A Christmas Prayer for North Korea’s Christians
Public worship is dangerous. A ‘congregation’ might mean two people on a park bench, silently sharing their faith.…
Thanksgiving, 1789
George Washington’s proclamation was not without controversy Wall Street Journal November 21, 2012 by Melanie Kirkpatrick It is…
When Captives Cast Off Chains
Book review of The Long Walk to Freedom, edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise Wall Street…
North Korea: Human Traffickers and the Chinese Market for Brides
This book excerpt appeared in Newsweek International, August 20, 2012 Steven Kim, an American businessman from Long Island,…
The Future Arrived Suddenly
Book review of My First Coup d’Etat by John Dramani Mahama Wall Street Journal July 10, 2012 by…
At the End of the Night
Published in the Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2012: Japan's renowned woodblock prints—the ones said to have inspired Western Impressionists such as Claude Monet—are known as ukiyo-e, literally "pictures of the floating world." Ukiyo-e originated in the 17th century in Edo, the ancient name of Tokyo. They depict the most colorful aspects of the city's pleasure quarters—fierce-looking Kabuki actors and half-dressed courtesans, serene teahouses and crowded brothels.
A Life Sentence, Then a New Life
Published in the Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2012: There is no dispute about the existence of the North Korean gulag. Anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can go to Google Earth and zoom in on a string of vast prison camps located in the unforgiving, mountainous center of the country. The U.S. State Department and international human-rights organizations put the number of inmates at about 200,000. As many as one million North Koreans are believed to have perished there. Only three people are known to have escaped.
China vs. North Korea’s Refugees
Published in the Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2012: An important piece of North Korea's system of control over its own people is finally being exposed: China's complicity. On Monday, Seoul raised the issue of Beijing's policy of repatriating North Korean refugees in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. While it stopped short of mentioning China by name, referring only to "all countries directly concerned," this represents a major loss of face for Beijing.