Veteran Reporter Reports North Korean Crimes Against Humanity

The article which follows is relevant because it discusses conditions in North Korea as of 2006. There is nothing to suggest that conditions within Communist North Korea have materially changed. Thousands of former POW, many of them members of the KWVA, can testify to the brutality of the North Koreans. Mr. Kirk levels criticism at the current South Korean President and his administration for silence on this topic during this year of summit visits, etc., but honesty demands that we realize that the main Western, free world, negotiator dealing with the North Koreans since 1990 has been the United States of America. Our government should never be allowed to dismiss by thought or deed the over 8,000 men still unaccounted for in Korea from the years 1950-53 nor crimes against former POW from any war. When a government sends men and women to war it assumes a moral responsibility for the possible life-long consequences of doing so. A book recommended for reading is Korean Atrocity!, Forgotten War Crimes, by the late Philip D Chinnery, published by the (US)Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD.

Louis T Dechert,
President, KWVA/USA

Click HERE to Read Donald Kirk's Report

Donald Kirk is a veteran newsman who has covered the two Koreas for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. He is a former Edward R Murrow Fellow. Other biographic data are available at http://donaldkirk.com

(Posted 11/21/07)