Korea Times, Jan. 30, 2008
Washington to Ship Fuel Oil to NK This Month
The U.S. government is preparing to ship a second batch of 54,000 tons of fuel to North Korea this month, a U.S.-funded radio station reported Tuesday. Radio Free Asia said the U.S. State Department was scheduled to report the shipment plan to Congress in the coming days.
Canada NewsWire, January 30, 2008
China - Hong Kong reporter beaten in Wuhan
Reporters Without Borders condemned a physical assault on Xiao Zhou, a reporter on the newspaper Tai Kung Bao, published in Hong Kong, while he was taking photos on 17 January of demonstrations against expulsions in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province…A police officer told Radio Free Asia that he had insisted on taking the journalist to hospital. He added that he could not arrest the assailants because they had already fled.
Yonhap, Korea Times, et al., January 30, 2008
NK DEFECTORS IN THAILAND TO TRAVEL TO US
SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Yonhap) -- Twenty three North Korean defectors in Thailand will likely be allowed to take shelter in the United States as early as next month, a Washington-based radio reported Tuesday. The defectors, now at an immigration camp, were informed of their schedules for medical checkups and a final interview, the last step in obtaining refugee status from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Radio Free Asia said.
The Associated Press; CBC News, Canada; Canadian Press, et al., Jan. 28, 2008 North Korea's main symphony orchestra will play in Britain in September in the communist country's largest-ever musical performances abroad, a U.S. government-funded radio station reported. The State Symphony Orchestra of the reclusive communist regime will perform three times in London and Middlesborough and British Broadcasting Corp. television will broadcast each concert live, Radio Free Asia reported on its Web site. It cited a British businessman who said he arranged the tour.
Yonhap, Jan. 25, 2008
North Korea's UN envoy to attend Korean film festival in USA
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) - The US government has allowed a North Korean envoy to the United Nations in New York to travel to San Diego for a Korean film festival organized by a local university, a US radio station reported Friday. Kim Myong -gil, North Korea's deputy chief of the mission to the United Nations in New York, will attend a Korean film festival organized by the University of California, San Diego, this weekend, as the US State Department gave rare permission Wednesday, Radio Free Asia said, quoting US officials and organizers of the event.
UPI, Jan. 23, 2008
For Cambodians, fear is a way of life
In a report published last October, Ath Bonny, field editor of Radio Free Asia, said: "Nowadays the people don't complain to the government or police: they complain to RFA. Many people see
us as a direct channel to communicate with their national leaders, and I think that makes the government nervous."
The Korea Herald, Jan. 14, 2008
Thailand to deport more N.K. refugees
Thailand will begin deporting North Korean refugees to South Korea at a faster pace than before, in line with the South's intention to accept more defectors, Radio Free Asia reported Saturday, quoting a local immigration official.
The Local (Stockholm, Sweden), Jan. 9, 2008
North Koreans sheltered by embassy reach South Korea
Two North Koreans who broke into the Swedish embassy in Vientiane, Laos, last month seeking asylum have reached South Korea, a report said Wednesday. The men, one in his mid 20s and the other his early 30s, left the Lao capital for South Korea on December 25th, Radio Free Asia, a US-funded nonprofit broadcaster, said in a Korean dispatch. Radio Free Asia, quoting a diplomatic source in Bangkok, said the embassy had decided to quickly send them to South Korea according to their wishes since the Swedish mission in Laos is due to close by mid August.
Reuters, Jan. 2, 2008
Myanmar junta hikes satellite TV fees
“Since killing at least 31 people in suppressing the protests, the ruling junta has sustained a relentless assault on the BBC, DVB, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, accusing them of broadcasting a ‘skyful of lies.’
