Nodutdol | News | June 2009

NEWS | June 2009

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Only Way Out: Negotiate With North Korea

An Interview with Leon Sigal on Recent Events and U.S.-D.P.R.K. Relations
Interviewed by Paul Liem* on June 8, 2009 | published June 16, 2009

Leon V. Sigal is the Director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project of the Social Science Research Council in New York. Mr. Sigal is the author of “Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea,” which was named the Book of Distinction in 1998 by the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times from 1989 to 1995 and served in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, in 1979 as an International Affairs Fellow and in 1980 as Special Assistant to the Director. For a full bio, click here.

[Paul Liem]: Mr. Sigal, several weeks have passed since North Korea conducted its second nuclear test since 2006 and declared that it would consider sanctions by the United Nations to be an act of war. What do you think are the issues being discussed at the Security Council and what do you think we can expect?

[Leon Sigal]: Well, I think there are a number of sanctions that the U.S., Japan and South Korea are seeking and a number of provisions to make lawful, acts that otherwise would not be. A security council resolution creates new international law.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

SAVE THE DATE! DEEP FUNDRAISER SATURDAY, JUNE 20

2009 DEEP participants and Nodutdol will be hosting a fundraising event on Saturday, June 20th at the Nodutdol office to raise funds to bring medical suplies to maternity hospitals in North Korea. The door opens at 5:30pm. We are asking for $10 Admissions, plus tax deductible donations of any amount will be appreciated! There will be food, drinks (extra), and engaging and thought provoking entertainment- poetry and reflections from the north and south and from our own shores, with one thing in common- dreams of peace and an end to war on the Korean peninsula.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Who Killed Roh Moo Hyun?

by YC

Can a black person be the president of the United States of America?

Can America be really comfortable with a man who has “Hussein” as a middle name?

Though president Obama isn’t, can a descendent of slavery sitting in the highest office in the country sit well with the descendents of plantation owners?

And if the answer is yes, then what are the wages? What is the price that needs to be paid for this to happen?

All analogies are problematic, and this one is problematic as well because this story is not about the US at all. It’s a story about South Korea. Where it’s been, and where it was going and where it is now. 22 years after it gained democracy. 12 years after military government was removed from power.

It’s also a story about a man who didn’t get a chance to obtain higher education. It’s about a man who nonetheless passed the bar to become a lawyer, and that human rights lawyer’s rise through government. The star turn as he threw a name plaque at dictator Chun Doo Hwan, and the eventual come-from-nowhere victory in the 2002 elections. He was an Obama for South Korea before there was an Obama in the US. (as documented in Annie Koh’s essay “Smart Mobs for President”)

Thursday, June 4, 2009

TUESDAY, JUNE 23 - The Korea Policy Institute is pleased to present the following critical event:

“ENGAGING NORTH KOREA: HUMAN RIGHTS, NUCLEAR WEAPONS, AND A PLAN FOR PEACE IN THE OBAMA ERA”

DATE: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 6:30-8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Chapel of Grace, Grace Cathedral 1100 California St. San Francisco, CA 94108
**For more information, please contact the Korea Policy Institute at .

THIS EVENT IS FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Sponsored by the Korea Policy Institute & the Grace Cathedral of San Francisco.

Top of Page