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Alias

Joined: 24 Jan 2003
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:30 pm Post subject: As North Koreans die, South Koreans look the other way |
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BY MELANIE KIRKPATRICK
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
SEOUL--North Korea's highest-ranking defector arrived safely in Washington yesterday despite North Korea's threat to "shoot his plane out of the sky" if he dared to visit the U.S.
This is the first trip to the U.S. for Hwang Jang Yop, the former head of North Korea's Workers Party and president of Kim Il Sung University who defected to the South in 1997. He brings with him a two-prong proposal for what he calls the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula: regime change and greater international focus on the human-rights abuses of the North. In an interview here on the eve of his departure, Mr. Hwang said: "I want to emphasize the importance of eliminating the Kim Jong Il regime." How to do that? "The U.S. should put the issue of human rights at the top of its agenda in its dialogue" with North Korea.
Mr. Hwang is an unlikely champion of human rights in North Korea. Now 80 years old, he spent his career in the service of the brutal regime he now denounces. He was the North's ideologue-in-chief--founder and leading proponent of the "juche" ideology of self-reliance that Kim Il Sung, father of current leader Kim Jong Il, used to justify his totalitarian rule. The old Stalinist now says both Kims distorted his philosophy, which is really about "democracy."
One would think that the one place in the world where the campaign to free the North Korean people would be taken most seriously would be South Korea, where Mr. Hwang lived under virtual house arrest until recently. Think again.
Most Koreans are well informed about the brutal realities of life in the North but prefer to look the other way. It's much pleasanter to contemplate reunification fantasies such as the one portrayed in a recent hit movie about a cross-border romance between a South Korean woman and a North Korean soldier. Last week's chilling report on the North Korean gulags made it into some South Korean papers but wasn't front-page news. Students demonstrated against Mr. Hwang's U.S. visit last week, protesting his anti-North Korea message.
If the South Korean people seem indifferent to the plight of their brothers and sisters in the North, it's in large part because their political leaders remain silent. President Roh Moo Hyun was a human-rights lawyer before taking office earlier this year but human rights north of the DMZ is way down on his priority list. To his credit, Mr. Roh is allowing Mr. Hwang to visit the U.S.--something his predecessor, Kim Dae Jung (another human-rights activist who lost his voice when it came to the human-rights horrors in the North) refused to permit for fear of angering Kim Jong Il.
The official refusal to speak out about the human-rights abuses of Kim Jong Il's regime was on full display last week during an interview with the South's minister of unification, whom I met on the day the gulag report was released. For North Koreans, Minister Jeong Se Hyun said, "political freedom is a luxury, like pearls for a pig. The improvement of economic conditions for the North Korean people is the most important issue right now."
"Once the economic situation is improved," he said, then North Korea can focus on human rights. As for linking any deal with the North to progress on human rights: "I don't think it would be wise or effective if we try to negotiate the human rights condition or to pursue our policies with human rights as a condition," Mr. Jeong said. In other words: Whatever you do, don't annoy Kim Jong Il.
South Korea's constitution requires it to welcome any North Korean who wants to come to the South. Yet in the 50 years since the end of the Korean War, the South has accepted fewer than 3,000 refugees. Most have come in the past two years, thanks in large part to the efforts of several private groups dedicated to helping North Koreans find refuge in the South.
The rescuers, many of whom are Christian, differ among themselves over how best to help. One faction prefers to work out of the public eye. Another faction pursues high-profile tactics such as helping asylum-seekers flood embassies in China. Its aim is to draw international attention to the plight of the quarter-million or more North Korean refugees hiding in China.
There's another aspect too--money. "I don't mean to sound mercenary," says Tim Peters, an American missionary here. "But in some respects running into a consulate in China is cost effective." Smuggling a refugee out through Mongolia or Vietnam costs $1,000 to $3,000 per person, he says. Mr. Peters adds that money also talks in North Korea's gulags. "It's easier to spring someone from a North Korean prison than from a Chinese prison," he says.
The high-profile tactics are taking their toll on rescuers' ability to help the North Korean refugees in China. Police security around embassies and consulates is tighter than ever. In the past five or six months, the highly effective Chinese intelligence service appears to have replaced provincial police in tracking down refugees. This is one reason, rescuers believe, for the failure of a plan earlier this year to smuggle out two boatloads of refugees from a northern Chinese port.
It is also becoming more treacherous along China's border with North Korea, where two million ethnic Koreans have long helped feed, house and hide those fleeing North Korea. Last month China sent 150,000 soldiers to replace the border guards, a measure viewed in the rescuer community as a crackdown on border crossings.
The four or five South Koreans in jail in China for helping refugees have received little help from their government. In contrast, Japan aggressively sought--and got--the release of two of its citizens arrested in China for helping refugees. It's a powerful deterrent for South Koreans who want to help to realize that their government won't come to their aid if they are arrested.
In Seoul, a few opposition politicians are finally beginning to turn their attention to human rights in the North. Park Jin, spokesman of the Grand National Party, which holds a majority in the National Assembly, faults the Roh government for "avoiding the issue." His party urges the government to do two things: press China to let the United Nations have access to the refugees and prepare South Korea for a possible flood of refugees. "We have an obligation to help," he says.
Another eloquent voice is Kim Suk Woo, former vice minister of unification and now in the powerful post of chief of staff to the speaker of the National Assembly. "As Koreans, we have a duty to support the refugees. As human beings we have a duty to support them," says Mr. Kim. "This kind of exodus could be a catalyst for the collapse of Kim Jong Il's regime."
The Roh administration "is careful not to provoke North Korea," he says. He is particularly scornful of Seoul's refusal last April to support a U.N. resolution condemning the North's human-rights abuses. And he criticizes the decision by the government of Kim Dae Jung--continued by the Roh government--to halt the South's air drops of radios into the North. All radios in North Korea must be registered with the authorities and permanently tuned to government stations. A South Korean radio is a listening post on freedom.
There's a debate in Seoul over Mr. Hwang's motives in calling attention to the North's human-rights abuses. Some believe him to be sincere; others say he is looking for publicity. But still others suggest the defector could be driven by guilt over what happened after he left Pyongyang. Information doesn't readily make its way out of North Korea. But when it's useful to his purposes, Kim Jong Il makes sure certain news is delivered.
And so the word has filtered back to Mr. Hwang in Seoul about the fate of the family he had left behind. His wife committed suicide. So too, the reports say, did one of his daughters. She is said to have jumped off a bridge to her death while being taken to a prison camp. Two other daughters and a son are lost in the gulag.
This is the reality of life in North Korea--and the truth that Mr. Hwang will be telling in Washington this week.
Ms. Kirkpatrick is associate editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. |
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CaptPorridge

Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Location: Saudi Arabia
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:19 pm Post subject: Re: As North Koreans die, South Koreans look the other way |
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Alias wrote: |
There's a debate in Seoul over Mr. Hwang's motives in calling attention to the North's human-rights abuses. Some believe him to be sincere; others say he is looking for publicity.. |
who are these beeping beeping beep beeps who are against The Norths human rights abuses being made more public???? |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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The couple times i have tried to raise stuff like this with koreans they don't want to talk about it or think about it.
For a people that are supposed to be One they don't care much what happens north of the border. |
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Hotel Cheonan

Joined: 08 Apr 2003 Location: Gwangju
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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I agree with the author's point about South Koreans believing in unification fantasies. I don't think South Koreans really understand what will happen when unification actually happens( if it does). The borders will be flooded with people from the North, the cities will get even more crowded and congested, and the South will have to deal with all of the differences with the North. Since we all know that most Koreans don't like to deal with anything different, then they are going to have a rude awakening. |
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Joe Thanks

Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Dudleyville
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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South Korea wants reunification one day for cheap labor. Kick out the 3D's. NK's will not integrate with SK's very well at first me thinks. Crime will go up and I wonder if SK would blame it on foreigners. Reason for the boost in crime: fat, rich South and serious discrimination against northerners in job placement, etc. It's the Korean version of what Americans did with the ghetto build-up/gentrification in Watts of the sixties.
Reunification will be messy. It is not Germany, much to the crack-smokin' hopes of some SK theorists. The differences between the two are so huge that I actually think the SK government proclaims reunification as a part of their jingoistic, pro=eugenic dogma, but in confidence they do things to keep the two apart.
Here are some brilliant musings on this from armchair pundits - who seem to have sober minds, unlike al ot of the SK "unification" morons. While some of the opinions/observations differ - there is commonality if you read on:
http://gopkorea.blogs.com/flyingyangban/
http://infidelworld.blogs.com/
http://kwlarsen.blogspot.com/
http://jeffinkorea.blog-city.com
http://marmot.blogs.com/korea/
Surf through and read their musings.
I think the "reunification" mantra is another jingoistic bit of propaganda to rally people together instead of looking inward.
The US is the LARGEST supplier of aid to NK. SK gives diddly and most of that goes into the NK military complex - a defacto way of keeping the walls up while publically claiming to want them down.
SK pays extortion money to NK for anything and does nothing for demands in return. The real "foul king" in Korea was Kim Dae-dumb, er jung who bribed his way into the peace prize. Maybe the world should hurl death threats on him?
He's not even likable, unlike Ohno who's just a talented, doofy young kid ( I'm old enough to earn the right to call him a kid - sigh )
Anyway, by boosting the jingoism (Zed- are you drunk yet? ) they can divert attention from serious issues within - and outside of - SK - like the fact they sit like fat, stuffed pigs in the trough as their northern "brethren" have their minds and bodies raped, destroyed, abused, enslaved, starved and mutilated.
It's an insult to Germany when pundits compare the Korean peninsula's situation to the German cold war set-up.
Korea's a much more complicated ballgame - ALL their OWN doing.
That's a god damned fact, companeros.
I don�t support reunification of the Koreas. I don't think it can work under Northern and Southern mindsets. It's too far removed. Both sides are so insanely different that it would hurt the peninsula - AND - the region.
I also don't trust the peninsula to avoid seeking revenge upon Japan.
Screw the history: that's water under the bridge and anyone - ESPECIALLY non-Koreans - bringing it up as justified in light of past crimes against humanity - can take a fucking long walk off a short pier: you're a damned puppet - and a moron - and an insult to humanity.
Cheers,
Joe |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee

