Don’t Gloss Over Human Rights in NK

[imText1]The EU resolution on the North Korean human rights situation submitted to the UN General Assembly will come to a vote in a few days. CNN telecast video clips showing North Korean scenes where a firing-squad executed a man, people working in supposed prison camps for political criminals, streets littered with dead bodies, and a market selling bags of rice that had been provided by the United Nations for famine relief. These are only a few from the many instances that have aroused international concerns about human rights issues in North Korea recently. To this end, the self-styled progressives in South Korea who had been silent on North Korean human rights issues began voicing their opinions.

First of all, the progressives argue that bringing up the Northern human rights issues may lead to difficulties in maintaining current relations between the South and North. The argument is either a misled fear, or a mere excuse, because we know that North Korea participates in the U.S.-North Korea talks even though the U.S. declares Kim Jong Il a tyrant, that Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made North Korea admit and apologize for the abduction of some Japanese by insisting that the relations between Japan and North Korea would not advance without resolution of the abduction issue, and that the South-North talks took place even under the Park Chung Hee and Jun Doo Hwan administrations, where the assassination of the other party’s leader was plotted.

Progressives’ Argument is Inconsistent

The progressives also argue that it is inevitable for North Korea to exercise strict control over its people because it is in a war-like state, due to U.S. pressure. While the restriction on freedom of speech and travel may be attributed to war-time precautions, it does not make any sense to say such atrocities as imprisonment without judical processes, guilt by-association imprisonment, forced abortions, and infanticide have anything to do with the wartime structure.

The progressives criticize that ineligible countries like the U.S. are charging North Korea with human rights violations, and that South Korea is not qualified to do so either because of its National Security Law. They appear to be imitating Jesus saying, “throw stones at this woman if you are not guilty.” But it is far-fetched to try to compare the human rights situation of North Korea, where no one is free except Kim Jong Il, with the U.S.-Iraq war and South Korea’s National Security Law.

An official from a progressive human rights organization in South Korea said, “It is not effective but counter-active for the United Nations to take up North Korean human rights issues.” I’d like to ask him, “Why did you so often resort to the UN agency regarding South Korean human rights when South Korea was under authoritarian administration? Don’t you know that South African racial discrimination issues started to gain international attention only after the UN resolution was adopted, and South Africans hence succeeded in abolishing the discrimination”.

Recently, Henry Hyde, the chief of the international relations committee of the U.S., sent a letter to Park Gil Yeon, the North Korean ambassador to UN, urging the North to resolve issues of detainees, and South Korean prisoners of war. On the other hand, the progressives in South Korea try to protect North Korea by rallying against the U.S., stirring up ati-Americanism. It is shameful for those South Koreans to cry out against the U.S. that expressed concerns about South Korean prisoners of war. However, it is interesting to see that they avoid criticizing the EU, which is most enthusiastic about Northern human rights.

Progressives Should Know the Facts

Mao Zedong said “Do not speak before you investigate.” His saying seems advisable to the progressives in that they appear to be unaware of the reality of the Northern human rights situation. Maybe I am saying this in hopes that their position is due to their ignorance of the facts.

If you do not believe the abuse of human rights as long as you do not see it, it may be helpful to recall scenes during the Daegu Universiade Games, where the North Korean cheerleaders wept to get off of a bus when they saw a picture of Kim Jong Il getting soaked in the rain, took the placard down and carried it carefully back to the bus. Can human rights be ensured in a country where its dictator is the only reason for its existence?

Because a South Korean construction worker happened to sit on a Rodong-shinmun on which a picture of Kim Jong Il was printed, construction was suspended for a while. It is easy to infer from this incident how severely the North Korea regime controls and enslaves its own people.