Seoul 'ignoring' N Korean abuses

[ed316]

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Seoul 'ignoring' N Korean abuses
Human rights activists have criticised South Korea for not putting enough pressure on North Korea over its appalling human rights record.
Activists and defectors at a Seoul conference on North Korean human rights violations said the South's policy of engagement with the North had failed.
A UN resolution passed last month accused North Korea of "widespread and grave" abuses of human rights.
They included torture, executions and extensive forced labour, it said.
Under its so-called Sunshine Policy, South Korea has sought to improve economic ties with the North, preferring to engage with its neighbour rather than reprimand it.
But the highest ranking official ever to defect from North Korea, Hwang Jang-yop, told the conference that the South was home to apologists for the North as a result of North Korean propaganda.
"We have people who choose to defend the North and oppose the United States only from hearing what [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il and his group say," he said. "This is a disgrace."
Status quo
Suzanne Scholte, head of Washington based think-tank the Defense Forum Foundation, said the South Korean government was content with the status quo in the North for fear that the secretive state might collapse.
"The South Korean government has abandoned the North Korean people," she said.
"How many more North Koreans have to die before we stop this failed strategy?"
Some 700 officials are attending the meeting in Seoul, including US ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow, who on Wednesday branded North Korea a "criminal regime" for state sanctioned drug trafficking, money laundering and arms sales. The conference has been organised by South Korean human rights groups and Freedom House, a pro-democracy organisation partly funded by the US government.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4509484.stm

Published: 2005/12/08 11:24:08 GMT

© BBC MMV

[Beppo]

That was the main thing that bugged me about South Koreans when I was stationed there in 2003; they always glossed over or tried to ignore the insanity that is Kim Jong-il and North Korea. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Korea, totally immersing myself in the Korean culture, but many of the younger generation would be soooo against the US and pro-North, continually screaming about how the North was their "brothers" and thinking the US was the only obstacle to reunification; meanwhile not realizing how dramatic and drastic a change can be brought on under 50 years of living in a police state. The citizens there literally believe Kim Jong-il is a living god, having been raised learning that KJI's birth on the highest mountain in Korea was heralded by lightning bolts, odd behavior by the animals in the region, and a never-before-seen "double-rainbow".
The craziness of the North hit home only once, during the Asian Games of 2003 when, in an historic exchange, the North sent a contingent of athletes, diplomats, and cheerleaders to the South. The North Korean "cheerleaders" (more like an identically-dressed, choreographed all-female cheering section in the bleachers) were the darlings of the South Korean media and everyone fell in love with the "exotic" women, being so beautiful and from such a mysterious and mythical land as the forbidden North. Until...

Fear of Kim's Wetness Stirs Up Cheerleaders
Another peculiar scene with the North Korean cheerleaders unfolded Thursday as they noticed, while riding back from an archery competition, welcome banners with the image of their leader Kim Jong Il in conditions they didn't like.

The women, after demanding that their buses stop, protested in anger and shed tears before taking four banners down and carrying them away.

The group of 150 cheerleaders, here as part of the North Korean delegation to the Universiade games in Daegu, first saw the banners at about 1:40 p.m., as the women were returning from an archery competition.

One banner had a picture of Kim Jong Il shaking hands with former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung at one end and a picture of the reunification flag at the other. In between was a message welcoming the North Korean athletes.

The women, who were in six separate buses, demanded that the vehicles stop. According to one bus driver, some even stepped on his right foot while trying to apply the brake themselves.

Then about 30-40 of them ran the 300-500 meters back to where the banners were. Protesting, they pointed out apparent horrors such as that a seal was stamped on Kim Jong Il's image, that the banners were hanging too low, that they were beside a scarecrow and that they had been left to the mercy of the rain and wind.

Several of the women, helping each other, managed to climb up a two-meter tree and pull down the four banners. They rolled them up, making sure to keep the images still visible, and carried them reverently back to the bus, while weeping out loud. About 10 of them also wrested a camera away from a South Korean reporter who was on the scene.

A South Korean police officer who saw the tail end of the spectacle said, "The North Korean supporters were wailing loudly as they got on the bus, like women who had just lost their husbands. People who were at the scene were saying that it was beyond their comprehension, and some even said it gave them the chills."

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200308/200308280012.html

[Apathy]

That was the main thing that bugged me about South Koreans when I was stationed there in 2003; they always glossed over or tried to ignore the insanity that is Kim Jong-il and North Korea. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Korea, totally immersing myself in the Korean culture, but many of the younger generation would be soooo against the US and pro-North, continually screaming about how the North was their "brothers" and thinking the US was the only obstacle to reunification.

My mother thinks exactly the same way. She believes that the US is in South Korea to oppress our people and force us to buy old weapons and cigarettes. She actually blamed our smoking problem on the US. I am so embarrassed of her.

[Beppo]

During the protests against the bases, I always wanted to stage a counterprotest of my own by holding up a large picture of Kim Jong-il.

PS: I do, however, blame the US's influential fast-food culture for obesity in South Korea; years prior when I was first stationed Korea I had not seen one single fat Korean during my entire 12 months there... skip forward to 2002 and there were fatties everywhere! (Along with bleached, dyed, and hairsprayed hair like you wouldn't believe.)

[Flagg]

During the protests against the bases, I always wanted to stage a counterprotest of my own by holding up a large picture of Kim Jong-il.

PS: I do, however, blame the US's influential fast-food culture for obesity in South Korea; years prior when I was first stationed Korea I had not seen one single fat Korean during my entire 12 months there... skip forward to 2002 and there were fatties everywhere! (Along with bleached, dyed, and hairsprayed hair like you wouldn't believe.)

I don't mean to hijack....as it is somewhat related to a number of posts here but I can't help but comment.

The explosion of multinational fast food outlets is, in my opinion, no "fault" of any single government, society, or culture.

The last time I checked, the likes of McDonald's, KFC, and Burger King were not affiliated with ANY individual nation, society, or culture.

Their intended goal is to profit from EVERY nation whose market they enter.

Their food may not exactly provide the most well balanced diet, but then again no one forces people to eat there.

If it weren't "Mickey D's" it would be "Uncle Cho's" or "Thai Tony's" filling the void.

But since they would be non-american originating corporations, that would be OK.

rant over.

[Roaming East]

The wise man poketh not the sleeping tiger.
Honestly, would you want to provoke a nutty ass country like N Korea with all the hardware they got pointed South? Tread lightly young warrior