Myanmar insurgents launched mortar bombs at the junta’s top leader during his visit to a military base in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state, an official from the anti-junta group told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
RFA could not independently verify the report of an attack on Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday as he visited Loikaw’s Regional Command Headquarters in the state capital, Loikaw.
The junta has not released any information on an attack but its media reported on Thursday that Min Aung Hlaing had discussed the security situation and an upcoming census during his visit.
RFA telephoned Kayah state’s junta spokesperson Zarni Maung for confirmation but he did not answer calls.
A spokesman for the ethnic minority Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, or KNDF, said its fighters launched two 120 mm mortar bombs at the military base when the junta chief was believed to have been visiting.
“We received the information that he was coming to Loikaw, so we ordered our heavy weapons team to get ready and fire,” said the spokesman, who declined to be identified for security reasons.
“We heard that personnel in the Regional Command Headquarters were injured but we don’t know exactly how many yet.”
Karenni guerrillas and junta forces have been confronting each other in a divided Loikaw for months this year, with the military regaining ground there since June.
Juna forces responded to the attack with sustained attacks, including airstrikes, on KNDF positions on Thursday, the rebel spokesman said.
A building destroyed in a junta bombing in Nan Mei Khon village, Demoso township, Kayah state on Sept. 5, 2024. (Citizen photo)
The junta leader also delivered provisions to nearby junta militias in Shan state’s Hsihseng township, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Loikaw, where they frequently clash with anti-junta forces, media reported.
The KNDF says it has captured 65 junta camps, including 12 military bases near Loikaw, and eight towns since it launched an offensive late last year.
The junta also launched airstrikes in other parts of Kayah state on Thursday, including Nan Mei Khon village in Demoso township where one person was killed and buildings were damaged, said the deputy secretary of the state’s anti-junta Interim Executive Council, Banya Khun Aung.
“The military bombed two places at around 10 a.m. killing one person and injuring seven,” he said.
A Demoso resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons said the victims were policemen working for a rebel-backed department. Their police station was damaged.
More than 500 civilians have died in junta custody or been killed in shelling and airstrikes in Kayah state since the military seized power in a coup in 2021, rights group the Progressive Karenni People Force said in a statement on Sunday.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada. Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel’s tactics are about “punishing the people, punishing the civilians,” with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. “They want Palestine empty from Palestinians.” He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has “the green light from the U.S. government.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Eman Abdelhadi speaks at the Bodies Against Unjust Laws march in Chicago on Sunday, August 18. Photo by Steel Brooks
Eman Abdelhadi’s speech from the “Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws” demonstration on Aug. 18 in Chicago.
Chicago, we all know why we are here.
We are drowning, and our hearts are broken.
We are drowning in debt. In medical bills. In rising rents. In inflation.
We are under attack in this country. The Right has declared war on people of color, on trans people, on women. They are trying to dismantle our systems of education, trying to criminalize teaching Black history and the realities of racism, oppression and exploitation in this country.
They openly call for mass deportations and want to strip Black people of voter rights.
Demonstrators on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Photo by Steel Brooks.
Every year, the climate crisis kills more people of heat, of floods, of fires. Every year, the number of climate refugees at home and abroad climbs and climbs.
And in this moment of absolute disaster, of absolute crisis.
The American ruling class —the people descending on this city for the Democratic National Convention — have seen fit to spend our money on killing children in Gaza.
They have provided an infinite supply of bombs to destroy Gaza’s homes, its schools, its hospitals, its playgrounds, its mosques, its churches, its croplands, its infrastructure.
As the most powerful country on earth, they have bullied the rest of the world in the name of protecting a far-right government openly committing a genocide.
And now …
Now they want our votes.
They say they have earned them by showing a little more empathy towards those poor Palestinians they happened to kill.
Vice President Harris, we hear your shift in tone.
But …
Your tone will not resurrect the dead.
Your tone will not shelter the living.
Your tone will not pull bombs out of the sky.
Your tone is not enough.
Genocide Joe would still be on the ticket if it were not for this movement, for all of us. Our movement is one of the main reasons that you are now the Democratic candidate for President in the most powerful country on the planet.
You, Vice President Harris, get to run for office because we ousted your predecessor right here in these streets. But it was never just about him. It was about the 40,000 Palestinians he helped kill.
And now we are telling you that “Not the other guy” is not a platform.
We are telling you that you actually have to earn our votes.
And we are telling you exactly how to earn them.
We are telling you we want a weapons embargo.
We are telling you we want a permanent ceasefire.
And we are telling you that we want them NOW.
You keep telling us that democracy itself is on the line.
You keep telling us that fascism is knocking at the door.
You keep telling us that Trump would be worse.
But the majority of Americans, in poll after poll, say they disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Study after study shows that a weapons embargo would earn you more votes, would secure you this election.
Vice President Harris, why are you risking the end of democracy, the rise of fascism, the return of Trump to protect Netenyahu’s war on children?
You are not the protector of democracy.
Weare the protectors of democracy.
If you want to see democracy, look to Chicago’s streets this week. We are democracy speaking back to power, saying we will not be ignored.
We want to house our unhoused.
We want to feed our hungry.
We want to heal our sick.
We want to guard our planet.
We want to build our future, not rob Gaza’s children of theirs.
You may think that the people who make it into the United Center today are the ones who get to shape the future of this country.
That’s not true.
We make the future of this country. We make it where we’ve always made it, right here on the streets.
Vice President Harris, you have a choice. You could join a movement for justice. You could make a place for yourself in history. You could be a leader who chose to listen to her people rather than the interests of the war manufacturers. Or you could aid and abet a war criminal.
Vice President Harris, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, WE ARE SPEAKING.
Hear us. We will not be placated by tone.
We need you to act — and we will not leave the streets until you do.
This piece was published in collaboration with In These Times.
Gunfire, explosions, flames, and death haunted Lee in his internally displaced persons camp almost daily.
“One night, explosions erupted near the camp, along with the sound of fighter jets,” recounted Lee, whose surname is being withheld due to security concerns.
“My parents woke me and we rushed to hide in the ditch outside. When it was over, we learned a bomb had damaged the community center. Worse, someone died that night.”
Lee, 18, became a refugee in his own state of Kayah (Karenni) following Myanmar’s Feb. 1, 2021, military coup that toppled the elected National League for Democracy government, and sparked an ongoing civil war.
A BenarNews photographer was allowed to travel across the border to the camp from Thailand, under an agreement that its location and the date of the visit would not be disclosed to ensure the residents’ safety.
Lee lived in a bamboo hut with a thatched roof built by his father in the camp. The encampment lacks electricity and water and houses more than 100 people in dozens of shelters.
“Every morning, we walk to bathe and collect water from the camp well,” Lee said. “On Friday evenings, we trek four hours to a camp near the Thai border to charge all our devices for the week ahead.”
The camp has a basic clinic and a barebones school sitting on a hillside with bamboo classrooms topped by tin roofs where children can continue their education despite the circumstances. The teachers, refugees themselves, are paid 1,500 baht (US $42) monthly. Most school supplies come from international non-profit organizations.
“I dream of going to university,” Lee said. “I wish for a safe country to welcome my family – any country ready to accept refugees like us.”
Shortly after speaking with BenarNews, Lee’s dream came true. He and his family relocated to a new country where he has a chance to pursue his educational aspirations.
The hut Lee’s father built is occupied by another young man from Kayah state whose mother was killed in the civil war.
He lives there with just his guitar as company.
A Karenni boy plays in the refugee camp near the Thai border in this photo taken in mid-2024. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) Residents walk to and from a well to collect water for their families in the Myanmar refugee camp that has no running water or electricity. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) Students walk to their homes for lunch at the Myanmar refugee camp in mid-2024. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) People are gathered to bathe near the well, the only source of water at the refugee camp in Myanmar near the Thai border in mid-2024. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) A refugee plays the guitar for entertainment at the Myanmar camp for Internally Displaced Persons. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) Some Karenni girls wear traditional skirts as they attend the camp’s only school. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) A woman with a scar on her arm seeks treatment at the camp’s barebones clinic. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) Men play volleyball as they do each evening in the refugee camp. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews) A view of the makeshift homes of Myanmar residents who have become refugees in their own country. They built their houses on a hillside to avoid detection by Burmese junta planes. (Nattaphon Phanphongsanon/BenarNews)
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Nattaphon Phanphongsanon for BenarNews.
Minority Rohingya Muslims were targeted by heavy weapons as they waited on a Myanmar riverbank for motorboats to carry them to Bangladesh, several survivors of the attack told Radio Free Asia. The witnesses said that dozens of people were killed.
The attacks on Monday were described variously as caused by homemade rockets, artillery and drones that destroyed a motorboat and hit crowds of people who gathered on the Naf River. The victims were fleeing recent intense fighting between the ethnic insurgent Arakan Army and Myanmar junta forces.
Video seen by RFA and circulated on social media showed dozens of bodies on a riverbank, some of them mutilated, amid suitcases and scattered possessions. RFA could not immediately verify the date or location of the citizen-shot video.
Hasan, a 25-year-old Rohingya man who was unharmed in the attack, told RFA that it was carried out by the Arakan Army, or AA, which has made gains in its fight for control of Maungdaw township in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state – part of a wider civil conflict that has consumed much of the country since a 2021 military coup.
“The junta did not attack us with rockets. It was carried out by the AA. We tried to flee to Bangladesh for our survival,” he said. “The victims are our villagers.”
Rohingya have recently been expelled from Maungdaw city’s downtown area, where many had fled because of fighting in rural areas, according to Wai Wai Nu, a Burmese activist and visiting senior research fellow at University of California, Berkeley.
The situation in Maungdaw is a “deadly catastrophe” as Rohingya civilians are being targeted for “escalating atrocities,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I’m being informed of mass killings of 50+ #Rohingya civilians by the #Arakan Army, among many other brutalities,” she wrote, citing community sources. “Rohingya are also being killed in crossfires of armed conflict between #Myanmar junta & #AA by drones & heavy weaponry.”
Witnesses who spoke to RFA put the death toll as high as 200. RFA was unable to verify those estimates.
Maungdaw is a key trade hub for goods flowing in and out of Myanmar via Bangladesh. The city of Maungdaw is the township’s administrative center and has served as an important base for junta forces in Rakhine state.
In a statement on Wednesday, the AA expressed its condolences for the victims at the Naf River but said it wasn’t responsible for the deaths, which it noted took place in an area of Maungdaw township that isn’t under its control.
RFA attempted to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha via Telegram to ask about the attacks but he didn’t immediately respond.
The AA, which has long fought against central rule in Myanmar, claims to represent everyone living in Rakhine state but is predominantly Buddhist and has previously been accused of atrocities against Rohingya.
Rohingya activist Ro San Lwin, who is based in Europe, said he was also told that the AA targeted Rohingya civilians with rocket attacks, which he said should be designated as crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“We have informed this attack to foreign governments, relevant governments, Western governments and ASEAN countries,” he said. “They have reportedly contacted the AA to persuade the AA not to do so.”
Trapped in Maungdaw
About 1 million stateless Rohingya refugees live in tightly packed border camps in Bangladesh. Most fled there in 2017 to escape violent crackdowns in Rakhine state that were blamed on the Myanmar military.
The flow of people seeking refuge in Bangladesh has picked up as security has deteriorated due to the latest fighting in Rakhine state. Over the last two days, about 1,000 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh, a person who has lived in one of the Bangladesh camps since 2017 told RFA.
That’s despite the recent domestic political turmoil that has gripped Bangladesh. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country following weeks of protests and deadly clashes in the capital, Dhaka.
Relatives mourn near the bodies of Rohingya refugees who drowned in the Naf River, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, Aug. 6, 2024. (AFP)
People are being charged 800,000 kyat (US$150) to be carried across from Maungdaw to Bangladesh, Hasan said. Those who cannot afford the fee – likely thousands of people – are still trapped in Maungdaw, he said.
On Tuesday, a boat carrying Rohingya capsized in the Naf River, killing at least 10 people, including children.
Authorities in Teknaf in Bangladesh told Agence France-Presse that 29 Rohingya were on board and just 10 bodies have been recovered. Some of those on the boat were able to swim to shore, according to the report.
Elsewhere in Rakhine state, about 100 civilians were arrested in Sittwe on Monday night as junta troops conducted security checks out of concern that AA members had infiltrated the state capital, residents said.
A battle between the AA and the junta for control of Sittwe has been anticipated for months. Junta troops prepared for the defense of the city by deploying heavy weapons, warships and ground forces in surrounding villages.
RFA was unable to reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the situation in Maungdaw and Sittwe.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Wai Mar Tun for RFA Burmese.
New recruits in the North Korean army are pleading with their parents through the military base fence, almost begging them to buy them food, because they aren’t getting enough during the weeklong registration, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
“The spring military draft has reached its final stage. Parents of new recruits are complaining about the poor quality of food in the barracks,” a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
In North Korea, every man must serve seven years in the military, and every woman five.
Every spring and fall, young soldiers-to-be flock to military facilities all over the country.
Serving is a rite of passage, and families come to the barracks to see their children off. At the end of registration, which can last longer than a week after all the medical and fitness tests, the recruits are issued an official Korean People’s Army uniform.
Tearful farewells
Seeing one’s son or daughter in uniform for the first time is often an emotional experience, sources in the country say.
Parents shed tears of joy that their child has reached adulthood, but they are also tears of sadness because they know that life in the military is grueling, and that they won’t see their children for some time.
Whether sad or glad, the parents stay near the barracks to say good-bye to their kids.
“The area near the provincial military mobilization department is crowded with parents of new recruits from all over the region,” the resident said. “I also stayed there for 10 days until I could see my son in uniform.”
She said that the parents wait outside the fence all day, and if their kids have not received their uniform yet, they turn in for the night and return the next morning.
Most recruits will not be assigned to units in their hometowns. In the case of North Hamgyong province, the recruits are usually sent further south to Kangwon or South Hwanghae provinces.
Paltry rations
But parents say their children come to them asking for more food because they are fed such meager rations on base.
“Most children ask their mothers to buy them food through the fence,” the resident said.
“When I asked what they were served at the barracks’ cafeteria, I was told that they get just a single bowl of rice mixed with corn,” she said. “The portions were too small, and the only side dish was salted radish.”
She said the children telling their parents how hungry they were made many mothers cry.
“The parents worry about the hunger their children will experience during their time in the military,” she said. “How nice would it be if the authorities actually fed the children well, after all, the children are preparing to leave their parents and serve.”
This picture from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 26, 2024 shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (C) paying a visit to Kim Il Sung Military University in Pyongyang to mark the 92nd anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s army. (KCNA VIA KNS/AFP)
In better times the soldiers got a little bit more food.
Prior to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, soldiers received 800 grams (1.7 pounds) of food per day. Now they get only 600 grams (1.3 pounds).
In comparison, a single meal ready-to-eat, or MRE combat ration, for a U.S. soldier weighs between 510 to 740 grams (1.1 to 1.6 pounds) and likely contains far more calories. And they are fed three times a day.
North Koreans rarely eat meat these days, usually only three to five times per year, during the major holidays.
The resident described the North Korean rations as “pathetic.”
Food vendors
There are those who stand to profit from the poor quality of army food though, a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“Every draft season, food vendors gather around the provincial military mobilization department,” he said, adding that the peddlers sell things like rice mixed with artificial meat or tofu, and sweet snacks. The soldiers are so hungry that it’s big business.
For the rich kids though, it’s a different story, the Ryanggang resident said.
On April 10, the country’s leader Kim Jong Un made a visit to Kim Jong Il University of Military Politics – named after his father and predecessor.
“He brought a generous meal for them that included bulgogi (barbecued meat) and apples,” he said.
Parents who gathered outside of the barracks were angry at the news because the kids of the elite receive what enlisted soldiers can only dream about.
“In this one fact, we can see that while Kim Jong Un says he is for the people, in reality, he values the elites,” the resident said.
The future high-ranking officers do not need special treatment, he said.
“I wish Kim Jong Un would care about enlisted soldiers who have to suffer for a long time after they leave their parents at such a young age.”
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean.
