403개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Last Sunday's Toronto Star(CN) published the following piece, written by Steven Borowiec(*):
South Korean security law takes aim at pro-North activists
When Kim Jong-il died in late 2011, videos of sobbing North Koreans sparked international discussion, as many questioned the sincerity of the theatrical crying.
While it’s impossible to know how North Koreans really feel about the regime in Pyongyang, there is no question about Hwang Seung-ho’s love for North Korea.
“The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is the only country that really takes care of its people and is a true democracy,” said 40-year-old Hwang, at a coffee shop in Bundang, a well-off suburb of Seoul. “All the people support one leadership and give their full-hearted support to one goal.”
Hwang isn’t a well-placed North Korean bureaucrat. As manager of Victims of the Korean National Security Law, he is part of a small but persistent community of pro-North activists in South Korea.
While North Koreans must appear invested in the system to avoid the heavy hand of the state, it is illegal to support North Korea in the South. Hwang’s home has been raided by police, who confiscated all his materials on North Korea, and he was fired from his last job as a math tutor for his political activities.
Under South Korea’s National Security Law (NSL), all kinds of people are being swept up, accused of pro-North activities.
On Jan. 31, South Korean authorities arrested Park Jeongguen for retweeting the message “Long live Kim Jong-il” from North Korea’s official Twitter account. Park is accused of helping “the enemy.” He has maintained he retweeted the message to mock North Korea.
“This is not a national security case, it’s a sad case of the South Korean authorities’ complete failure to understand sarcasm,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director, in a statement.
Human rights groups have called for the law to be reformed or abolished, saying it is being used to stifle free speech and silence critics.
In 2007, 39 South Koreans were interrogated on suspicion of violating the law, according to the Los Angeles Times. That number had jumped to 151 by 2010.
The paper also reported that prosecutions for online postings perceived to be pro-North Korean also rose dramatically — from five in 2008 to 82 in 2010, according to the government’s statistics. And in the first 10 months of 2011, authorities deleted 67,300 Web posts deemed to be friendly toward North Korea, up from 14,430 in 2009.
To many, this increase in NLS cases appears as a regression to South Korea’s dictatorial past. Until the 1988 Seoul Olympics, South Korea was a military dictatorship. Following a long, bloody protest movement, it is now a functioning democracy. Ten years of liberal rule were broken with the 2008 inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak regime, under which Amnesty International and other groups have documented and voiced concerns over curtailed freedom of expression.
Despite the risks, there are activists who openly praise North Korea and want to reunite the Korean Peninsula under Pyongyang’s official ideology, known as juche.
“Throughout 60 years, North Korea has established and maintained the juche ideology and attained its current status as a superpower nation in regard to economy and military and our psychological and philosophical ways, so I admire the DPRK,” Hwang said.
Pro-North activist Kim Dae-hee echoes the North Korean line about the puppet status of South Korea.
“In South Korea we don’t have national sovereignty,” says Kim, who was arrested and sentenced to probation after attempting to hold a vigil commemorating Kim Jong-il on the day of the leader’s death.
“The DPRK has its own final say. In South Korea, we don’t have any power to get this country reunited without the interference of the United States. The United States doesn’t want to see this country reunited because it is against their interests,” said Kim.
The pro-North activists think highly of juche, which means “self-reliance” and is attributed to the country’s first leader Kim Il-sung, though it is said to have been ghostwritten by North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yeop.
“It (juche) is a sort of catch-all for everything the North Korean regime does,” said Brian Myers, a North Korea specialist at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. “Anything they do they can point to and say ‘it’s juche’ and that gives it legitimacy. In reality it’s a red herring that distracts from the real ideology, which is something much more scary — a paranoid, race-based nationalism.”
In addressing pro-North activists’ attachment to the doctrine, Myers said, “The South Korean government’s treatment of juche as something seditious has given it a certain cachet. The South Korean nationalist left has a sort of uncomprehending attachment to it, which is understandable, since it’s very difficult for them to access materials from North Korea.”
