Baby killings This New York Times article is about killings of infants and forced abortions in the North Korean prison system. The article gives the impression that there are strong racial-nationalistic overtones-the women often carry babies fathered by Chinese men. How does it work out that a radical Left-wing autocracy becomes so racially conscious? It seems to me that North Korea is a prime candidate for some muscular internationalism. The only reason no one seems to want to do anything is that the Chinese will object. Godless comments: For those of you who want more on North Korea, check out Chosun Journal for documentation of the atrocities going on in North Korea. Not for the faint of heart... To all those who think I'm only commenting on this because North Korea is communist...for the record, it's not my intention to be like those who only criticize human rights abuses on the totalitarian left (e.g. China and North Korea) and look the other way when the same things are happening on the fascist right (e.g. umpteen petty Latin American dictators). I'm admittedly not up to date with the plights of those in various oppressive regimes around the world, but with the exception of Pinochet I can't think of another really bad post-WW2 right-wing dictatorship. I'm sure I'm missing some, so inform me in the comments box, but my point is that I don't think any right-wing regimes since WW2 can really match China, the ex-USSR, and North Korea for sheer brutality. (Cuba doesn't count for the purposes of this tally - Castro is a dictator, but the body count isn't high enough to group him among class A offenders...) What I'm trying to say is that criticizing North Korea shouldn't be intepreted as giving a free pass to all those right-wing regimes also oppressing their citizens. North Korea is an awful, awful place to live because of a totalitarian state...and that's the simple truth of it.