Though many North Korean refugees have lived outside of their former totalitarian homeland for only a few years, that isn’t stopping a growing number of them from participating in South Korea’s democracy.Just two months ahead of South Korea’s legislative election, a pair of North Korean defectors announced they will run for seats in parliament. Separately, a group of North Korean defectors is trying to form their own political party.A group of North Korean defectors attend the launching ceremony of their political party South-North Unification Party, ahead of the country’s general election in April, in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 18, 2020.The unprecedented attempt at political organization underscores the dissatisfaction felt by many defectors, who are among the poorest class in wealthy South Korea. Many feel discriminated against and not properly equipped to handle life in a capitalist country.“We’ve been treated as foreigners” in South Korea, said defector Ahn Chan-il, at an event this week announcing the launch of what is tentatively called the Inter-Korean Unification Party. “Now we have a central network to enhance our activities.”Though their status as a minority party likely means their political power will be limited, the developments indicate defectors are taking the initiative to improve their plight, said Casey Lartigue, who co-founded a group that helps North Korean refugees learn English.“Instead of waiting for South Koreans to speak on their behalf, they are seeking to do so themselves, unlike in North Korea, where they either never would have had a chance to form their own party or would have followed the regime’s party line,” Lartigue said.North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho speaks during an opening ceremony for an election campaign of the main opposition United Future Party in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 18, 2020.Plight of defectorsOne of the defectors running for a seat in the National Assembly is Ji Seong-ho, a former North Korean street beggar who lost an arm and a leg during what he says was an attempt to steal coal from a train. Ji fled to the South in 2006 and is now a human rights activist.“Not only am I a defector, I belong to the young generation and am also a disabled person living in Seoul. So I hope to do many things for Korea,” the 38-year-old said.Ji said he was motivated to run for office after South Korea forcibly returned two North Korean fishermen in November. Seoul accused the men of killing their captain and 15 other crewmen.But many defectors were outraged, saying the repatriation amounted to sending the men to almost certain death in North Korea, where they would not receive a fair trial.FILE – A girl and her North Korean defector mother hold portraits of a 42-year-old defector mother and her 6-year-old son who were found dead of starvation, during their funeral in Seoul, South Korea, Sept. 21, 2019.Many also point to a July incident in which a North Korean defector and her 6-year-old son were found dead in their tiny apartment in Seoul. By the time their bodies were found, they were so decomposed that authorities could not even determine a cause of death. Many suspect they starved to death — in one of the richest countries in the world.“Defectors should have entered politics a long time ago, maybe then such a miserable death … would not have happened,” said Eom Yeong-nam, who escaped North Korea in 2010.High-profile defectorThe other defector running for office is Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to London, who fled to the South in 2016 with his two sons and wife.One the highest-profile North Korean defector in years, Thae has been highly critical of North Korea, which in return has labeled him “human scum.”More recently, though, Thae has also begun criticizing the South Korean government and its outreach to North Korea.Thae Yong Ho, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, speaks during a news conference, ahead of the country’s general election in April, in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 19, 2020.Speaking to a group of foreign journalists Wednesday in Seoul, Thae said some in South Korea are “trying to appease” the North by not bringing up its human rights abuses.“They are going back to the approach of economy first and human rights later…I believe that is very unjust,” Thae said.The 57-year-old has filled Seoul lecture halls, written a regular newspaper column, and is a sought-after voice for his insights into the North Korean diplomatic apparatus.If he wins in April, Thae would become the first North Korean defector to occupy a so-called “constituency seat” in South Korea’s parliament, which would give him more leverage and potentially allow him to be a long-term force in parliament.He would be doing so as a member of the main conservative party, potentially becoming a prominent voice among opposition forces, which are badly divided following the 2017 impeachment of conservative President Park Geun-hye.Politicized?But by formally joining Seoul’s conservative political ranks, defectors risk politicizing their message, said Hong Gang-chul, who left North Korea in 2014 and now has a YouTube channel that deals with North Korea-related politics.“I think the political participation of defectors is a positive thing, but right now the majority of that participation is one-sided. They demonize the North and make it a public enemy,” he said. “And that is a problem … it is necessary to have different defector voices.”Barely survivingMost defectors who flee North Korea, one of the world’s most oppressive countries, see the regime as their enemy and therefore oppose any engagement with the North.But in reality, many defectors living in the South do not have the time or money to become involved in politics, Hong said.“Those who are shown in the media fiercely protesting or rallying near the demilitarized zone, that is actually a very small group,” he said. “Many people barely even have enough money to survive. Some have never even voted at all.”Hong said he is one of the few defectors who support the ruling Democratic Party.Thae said the main reason he joined the conservative United Future Party is that it is the only political group that asked him to run.As he prepares to enter what can often be a messy, fractious world of South Korean democracy, Thae appears confident. And he says he hopes North Koreans are watching.“I want to show the North Korean people how freedom and democracy works in South Korea through me,” he said.
…

