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| North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yop dies at 87 Hwang Jang-yop was one of North Korea's most powerful officials when he sought asylum with South Korea in 1997Hwang Jang-yop, the key architect of North Korea's isolationist state policy who defected to South Korea in 1997, has died aged 87.Hwang's naked body was found in a bathtub at his Seoul residence, police said. A preliminary examination suggested no foul play, and an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death.His death came as North Korea held a massive military parade today to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' party, of which Hwang was once a senior official. Kim Jong-il and his heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, attended the parade.Besides being the intellectual force behind North Korea's guiding juche philosophy of self-reliance, Hwang was one of the country's most powerful officials when he sought asylum with South Korea's diplomatic mission in Beijing during a visit to the Chinese capital in 1997.Following his defection, Hwang lived in Seoul under tight police security amid fears North Korean agents might try to take revenge. He wrote books and delivered speeches condemning Kim's government as authoritarian. His criticism of the regime he once served earned him the moniker "human scum" in North Korean media.Two North Korean army majors were sentenced to 10 years in prison in South Korea in July for plotting to assassinate Hwang. North Korea denied responsibility for the plot, accusing South Korea of staging it to intensify anti-Pyongyang sentiment.Hwang graduated from North Korea's elite Kim Il-sung University and Moscow University. He was close to the country's founder, Kim Il-sung – the father of Kim Jong-il – and tutored the younger Kim.His defection caused a five-week diplomatic standoff with China, which was caught between its traditional ally Pyongyang and growing trading partner Seoul. China asked the Philippines to allow Hwang to travel there first rather than directly going to Seoul, in an effort not to anger North Korea. Two South Korean fighter jets escorted Hwang's plane flying in from Manila, 67 days after he defected.Pyongyang initially accused Seoul of kidnapping Hwang and threatened retaliation, prompting South Korea to put its army on high alert. But the North later said it had decided to banish him, calling him a betrayer.Hwang had a wife, two sons and a daughter in North Korea before his defection.North KoreaSouth Koreaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Delhi memories Main moments from Games few will forget bbc.co.uk |
Czech's Nuclear Tender Is Delayed a Year The Czech Republic's prime minister said the choosing of a winner of the country's largest-ever nuclear power tender will be delayed by a year to 2013. online.wsj.com |
Prime Minister of Barbados Dies Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados died following a struggle with pancreatic cancer, the government of the Caribbean nation announced. He was 48 years old. online.wsj.com |
Letters: Momentous admission on Katyn massacre While I applaud the publication of your article (Russia blames Stalin for Katyn massacre, 27 November), I would like to point out one omission. You write that "21,768 officers, doctors, policemen and other public servants" were shot in total, but fail to mention that besides officers it was mostly Catholic priests, representatives of Polish "intelligentsia", as well as members of the Polish nobility, who were the main targets of this form of ethnic cleansing. Soviet "class engineering" regarded these groups as the main obstacles to the creation of a new society of the liberated "homo sovieticus". As potential troublemakers, with 20 years of historical evidence in the form of Polish independence to "justify" such a verdict for any dictator, they had to be killed.Hitler and his henchmen were committing similar operations in German-occupied western Poland with only one difference to note: for Polish Slavs in the German "Generalprotektorat" there was no hope of "rebirth" into a Soviet-styled new society: as "Untermenschen" they were doomed.Dr Sascha-Dominik BachmannUniversity of Portsmouth• Russia's blaming Stalin for the Katyn massacre may be "symbolic" but, after 70 years of denial, Russia's admission of responsibility is momentous. However, this atrocity has obscured other appalling acts of inhumanity – notably the deportation of many thousands from eastern Poland, the men to almost certain death in Siberian salt mines, the women to forced labour on collective farms. One of these was my children's grandmother, whose first husband was murdered at Katyn. Isn't it time the UK government admitted its collusion in Soviet denials through excluding from the Armistice Day memorial the refugee Polish war veterans who fought to defend Britain, and by stalling attempts by Polish refugees to erect a memorial to Katyn in 1972?Sarah HuttonAberystwyth, CeredigionRussiaJoseph StalinPolandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |