S. Koreans Protest North's Prison Camps

[unreal.livejournal.com]

Several hundred South Korean activists on Saturday protested North Korea's use of concentration camps and called on Pyongyang to release South Koreans who are believed to be imprisoned in them.

The event became tense when a larger group of activists and labor unions arrived at the same venue—the plaza in front of Seoul's city hall—to rally for progressive causes, including free school lunches that are the subject of a citywide referendum in Seoul next week.

Hundreds of police were dispatched to stop the larger group from taking over the plaza, which the smaller group, led by residents of the hometown of a South Korean woman believed trapped in the North, had registered to use. Riot police gathered as the larger group took over a street one block away from the plaza.

The two protests remained peaceful and separate until around 9:30 p.m., when the larger group moved onto the plaza and started blaring music through loudspeakers. Police kept the two groups apart.


The tension illustrated a key characteristic of South Korea's political scene. Anti-North-Korean events tend to be small in size and populated mainly by older people who remember the Korean War of the 1950s. Meanwhile, the South's progressive activists and unions gather larger crowds to criticize its democratically elected government, but they say nothing about the authoritarian system in the North.

Indeed, the Seoul plaza is often used by the South's progressive protest groups, but rarely for demonstrations against North Korean human-rights abuses.

Amnesty International and other human-rights groups estimate the North's prison camps house 200,000 people, most of whom are not criminals but people perceived to pose a political threat to the Kim Jong Il regime. At least 500 South Koreans are believed to be detained in the camps.

Saturday's gathering came after months of organizing by university students and residents of the city of Tongyang who have rallied for Shin Sook-ja. Ms. Shin grew up in the city in the 1960s and '70s and is believed to have been in a North Korean prison camp since 1985.

Ms. Shin is the wife of a South Korean economist named Oh Kil-nam. The couple and their two daughters lived in Germany in the early 1980s when Ms. Shin became ill.

A North Korean acquaintance told Mr. Oh they could get free medical care in the North. After Mr. Oh accepted the invitation, the family was taken to an indoctrination camp in the North.

The North Korean government later sent Mr. Oh back to Europe to recruit more South Koreans, but Ms. Shin and the couple's two daughters weren't allowed to leave with him. Mr. Oh wrote a book about his ordeal in the early 1990s but has lived a quiet life in Seoul since then, occasionally giving interviews about his situation.

Friends and students have raised awareness about her detention this year, spurring a new round of media coverage. Mr. Oh, who is now 69 years old, said he was surprised and touched by the renewed attention to his family's plight.

"I desperately hope they are alive," he said. "I believe they are, even though they are in a terrible place. My hope is to meet them again."

Source: online.wsj

Comments

[patentpending.livejournal.com]

I personally feel that as the older generation of N. Korea dies off and becomes weaker, that there is much more room for the newer generation to start taking matters into their own hands instead of keeping complacent because of fear. Even though it may be harder for them than a place like Egypt because they are pretty literally living in a bubble. But I've learned not to underestimate the power of peoples own will and strength when they are simply fed up with being held captive and beaten down.

[thewarpedmelody.livejournal.com]

Even in modern and liberalized society like England, all hell can just suddenly break loose too

[deerlike.livejournal.com]

Anti-North-Korean events tend to be small in size and populated mainly by older people who remember the Korean War of the 1950s.

Not really surprising, I guess. But even if the older generation in Korea have a closer connection to the issue, the following generations are still well-educated about their homeland history. I wonder why they aren't a significant part of the activism re North Korea? I know that LiNK has headquarters in Seoul, and in the US it tends to have a sizeable membership of college students/20-30 somethings.

[deerlike.livejournal.com]

Still, pointing fingers at the progressive activists is stupid. They have their own agenda that they are trying to communicate to the Korean government, and just because they don't voice their opinion on North Korean human-rights abuses doesn't mean they tacitly condone any of it.

[hopeandmemory.livejournal.com]

Agreed. They're still working in favor of something that will benefit people. I mean, it wasn't cool that they tried to take over the NK protest group's space, but free lunch isn't a frivolous request by any means, and I'm saying that as someone whose little sister was in a similar program in the States. Kids gotta eat, especially the ones who don't have much to eat at home.

[thewarpedmelody.livejournal.com]

"when the larger group moved onto the plaza and started blaring music through loudspeakers"
I would love to know what music they were blaring through the loudspeakers.