In South Korea, it is difficult not to conform to social norms surrounding education, employment and family. Parents pressure their children to get into a good university, find a good job and marry. Those with unconventional goals or interests often report feelings of social exclusion or familial disapproval. The pro-North Korea activists are willing to accept this exclusion, however, to remain steadfast in their support for the North.
The conventional South Korean goals seem unimportant to Hwang. “In this country they just want Apple phones and other electronic devices,” he said. “They don’t want articulate, active citizens.”
* Steven Borowiec is deputy English editor for the ('left'-liberal) Hankyoreh newspaper, but he also writes for Yonhap...
Yesterday's (bourgeois) Korea Times had a "nice" example about how S. Korea's "democracy" works:
'Naggomsu' host put behind bars
A panelist of a popular online talk show ridiculing President Lee Myung-bak was put behind bars, Monday, following a controversial court ruling against him.
Chung Bong-ju(정봉수/Jeong Bong-joo), 51, a former opposition lawmaker and one of the four hosts of the podcast “I am a Ggomsu (petty trickster),” presented himself to the prosecution’s office in Seoul early afternoon. He had rejected the prosecution’s summons twice since sentenced with a one-year jail term on Friday by the Supreme Court.
The court upheld a lower court’s conviction on Chung of spreading false rumors during the 2007 presidential campaign that Lee was involved in a stock manipulation scam at BBK, an Internet financial firm.
After arriving at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, a teary Chung, surrounded by about 1,000 supporters, criticized the Supreme Court, saying Friday’s ruling by Judge Lee Sang-hoon was not acceptable.
“The battle to discover the truth behind Lee’s financial scam has just begun. I believe the ruling will draw more public interest in the case,” Chung said. “They are trying to put a gag in my mouth, but the truth will win in the end.”
Several opposition politicians, including Democratic Unity Party lawmakers Chung Dong-young and Park Young-sun as well as No Hoi-chan, spokesman of the Unified Progressive Party, accompanied Chung to the prosecution office to show their support for him...
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/12/117_101623.html
Related pieces:
☞ BBK suspicion raiser behind bar (Hankyoreh, 12.27)
☞ In S. Korea, a shrinking space for speech (WaPo, 12.22)
S. Korea lost today its "Democratic"(^^) Labor Party(민주노동당, KCTU's political wing) and got a 2nd "social"-democratic(i.e. anti-communist/anti-socialist) entity, aka "Unified 'Progressive'(^^) Party"(congrats!!!^^)...
"Rhyu Si-min, left, chairman of the People’s Participatory Party, Lee Jung-hee, center, chairwoman of the
Democratic Labor Party and Shim Sang-jeong join their hands to celebrate the launching of the
Unified Progressive Party during a joint conference held at the National Assembly..." (source: 민중의소리/연합)
Today's (reactionary)Korea Herald reported the following:
Minor left-wing parties unite for election
Three minor left-wing parties have merged to form a new progressive party to increase their chance of winning more seats in next year’s general election.
The leaders of the Democratic Labor Party, the People’s Participation Party and an offshoot of the New Progressive Party resolved to create the new Unified Progressive Party on Monday.
The group officially separated itself from mainstream consolidation efforts led by the main opposition Democratic Party and the political activists’ group Integration and Innovation.
The new party’s chairmanship is to be jointly held by the three leaders ― the DLP’s Lee Jung-hee, the PPP’s Rhyu Si-min and the PNP group’s Sim Sang-jeong. Its headquarters will be located within the DLP’s former office in Yeouido.
The merger process will be completed at the party’s inauguration convention slated for mid-January, according to officials.
Also, those who aspire to run in the April 11 general elections may start registering as the UPP’s backup candidates from next Tuesday.
The new party currently holds seven parliamentary seats and hopes to increase the number to at least 20, the minimum for a party to form a floor negotiation group in the assembly.
