04 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
A factory worker has been executed by firing squad in North Korea for divulging information to a friend in South Korea. The man, who has only been identified by his surname Chong, was accused of sharing the price of rice and other information on an illegal mobile phone with a defector. Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea revealed that security officials raided the man’s house and found a Chinese-manufactured phone. North Korea does allow mobile devices to be used, but their range is limited to the capital Pyongyang. The country is notorious for its disregard of human rights and has no organised political opposition or a free media.
08 Dec 09 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The Australian government has been accused of censorship after it refused visas to five North Korean artists invited to attend a rare exhibition of their work in Queensland. Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has denied the men visas, saying their studio was a propoganda tool of the communist North Korean government. Nick Bonner, a Beijing-based British businessman and art dealer who helped curate the exhibition denied that the works were political. He added: “For an artist to produce a body of work and not be able to speak about it, that’s censorship.” Read more here
05 Aug 09 | Index Index, minipost
Current TV journalists Laura Ling, and Euna Lee have returned to the United States after former US president Bill Clinton secured their release from a North Korean jail on a visit to Pyongyang.
Read more here
04 Aug 09 | Index Index, minipost
Former US President Bill Clinton has arrived in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, amid an international stand off over the country’s nuclear programme and the jailing of two US journalists. Clinton will try to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced to 12 years hard labour in June. They were found guilty of entering North Korea across the Chinese border in March.
