[imText1]Former President Kim Dae Jung bragged about the sunshine policy\u2019s role in détente between North and South Koreas, improvement of North Korean human rights and eventual democratization. <\/p>\n
In the 5th-year anniversary ceremony of establishment of the National Human Rights Commission last Friday, the former president and Nobel Peace laureate focused, surprisingly, on North Korean human rights and indirectly criticized South Korean government\u2019s endorsement of the UN GA North Korean human rights resolution. <\/p>\n
Kim expressed his view on NK human rights by saying \u201cIt is hard to figure out human rights condition of such isolated country like North Korea and there has been no example in history that a communist state\u2019s human rights was improved by outside pressure and interference.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kim DJ\u2019s argument is self-absorbing with the \u201cinvincible\u201d sunshine policy. It is his justification that although \u201cNorth Korea did not achieve much in political human rights,\u201d South Korean humanitarian aid saved millions of lives from starvation and illness. <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, few North Korean residents have received any of the \u201caid.\u201d <\/p>\n
KBS Social Education Broadcasting Service (a South Korean national radio program toward North Korea) conducted a poll among 300 former defectors from October 16 to 19, and the result showed that 35.0 percent of respondents evaluated the government\u2019s aid to NK as \u201cnot helpful at all\u201d for North Korean residents, and 28.0 % replied \u2018somewhat unhelpful,\u2019 totaling the negative opinion on South Korea\u2019s economic aid to reach 63.0 %. <\/p>\n
Moreover, it has been repeatedly argued by international human rights organizations\u2019 officials who monitored the humanitarian aid projects in NK that most of the South Korean rice were distributed to the armed forces and senior members of the KWP and they sold the aids back to black markets. <\/p>\n
It is understandable how valuable the sunshine policy is in Kim DJ\u2019s life and political career. Also, I do not think the idea \u201ctransformation through aid\u201d as totally futile. However, we must not be overwhelmed by aid and cooperation while overlooking North Korea\u2019s human rights violation and other criminal activities. <\/p>\n
It becomes more preposterous as the former president defended his policy for bringing \u2018peace\u2019 in the Korean peninsula in spite of the North\u2019s nuclear test. <\/p>\n
Kim\u2019s remark \u201cThere has been no example in history that a communist state\u2019s human rights was improved by outside pressure and interference\u201d does anything but contradiction of his own experience as a fighter for democracy of South Korea, who received international support during military dictatorship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[imText1]Former President Kim Dae Jung bragged about the sunshine policy\u2019s role in détente between North and South Koreas, improvement of North Korean human rights and eventual democratization. In the 5th-year anniversary ceremony of establishment of the National Human Rights Commission last Friday, the former president and Nobel Peace laureate focused, surprisingly, on North Korean human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analysis-and-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n