The UPP hinted that it may consider forming an alliance with the DP-led group in the upcoming elections, but said a fundamental inter-party integration is unlikely, despite the DP’s earlier efforts to unite the entire left-wing camp.
Opposition parties have engaged in unity talks this year, particularly after the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election in which the DP-backed independent Park Won-soon defeated ruling Grand National Party nominess Na Kyung-won.
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111205000688
Related articles:
☞ Minor liberal parties launch coalition (Korea Times, 12.5)
☞ 진보진영 '통합진보당(UPP)'으로 새출발 (VoP, 12.5)
☞ 통합진보당 떴다…야권, 두 축으로 재편 (Chosun Ilbo, 12.5)
First of all: Today in the morning(CET) Yonhap reported that "The ruling party-controlled National Assembly approved the long-pending free trade agreement with the United States during a chaotic session Tuesday, after an opposition lawmaker set off tear gas in an attempt to block the passage. The approval paved the way for the landmark deal to take effect on Jan. 1 as planned..."
An opposition lawmaker detonated a tear gas canister inside the National Assembly's main chamber on Tuesday in protest at the ruling party's move to force through a free trade agreement with the United States. Rep. Kim Sun-dong of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) was in the full parliamentary session at around 4 p.m. when lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party abruptly called a plenary session in an apparent move to ratify the bill. Kim threw the tear gas bomb near the Speaker's seat, where vice parliamentary speaker Chung Ui-hwa was sitting at the time. (Yonhap)
Given the usually very harsh prosecution of any (alleged) so-called "left-wing crimes" I wouldn't surprised if Kim Sun-dong will be accused/indicted of terrorism!!!
PS: Dear DLP,
Next time when you want to protest inside the Nat'l Assembly you should use pineapples (aka hand grenades), because it's definitely more effective!! Or is it only a matter of time until you send your first suicide assassin??? (^^)
Today's Yonhap News reported that "Three minor opposition parties will form a new progressive party as part of efforts to boost their chances in next year's parliamentary elections, their leaders said, while the main opposition party is working hard to form a broad alliance with other liberal forces and civic groups.
Leaders of three minor parties - the Democratic Labor Party, the People's Participatory Party and a novice party made up of defectors from the Progressive New Party - announced that they will hold a convention to set the new progressive party's platform and nomination rules for the April general elections...
Talks have been under way for months to form a united front among minor opposition parties, but stakeholders of each party were divided over whether to form a coalition or create a new progressive party.
If combined, the bloc would hold seven seats in the 299-member unicameral parliament.
The breakthrough came as the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is stepping up its efforts with left-leaning parties and civic groups to form a broad coalition to boost liberals' chances in next year's parliamentary and presidential votes..."
Well, this means in effect that - possibly - very soon we'll see (and have to fight against) another pro-capitalist "social"democratic party (alongside the main "opposition" DP) in the Nat'l Assembly, the S. Korean parliament!!
Related articles:
☞ Minor opposition party merger on the horizon (Hankyoreh, 11.18)
☞ With Progressive Party Union, What Comes After Is More Important (Kyunghyang, 11.14)
☞ DP urges left wing to unite (Korea Herald, 11.14)
Y'day in Seoul(Yeouido, near the S. Korean Nat'l Assembly): once again party atmosphere(^^), aka Anti-KORUS-FTA protests...
Related reports/articles:
☞ “국민의 뜻이다 한미FTA 폐기하라!” 국민 분노 표출 (KCTU, 11.03)
☞ FTA 반대 집회, 젊은층 대거 참여...제2의 촛불? (OMN, 11.03)
☞ 한미FTA 저지 범국민대회, 국회 앞 충돌...23명 연행 (NewsCham, 11.03)
☞ 'Again 2008', 한미FTA저지 촛불 여의도에서 점화됐다 (VoP, 11.03)
☞ Assembly session abruptly canceled, delaying FTA bill (JoongAng Ilbo, 11.04)
☞ Why Is the Korea- U.S. FTA So Controversial? (Chosun Ilbo, 11.04)
☞ Unfounded anti-FTA rumors spread via SNS (K. Times, 11.04)
The following article was published in yesterday's Hankyoreh newspaper:
Megachurch pastors begin ideological attacks
as mayoral election nears
Pastors have used pulpits to strongly imply congregation members should vote for GNP candidate Na Kyung-won
With the Seoul mayoral election three days away, megachurch pastors Kim Hong-do and Jeon Kwang-hoon launched ideological attacks Sunday on opposition candidate Park Won-soon.
