Sunday, August 05, 2007

Some useful links on the dictator Kim Jong-il

Lest we forget.......

On Kim Jong-il - Note the Guardian is not a Conservative paper by any stretch of the imagination

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1136483,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,,1077559,00.html
'http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2821221.stm
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aankorea.htm

Here is some further reading from wikipedia - Kim Jong-il has been routinely criticized by world governments and international NGOs for human rights abuses carried out under his rule, as well as for North Korea's production of nuclear weapons, contrary to previous legal, international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and his own commitment to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. Camp 22 is North Korea's largest concentration camp, where up to 50,000 men, women and children accused of political "crimes" are held. Reports of gross violations of human rights by the guards have been reported, such as murdering babies born to inmates. Kim's expensive taste has become a media target. In the context of United Nations sanctions restricting the trade in luxury items to North Korea following the country's October 2006 nuclear test, Reuters coverage noted that "No one enjoys luxury goods more than paramount leader Kim Jong-il, who boasts the country's finest wine cellar with space for 10,000 bottles. Kim has a penchant for fine food such as lobster, caviar and the most expensive cuts of sushi that he has flown in to him from Japan."His annual purchases of Hennessy cognac reportedly total to $700,000, while the average North Korean earns the rough estimate equivalent of $900 per year. Some defectors describe a network designed to recruit the country's most-attractive adolescent females to serve as sexual playthings for Kim and other members of the ruling elite. The girls are taken from their families and assigned to mansions and lodges used by high officials. In their early 20s, the women are married off to lower-ranking officials.

No comments: