i will respond in greater detail when i have a minute, but i will say, without meaning to disrespect you, that I think you've bought into a lot of Pentagon propaganda about North Korea. Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung did not create the starvation in North Korea. Natural disasters and the U.S. economic sanctions did. If the U.S. had never placed economic sanctions on North Korea, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans never would have died. DPRK does allow independent UN inspectors. The food does get to the people. The rumor that the food goes to the government or military is a U.S. government inspired lie designed to discourage Korean Americans from donating food aid money. The U.S. government is the worst and longest human rights violating country int he world--just ask the Native Indians. When the U.S. invaded and conquered the Phillipines a hundred years ago, over 500,000 Filipinos were slaughtered. Millions of Korean civilians died at the hands of U.S. soldiers dur! ing the Korean War. 20% of the civilian population of North Korea was wiped out during the Korean War--all by U.S. soldiers. Millions of Vietnamese died by U.S. weapons. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese died in the nuclear bombings. The U.S. has killed more people in the 20th century than any other country--by far. The U.S. is the world leader in numbers of civilian murders. There are no concentration camps in North Korea. The U.S. is starving DPRK to death. The U.S. is solely to blame. The U.S. is to blame!!!!!!! Don't believe the propaganda!!! Don't believe the hype!!!

I would like to ask why the only letter under your "letters" section looks like it was written by the editor in chief of the DPRK's state run newspaper?

I am appalled at the utter lack of clarity and coherent thought by the person who wrote that. He manages to point out every event the US was involved with in the past 100 years without actually going into WHY the US was involved with those events. It's awfully easy to say the US killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese Civilians in WWII. What's not so easy for people like that to say is that the US wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with WWII before Japan bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor in 1941. But I wouldn't expect the writer to put that in his rant because it goes against his theory that the US, is and always has been, the source of ALL evil in the world. Disregard japan's invasion of China and Manchuria, disregard the militant takeover of almost all of southeast asia. I'm sure in his mind, it's still the US's fault.

He also needs to check his history and his stat taking before he spouts off at the mouth again. He mentions some of the darker moments in US foreign policy. These events were terrible events. I won't dispute that. But let's look at those numbers in a larger context. The US is the biggest killer in the 20th century? Hardly. And any debate on that topic is moot since you can simply do the math. Stalin killed Tens of Millions of his OWN people by sending them to the gulags. But it was in the name of socialism so that can be excused by our friend the writer. Not to mention the wars the soviets faught in Afghanistan and other asian countries. I won't delve too deeply into the other conflicts listed. Suffice to say, these descriptions aren't the most accurate.

But all those statements carry very little weight and have very little meaning after reading one outstandingly stupid statement from his letter. And I quote: "There are no concentration camps in North Korea" This idiotic statement more than anything shows the true colors of the writer. I'm willing to entertain ideas that seem different to mine. I'm even willing to entertain ideas that on the surface seem kind of contradictory or outlandish. I'm not however willing to entertain such a rediculously stupid idea as this one.

If there weren't images from space of the camps, I might feel different. (Even some as big as DC) If there weren't escaped prisoners who corroborate everything we think is there, I might feel different. If there weren't former guards from these very same camps who escaped the country to tell of their atrocities, I might feel different. But they all are there. And they all tell the same story. And for those reasons and more, I DON'T feel different about it. These camps are real. Very real indeed. And to deny their existence in the face of such evidence is an injustice to every person who died under horrible conditions in them. That same denial is also a blatent condemnation of this persons logic and their ability for rational thought. I wouldn't usually come down so hard on someone who has a different view. But when the point of view is as vapid and worthless as this one is, strong criticism is certainly deserved. Other than that, I think your site is fantastic. It brings to light with gripping clarity the realness of the horror North Koreans deal with each and every day. Keep up the good work.