Two Australians evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the new coronavirus after being flown home. And authorities in Canberra have added another week to a ban on foreign travelers arriving from mainland China, where the virus was first reported.This week, 170 Australians were flown home after more than two weeks in quarantine on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan. Two have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Officials are warning that more infections could emerge within the group over the next few days.Dr. Dianne Stephens, from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Center, says the two patients will be sent to hospitals near their homes.“Those people remain well and mildly ill with coldlike symptoms and they do not necessarily need to be in the hospital system, but more than likely will enter the hospital system in their home states while they manage the COVID-19 quarantine and isolation procedures,” Stephens said.QuarantineThe cruise ship passengers are being held in quarantine at a former workers’ camp near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.It is also accommodating a planeload of Australian evacuees from Wuhan, China, where the disease was first reported. Their two-week quarantine period ends this weekend.Australia now has 17 confirmed cases of the disease, although more than 45 of its citizens remain on the Diamond Princess in Japan after contracting the virus while on the cruise ship, which has the largest cluster of confirmed cases outside of China.Australia had not had a case of coronavirus since Feb. 1 when it barred entry to those arriving directly from mainland China. The restrictions have been extended until the end of the month.
…

President Donald Trump hinted that Roger Stone deserves exoneration, hours after the former Trump adviser was sentenced to prison Thursday. Earlier this week, Trump granted full pardons to seven people and sentence commutations to four others, but denied that he offered a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the wrap on a week of presidential clemencies.
…

Acting White House chief of staff Mike Mulvaney told a private audience in England Wednesday that the Trump administration is “desperate” for more legal immigrants to sustain the country’s strong economic growth under President Donald Trump.”We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Mulvaney said during the event. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.”The comment was reported by The Washington Post, who obtained audio of Mulvaney’s presentation.But Mulvaney said those new immigrants must enter the country in a “legal fashion,” saying that the White House wants to emulate the immigration systems in Canada and Australia.“We are very interested in expanding that,” Mulvaney said.The comments appear to put Mulvaney at odds with a some Trump administration officials, such as White House adviser Stephen Miller, who has advocated for severe restrictions in both legal and illegal immigrants.Trump has spoken about the role of legal immigrants, saying they are essential to companies that are looking to move back to the U.S.“I need people coming in because we need people to run the factories and plants and companies that are moving back in,” Trump said last year. “We need people.”Despite his words, the administration has curbed legal as well as illegal immigration since Trump took office. The State Department slashed the number of visas issued by nearly 20%, and border authorities have made it tougher to claim asylum at the southern border.
…

The president of Wake Forest University issued an apology Thursday for the role of slavery in the school’s past. The statement from Nathan Hatch came after a series of events that stirred up racial tension on the campus, including anonymous, racist emails sent to faculty members last year. Schools around the South and beyond have been grappling in recent years with what to do about past ties to slavery or white supremacy. It is important and overdue that, on behalf of Wake Forest University, I unequivocally apologize for participating in and benefiting from the institution of slavery,'' Hatch said during his remarks on campus.I apologize for the exploitation and use of enslaved people — both those known and unknown — who helped create and build this university through no choice of their own.” He didn’t mention the recent tension on the campus resulting from a threatening email that caused the head of the sociology department to shut down his building and suspend classes for a week. A statement issued after his remarks noted that Hatch last year convened a committee to look at race issues and the legacy of slavery on campus. During Hatch’s remarks, some students stood up in a silent demonstration. Senior Alexander Holt, who helped organize the gesture, said in an emailed statement before the event that the people planned to stand in recognition of the involuntary sacrifices of enslaved people and the continuing impact of slavery’s legacy on current students. Among other universities apologizing for their role in slavery was the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2018. 
…

