Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon Soo again urged the National Assembly to pass the North Korea Human Rights Act yesterday, stating that the country’s lawmakers must “shine the light of hope on the dark abyss that is North Korea.”
In a blog entry on the Grand National Party’s homepage entitled ‘The North Korea Human Rights Act and Expectations of Hwang Woo Yeah’, Kim, who has long been one of the strongest advocates for North Korean human rights in South Korean politics, wrote, “The NK Human Rights Act will act as a message of human rights and freedom for the North Korean people.”
At the same time, Kim was quick to deride the fact that the bill is now before the South Korean legislature for the sixth time, despite the fact that a similar act passed the US Congress unanimously on the third try.
“The US version was able to pass unanimously on the third attempt because no Democrats opposed it even though it was a Republican initiative,” Kim said, swiping at the partisan nature of South Korean politics before wondering, “Later on, under a unified state, what answer will we give when people ask what South Korea ever did for the rights of the North Korean people?”
“Socialism has failed, and North Korea is the most absolute failure of the system. North Korea is embarking on a historically unprecedented third-generation dynasty while it locks up hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in political prisons and is responsible for millions more starving,” he went on, stating the abundant justification for the act.
Despite six years of failure, meanwhile, Kim remains bullish about the bill’s prospects sixth time around, saying, “I’m going to hold out hope that the bill will pass this time, given that the GNP has pledged to do so during the August plenary session of the National Assembly no matter what.”
In the spirit of encouragement and pressure combined, Kim ended by placing a final scoop of expectation on Hwang Woo Yeah, saying, “The expectations placed on GNP floor leader Hwang are all the more intense considering the fact that he has stood at the forefront of human rights in North Korea for a long time in his position as chairman of the International Parliamentarians’ Coalition for North Korean Refugees and Human Rights.”
