[KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in NorthKorea

Tue Apr 16 08:01:42 EDT 2013

Dear Keith and all,

No firewall. The Indy article is here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/students-on-bbc-panorama-trip-are-threatened-by-north-korea-8574189.html

The Mail also has it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309255/Panorama-Students-BBCs-North-Korea-trip-received-threats.html

It would be good to see a full copy of the NK letter, and who exactly it came from.

I too have found this a very useful threat. I mean thread. (Genuine typo, too good to change).

Cheers
Aidan

Aidan Foster-Carter
Honorary Senior Research Fellow inSociology & Modern Korea,Leeds University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W:www.aidanfc.net    
W in Korea:  http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http://aidanfc.net/index.html

Address/mail: Flat1,  40 Magdalen Road,  Exeter,  Devon,  EX2 4TE,  England,  UK
T: (+44, no 0)     07970 741307 (mobile);     01392257753 (home)   
Skype: Aidan.Foster.Carter                          Twitter:  @fcaidan   

-----Original Message-----
From: kh <kh at soas.ac.uk>
To: don kirk <kirkdon at yahoo.com>
CC: Jim Hoare <jim at JHOARE10.FSNET.CO.UK>; DavidMcCann <dmccann at fas.harvard.edu>; Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>; Ruediger Frank <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at>
Sent: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:09
Subject: Re: [KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in NorthKorea

Thank you for everybody who has responded to this thread. It has been a very useful discussion, and informed my discussions with a number of journalists yesterday. While the story will no doubt disappear in the next few days, The Independent has a further twist in its edition this morning (alas, I think it is behind a firewall, so I have not been able to find it on the web), under the title 'North Korea issues threats to students as BBC airs controversial documentary':

'An email sent to the students by a North Korean tourism official on their return stated: "I warn you that I will make public to the world… the lies made in the name of LSE students. I reserve the right to make public and publish all personal data, including all your passports, to demonstrate that while we have been direct and honest with you, you have broken the DPRK law."'

The documentary, as many suspected it would be, was primarily tourist videos and library materials. Sweeney stood out from the students in a way that, as many of you expected, would surely mean that the North Koreans did know exactly who he was.

Keith Howard
Professor of Music, SOAS, University of London. kh at soas.ac.uk
(+44)207 8984687 (O); (+44)7805 048801 (M)

On 16 Apr 2013, at 01:36, don kirk <kirkdon at yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks -- Your experience was no doubt revealing. My own trips have ranged from four nights to two weeks, that's it. (Was there for 12 days last summer.) You have no doubt had many varied encounters. I was referring only to interaction with guide-minders on brief trips. They never said anything to me that was revealing beyond the authorized briefings they gave when looking at stuff, on the bus etc. Humanitarian workers, ranging over broad areas, would have different impressions and experiences. You err in thinking I or others would have no regard for the fates of guides and their families. In my experience there was never any instance in which such issues arose. Guides were always quite pleasant -- except when warning that anyone who veered outside the group would be told to leave the country. (They never came close to carrying out the threat.) I never heard of anyone "extracting a confession from guides." Nor do I know of anyone "with article written no matter what they see." My own articles from last summer are accessible through links on the "hermit kingdom" page of my website, www.donaldkirk.com. A problem in writing them was there wasn't a lot to go on, but I did my best with what I had. Another listee, Mr. Hoare, seems to think it's possible to get a journalist's visa any time. These are difficult and in most cases impossible to get. The AP in Pyongyang  has been noteworthy for writing soft non-critical stories. (Check out recent articles by Ethan Epstein, The Weekly Standard, and a piece I did for 38North: http://38north.org/2013/03/dkirk032213/.)
Don Kirk

--- On Mon, 4/15/13, Frederic OJARDIAS <fojardias at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Frederic OJARDIAS <fojardias at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in NorthKorea
To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>, "Ruediger Frank" <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at>
Cc: "Jim Hoare" <jim at JHOARE10.FSNET.CO.UK>, BAKS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK, "Keith Howard" <kh at soas.ac.uk>, "DavidMcCann" <dmccann at fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Monday, April 15, 2013, 10:24 AM

Dear Don,

This is funny how you can show at the same time so much interest for human rights in DPRK, and so little regard for the fate of these North Korean guides and their families.

You take great pride and legitimacy in your numerous short trips to DPRK. But I can tell you one thing : I lived approximately a year in North Korea (working for different humanitarian organizations, in Pyongyang and in the countryside) and I know how dangerous life can be for all the staff (drivers, guides, translators, etc) who deal daily with us, foreigners. Some disappear.