A wide share of Americans are at least moderately confident in U.S. health officials’ ability to handle emerging viruses, and more express concern about catching the flu than catching the new coronavirus, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.The findings are encouraging to those banking on Americans’ trust in the health officials who are ordering quarantines and travel restrictions to contain the virus first detected in China.“Our ability to control the virus hangs on people’s willingness to accept the advice of health authorities,” said Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. If the virus spreads more widely, public trust will become even more important, Nuzzo said.News of the coronavirus outbreak is pervasive, with about half saying they have heard or read a lot about it. People who say they’ve heard a lot about the outbreak are more likely to say they’re very concerned about it than people who have heard less than that, but high levels of concern are still rare.Like many Americans, Chris Harris of Iowa City is keeping up with the news, but is not worried about the new coronavirus. He’s more worried about influenza.“I don’t want to miss work,” said Harris, a 51-year-old certified financial planner who’s had his annual flu shot. “I’d be out for a few days and it would put me farther behind.”This image made by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, blue/pink, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19.Comparable shares of Americans — roughly 2 in 10 — say they are very worried about getting the coronavirus and the flu.Roughly another 2 in 10 say they are moderately worried about the coronavirus, but more than half of Americans say they are not concerned.More have concerns about getting the flu: About 4 in 10 say they are moderately worried, while just about 3 in 10 say they are not.That concern is appropriate considering U.S. health officials estimate the nation has already seen at least 14,000 deaths from flu this season, said Janet Baseman of the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle.“That’s a threat we have year after year,” Baseman said. In contrast, there have been 15 cases of the new virus in the United States, plus some Americans who were told they had it as they left a quarantined cruise ship in Japan. One U.S. citizen died in China.Concern about the coronavirus is roughly equal among Americans who have had a flu shot in the past year and those who have not, the poll found.Sarah Burton, 57, of suburban Indianapolis got her flu shot this year. The environmental management consultant said she’s more worried about the flu than about the new virus and she feels confident the U.S. health care system could handle an outbreak of a new pathogen.“We’re fortunate in the country that we don’t have to panic about these things,” she said of the new virus. “We should be able to deal with this type of situation in this country with our massive resources.”About a third of those polled have high confidence in officials’ ability to handle an outbreak, while about 4 in 10 are moderately confident. About 2 in 10 say they are not confident.“All this potentially could change when we start finding more cases in the U.S.,” said Nuzzo, the health security expert. “It will be different when they hear somebody in their community has the virus.”FILE – This Jan. 23, 2020 file photo shows a patient receiving a flu vaccination in Mesquite, Texas.That may happen.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is starting an effort to see if the virus is spreading silently. The CDC is adding coronavirus testing to the network that normally tracks flu. When a patient sample tests negative for flu, lab workers will check it for the new virus.The extra tests will start in public health labs in five cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, then expand around the country.As for Burton, she intends to stay informed about the new virus by reading three newspapers.“The scary thing for me is they don’t know how to stop it yet,” Burton said.The AP-NORC poll of 1,074 adults was conducted Feb. 13-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods and later were interviewed online or by phone.
…

The Nina and Pinta have arrived along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, sailing into a Biloxi harbor as spectators lined a pier, aiming their phones out to the horizon.Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on the Nina on his three voyages of discovery to the New World beginning in 1492.The original Nina was last heard from in 1501, but this replica, which was finished in 1991, serves as a floating museum. It was built entirely by hand, without the use of power tools, and is considered to be the most historically accurate Columbus ship replica ever built.
The Pinta replica was built in Brazil and launched in 2005 to accompany the Nina on travels. It’s a larger version of the archetypal “caravel,” the term for a Portuguese ship used by Columbus and many early explorers.
While in port, the ships will be open for public tours, beginning Thursday. They are scheduled to leave Biloxi on Monday, March 2.
After a week-long stop in Gulf Shores, Alabama, beginning March 4, the ships will head to Florida, where they have scheduled stops in Fort Walton Beach, Venice, Vero Beach and Fernandina Beach. 
…

Victoria Coates, a top official on the National Security Council, is being reassigned amid fallout over the identity of the author of the inside-the-White House tell-all book by “Anonymous.”
    
Coates, who serves as national security adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, will be joining the Department of Energy as a senior adviser to Secretary Dan Brouillette, the NSC announced Thursday.
    
The move comes amid renewed speculation about the author of the book, “A Warning,” and a New York Times essay that were deeply critical of President Donald Trump, written under the pen name “Anonymous.”
    
But a senior administration official insisted the move had nothing to do with the speculation, saying top White House officials reject rumors that have circulated in recent weeks suggesting Coates is the author. The move, they said, has been in the works for several weeks.
   
“We are enthusiastic about adding Dr. Coates to DOE, where her expertise on the Middle East and national security policy will be helpful,” Brouillette said in a statement. “She will play an important role on our team.”
   
“While I’m sad to lose an important member of our team, Victoria will be a big asset to Secretary Brouillette as he executes the President’s energy security policy priorities,” Robert C. O’Brien, who leads the NSC, added.
    
The move also comes as the president has been working to rid the administration of those he deems insufficiently loyal in the wake of his acquittal on impeachment charges. Since then, Trump has ousted staffers at the National Security Council and State Department and pulled the nomination of a top Treasury Department pick who had overseen cases involving Trump’s former aides as a U.S. attorney.
    
At the same time, Trump has been bringing back longtime aides he believes he can trust as he heads into what is expected to be a bruising general election campaign.
    
Trump this week renewed questions about the identity of “Anonymous” when he told reporters that he knew who it was. Asked whether he believes the person still works at the White House, Trump responded: “We know a lot. In fact, when I want to get something out to the press, I tell certain people. And it’s amazing, it gets out there. But, so far, I’m leaving it that way.”
    
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley declined to say Wednesday why, if Trump knows the person’s identity, they would still be working in his administration.
    
In the book, published by the Hachette Book Group in November, the writer claims senior administration officials considered resigning as a group in 2018 in a “midnight self-massacre” to protest Trump’s conduct, but ultimately decided such an act would do more harm than good. 
…