UnCitizenship

Information is the most important thing on the issue of human rights in North Korea. Without anyone being informed of the issue, it is impossible for anyone to address it. The media does not even address this issue. They focus mostly on the nuclear proliferation. Granted, it seems to be a more pressing, threatening issue, but that does not mean that it is the only thing going on in North Korea. Media fragmentation is not the problem-- the media itself is the problem. They have to decide what is news-worthy and what is not, so they focus on what they think will get more attention. Nukes are much more of an audience-catcher than human rights abuses. News about these human rights abuses is hard to get out into the media because there are so few people who are able to represent their issues.

However, there is a bill that was introduced on March 25th of this year that addresses the issue of adopting children who have no country & not legal papers (see Legalize Adoption campaign through LiNK). I'm not sure where that is going, but there is still no media coverage on the issue. No one seems to care that much (except myself and a few other people). The news media probably does not think that it is entertaining enough-- there isn't usually even a mention of it on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

There is definitely a decline in association with the organization LiNK. They have a program where they automatically charge your credit card $9 each month to donate to their "9 Lives Campaign." You don't even have to write a check each month, so you don't even have to think about it. That is all that these people do, too. When LiNK was doing well in the Pepsi Refresh project the first month (February), people were voting every day because they were excited, and LiNK was doing well. Now that they have not won for 3 months in a row, people are becoming more and more disengaged (including myself, though I hate to admit it). LiNK is in 95th place now, unlike back in February when they were in 4th, or even March when they got 12th place.

I think it is difficult to disagree that what is happening in North Korea is a bad thing. I think the controversy might come in what to do about it. There probably will not be much polarization on the issue of adopting the stateless North Korean children (though that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it...?). I cannot imagine any arguments that might be used against it, except maybe some sort of fear of North Korean retaliation. I can see where there would be a split in decision-making about what to do about the human rights abuses. I worry that if there is too much polarization, congress will not be able to come up with any sort of policy that will allow us to do anything about the human rights abuses, or anything else that is even remotely involved with North Korea.

Citizenship & Public Spheres

I don't know that deliberation on the issue of Human Rights is the best way to go about solving the problems in North Korea. The United Nations has already laid out a plan for what should be done about human rights violations. Even better would be if the North Korean people could be deliberative themselves, so that they could decide what they wanted in their government. Unfortunately, that idea is so far fetched that it seems almost comical. The only person allowed to have any ideas is their supreme leader, Kim Jung Il, and no one is allowed to contradict what he says. Once the human rights crisis is solved, we can start talking about other forms of deliberation.

Citizenship & Deliberation

The issue of North Korea is not a well-known issue here in the United States, outside of their nuclear proliferation. There are very few experts on North Korea itself, and those who are experts are not well-heard in Washington, mostly because there are so few of them and it is not a pressing issue. Knowledge within North Korea (especially of the outside world) is non-existent, even though there have been recent increases in communication through cell phones.

I don't know that public knowledge would help on this issue, since no one really knows anything about it, and it is regarding a completely different set of people who have a different culture and don't necessarily know what they want or need.

I think applying Fung & Wright's model to this issue is extremely difficult because of the lack of information both within North Korea, and coming out of it. No one knows exactly what is going on, even though we have countless stories from refugees. No single person can know every little detail.