Sydney University’s Tim Anderson praises North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during ‘solidarity visit’
A Sydney University lecturer has boasted of a bizarre “solidarity visit” to North Korea — even posting happy snaps on social media praising the dictatorship’s defiance of “US aggression”.
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A CONTROVERSIAL Sydney University lecturer who backed Syria’s murderous al-Assad regime has travelled to Pyongyang and pledged “solidarity” with the North Korean dictatorship against “aggression” from the West.
Amid increasing threats by despot Kim Jong-un, Sydney University international politics lecturer Tim Anderson organised a “learning and solidarity visit” to the regime’s capital.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the one-week trip was an “embarrassment” to “academia”.
“It’s one thing to foster debate at university but you cross the line when you back an evil dictatorship that murders its citizens and is posing an increasing threat to global security,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Mr Anderson has shown time and time again his extreme views should not be given a platform to shape the minds of students.”
Yet the university is refusing to take action against Dr Anderson, who is paid up to $130,000 to teach international politics. because “staff can spend their leave however they wish”. In April, Dr Anderson alleged the US had “covertly financed and armed ALL the terrorist groups in Syria”, blaming the West for a sarin gas attack which killed 87 people.
Dr Anderson visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone during his late August North Korea trip, and said it was the US which “refuses a peace treaty”.
With “independent” journalist Eva Bartlett and a North Korean tour guide called “Young”, Dr Anderson also visited Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang, where North Korean founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il are buried. Dr Anderson called them “two historic leaders”.
Dr Anderson, who did not respond to a request for comment, also visited schools and hospitals, criticising United Nations sanctions.
On September 1, he tweeted a picture of Ms Bartlett holding up a North Korean flag in the country with the following words: “SolIdarity with the independent #Korean people in the face of renewed US aggression. #DPRK.” Ms Bartlett is a regular contributor to the Kremlin-funded Russia Today, often described as a Russian government propaganda outlet, including by the British media regulator.
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Praising Dr Anderson, Ms Bartlett posted on Facebook that she had visited “amazing infrastructure, free housing and medical care, impressive agriculture and green energy”.
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