Joined: 25 May 2003
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 12:41 am Post subject: |
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According to the WSJ SK may have even tipped off China about North Korean refugees because everytime South Korea took them in it made NK angry. |
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Joe Thanks

Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Dudleyville
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:48 am Post subject: |
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I read something the other day, but don't remember where. The people quoted said the news about human rights abuses in the North are just American propaganda. |
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Joe Thanks

Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Dudleyville
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:57 am Post subject: |
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Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
I read something the other day, but don't remember where. The people quoted said the news about human rights abuses in the North are just American propaganda. |
And Korea was intentinally given a "K" instead of a "C" to hold it down i nthe world!
Why is it that Japanese media have video of hte abuses - AND SBS even had a special where they showed the horrible nature of NK hospitals (using flashlights during operations, etc.) in 2000 and those are NOT "American propagandha."
I say let NK come on down and see how those doubting SKoreans think about the "propagandha" then...
I guess the BBC, CBC and Japanese media are all part of a Plot (spelled with a P not a C) to hold Korea back.
Sigh. As the late, great Dee Dee Ramone once said, "It's a sick world - sick sick sick."
Cheers,
Joe |
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CaptPorridge

Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Location: Saudi Arabia
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jacktar

Joined: 04 Jun 2003 Location: �� �� ��
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:45 am Post subject: Re: As North Koreans die, South Koreans look the other way |
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Alias wrote: |
Last week's chilling report on the North Korean gulags made it into some South Korean papers but wasn't front-page news. |
What report is this? Does anyone have a link? |
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CaptPorridge

Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Location: Saudi Arabia
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 6:08 am Post subject: |
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This might not be the same story talked about above, but it covers the same ground:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/nkorea/nkorea17.html
'The government doesn't just put one or two people in jail - it puts all the family in jail, wiping everybody out, the innocent along with the guilty, as the broom wipes out the dirt,' said a defector who called himself Chang Chol-woo, an alias, assumed because he didn't want to bring trouble on his family in the North. Who, in such an order, could dare to speak, or even know, his own mind? |
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J.B. Clamence

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 6:18 am Post subject: |
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ulsanchris wrote: |
The couple times i have tried to raise stuff like this with koreans they don't want to talk about it or think about it.
For a people that are supposed to be One they don't care much what happens north of the border. |
I don't think it is because they don't care that they are reluctant to talk about it. Their country was torn in two by a devastating war, and their ethnic bretheren north of the border are living in God-knows-what kind of conditions. They want reunification, but how? And what other God-knows-what kind of horror would have to happen before they can be unified again? I can't blame them for not wanting to discuss it openly, especially with foreigners. But I don't think it's a sign that they don't care. |
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Joe Thanks

Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Dudleyville
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:14 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
J.B. Clamence"]
I don't think it is because they don't care that they are reluctant to talk about it. Their country was torn in two by a devastating war, |
With themselves, started by themselves. Blame falls on the U. S. - the same people who SAVED as many they could (i. e. the South). My pop was one of those young men fighting a war he didnt fully understand, and for a nation not his own.
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and their ethnic bretheren north of the border are living in God-knows-what kind of conditions. They want reunification, but how? |
They are TOLD they want it. Those who really want it - as in living members of families seperated by the DMZ - are relatively few when juxtaposed to the majority who think there should be reunification but don't know "how" because the government doesnt' really want it in SK or NK. They simply tell them "you should want this," not "We need this and this is what we need to do for it to happen."
North and South Korea are more like North and South Carolina than East and West Germany. NK is better off without the brutal dictatorship, but both are better off as peaceful neighbors. Reunification would never stick and both sides would hurt each other. NK would need 50 years to catch up before interation would be smooth. I digress.
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And what other God-knows-what kind of horror would have to happen before they can be unified again? |
A lot of that "horror" that only "god knows" would be what the North and South do to each other during reunification: South companies exploit the north, Southerners lose jobs to cheaper labor and more rioting. Northerners become a minority among their blood brethren and are marginalized and ridiculed and overlooked for jobs based on upbrining. Crime rises because of the amazing dispariging condition between the north and south, etc...
You'd have to have two seperate Koreas like states for a long time before they could support each other as a whole.
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I can't blame them for not wanting to discuss it openly, especially with foreigners. But I don't think it's a sign that they don't care. |
the question is though - programmed jingoisitic strum and drang stripped from them and the real potential issues form reunificaiton are laid down in from of them: do they really want it?
I support a FREE North Korea. I do not support a unified Korea in my lifetime. I think in fifty years it would be very possible.
By that time I'd be worm food.
Cheers,
Joe |
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