Tag: human rights

ROK Foreign Minister Defends Criminalizing Human Rights Activists

| December 18, 2020

Here is the ROK Foreign Minister defending the criminalizing of human rights activists that have been sending leaflets to North Korea:

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha / Korea Times file

Earlier this week, the National Assembly passed the bill that prevents mainly North Korean defectors and human rights activists from flying propaganda leaflets or other materials critical of the Kim Jong-un regime over the border into the North. The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea claim the new law will help protect residents in border regions and ease cross-border tension.

“Because this is happening in a very sensitive area, the most militarized zone in the whole world with people living right next to the border area,” Kang said in an interview with CNN.

Citing a 2014 cross-border gunfire exchange and the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office in June, which she claimed were due to the leaflets, she added, “So in an area, highly militarily tense area, anything can go wrong and lead to even bigger clashes. And the people living near the border have been asking that these activities stop for years.” 

The foreign minister admitted that there was an argument denouncing the law as restricting freedom of expression, but she also said this could be limited in certain cases.

“Freedom of expression, I think, is absolutely a vital human right. But it’s not absolute. It can be limited according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). But it has to be by law. It has to be limited in scope. And it is limited in scope. It is only used when these acts pose harm or pose danger to the life and the security of our people,” Kang said.

Korea Times

Kang brings up the 2014 incident when the North Koreans have had far worse cross border incidents that had nothing to do with the human rights activists sending leaflets to North Korea. For example the Kim regime shelled a South Korea island in 2010 with an artillery strike that killed both military personnel and civilians. To think that criminalizing the human rights activists is going to improve border security is a fallacy.

The only reason there hasn’t been a major border incident in recent years is because the Kim regime thinks they are close to getting their confederation idea implemented by the Moon administration and with it the beginning of the end of the US-ROK alliance as we currently know it.

South Korean Government Threatens Legal Action Against Human Rights Activists

| June 11, 2020

It appears that the Moon administration wants to treat the balloon launch human rights activists like they do conservative journalists by threatening them with jail:

Members of Fighters for Free North Korea, an organization of defectors from North Korea, send balloons carrying anti-North leaflets across the border from the South Korean border city of Paju, in this file photo dated April 2, 2016

The unification ministry said Wednesday that it will file a complaint with police against two North Korean defector groups for sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, a day after the North cut off all inter-Korean communication lines over such leafleting. 

The ministry said that it will also take action to revoke business permits granted to the groups, Fighters for Free North Korea and Keunsaem, accusing them of putting the safety of people living in border regions at risk by sending leaflets into the North.

“They have violated public interests by heightening tensions between the South and the North and by running squarely against the agreements reached by the leaders of the two Koreas, and also caused danger to the lives and safety of residents in the border regions,” the ministry said in a press release.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is once again another example of how South Korea is a rule by law nation and not a rule of law nation. These activists have been doing this for years and one of their leaders Park Sang-Hak has faced assassination attempts by North Korean agents and had leftist thugs assault him to stop his balloon protests. Now with a change of government and complaints from North Korea, what they are doing is suddenly illegal.

US Sanctions Three North Korean Regime Officials

| December 12, 2018

This news is not going over well with the Kim regime: 

From left are Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, State Security Minister Jong Kyong-thaek and Pak Kwang-ho, director of the party’s propaganda department. Yonhap

The outlook for a second Washington-Pyongyang summit is dimming amid an escalation of diplomatic tit-for-tat, after the U.S. imposed sanctions on three ranking North Korean officials Monday. 

The U.S. Treasury Department cited “serious human rights abuse and censorship” as reasons for the sanctions on the North’s de facto No. 2 figure, Choe Ryong-hae. The two others are State Security Minister Jong Kyong-thaek and Pak Kwang-ho, director of the Workers’ Party’s propaganda department.

The decision drew a strong backlash from the North, as this is the first time the U.S. has imposed human rights sanctions against the regime since the leaders of the two countries met in June to discuss peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

Korea Times

You can read the rest at the link, but as expected the North Korean state controlled media is blasting this decision to sanction the three regime officials.  

I think these sanctions are just a further warning to the Kim regime that the Trump administration is losing patience with their denuclearization delay games.  

Is President Moon Tacitly Advocating for North Korea’s “Juche” Ideology?

| October 6, 2018

Mr. Greg Scarlatoiu who is the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea recently had an article published in the Wall Street Journal describing how he believes President Moon is ignoring human rights abuses in North Korea, tacitly advocating for North Korea’s “juche” ideology, and propping up a dictator:

The South Korean president stated that the two leaders had agreed to the principle of jaju-wonchik, or unification through self-determination. This principle is derived from North Korea’s juche ideology of self-reliance. A quick Korean-language internet search of the term will bring up North Korean propaganda websites such as Uriminzokkiri and the Korean Central News Agency. “Unification through self-determination” also excludes outsiders, especially the U.S.

Mr. Moon’s speeches may read like peace-building. But to those familiar with North Korean ideology, a speech tacitly endorsing juche only validates Mr. Kim’s brand of totalitarianism. It’s a statement of support for North Korean ideology and all that goes along with it, including nuclear weapons. Mr. Moon’s speech gave legitimacy to Mr. Kim’s corrupt and horrific rule.

Opposing the Pyongyang regime’s repression of the North Korean people and its threats to the South has become increasingly difficult with Mr. Moon in office. His government has reduced funding for organizations that promote human rights in the North by more than 90%, stopped balloon launches and loudspeaker broadcasting across the Demilitarized Zone and has been censoring the content of USB thumb drives smuggled by activists into North Korea. It is hard to imagine how Mr. Moon will ever move from warm praise of Mr. Kim to addressing the dire human-rights situation of North Koreans.  [Wall Street Journal via a reader tip]

You can read much more at the link.