"No shred of evidence", you say ? Ask humanitarian workers. They will not agree with you. I saw real fear in the eyes of some of our DPRK counterparts when something went wrong. Working with us is dangerous.

Brave journalists who go to DPRK one week (with their article already written no matter what they will see), have fun, extract confessions from their guides, escape their minders, take footage and put at risks the life of the people they filmed (and their families) are not much worth the regime they feel so superior to.

Frederic Ojardias

Radio France Internationale
Seoul correspondant

From: don kirk 
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 8:34 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List ; Ruediger Frank 
Cc: Jim Hoare ; BAKS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK ; DavidMcCann ; Keith Howard 
Subject: Re: [KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in NorthKorea

This palaver is regrettable. There's no shred of evidence any       NKorean ever got into trouble for the shenanigans of visitors -- the BBC       mission having been one of many such ventures. I ran into the same head       guide for my visit in 2005 and again 2008. He talked to me at some length.       KNTO and Koryo Tours (the latter never handled my visits incidentally)       will go on as usual. Nobody's claiming heroics -- nothing heroic about       going there, very simple once you get the visa. Visitors may be among the       world's best protected people, shielded from all harm while also shielded       from seeing stuff they don't want seen. Trips can be quite routine when       you're led to some of the same places every time, but       they're the best one can do when the place is closed to the kind of       reporting one can do even in repressed dictatorships.(No other country on       earth compels visitors to line up in front of statues of their deceased       leaders, bow and place flowers.) It's unfortunate some listees don't       respect what the BBC, and others, are trying to do. Some listees seem to       place higher priority on sensitivities about which they have no evidence       than the need to attempt, against odds, to convey a modicum of       understanding to the rest of the world.

Don Kirk

--- On Mon, 4/15/13, Ruediger Frank       <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at> wrote:

From:         Ruediger Frank <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at>
Subject: Re: [KS]         BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in North Korea
To:         "Korean Studies Discussion List"         <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Cc: "Keith Howard"         <kh at soas.ac.uk>, "Jim Hoare" <jim at JHOARE10.FSNET.CO.UK>,         BAKS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK, "don kirk" <kirkdon at yahoo.com>, "Morriss,         Peter" <pete.morriss at NUIGALWAY.IE>, "McCann, David"         <dmccann at fas.harvard.edu>, "Balazs Szalontai"         <aoverl at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Monday, April 15, 2013, 2:19         AM

Dear all,
I         find this behavior highly unethical and irresponsible, for a number of         reasons. 
In addition to the many points made already, let's not         be too self-centered. The feelings of LSE students and potential aid         workers are important, but one affected group we have ignored so far.         There were North Koreans responsible for that trip:         folks from KNTO (the tourism organization) and others. They will now,         away from the public eye and not protected by a Western passport, face         allegations of not having done their job properly. I have always been         deeply annoyed by the fact that such allegedly "heroic" behavior by         Westerners - seriosly, what can happen to us in the worst case? - is         taking place at the expense of those nameless people who are left behind         in NK and who will have to bear all the wrath of the regime. We talk         about human rights in NK and so on in our Sunday speeches, but in fact         we don't give a bloody damn about the people there. This is         disgusting.
Besides, the NK state has also been lied to. Such         behavior enforces stereotypes about Westerners who cannot be trusted.         Not that anyone would care, but I wanted to at least mention         that.
Great, good job. And all that for stuff (I suppose) that I and         1000 others have filmed again and again before? Wow.
I have decided         not to give any interviews to BBC anymore. Well, they'll         survive. 
Prof. Rudiger Frank, Vienna
PS: I forgot the tour         operator, most likely Koryo tours. Their business is not going to get         easier. But why should the BBC care? It's in the holy name of truth         (about others), isn't it. Collateral damage, so what.

on         Sonntag, 14. April 2013 at 22:15 you wrote:

I trust that some               list members have heard of the lead news story today on the BBC,               about three BBC journalists who accompanied students from the LSE               – under the disguise of themselves claiming to be students. A BBC               spokesman has claimed that to film the documentary (due to be               broadcast tomorrow), it was worthwhile putting students at risk               (Can this be right? – it was what their spokesman said on Radio 4               this afternoon). 

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22144667.

I would be               interested in colleagues' reactions. 

Prof. Keith               Howard
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, London               WC1H 0XG, UK
kh at soas.ac.uk; 0207 8984687;               07805       048801

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