While leading a prayer during a service at Kum Ran United Methodist Church in the Mangubon neighborhood of Seoul’s Jungnang District, Kim, the church’s director, said, “What are we to do if someone who belongs to Satan and demons becomes mayor of Seoul, which is like our heart?” (^^)
Kim also said, “Let us pray that someone with healthy ideas and a proper national view becomes prayer. The fate of the nation is in jeopardy if this mayoral election goes wrong.”
Kum Ran United Methodist Church is the world’s largest Methodist church, with a congregation of some 120 thousand.
As they were leaving the service, members of the congregation were asked who the “someone with a proper national view” that Kim spoke of was. Three women in their 70s answered that it was Grand National Party (GNP) candidate Na Kyung-won. “Everyone in the congregation knows that,” they said.
A woman in her 20s answered, “The Grand National Party [candidate].”
Two men in their 20s were asked who the “someone affiliated with Satan and demons was.”
“The man [Park], not the woman [Na],” one answered.
At the end of his prayer, Kim added that the latest issue of the Jayu Daehan Sinmun newspaper had come out and asked that members of the flock “take three or four them, pass them around to your member members, and especially encourage young people” to read them. Thousands of copies of the newspaper were positioned at the exits to the chapel.
The Oct. 20 edition of the newspaper, which is published by the Association to Commemorate the Founding of the Republic of Korea, includes a contribution on pages 2 and 3 by Rev. Suh Kyung-suk.
“It has come to light that when People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy has criticized corporations, and those corporations have generally sent contributions of hundreds of millions of won or more to the Beautiful Foundation,” Rev. Suh wrote about Park. “The coordination of the Beautiful Foundation and PSPD is no different at all from an organized crime group.”
Suh made his opposition to Park clear, demanding that the candidate “clarify whether he will maintain ties with the Democratic Labor Party, which is a leftist party serving North Korea and a group of followers of Kim Jong-il.”
“If my questions about Park Won-soon are resolved, I would like to reconcile with him and withdraw my opposition,” he added.
Jeon Kwang-hoon also criticized the political opposition during a sermon at Sarangjeil Presbyterian Church of Korea in the Jangwi neighborhood of Seoul’s Seongbuk District.
“The opposition is repudiating the Republic of Korea,” Jeon said, adding, “Where else do you find a party that won’t even let you use the term ‘liberal democracy’?”
Jeon previously sparked controversy by spearheading the founding of the Christian Liberal Democratic Party and giving 10 million won ($8,780) to the Korea Parent Federation to fight the Hope Bus campaign.
An official with the Seoul election commission said that the distribution of the Jayu Daehan Sinmun at Kum Ran United Methodist Church was suspended after being deemed problematic early on.
“We are currently examining matters closely to determine whether the content of sermons at Kum Ran United Methodist Church and elsewhere was in violation of election law,” the official added.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/502112.html
In celebration of today's Liberation Day in S. Korea 2MB(aka Lee Myung-bak) demonstrated - once again - that he's a real wisecracker, proved by Korea Times' newest headline:
President calls for 'ethical' capitalism
Yep, 'ethical' capitalism just like in...
-> Myeong-dong's "redevelopment" zone
-> Busan's Hanjin Shipyard
-> Seoul's Poi-dong desaster area
-> Jeju's Gangseong village
-> and don't forget Ssangyong, Yooseong, Jaeneung... etc.
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