The World Food Programme is warning northern Gaza has reached a “full-blown” famine that is spreading south. This comes after the Israeli military has spent months blocking the entry of vital aid into Gaza, attacking humanitarian aid convoys and opening fire on Palestinian civilians waiting to receive lifesaving aid. We get an update on conditions among the besieged and starving population of Gaza — including of children now suffering from the psychological effects of intense and prolonged trauma — from Dr. Walid Masoud, a vascular surgeon and a board member of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund who is just back from heading a medical mission to Gaza.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
The South Korean YouTuber’s video shows his visit last April to the Blue Flower, a North Korean restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital – one of 70 North Korean restaurants operating worldwide, mostly in Asia.
Collectively, they earn the cash-strapped North Korean government about US$700 million, according to the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea.
But they violate international sanctions.
All North Korean workers were supposed to have repatriated before the end of 2019, but many have kept working.
The Blue Flower itself was closed several months later – in August 2023 – possibly for violating sanctions, cambodianess.com reported. But many of these restaurants remain open.
In his travels around Southeast Asia, the YouTuber, identified by a pseudonym Lee to protect his identity, told RFA Korean that he discovered several other North Korean restaurants – but staff in Laos and Vietnam refused to let him film the inside of the eateries.
“I spoke with the boss at a North Korean restaurant in Cambodia and he said business was good,” said Lee. “Most North Korean restaurants in Southeast Asia that I visited had good business.”
North Korean waitresses perform in front of a large menu at a North Korean-owned restaurant in the Chinese border town of Dandong, February 11, 2013. (Mark Ralston/AFP)
The North Korean workers are dispatched overseas to serve customers and entertain them by dancing and singing, and most of the money the restaurants earn is forwarded to Pyongyang.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism to North Korea had dwindled to nearly zero. Only recently, it has restarted for guided tours from Russia.
So the restaurants, which are also found in China and Russia, were perhaps one of the only ways to experience North Korean culture firsthand.
Prior to the pandemic, the restaurants were seemingly struggling, but Lee says the ones he has been visiting were relatively successful.
Northern cuisine
Korean cuisine varies by region, and so it is hard to generalize about how Northern cuisine may differ from that of the South, but connoisseurs can identify differences.
A tour company describes the North Korean varieties as using fewer spices and sauces than varieties in the South, while an escapee who settled in the South and opened a restaurant in Seoul told Voice of America that northern dishes are simpler, made with more traditional cooking methods.
At the Blue Flower, Lee enjoyed eating gamja jjijim, or potato pancake, and kalguksu, or knife-cut noodle soup. Varieties of both dishes exist in South Korea as well.
The Blue Flower served the potato pancake with honey as a dipping sauce, which would be uncommon in the South.
He was also served with a North Korean variety kimchi, most of which aren’t as spicy as South Korean varieties, and several kinds of banchan (often translated as “side dishes”). And he washed it down with a cold Taedonggang beer, brewed in North Korea.
Hostesses stand at the entrance of a North Korean restaurant in Hanoi, October 6, 2023. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP)
“I ate alone on the first floor of the restaurant, but he said that there also held performances on the second floor. So, the second floor was reserved for group events,” said Lee.
He said the Blue Flower was different from the North Korean restaurant he visited in Vietnam, which seemed to mimic the South Korean dining experience.
According to Lee, the server at the Blue Flower told him she had been in Cambodia for three years, meaning she arrived in 2021.
With sanctions in effect, her presence at the Blue Flower in 2023 should have been illegal, but North Korea has been known to get around sanctions on its dispatched workers by sending them on tourism or student visas.
Exploiting loopholes
In fact, since early 2019, North Korea has been using the student visa loophole to staff its restaurants in Cambodia, a North Korean restaurant worker who escaped from her employer in Phnom Penh and resettled in South Korea in 2016, told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“When I was working, we went out on work visas, but I talked to some friends who were sent out in 2019 and they were all on student visas,” said the woman, who is identified with the pseudonym Kim. “They lied to get their visas and that’s how they are overseas.”
In March 2016, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 2270 on North Korea, prohibiting U.N. member states from doing any business with the North Korean regime.
At that time, China showed an even firmer commitment to implementing sanctions against North Korea than ever before. It refused to renew the visas of North Korean restaurant workers in the country and ordered the closure of North Korean companies.
