[imText1]“The real culprit, who is driving the Korean Peninsula towards war, is the dictator Kim Jong Il and he is a murderer,” according to former South Korean President Kim Young Sam.
Former President Kim was giving a speech at a conference, “The Role of International Community to Stop Crimes against Humanity and to Promote Peace and Freedom in North Korea [sic.],” hosted by the National Assembly Human Rights Forum, Crime against Humanity Investigation Committee and Open Radio for North Korea.
In the Cheonan incident, Kim said, “We saw clearly the nature of the Kim Jong Il dictatorship regime.” He went on, “Kim Jong Il does not have any ability or the intention to feed his people and is absorbed in strengthening his dictatorship while ignoring people who are starving.”
He stressed, we have to “put all our power into dismantling the Kim Jong Il dictatorship as soon as possible. The first step in saving the North Korean people suffering from repression and settling the Korean Peninsula in permanent peace and safety is to collapse the regime and set up a new government that can lead North Korea in reform and opening.”
Former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik added in his keynote address, “North Korea has ratified numerous international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, and Cultural Rights. The accession to these instruments entails important commitments by North Korea which have yet to be fulfilled.”
Defector testimony was also included in the event to outline the murderous nature of the Kim regime, while other activists reminded the audience about North Korea’s criminal history of abducting foreign nationals.
Kim Hye Suk, who was imprisoned in a political prison camp for 28 years after her grandfather’s defection to the South, explained her personal experience of No. 18 Camp in Bukchang, South Pyongan Province, saying, “In the camp, if you steal food or disobey the orders of managers or guards out of hunger, you can be executed.”
Teruake Masumoto, the Secretary-General of Association of Family of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea asserted, “Abduction by North Korea was a crime committed in a peaceful situation. From a humanitarian point of view, it can never be acceptable.”
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