[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, October 21, 2005] Here is a petition dated October 19, 2005 being directed to President Roh Moo-hyun from Mr. Kato Hiroshi(nkkikin@hotmail.com), Secretary-General, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (www.northkoreanrefugees.com), which has been passed on to Mr. Y. K. Hwang:

October 19, 2005

PETITION

To: President Roh Moo-hyun
Chongwadae Presidential Palace
1 Jongno-gu, Seoul Special City
Republic of Korea

Your help with the following case is respectfully requested
by Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR), a Japanese
nonprofit organization.

Request for your intervention in the rescue of Kang Song-hee
(female, born Feb. 5, 1979), who failed in seeking asylum at
the Japanese school in Tianjin and is now being detained in
China

On July 27, 2005, five North Korean refugees seeking asylum
attempted to enter the Japanese International School
compound located in Tianjin, China. The five were seized by
guards 50 meters before reaching the school compound. The
guards in charge of the Japanese residential quarter handed
them over to the Chinese police. This may be legally
justifiable, because the school, although it is an
"international" school, does not have the diplomatic
prerogative.

One of the five North Korean refugees, Kang Song-hee
(female, born on Feb. 5, 1979) has already been repatriated
twice before. According to a reliable source, during a prior
two-month detention by the Security Agency in Chonjin, North
Korea, interrogation and torture resulted in injury to her
spine, caused bruises all over her body, broke ribs, and
damaged her pelvis. She can barely maintain normal posture
and has difficulty walking.

She found an opportunity to escape again during her transfer
from Chonjin to the Onsong Security Agency, fleeing a third
time from North Korea at the be! ginning of this year. She
received medical treatment in China and recovered to some
extent. The expenses for her treatment were equivalent to
US $2,000.

Her failure to receive asylum at the Japanese school in
Tianjin means that Kang Song-hee now faces a third
repatriation. We all are deeply concerned; if she is sent
back, she faces the end of her life, judging from her
experiences during two previous repatriations.

Reportedly, the five North Korean refugees, including Kang
Song-hee, originally planned to go to the South Korean
Consulate in Beijing. However, they found that the
Consulate was much more tightly guarded than they expected.
They were nearly seized at a pension where they were
staying, because of frequent door-to-door checks. When that
happened, they found it necessary to flee immediately, and
hurriedly headed for Tianjin as plan B.

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) has been
stri! ving to help the five refugees through its overseas
network of NGOs and international organizations. Four of
the refugees have already been sent back to North Korea.
Meanwhile, only one, Kang Song-hee, is still detained in the
jail in Tianjin, China.

According to the Yonhap News dated October 17, Mr. Kim Hee-
tae, a South Korean humanitarian aid worker, said that Kang
Song-hee has been telling the Chinese authorities that she
is a South Korean national and that her mother lives in
South Korea.

For humanitarian and human rights reasons, LFNKR strongly
urges the South Korean government to actively and
immediately intervene in this case to save the life of Kang
Song-hee.

Kato Hiroshi
Secretary-General
Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (NPO)
A-101, 2-2-8 Nishikata, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0024
Tel/Fax: 03-3815-8127
nkkikin@hotmail.com
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com

I will say that I am far from impressed with President Roh Moo-hyun. He seems to be more concerned with appeasing North Korea, than taking action. This is true for the last two South Korean Presidents who are more concerned with the Sunshine Policy than human rights in North Korea. I think their intentions are good, but you must always have the stick ready when the carrot fails.

South Korea should do more to verify human rights and that the aid they send north actually gets to the people that need it. I fear the aid being sent north simply feeds the military at is trained to destroy South Korea.

Mike