INTERVIEW: 'We have been oppressed by unfreedom for a long time in China'

4 days ago Radio Free Asia

Citizen journalist Kcriss Li is interviewed by Radio Free Asia in New York after having dropped out of public view for more than two years. "I'm suddenly being chased down by the state security police. "We have been oppressed by unfreedom for a long time in China," Li told RFA. Kcriss Li says China’s zero-COVID policy and its white-clad enforcers [shown] resembled the political turmoil of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. "I think China could become very diverse," he says.
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Lao police arrest middlemen who issued fake visas for workers to go to South Korea

The fraudsters “made fake visas to trick them” after “learning the trick from Thailand.”Lao laborers usually enter foreign countries on tourist visas to look for jobs. “They make fake tourist visas and sell them for high fees to workers who want to go to work in South Korea,” he told RFA. Some of the workers with the fake tourist visas could not enter the country and had to return to Laos, he added. Laotians must have a passport and a “yellow book” issued by the Labor Ministry that allows them to work legally in South Korea, he said. Laotians can go to South Korea to work legally if their documents are issued by the ministry, the person said.

2 months ago Radio Free Asia

Rugby match anthem gaffe prompts police to probe 'national security law breach'

"Police will take follow-up actions seriously in accordance with the law on whether the incident has breached the National Anthem Ordinance or any other legislation of Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong National Security Law." The national security law, which heralded a citywide crackdown on dissent and mass exodus of people in the wake of the 2019 protests, bans public speech or actions deemed likely to "incite hatred" of the government, while the national anthem law bans any speech or actions deemed to be disrespectful to the Chinese national anthem. In September, a 43-year-old man was arrested for "sedition" after playing Glory to Hong Kong on the harmonica at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral vigil in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Rugby Union said future errors of this type would mean the Hong Kong team's "immediate withdrawal from competition." He said the Hong Kong Rugby Union would launch its own investigation to study ways to ensure the incident is never repeated.

2 months ago Radio Free Asia

North Korean censors destroy more than half of soldiers’ Mother’s Day letters

The military ordered the soldiers to write home, but used the contents of their letters to punish some of them. Customers buy flowers for Mother's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Nov. 16, 2022. Letters written by North Korean soldiers to their mothers were opened and examined by military security officials, resulting in more than half not being delivered, sources in the country told RFA. North Korea’s military ordered soldiers to write letters to their mothers ahead of the country’s Mother’s Day, which was on Wednesday, but military censors destroyed more than half of them for ideological reasons, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. To make matters worse, the censors even used the contents of some letters to identify and punish problematic soldiers, sources said. Instead they made the mistake of asking about their mothers’ wellbeing, the second source said.

2 months ago Radio Free Asia

In North Korea, speaking in Southern accent gets you sent to the coal mines

In North Korea, speaking in a South Korean accent can get you expelled from school and sent to work in the coal mines. But North Korean authorities view it as a counter-revolutionary crime. But lately, authorities have “ordered strong countermeasures, saying that the phenomenon of using the South Korean accent is a counterrevolutionary crime that can disintegrate our internal affairs,” he said. Executed for distributing South Korean moviesNorth Korea has clamped down after it enacted a law in December 2020, the Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, with short-term punishment of up to two years of hard labor for those who speak, write or sing in South Korean style. “The league officials are nervous,” he added.

26 days ago Radio Free Asia

No kimchi? Poor harvests, lower incomes mean North Koreans may go without staple dish

In this Nov. 19, 2020 photo, neighbors gather for kimjang for winter at a home in Pyongyang, North Korea. In years past, North Koreans could depend on their government-assigned jobs to provide them with ingredients for kimjang, but not so this year, the second source said. Photo: AP“Red peppers are one of the key ingredients of kimchi, but residents have no choice but to pickle kimchi without pepper,” she said. There are non-spicy varieties of kimchi made without chili peppers, but the red, spicy varieties are more common. “At least, Chongjin City faces the sea, so some residents who make kimchi can pickle the vegetables with seawater,” she said.

2 months ago Radio Free Asia

Tour of Pyongyang reveals massive wealth gap to North Korean farmers

Only the most privileged members of North Korean society are allowed to live in Pyongyang, and most North Koreans can only dream of ever visiting, so being selected for the tour is considered a great honor. According to the source, the farmers’ excursion to Pyongyang, hosted by the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea, has happened every year since 1985 during the agricultural off-season. The union invites the farmers that achieved the highest yields and exemplary farmers recommended by cooperative farms. “Most of the farmers living in rural areas in the provinces have never been to Pyongyang. “It’s simply unfair that only Pyongyang residents receive benefits like adequate food rations,” he said.

1 month ago Radio Free Asia

Despite border incursion, North Korean drones face fuel shortages, frequent crashes

A suspected North Korean drone is seen on the side of a mountain in Inje, South Korea, in June 2017. “If the operator is not supplied with gasoline, they will run the drone’s engine on castor oil,” the source said. South Korean responseSouth Korean military apologized on Tuesday for failing to shoot down the drones and President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to speed up the creation of a military unit supplied with cutting edge drones to respond to such incidents in the future. Sources told RFA that North Korean military authorities are mobilizing talented students from elite schools such as the Kim Chaek University of Technology and North Korea’s College of Science in the design and production of drones. “However, gasoline is needed to mobilize military drones for daily training.

1 month ago Radio Free Asia

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