Korean student groups working for NK human rights

Encouraging news today comes from the Daily NK, where we read that Korean students are pushing hard for human rights to be included as part of the imminent inter-Korean summit. (Background on the summit: Roh Moo Hyun hopes to improve inter-Korean relations before he leaves office at the end of this year; Kim Jong-il may be trying to appear cooperative in advance of the ROK presidential elections in December; neither leader has an incentive to address human rights.)

Mr. Yoon said, “This movement, with the confirmation of the Summit Talks agenda coming up on the 25th, was started because the government preparing for the talks has not shown an intent to discuss the North Korean human rights situation.” From the onset of the petition movement, a non-cooperative struggle is taking place.

They are planning to include the abductees’ issue in the upcoming petition movement.

The figure 100,000 represents the 12,000-some defectors who have entered South Korea, around 500 prisoners of war of the Korean armed forces, approximately 8,300 wartime abductees, and 480 abductees taken immediately after the war.

Mr. Yoon said, “A true peace and coexistence cannot begin until basic human rights are reached and expanded on North Korean soil. Talks where the human rights improvement of 20 million North Korean civilians is not discussed cannot ultimately contribute to the arrival of the flourishing of peace on the peninsula.”

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Mr. Yoon requested, “While looking at the distant future (reunification of the peninsula), do not think that the North Korean human rights issue is somebody else’s work. College students should take a greater interest and lend their ears to those who voice the right opinions.”