you say

"South Korea is occupied by US troops who regularly commit robbery,violence,arson
and rape.In 2002 US troops ran over south Korean schoolgirls Sin Hyo Sun and Sim Mi Son in an armoured personnel carrier and killed them"

Is this two seperate statements, one without proof or any details, have the individuals involved been in any way punished for these aleged crimes?
You quote an incident in 2002, will check up but you give no details of this either.

This sounds like propoganda from the left, this is hardly news as the north south conflict was about 40 years ago.

Still why bother to check your facts or give details when blind love communism and the pure hate of all those who whould die rather than submit to that totalitarianist dogma is far more fun

Millions of people faced the worst food shortages since the late 1990s. Thousands continued to cross the border into China, mainly for food and economic reasons. Those arrested and forcibly repatriated were subjected to forced labour, torture and other ill-treatment in prison camps. Other widespread violations of human rights persisted, including politically motivated and arbitrary use of detention and executions, and severe restrictions on freedoms of expression and movement. Independent human rights monitors continued to be denied access to the country.
Background

In June, North Korea submitted a list of its nuclear assets to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, as part of the process to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. In October, the US government removed North Korea from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism after it agreed to provide full access to its nuclear facilities.

In November, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing very serious concern about human rights violations in North Korea.

"There were reports that the authorities executed individuals to deter political and economic crimes."

Right to food

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), millions of people experienced hunger on a scale not seen in a decade with women, children and the elderly being the most vulnerable. Food production dropped sharply and food imports declined. Long- distance telephone calls were reportedly blocked to prevent news of food shortages from spreading.

In June, a WFP and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) survey covering 53 counties in eight provinces indicated that almost three quarters of North Korean households had reduced their food intake. The majority of families stopped eating protein-rich foods and were living on cereals and vegetables. Many people were forced to scavenge for wild foods which are poor in nutrition and cause digestive problems. According to the WFP and FAO, one of the leading causes of malnutrition among children under the age of five was diarrhoea caused by increased consumption of wild foods.

Despite the food shortage reaching critical levels, the government failed to ensure minimum essential levels of food. Due to strained relations, North Korea did not request assistance from South Korea, one of the biggest donors of rice and fertilizer in previous years.
Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers

Thousands of people crossed into China, mainly in search of food and economic opportunities but also because of political oppression. Some stayed on a short-term basis gathering food and other essential supplies before returning home. Others, mostly women, stayed for the long-term and often married Chinese farmers. Some brokers took advantage of their vulnerability by trafficking them into forced marriages. The majority of North Koreans in China lived in fear of arrest and forcible return. Virtually all those forcibly returned to North Korea faced up to three years in a prison camp where they were subjected to forced labour, torture and other ill-treatment.

Hundreds of North Koreans travelled through China to Thailand where they were able to seek settlement in a third country. The majority went on to South Korea where they were granted citizenship but significant numbers faced difficulty in adapting to life in South Korea and some reportedly suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. A growing number migrated to other countries, mainly in Europe.

* On 2 December, the Myanmar authorities arrested 19 North Koreans, including one seven-year-old boy, for illegal entry as they were attempting to cross into Thailand. There were fears that the Myanmar government may deport them back to North Korea.

Prison conditions

Prisoners in camps and detention centres were forced to undertake physically demanding work which included mountain logging and stone quarrying, often for 10 hours or more per day, with no rest days. Guards beat prisoners suspected of lying, not working fast enough or for forgetting the words to patriotic songs. Forms of punishment included forced exercise, sitting without moving for prolonged periods of time and humiliating public criticism.

Prisoners fell ill or died in custody, or soon after release, due to the combination of forced hard labour, inadequate food, beatings, lack of medical care and unhygienic living conditions.
Death penalty

The government continued to execute people by hanging or firing squad. There were reports that the authorities executed individuals to deter political and economic crimes. In February, North Korean authorities executed 15 people in public for illegally crossing the border with China, reportedly as a warning to others.

In December, North Korea voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.
Enforced disappearances

North Korea’s widespread policy of enforced disappearance practised since the Korean War (1950-53) continued. North Korean family members of suspected dissidents disappeared under the principle of “guilt by association”.

The authorities continued to refuse to acknowledge the use of enforced disappearances. However in August, North Korean officials agreed to re-open investigations into the fate and whereabouts of several Japanese nationals who had been disappeared since the 1970s.
Freedom of expression

The government rigidly controlled the media and severely restricted religious practice. There were reports that local authorities arrested individuals who watched South Korean videos or were in possession of unauthorized mobile phones.
International scrutiny

The government continued to deny access to independent human rights monitors. In December, the UN General Assembly expressed serious concern at the refusal of North Korea to recognize the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea.

