the United States.
The United States was […]

Recent developments in the case of Yu Tae Jun, a former defector caught by N. Korean police at the China-Korea border, bolster rather than undermine the impact of human rights groups on North Korea.
Human rights groups like Citizen’s Alliance had challenged Pyongyang to verify the condition of Yu Tae Jun. They had also criticized […]