[imText1]Lee Myung Bak’s inauguration as president ignited interest in North Korean human rights issues in South Korea.
At a result, the discussion on the establishment of a government-supported North Korean human rights record depository has been getting louder. The depository will investigate human rights violations in North Korea, build a human rights database, help to prevent North Korean authorities from persecuting their own people, and finally bring human rights violators to justice.
In the past, the establishment of such a depository has been suggested to the Ministry of Unification, and was rejected because it “would obstruct inter-Korean peace and cooperation.”
Although bureaucrats in the ministry agreed with the necessity of recording human rights violations in North Korea, high-ranking officials and politicians refused to acknowledge this need.
So, in 2003, North Korea human rights activists and researchers invested their own money and efforts to create a non-profit organization called the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. The center investigated and interviewed human rights violations from more than three thousand defectors inside and outside South Korea and gathered more than 170 volumes of memoirs written by visitors to North Korea and defectors. Also, countless newspaper articles, research papers and videotapes are included in the archives.
The organization developed its own database system to classify and archive information on human rights violations in North Korea.
The database is classified into 16 types of violations, including violations of the right to life, the right to freedom, the right to health, the right to education, the right to change residence, the right to marry, the right to expression of thought and the right to assembly.
As of February 2008, a total of 4235 human rights violations and 3217 victims are archived. Among the 3217 victims, only several hundred investigations have been completed. In the future, the total number of violations investigated will exceed well over ten thousand.
As the new South Korean government considers public funds or aid to the privately-run North Korea human rights depository, several pieces of advice have been suggested.
First of all, the human rights depository must continue operation. It needs to continue regardless of changes in government. And the depository must be independent of the government.
West Germany’s Salzgitter Center was established in 1961 to document East German human rights violations. Despite opposition and requests to shut it down from the left and the East, the center persisted in keeping information on human rights violations in East Germany, warning the persecutors of their impending prosecution after reunification. And the records kept at the center did help German prosecutors to bring East German human rights violators to trial after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Can the South Korean government do the same? Given North Korea’s strong opposition and the complex political situation in Seoul, a government-run human rights archives is hardly possible.
But, a privately-run the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights has its limitations, too. As an NGO, It is difficult to gain sustainable funds, gather classified information and investigate defectors.
Therefore, the archive needs to be run by the government and the private sector jointly. The South Korean legislature should enact a “North Korean Human Rights Act,” and establish an information center. That way, the government can support a semi-public archive while avoiding North Korea’s blame.
The government’s role should be limited to public funding and support, while the NGO takes responsibility for management.
A North Korean human rights depository is in consistent with the Lee Administration’s pragmatic approach toward North Korea. In order to improve North Korea human rights with stability and constancy, it is time for the South Korean government to participate.