Come on, the people who write this article are some nutty authoritarian communist splinter group who like to be contrarian and big up every crazy dictator who claims to be "communist" when in fact they are more like fascist, just because they oppose the USA.

I'm not Indymedia is the place for this kind of authoritarian and pro-hierarchical politics.

Declaration on current situation involving the crushing to
death of two schoolgirls.



On June 13, 2002, two Korean schoolgirls, Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-sun, were crushed to death in Yangju County, Kyonggi Province, Korea, by an armored vehicle belonging to the 2nd Division of the U.S. Forces in Korea. Deeply mourning for their deaths, Korean people have greately resented the current Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) under which a Korean civilian court could not try the two U.S. soldiers who killed the two Korean teenage girls.

The Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which have endeavored to sublimate such Korean sentiment to a nation-wide movement, have formed the "Nationwide Committee to deal with the killings of Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-sun", launching campaigns for the collection of one million signatures, an overall revision of the SOFA, as well as for retrial of the murderous U.S. soldiers by a Korean court.

Defying such a public sentiment of Korean people, however, the U.S. court-martial in Korea, in the trials of November 18 to 22, has acquitted the indicted two servicemen of negligent homicide charges. These verdicts have exploded anti-Americanism lying latent among Korean people.

The Nationwide Committee, which has been doing campaigns upholding such sentiment of Korean people, convened on November 27 a "Conference on emergency situation of representatives of civic groups and political parties" attended by the leaders of major NGOs of Korea, and issued the following declaration on the current situation in Korea.



Declaration on the current situation



On November 20 and 22, the U.S. court-marshal in Korea gave "not guilty" verdicts to Fernando Nino, controller of the armored vehicle, and Mark Walker, driver, who cold- bloodedly crushed to death the two Korean schoolgirls by their heavy armored vehicle. Now Korean people are seething with anger at the U.S. court-marshal which arrogantly and brazenly acquitted the U.S. soldiers saying that "the road accident was unavoidable", even they have run over the two teenage schoolgirls.

The U.S. Forces in Korea have fully exposed their inhuman nature by their military court's giving an indulgence to the killings by two U.S. servicemen.

The Korean Government, which has been powerless and irresponsible toward the not guilty verdicts which trampled the sovereignty and self-respect of our nation, is now reduced to an advocate of the U.S. verdicts.

As the crimes and arrogance of the U.S. forces in Korea have plundered the lives and self- respect of Korean people, and the Korea Government has given up protecting lives and human rights of its people from them, we declare our position as follows:

1. The United States should apologize to Korean people for its deceitful court-marshal and nullify its verdicts promptly.

We believe that the trials by the U.S. court-marshal were fraudulent dramas produced on predetermined scenarios to acquit the indicted U.S. soldiers.

Even the minimum justness of this court-marshal could not be expected from the beginning, as its judges, juries, prosecutors, lawyers and witnesses were all American military personnel.

The U.S. court-marshal eventually handed down not-guilty verdicts on the ground that the communication equipment of the armored vehicle was out of order, although there were a series testimonies at the court to the contrary. Even if the communication equipment had some trouble, the commander who led the convoy could have stopped the convoy before the armored vehicle hit the girls. These facts show how fraudulent these trials were, making a fool of Korean people.

In addition, the incident was not a simple accident or a negligent homicide but at least a homicide by willful negligence. But the military prosecutors charged the soldiers with negligent homicide and the judge has even cleared those charges. Thus, the U.S. court-marshal covered up or fabricated the case, by making it a simple accident caused by failure in the community equipment.

Furthermore, even after the prosecutors indicted the soldiers for negligent homicide, they did not show the will at all to prove their charges. Also, the court-marshal tried the two accused separately so that each could impute the responsibility to the other. The prosecution did not even adopt the convoy commander as a witness, much less indicted, even though not only lawyers but also witnesses on the side of the prosecution argued for examining into his responsibility for the incident.

In this way, the trials by the U.S. court-marshal were a fraud without justice from the beginning to the end. They were a mere formality to give an acquittal to the accused. The fact that the acquitted soldiers left Korea soon after the trials proves it.

We demand, therefore, that the U.S. Government apologize for these fraudulent verdicts of the court-marshal and nullify them. At the same time, we strongly urge the U.S. Government to hand over criminal jurisdiction to Korean side so that a Korean civilian court can try the accused U.S. soldiers.

2. Korean Government should actively push for invalidation of the "not guilty" verdicts, and trials of the murderous U.S. soldiers by a Korean court. It also should push for an overall revision of the SOFA immediately.

