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2003-04-30 Korea

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Posted by Anonymous 2003-04-30 10:19 am|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Now that this testimony's come out I'm sure the UN will be all over this issue,and quick too. Or maybe the EU Rapid Reaction Force.

Posted by Matt 2003-04-30 14:44:42|| 2003-04-30 14:44:42|| Front Page Top

#2 Since the Kim Dae-jung Administration, there has actually been muzzle put on the press reporting negative stories about North Korea. Strangely enough, stories negatively depicting the American military presence in South Korea seemed to be OK until very recently. Coincidently, when the UN Human Rights Commission censured North Korea last week, did anyone notice which country was NOT in attendance? That's right - it was South Korea. Even South Korea's national human rights commission, which somehow managed to find it in their hearts to criticize American "human rights violations" in Iraq, refused to condemn North Korea's human rights situation. I sh*t you not; when the head of the commission was asked by lawmakers which country had a worse human rights situation, North or South Korea, the guy claimed he didn't have enough data to answer. After unification, there are going to be a lot of Korean leftists asking themselves some very uncomfortable questions.

Posted by The Marmot 2003-04-30 15:11:58|| [marmotshole.blogspot.com] 2003-04-30 15:11:58|| Front Page Top

#3 Hello TM - with your knowledge of Korea, how do you explain the SK mindset? I find it quite confounding. As I understand it, President Roh made his name on human rights and the SK people consider NK their kin. How can they ignore the situation in the North?

Posted by Anonymous 2003-04-30 15:43:41|| 2003-04-30 15:43:41|| Front Page Top

#4 Thing is, this info isn't new. I just pulled Soon Ok Lee's prison memoirs (Eyes of the Tailless Animals) off my bookshelf. Copyright date of 1999, originally published in Korean in 1996. She already testified before the Senate Judiciary committee in June 2002 (http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=292).

Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who spent 16 months in North Korea gathering evidence of horrific abuses (http://www.washtimes.com/world/20021206-53444593.htm), has been speaking out for a few years, but your average American knows nothing about it. Perhaps the human rights situation in North Korea will begin to get more play in the press, and people will take notice, but I'm skeptical. So far, the only people who seem to notice are the small group who follow these things closely.

Posted by Kathy 2003-04-30 16:23:10|| 2003-04-30 16:23:10|| Front Page Top

#5 I wish I could give you a good explanation, but most of us expats are just as confounded as you are. Part of it has to do with post-war South Korean history; the military dictators who ruled SK for most of the 60s, 70s, and 80s really pushed the anti-North Korea propaganda, so when the dictators were discredited, in the minds of some people, so was the propaganda. In point of fact, for many human rights activists like Roh, their primary axe to grind is with the United States (which "backed" the military dictators), not the DPRK. Another thing is that despite the nationalist "we are one people" bullsh*t that you hear so often from people here, the truth is that for many South Koreans, the DPRK might as well be Mars. In fact, the only time those feelings of brotherhood really come out is when a third country is involved - usually the US or Japan. Lastly, it should be said that a lot of people here really ARE concerned about the human rights situation in North Korea; generally speaking, the media was furious at Noh for deciding to sit the UN vote out. There are a lot of other factors behind why South Koreans do not appear overly concerned about the suffering their northern kin must endure, but it's a long discussion and I'm not sure if it would make the "SK mindset" any more intelligible. Heck, even I spend much of my time wondering, "What the f*ck?"

Last note: This kind of hypocricy is hardly limited to the Korean Left; the Western Left was strangely silent over human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, while at the same time very vocal about abuses in Chile and South Africa. Hey, what can you do?

Posted by The Marmot 2003-04-30 16:50:23|| [marmotshole.blogspot.com] 2003-04-30 16:50:23|| Front Page Top

#6 The sick thing about Norbert Vollertsen is that the Kim Dae-jung Administration attempted to bully him into remaining silent. He's a bit of a strange character, to be sure. But at least he's doing something, and he pulls no punches.

Posted by The Marmot 2003-04-30 16:53:51|| [marmotshole.blogspot.com] 2003-04-30 16:53:51|| Front Page Top

#7 "Hello TM - with your knowledge of Korea, how do you explain the SK mindset? I find it quite confounding. As I understand it, President Roh made his name on human rights and the SK people consider NK their kin. How can they ignore the situation in the North?
Posted by: Anonymous 4/30/2003 3:43:41 PM"

That's a bit complex, Anon, but the simple explanation can be summed up thusly - Koreans, North AND South, tend to get caught up in the racial issue. If you think that some black Americans have a "It's us against the Honkey" mindset, then you've never encountered Asian racial prejudice. It's REALLY bad. No matter how insanely Jongy-boy behaves, Many South Koreans still desperately hold on to the belief that "We're all Koreans here, and it's us against the world. Particularly Japan and China!"

(There are still Koreans alive today who lived through the Japanese occupation of Korea, and if you even mention Japan, the hatred in their faces for the Japanese is hot enough to light your cigar by.)

It's the same tribalism that Africa suffers under, just on a larger scale.

Ed Becerra

Posted by Ed Becerra 2003-04-30 17:16:21|| 2003-04-30 17:16:21|| Front Page Top

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