This article (link above) was found in the Dominion Post last week and describes the arrest of two American Koren journalists in North Korea. The two journalists were filming from the Chinese side of the Korean border and were arrested by North Korean guards when they refused to stop filming.
This incident is one of the many examples of North Korea being strongly authoritarian. Levitsky and Way say that in authoritarian states the media is "heavily censored, or systematically repressed." Journalists who provoke the government risk arrest or deportation. This incidient clearly shows these aspects of authoritarianism in the North Korean government.
Part of the article discusses that the journalists may have been on the Chinese side of the border. This raises the question, and I would be grateful if anybody could answer it for me, does the North Korean government have the right to enter China and arrest the journalists? I'm thinking that they wouldn't due to state sovereignty etc but they seem to have done so anyway. Does the fact that the journalists were filming Korea have any influence on this?
I wouldn't think that North Korean security officials would be allowed to arrest journalists on Chinese territory, regardless of what they were filming.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they thought the journalists were American spies? It sounds silly, I know, but North Korea has accused South Korea and the United States of preparing to invade.
I would say they most definitely cannot arrest and detain anyone who is not within their borders.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about this situation is quite often small things like this that can grow into much greater problems and really cause some serious issues at a diplomatic level.
When you read the article, it states that Washington has sent a directive to North Korea strongly advising the two captured woman be released. Along with that, South Korea is monitoring the situation along with China. With China's unwillingness to condemn North Korea in any way, it makes the relationship of the US and South Korea vs. China fairly strained, which is what the US and China can ill afford at the moment. Let’s just hope some small issue like this does not mushroom into a major issue.
Also, the last sentences of the article quote the Chinese state radio. It is commonly known that there are some serious issues with the freeness of the media within China, so their comments cannot be taken very seriously. It still puzzles me why China is still so willing to be friends with North Korea. Surely, its relationship with the US is much more important?
To me it seems more like North Korea 'took prisoners', rather than merely arrested two reporters. If the North Korean guards were outside of their own jurisdiction, how can it be arrest? And why would the guards do it within Chinese territory, when China is it's main ally and provider of economic aid?
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea's government seems sensitive towards any media attention directed towards it's ongoing problems with starvation and attitude towards basic human rights. No wonder they didn't want reporters filming the living conditions, after they have already been condemned by the UN General Assembly, and UN Commission on Human Rights for their severe violation of human rights. Their testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear devices also resulted in condemnatory resolutions from the UN Security Council. The government is reluctant to give people of North Korea greater personal autonomy as it may undermine Kim Jong-il's dictatorship and his extensive hold on power.