Korean government has enunciated its position that "Korean people must respect U.S. legal process, and that revision of SOFA is practically difficult, and anti-American move runs against Korean national interest." But such a position is diametrically opposed to the demands and sentiment of Korean people. A senior aide to the President in diplomatic and national security affairs has even abused the Korean people by saying that those who protested against the acquittal of the two U.S. soldiers are "a handful of radicals."

We cannot but feel shameful and angry over the flunkeyism of the Korean Government defending actively the U.S. military trials which have mercilessly trampled down the nation's sovereignty and pride of our people.

Bent on not offending Washington, Korean Government has so far shunned the people's demands for the transfer of criminal jurisdiction from the U.S. to Korea, and punishment of the murderous U.S. soldiers. Instead, it has rather suppressed our citizens who have fought for the settlement of the two schoolgirls' cases. Considering such irresponsibility and a low posture of the Korean Government, acquittal of the U.S. soldiers could have been expected.

We strongly urge Korean Government to immediately stop such a subservient behavior of defending the deceitful trials of the U.S. court-martial and actively push for a nullification of its verdicts, and make the murderous U.S. soldiers stand at a Korean court. And we also ask the Korean Government to release immediately the young people and students who have been arrested for struggling for the punishment of the murderous GIs.

On the other hand, the recent U.S. military trials have clearly shown that, unless the current SOFA between Korea and the United States is revised overall, Korea cannot exercise its judicial sovereignty nor can prevent lots of crimes by U.S. servicemen. Therefore, the Korean Government should at once undertake an overall revision of the SOFA. The Korean National Assembly should also convene an extraordinary session to adopt a resolution urging the Korean Government to revise overall the SOFA.

3. We will continue our nation-wide struggle until the murderous U.S. soldiers are punished by Korean courts and Korea-U.S. SOFA is revised overall.

In compliance with the earnest desire of the whole Korean people, we will unfold an all-out struggle for the nullification of the U.S. court-marshal's verdicts of acquittal, for the punishment of the murderous U.S. servicemen, and for an overall revision of the SOFA. Already, young people and students are spearheading the struggle, and a wide range of the young and old, without distinction of sex or social statuses, are supporting our struggle.

We are confident that, if we mobilize and develop the nation-wide will to struggle, our struggle for the nullification of the "not guilty" verdict, punishment of the murderous U.S. soldiers and an overall revision of the SOFA will surely succeed.

Now, we sincerely appeal to our people:

Let's all people join in our struggle for the nullification of the fraudulent verdicts of acquittal, punishment of the murderous GIs and an overall revision of the SOFA!

Let's show the Korean and American authorities our demands and will to struggle by actively supporting the national action guidelines!

Let's settle the grudge of the killed Hyo-soon and Mi-sun, and restore, by our unified strength, the trampled national sovereignty and self-respect, and open a new chapter of national independence.

One comment above looks like it is really from the SK Embassy or a right winger, a long memorandum attacking the DPRK over food etc and asking if the contributor of the article paid by the DPRK !!!.This is a usual spook allegation as they see everything in terms people being paid agents etc.... I wonder how many paid agents there are on here? Clearly
we have rattled some people. And it's amazing how some of these people on Indymedia want to ignore jailings and repression in South Korea and killings of communists in the past.

Im sorry but the KFA are a bunch of nut jobs. If you would like to know a little more about them, there is the first part of a documentry below, the other 8 parts are on youtube.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZueUMQEMYKE


KFA take you fucking bullshit elsewhere

Just because we despise authoritarian regimes like the one in North Korea doesn't mean we love South Korea or the USA. Just because some scumbag US soldiers killed some kids and got away with it doesn't mean the sun shines out of Kim Jong-il's arse. Sometimes your enemy's enemy isn't your friend...

These people are authoritarian nutjobs and aren't really suited to the anarchist and anti-hierarchical ethos of Indymedia.

From  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Friendship_Association

David Scofield in The Asia Times Online described the KFA as follows:

The group's activities include "information" seminars where the enlightened benevolence of Kim's rule is championed, all part of its "alternative" view of the North. The ragged wretched displays of poverty and starvation are edited out and the voice of North Koreans not in the direct employ of Kim Jong-il are conspicuously absent. In place of uncomfortable reality, the KFA offers vacation photos of "their" North Korea taken during recent, state supported visits, complete with bowling, golf, amusement parks and Karaoke with young female party members. Members write glowing pieces, oblations celebrating Kim Jong-il's wise rule. No starving people, torture, summary execution, penury or despair in the Korean Friendship Association's North Korea. Just golf, great meals and evenings in the company of Kim Jong-il's beauties.