[imText1]Much attention has been paid to the Free North Korean Solders Association recently since it challenged Kim Jong Il with an open letter to him. The association seems to have come into full-scale operation since it had a press conference.
At 3 in the afternoon on the 7th of this month, the Free North Korean Soldiers Association announced at a press conference held at Sesil Restaurant in Jungdong area, Seoul that its first goal was to dissolve North Korean slave-labor political prison camps and free the North Korean people, and its second goal was to wage a frontal fight for the collapse of the North Korean regime if it does not show any sign of change. All members except Lim Chun Yong, the chairperson who fled the North in 1999, wore dark sunglasses and masks during the press conference for the sake of the security of their operation.
“Those defectors who escaped from North Korea as commandos or ordinary soldiers are the most competent for the solution of North Korean problems. It is our inevitable duty to dissolve the North Korean system and democratize it. It is our ultimate objective to establish democracy throughout the entire Korean peninsula,” claimed the Association on a handout.
“Anti-regime atmosphere is spreading in the North Korean military”
The Association stated the following as their operational plan: ▲ establishing liaison with North Korean soldiers to invoke change from the inside, ▲ dealing with North Korean border guards, and ▲ cooperating with various defectors’ associations to make concrete changes in North Korea.
Lim Chun Yong said, “Human rights abuse is severe both within the North Korean military, and by the military toward civilians. Anti-regime atmosphere is spreading from lower level soldiers to higher officials. Major North Korean army corps, special forces, and soldiers live on aid rice from South Korea. North Korean People’s Army will collapse once the aid goods and funds are blocked.”
Han Ki Hong, President, Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, gave a speech of encouragement, where he said it was remarkable that former North Korean soldiers who had been the base of the Kim Jong Il regime came out to raise their voices, and that he wished them to become a new hope for North Korean democratization and attainment of human rights.
