[imText1]Washington D.C. — The South Korean government lacks a clear vision for democratization in North Korea, according to Han Ki Hong, the President of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights (NKnet).
However, some other experts at yesterday’s NKnet and National Endowment for Democracy co-sponsored international conference in Washington D.C. pointed out some of the progress which has come from international efforts on both North Korean human rights and democratization.
“The North Korean Human Rights Law, which is drifting about in South Korea’s National Assembly under the Lee administration, reflects the reality of the task of North Korean democratization,” Han explained.
Pointing also to the failure on the part of the Lee administration to resume psychological warfare towards North Korea after the Cheonan incident, Han asserted, “This should have been done not in order to put pressure on North Korea, but to deliver outside information and spread the notion of free will to North Korean soldiers.”
Elsewhere in the same session, however, a North Korean Studies professor at Korea University, Yoo Ho Yul commented that North Korea is beginning to pay some small amount of attention to international pressure, pointing out, “As results of international community efforts to improve the North Korean human rights situation, North Korea is at least pretending to partially accept international requests: it revised its penal code in 2004 and temporarily restricted public executions.”
“Even though influence on the North Korean people is slight, we need to know that North Korean officials have considered these things,” Professor Yoo added.
He emphasized, “For now, systematized democratization factions in North Korea have not emerged overtly, but they are watching closely the uncivilized nature of the North Korean system, so we should be active in our efforts to help in the democratization of North Korea.”
Chuck Downs of the U.S.-based Committee for NK Human Rights agreed, saying that the outside world needs to build on the current trend by demanding improved North Korea human rights as a condition of assistance, adding that China, the U.S. and U.N. should demand that North Korea solve the problems defectors face.
Turning in another session to journalism, one of the most important new pro-democratization factions in the North Korea context, Robert Boynton, the director of New York University’s magazine journalism program said that the increase in the flow of information coming out of North Korea between 2005 and 2010 is extraordinary, but cautioned that training is becoming an increasingly important need in the field in order to make news as neutral, and therefore effective, as possible.
All media sources are somewhere between pure propaganda and pure information, he explained, but added that some journalists have a particular tendency to fight strong ideas with strong ideas and strong propaganda with strong propaganda. The objectivity that training can engender is important to combat this trend, he said.
But despite the limitations imposed on journalism in North Korea, Betsy Henderson of Radio Free Asia said that the effect of the work that is being done is immense, concluding that clearly, “If you provide information, people will listen.”
