Home What's New Speeches & Articles Newsletter - Mar 2012 Biography Diary Contact Information Photo Album Parliamentary Highlights Publications Links MEPs' Transparency Visit the Freedom Association website
		North Korea: The "Dear Leader" and his paranoid psychopaths Plenary Speech - Wednesday, 16th June 2010 Mr President I have lived and worked in Korea, and last week I was in Seoul with our European parliament delegation. I heard the account of the Cheonan sinking from our Korean hosts, and it is abundantly clear that North Korea was responsible. The explosion in disputed waters was outside the hull, not inside, and the remains of a North Korean torpedo were found on the sea-bed near the sunken frigate. As one informed commentator said after reviewing the evidence, "It was either the North Koreans, or it was the Martians". While we express our outrage at this act of warfare, let us not forget the appalling human rights situation in North Korea. Shortages of food, water and electricity. Two hundred thousand in concentration camps, dying from over-work, starvation and physical abuse. The three a.m. knock at the door. Punishment extended to children and grandchildren. New-born babies of returned refugees strangled in front of their mothers. In a real sense the whole of North Korea has been turned into a vast concentration camp. When we consider their acts of internal repression and external piracy and aggression, their determined pursuit of a nuclear weapon, their prevarication at the Six Party talks, their constant threats and sabre-rattling, it is clear that the clique around the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il are a bunch of paranoid psychopaths. I therefore commend this Joint Motion to the House.