As a result, some North Korean restaurants closed, and workers packed their bags and returned to North Korea.
The restaurants are still open, however, and Kim says that the sanctions only hurt the livelihood of the workers.
“The sanctions against North Korea did not actually affect the business of overseas North Korean restaurants that much,” said Kim. “In 2017, China said it supports sanctions against North Korea and inspected all the goods overseas North Korean workers were bringing back to North Korea. When workers got home, there were missing items, and everything was torn.”
Additionally, said Kim, North Korea’s way of getting around sanctions was not to send the workers back to North Korea, but to a different country so that they can work more before being discovered and possibly repatriated. They often don’t know where they are going up until the moment they depart.
“The process is kept secret, so the workers don’t know much about it,” she said. “When the restaurant closes, almost everyone takes a plane and heads out to China.”
She said the managers of restaurants look for business partners anywhere they can find them, and on a moment’s notice, everyone boards a plane and they fly to the next country.
It is an existence that many of the workers dislike, but they have no choice but to comply with their orders.
Marketing curiosity
A North Korean restaurant once located in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, began business after the 2019 sanctions went into effect.
Shin Hyunqwon, who runs a travel agency in Uzbekistan, told RFA that the restaurant thrived, not only through word of mouth from local residents, but also as a hotspot for South Korean tourists.
Five employees dispatched from North Korea escaped in May, June and August 2022, one after another, causing the business to close. Since then, there have been no North Korean restaurants in the capital of Uzbekistan, Shin said.
North Korean restaurants in China and Russia, which have closer relationships with North Korea, have been thriving regardless of sanctions against North Korea.
One reason for that is by catering to South Korean tourists’ curiosity about North Korea and providing an opportunity to interact with North Korean staff.
A North Korean restaurateur who operates a restaurant in northeastern China said he had been in the business for decades. It has been an official policy to refuse service to South Koreans, but not all the restaurants comply.
“On the outside, they are all North Korean restaurants, but some of them are jointly operated by North Korea and China,” said Park. “In North Korean restaurants where the owner is Chinese and the employees are North Koreans, they accept South Korean customers.”
The situation is similar in Russia where South Koreans are banned from entering North Korean restaurants. However, Russia has stricter rules on South Koreans entering the country than China.
Translated by Claire S. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chin Min Jai for RFA Korean.
New York-based Hoda Osman has spent the past six months helping Gaza journalists replace cameras, laptops, and phones lost or damaged in the Israel-Gaza war. More than 5,500 miles away, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Wafa’ Abdel Rahman coordinates humanitarian supplies and cash assistance for reporters under Israeli bombardment, while Rania Khayyat, also in Ramallah, is in constant contact with dozens of Gaza journalists to understand their needs.
Together, these three women play a central role in the difficult task of supporting Gaza’s press corps at a time of unprecedented strife and loss amid Israeli attacks and restrictions on basic supplies. At least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began on October 7. The vast majority of these fatalities are Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes; Israeli forces also killed threeLebanesejournalists and twoIsraelis were killed by Hamas. With international journalists blocked from entering Gaza, the responsibility of covering the war falls on those who are living through it.
Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Khayyat, communications officer at the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, and Rahman, the founder and director of the women- and youth-focused Palestinian NGO Filastiniyat, are committed to helping Gaza journalists survive and continue to report. Collectively, they have provided aid to hundreds of journalists on the ground. (CPJ recently supported these three groups with a $300,000 grant in emergency funds.)
CPJ spoke with Osman, Rahman, and Khayyat in separate phone calls about the day-to-day reality for journalists in Gaza and the challenges with providing aid in wartime. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Hoda Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
What are you hearing from journalists on the ground?
The day-to-day includes a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability. They have a home today, they might not have a home tomorrow. They have their family members with them today, they might lose them tomorrow. They themselves are alive today, they might be injured or killed tomorrow. Almost all the journalists we know have lost someone. The recent Israeli air strike on the hospital in Deir el Balah, where several journalists were injured, was a potent reminder of how things could change any day.
