[USFK Forums] Generocity Does Not Improve the Human Rgihts Situation in N. Korea

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, March 11, 2006

“Generosity Does Not Improve the Human Rights Situation in North Korea”

THE DONG-A ILBO, SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2006 02:59

About 20 organizations for North Korean human rights, including the Democracy Network against North Korean Gulag, the Association of Abductees’ Families, the North Korea Democratization Forum and the Christian NGO, discussed tasks of NGOs to improve North Korean human rights and ways to collaborate with each other and urged the government to pay more attention to the North’s human rights situation.

The New Right National Union (NRNU) held this NGO strategy meeting for the improvement of North Korean human rights situation at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in Seoul yesterday.

In the meeting chaired by Je Sung-ho, a law professor at Chung-Ang University and a spokesman for the NRNU, Kim Jin-hong, the standing chairman of the organization, pointed out, “It is natural that the conservative force is interested in security and that the progressive force pays attention to human rights. But, strangely enough, the progressive force is not interested in the North Korean human rights situation.”

Heo Man-ho, a Kyungpook University professor, said in his keynote speech, “We should not expect the North Korean government, which blames other countries for the miserable situation of North Koreans, to improve the human rights situation,” adding, “The international community should actively report North Korea’s human rights violations to prompt Pyongyang to improve the situation.”

He also said, “A unconditional food and development assistance from the South Korean government does not necessarily improve North Koreans’ lives,” stressing, “A continuous monitoring by NGOs is badly needed about whether food distribution is done in a transparent manner or whether North Koreans are deprived of their right to live in the process of development assistance.”

Reverend Seo Kyung-seok, who also participated in the debate, said, “Designating the week of the Korean War as North Korean human rights week, South Koreans home and abroad should stage rallies which require humanitarian measures for North Korean defectors in front of Chinese embassies across the world.”

Je said, “We’re planning to hold a hearing by inviting North Korean defectors to know the sufferings of North Korean defectors, abductees and South Korean POWs, around March 22 when the European Union holds a hearing on North Korean human rights,” adding, “We will send data of the hearing to the UN Secretary General to rouse international attention to North Korean human rights.”


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