The recent election of the Lee Myung-bak as the new President in South Korea has been heralded as a significant feat for the former Seoul Mayor and businessman. What received relatively little media coverage, however, are the human right violations that have marred the campaign.

Instead of the Internet being able to play a significant role in the 2007 Presidential election, as it had in the 2002 election, (1) it was prevented from doing so by harsh censorship of election related online discussion and debate by the National Election Commission (NEC) in South Korea.

The netizens in South Korea were silenced. The NEC cracked down on and forbid writing on blogs and in online posts giving the netizens’ views and critiques of the candidates.  The more technically savvy netizens found a way to post their comments, videos and other online posts on YouTube or other non Korean Internet sites, but for… weiter lesen

The press conference held at the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on Tuesday December 11, was a rare event in a number of ways. First was the importance of the subject. The press conference was called to officially announce that the New York Philharmonic Orchestra had accepted the invitation it received from the Ministry of Culture in North Korea to bring the orchestra to North Korea for a concert to be given on February 26.

This would be the first such U.S. cultural event in North Korea and would be an event in line with the role that cultural and sports events played to help establish diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and between the U.S. and China during the Nixon era.

Also it was rare for the North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations, Pak Gil Yon, to… weiter lesen