Felix Abt's Blog

CNN’S PORTRAYAL OF NORTH KOREA AS LAWLESS AGGRESSOR REVERSES REALITY

FAIR, the national media watch group, writes: 

“Felix Abt, a Swiss entrepreneur who served as a pointperson for investments in North Korea for seven years, and headed Pyongsu, North Korea’s first foreign-invested pharmaceutical company, wrote a memoir that described repeatedly witnessing the effects of draconian US and UN sanctions on North Korea. They prevented the country, Abt wrote, from doing necessary things like rebuilding water supply and drainage systems, hindering imports of mechanical parts and fuel to operate agricultural machinery, and causing electrical shortages that are ‘the largest bottleneck to any industrial development of North Korea.’ He also noted that less than 20% of North Korea’s land is arable—which makes it heavily dependent on food imports, like his native Switzerland—yet illegal unilateral US sanctions compounded the damage caused by droughts, floods and the collapse of major trading partners like the USSR, causing between 500,000-600,000 deaths by starvation in North Korea during the 1990s (Al-Jazeera, 3/27/14). CNN calling for stricter enforcement in light of what have historically been genocidal sanctions—which are still causing harm to the North Korean people—is especially callous.
Yet CNN doesn’t seem to think it worthwhile to question the justice and legality of UN sanctions on North Korea; the report makes it seem as if only North Korea considers UN sanctions to be 'hostile acts,’ or 'questions their legitimacy.’”

Link to the full article here.

“Felix Abt, a Swiss entrepreneur who served as a pointperson for investments in North Korea for seven years, and headed Pyongsu, North Korea’s first foreign-invested pharmaceutical company, wrote a memoir that described repeatedly witnessing the effects of draconian US and UN sanctions on North Korea. They prevented the country, Abt wrote, from doing necessary things like rebuilding water supply and drainage systems, hindering imports of mechanical parts and fuel to operate agricultural machinery, and causing electrical shortages that are ‘the largest bottleneck to any industrial development of North Korea.’ He also noted that less than 20% of North Korea’s land is arable—which makes it heavily dependent on food imports, like his native Switzerland—yet illegal unilateral US sanctions compounded the damage caused by droughts, floods and the collapse of major trading partners like the USSR, causing between 500,000-600,000 deaths by starvation in North Korea during the 1990s (Al-Jazeera, 3/27/14). CNN calling for stricter enforcement in light of what have historically been genocidal sanctions—which are still causing harm to the North Korean people—is especially callous.
Yet CNN doesn’t seem to think it worthwhile to question the justice and legality of UN sanctions on North Korea; the report makes it seem as if only North Korea considers UN sanctions to be 'hostile acts,’ or 'questions their legitimacy.’”

Link to the full article here.

INTERESTED IN GETTING A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF NORTH KOREA? HERE COMES ‘THE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE DPRK’

Dr. James Hoare isa British academic and historian specializing in Korean and Chinese studies,and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office. He was British Chargéd'affaires in Pyongyang where his work laid the foundation for theestablishment of a full embassy in the North Korean capital.
Hoare has written widely on China, Japan and Korea. Sinceretiring he has been a frequent commentator on radio and television in Britainand abroad, usually on Korean issues.
Hoare is the author of the “Historical Dictionary ofDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea” (which also mentions business man and book author Felix Abt)

Dr. James Hoare is
a British academic and historian specializing in Korean and Chinese studies,
and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office. He was British Chargé
d'affaires in Pyongyang where his work laid the foundation for the
establishment of a full embassy in the North Korean capital.

Hoare has written widely on China, Japan and Korea. Since
retiring he has been a frequent commentator on radio and television in Britain
and abroad, usually on Korean issues.

Hoare is the author of the “Historical Dictionary of
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (which also mentions business man and book author Felix Abt)

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND…

… North Korea better you better ignore the misleading mainstream media!  

If you want to know and understand North Korea better you need to ignore the misleading mainstream media!  

THE SWEDISH-KOREAN ASSOCIATION BLOGS ABOUT FELIX ABT’S NEW BOOK.

Translation:     

New book by Felix Abt 

The Swiss entrepreneur Felix Abt, who lived and worked in DFR Korea for manyyears and became famous with his book A capitalist in North Korea, has nowreleased the sequel North Korea behind the veil, with the subtitle What themainstream media does not want you to see !, which is free as an e-book. In thepreface, Abt writes, among other things; North Korea has been portrayed fordecades as a monolithic gulag network filled with slaves and a hellhole by themass media. The socio-economic changes North Korea has undergone over the lastdecade or more have been almost entirely unreported. Despite my firsthandknowledge and insights gleaned from my time in this isolated country, my viewshave been largely ignored by the mainstream media. The reason for this, Ibelieve, is because I have tried to be as fair and objective as possible,instead of merely trashing the country as I’ve been expected to. Against thisbackground, Abt writes that he owes the North Korean people to continue to tellthe outside world about their country. The book can be downloaded here as a pdf file.

The Swedish-Korean
Association (Svensk-Koreanska föreningen) blogs about Felix Abt’s new book. Translation:     

New book by Felix Abt 

The Swiss entrepreneur Felix Abt, who lived and worked in DFR Korea for many
years and became famous with his book A capitalist in North Korea, has now
released the sequel North Korea behind the veil, with the subtitle What the
mainstream media does not want you to see !, which is free as an e-book. In the
preface, Abt writes, among other things; North Korea has been portrayed for
decades as a monolithic gulag network filled with slaves and a hellhole by the
mass media. The socio-economic changes North Korea has undergone over the last
decade or more have been almost entirely unreported. Despite my firsthand
knowledge and insights gleaned from my time in this isolated country, my views
have been largely ignored by the mainstream media. The reason for this, I
believe, is because I have tried to be as fair and objective as possible,
instead of merely trashing the country as I’ve been expected to. Against this
background, Abt writes that he owes the North Korean people to continue to tell
the outside world about their country. The book can be downloaded here as a pdf file.

BECAUSE…

…the book ‘A Capitalist in North Korea’ advocates incremental change through engagement, as practiced by the author himself, with North Korea instead of violence and other forms of coercion it was ignored/censored by the U.S. mainstream media and their “bloodthirsty journalists" 

Glenn Greenwald quote source.

From Vietnam to Iraq, how the media spins lies to sell wars.
A must-watch documentary piece!  

Because the book A Capitalist in North Korea advocates incremental change through engagement, as practiced by the author himself, with North Korea instead of violence and other forms of coercion it was ignored/censored by the U.S. mainstream media and their “bloodthirsty journalists" 

(Glenn Greenwald quote)