[Opinion] Bipolar Human Rights

“During the famine in the 1990s, the North Korean government left more than a million of its people to starve to death while spending food money on the army and nuclear weapons development.” This is a part of North Korean human rights report by author Elie Wiesel, a Nobel peace prize winner. Another winner of the same prize, former President Kim Dae-jung, recently said, “I improved the inter-Korean relationship and made the world a safer place (even with the nuclear testing by North Korea).”

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) is an organization established in 2001 based on the electoral commitments of former President Kim Dae-jung. It pays attention to such minute details that it presented a recommendation bill that asked employers not to inquire into whether the applicants are addicted to drugs or not, let alone their educational backgrounds. Still, they have never released a recommendation, not even a white book, on the human rights of North Korea. Earlier this year, it revealed a “Basic Plan on National Human Rights Policies” that in essence dealt with the abolition of the National Security Law and the expansion of participation by public servants and teachers into politics. It cares little about the human rights of citizens and students` rights to classes being infringed upon by public servants and teachers who are into politics.

The former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne who participated in the drafting of the report with Wiesel urged the UN to become involved in the matter of the human rights in North Korea, saying, “The dignity of human beings does not concern borders or the degree of social contribution.” Former President Kim and the NHRCK seem only interested in the human rights of those who will contribute to political benefits and the ideologies of the two. They worry themselves sick about what small number of members of the Kim Jong Il regime there is but neglect the human rights of the 23 million nationals of North Korea.

It is also ironic that all the green organizations, which “violently” stood up for the rights to live of lizards are keeping quiet about the starvation and the suffering of the North Korean people. Isn’t the Roh Moo-hyun administration also negligent of the human rights of the 23 million people in order to save the Kim Jong Il regime? Ahn Kyeong-hwan, the new president of the NHRCK said, “We need to have a serious discussion on the human rights condition of North Korea.” We ask him to pay attention to guaranteeing not only the rights of the violent demonstrators but also the rights of the combat policemen and further, of the majority of people. Please be aware of the bipolarization of human rights in South and North Koreas where the rights of the majority are being violated in favor of the rights of the minority.

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com