[imText1]The Zeitgeist, a South Korean think tank, has released “2011 Letters of Hope”, messages from 30 figures across several fields of South Korean society on North Korea-related issues. They mostly express the hope that 2011 will be a year when national security is tightened and North Korean human rights improved.
Ahn Byeong Jik, the chair of Zeitgeist said in his own message, “This year is the year of the rabbit. Of course, I wish I could pray for peace in the white snow of this New Year. However, looking at last year’s Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling, I can’t because it would be like praying for peace in a shelling. I wish this year could be a tiger year.”
Ryu Geun Il, a former chief editor of Chosun Ilbo, suggested, “Let’s make the Year 2011 the start and declare a North Korean revolution alongside the North Korean people.”
Yoo Se Hee, the chair of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights noted, “In 2011, by reinforcing our national security with the spirit of the independence movement, we must preserve our territory and make the first year going toward reunification based on the democratic system which we have created through our efforts.”
President of the Sejong Institute Song Dae Sung said, “I hope that there will be qualitative changes, through which the Northern soil becomes a place where people’s lives are guaranteed as a real human being’s life should be, by shedding the light of the rabbit year on North Korea, the cruelest dictatorial military state on earth.”
Yoon Yeo Sang of North Korean Human Rights Record Depository, which has been accumulating cases of North Korean human rights violations, offered the message, “I hope this year to lay the foundation stone for North Korean human rights and democratization.”
Ha Tae Kyung, president of Open Radio for North Korea said, “The year 2011 is one when the North Korean democratization movement can take a leap forward; for this we must pass the North Korean Human Rights Law and purchase a dedicated medium-wave channel for radio for North Koreans.”
Other entries came from President of the Center for Free Enterprise Kim Cheong Ho, novelist and liberalist Bok Geo Il, an honorary professor from Seoul National University, Lee In Ho, Citizens United for Better Society President Park Hyo Jong, North Korean Youth for North Korea Human Rights President Han Man Su, President of North Korea Strategy Center Kang Cheol Hwan and other NGO leaders and scholars.