Almost all the journalists we know have been displaced, many of them have more than once, and many of them are living in tents. They have lost a lot of weight and it’s visible in pictures. Finding food and water is a daily challenge, especially in the north [where the international community warns of a famine]. One of the journalists told me he reports stories of people facing hunger when he himself is hungry. Using the bathroom is extremely difficult; imagine having to stand in line for hours to use the bathroom. One journalist told me they limit how much they drink so they wouldn’t need to use the bathroom frequently. These journalists are covering this war while facing this humanitarian crisis that everyone in Gaza is facing right now.
There are also work-related challenges. There is no protective gear in Gaza, except what was already there. Transportation due to fuel shortages is difficult, so moving from place to place to report is a problem. One journalist was jokingly telling me that donkey and horsecarts have now become the norm. Another journalist I know walks several kilometers every morning from their tent to the hospital where they work and walks back at the end of the day.
Then there are communications: How do you work as a journalist without power or connectivity? It’s a huge challenge to charge phones or other devices. A couple of journalists we know had their phones stolen because they were charging them in public places. Many journalists left their equipment when they left their homes, and they end up losing work because they have nothing to use to report. I can’t tell you how many journalists tell me they’re using their mother’s phone; some journalists write and file stories on their nieces’ phones. They’re not high-quality phones. They do everything on one device, if they’re lucky to have one. They record, they edit, they take pictures, they write, and they file. They get very little rest and they work constantly.
Members of the media gather in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on October 25, 2023. (Photo: AFP/Mahmud Hams)
What type of support are you giving to journalists in Gaza?
Our focus from the start has been on replacing the lost or damaged equipment, allowing journalists to continue working and providing for themselves and their families. It also gives them a purpose: It helps to continue to work. We had to adapt constantly to the changing situation and where the journalists were. They kept moving south, so we changed our operations to be able to provide what they needed, wherever they were. We also provided humanitarian assistance like tents, mattresses and covers, clothes, and toiletries. We set up a couple of common working areas that are equipped with solar panels, chairs, tables, and internet connectivity. So far, we’ve assisted 150 journalists with both humanitarian assistance and equipment replacement.
Can you talk about the equipment your group has been able to provide to journalists?
We are purchasing everything from inside Gaza and there are shortages now. We have resorted to buying used equipment when we can’t find what is needed on the market. For photojournalists, whose work is taking pictures and videos, if they have no camera how do they do their work? We are providing them with phones that have high enough quality to take good quality pictures and videos, like the iPhone 14 Pro Max. For the journalists who are not photojournalists and they write, they report, they interview, we try to determine the need and are careful about making sure we provide them with something really helpful for their work.
It’s especially important to support the journalists with equipment to continue reporting because no foreign journalists are allowed to enter Gaza. Many of the journalists who work for international organizations have been evacuated, so who is going to cover what is going on if these brave journalists don’t continue to do it?
Rania Khayyat, communications officer of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate
What are you hearing from the journalists you’re supporting about their daily lives?
They are under threat and used to living with the voice of the drones in the sky the whole time. They are used to expecting any explosion at any time. Outside of [the southern Gaza city] Rafah, it’s very dangerous. They really expect to die daily. Every time you call them, they always tell us the same sentence, it may be their “last call.” When you call them, you feel like you’re in a nightmare.
We’re not always able to communicate with people in north Gaza, and we’re happy if we can get a line with them. It is impossible to get money to journalists in the north. Many of them want to move to Rafah, but they have family members who are disabled, they cannot move.It’s a personal decision.They stay in danger. There are about 150 journalists who remain in north Gaza.
Two journalists in Gaza pick up supplies provided by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. (Photo: Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate)
How are Gaza’s journalists continuing to work during the war?
If they did not do their job, nobody would know what happened. This is their only source of income, so they are obliged to do their job in a very hard situation. It also depends on who the journalist works for. If he is a freelancer in Rafah, his mobility is only on foot. If you work for an outlet that gives you a car and fuel, that’s easier.
The internet and communication services have been interrupted many times and are expected to be interrupted, so journalists are finding alternatives. They tell me, “If you didn’t get me on this number, try this Israeli number,” or, “I will get an internet connection from Egypt.”
Food supplies for distribution by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. (Photo: Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate)
How are you planning to provide support to journalists as the war continues?
