North Korea

Two recently held major international conferences brought together thousands of religious freedom advocates and government officials to cooperate in taking concrete action to end religious persecution.  

In this episode, the editors discuss articles about Alasdair MacIntyre’s recent talk about human dignity, whether according to international law Afghanistan was a US ally before the Taliban takeover, and on the possibility of an end-of-war declaration with North Korea.

There is increasing chatter in the Washington Beltway about the possibility of offering the North Korean regime an “end-of-war declaration” without preconditions. This would be a mistake.

This month the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report that documents religious freedom violations occurring in North Korea.

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss Paulina Song’s article about the US travel ban on North Korea, a 1946 article explaining why the July 20 plotters tried to assassinate Hitler, and Mark Tooley’s book review focused on Henry Adams’ pessimistic view of America.

The North Korea travel ban is an unfortunate policy that has caused separated families much pain and has prevented humanitarian organizations from operating at their full capacities. However, if we want separated families to be reunited for good—not just for Korean Americans, but for South Koreans and others as well—and for the humanitarian crisis in North Korea to end, we must set our policies to resolve the main problem, not just the symptoms.

In this episode, Paul D. Miller talks about his recent book “Just War and Ordered Liberty,” which explains how just war thinking has shifted over the centuries—from Augustinian, Westphalian, and now Liberal traditions.

A South Korean law that threatens human rights activists with fines of nearly $27,000 or up to three years in prison has prompted international concern about the status of free speech in South Korea and the future of human rights advocacy.

For years the international community has decried gross violations of human rights inside the prison camps. The recent expansion of the prison camp system, however, increases the need for the US government to take substantive actions to address human rights issues in North Korea.