This is a hard thing to predict. We don’t know what will happen, even the scenarios of the war: Will it end or will it expand? The journalists still hope to return to their homes, even under rubble. They all say, “Even under rubble we will live better than being in a tent.” It all depends on political developments. Every day we have new needs and we try to respond to them based on the situation. I’m speaking with about 10 journalists daily, mainly on WhatsApp. Others, it’s every two or three weeks. I check in on them and see what they need. I ask how they are. They are really my friends.
Wafa’ Abdel Rahman, founder and director of Filastiniyat
What can you tell us about the reality on the ground for Gaza’s journalists?
There is a difference between the journalists who are based in the north of Gaza — Jabalia, Gaza City, Beit Hanoun — a different reality for those in the middle, and another different reality in the south. When it comes to the north, it’s worse because you have the famine. It’s not just the bombardment, it’s the lack of food, water, and medicine.
These are not journalists who have been deployed to Gaza, and it’s not their choice to be there. This looks very tough when talking about women journalists: Everyone is expecting them to take care of the family, to maintain the family, to cook for the family. The majority want to continue reporting, while at the same time taking care of their families.
Can you talk about the importance of journalists being able to continue reporting on this war?
First, there is nobody else [to report], and we need to put more pressure on letting international media in. Second, which is no less important: With the bombardment of the main human rights organizations and [reports of] the targeting of their field workers, whether they like it or not the journalists become human rights defenders. Journalists are the ones who are documenting the crimes. They are our eyes and ears on the ground. They’re the voices of those who are killed and those who are still surviving. We need them.
Even when it comes to the assistance distribution, it’s the word of the journalists. They’re covering where you can go, what you can do, where you can find vaccines. The journalists are needed inside Gaza, and they are needed for the outside world to know what’s going on. It’s a huge responsibility.
A Gaza journalist inspects a tent at a makeshift camp for displaced people in front of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza, after the area was hit by an Israeli airstrike on March 31, 2024. (Photo: AFP)
Your organization has provided material aid to journalists, from hygiene kits to tents for female journalists to work and sleep. What do you provide when such materials are hard to come by?
After everything got scarce, the best way to provide help was cash. We started providing cash to women journalists, who are the priority, but we’re helping male journalists too. We have so far served more than 300 women journalists and 120 male journalists with cash. The average amount of cash assistance given to journalists is 800 shekels (US$217). We’ll need to increase this again because the prices have, in some cases, increased by 600 percent. For example, sugar is 70 shekels (US$19.42) a kilo now and it was six shekels (US$1.66) before the war.
What is in high demand by the journalists you’re helping?
The first demand is for a ceasefire now. Second, journalists want to evacuate Gaza, it’s a demand that is growing a lot.
On the ground, we still need tents for the families of the journalists. We need to preserve their dignity, so structures like portable houses would be better until this war is over. There are also the primitive needs: the clean water and the medicine. There is no medicine, you can’t find anything for the flu, for headaches. Getting those in is a luxury.
What does it mean for journalists to want to leave Gaza, knowing they might not be able to ever go back?
It’s as simple as that, it’s genocide. You’re not talking about a war or a conflict. Those people we’re talking about, they survived sixwars before. In 2021, according to our monitoring, more than 49 media outlets were destroyed and bombarded, including our office in Gaza. Despite all the difficult situations that they went through, they never thought of asking for evacuation. Never. Today it’s not a question of can they stand it, it’s a life or death threat.
[Editor’s note: CPJ has not independently confirmed the total number of media outlets attacked in 2021.]
The targetedkilling of journalists says a lot. We’ve seen how people are reacting to journalists. One of our reporters moved from Gaza City to a relative’s house further south. He had one condition, that she doesn’t work. In order for her to continue working she would wait for everyone to sleep. She’s working in secrecy, and when we publish her work we don’t use her name upon her request, because it’s too dangerous for her. When you don’t have social protection because everyone is scared for their lives, and when you see with your own eyes your colleagues and friends getting killed, it’s not easy. This is why they reach this point of khalas [“enough”], it’s time to leave.
Our editor evacuated to Egypt with her children and she continued working. I wanted to give her a couple of weeks off, I wanted her to settle. She said she felt guilty and she wanted to work. They evacuate, but they don’t really leave.
