403개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Nat'l 'Human Rights' Commission = New Hawk Entity
Today's Yonhap reported the following:
Rights panel recommends resuming anti-Pyongyang propaganda
South Korea's state human rights agency approved a recommendation for the government to resume anti-North Korea propaganda, officials said Tuesday, as tension was running high after the North's shelling on a South Korean island.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)'s plenary committee in a meeting Monday adopted the recommendation in a 6-2 vote, saying the government needs to show the people of the reclusive North Korea the real outside world "through all means possible."
The recommendation urges the government to resume broadcasts through loudspeakers at the border with North Korea and to encourage the sending of leaflets into the North denouncing its leader and regime.
"I cannot overlook the realities of North Koreans' life," NHRC chairman Hyun Byung-chul said. "We have to deal with human rights in North Korea and provide North Koreans with information so that they can think and judge."
The move came as tensions spiked on the Korean Peninsula from the North's deadly Nov. 23 artillery strike on a South Korean border island, killing four people, including two civilians.
The recommendation, proposed by six of nine commissioners, was passed at a second attempt after an earlier one was left undecided since June. Opponents at the time had argued against fueling already high cross-border tensions from the sinking of a South Korean warship in March blamed on the North. They also said it was beyond the NHRC's role to take a position on anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
Liberal members of the plenary committee on Monday still questioned the efficacy of the commission's latest decision.
"The recommendation lacks concrete measures, and it is questionable whether it can produce an effective outcome as North Korea blocks all information," a dissenting opinion said...
Loudspeakers are designed so that the broadcasts can be heard up to 24 kilometers into North Korea at night and 10km during the day. Pyongyang has consistently warned that it will shoot down the loudspeakers if the broadcasts resume...
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/12/07/23/0302000000AEN20101207007100315F.HTML
The S. Korean National Human Rights Commission/NHCR was established, according to its self-conception as a "national advocacy institution for human rights protection. It is committed to the fulfillment of human rights in a broader sense, including dignity, value and freedom of every human being, as signified in international human rights conventions and treaties to which Korea is a signatory".
Article 1 of the National Human Rights Commission Act: "The purpose of this Act is to contribute to the embodiment of human dignity and worth as well as to the safeguard of the basic order of democracy, by establishing the National Human Rights Commission to ensure that inviolable, fundamental human rights of all individuals are protected and the standards of human rights are improved."
But when you read the following two news reports you'll find out that the (current) reality is complete different!!
1. Today's Yonhap report (via Korea Herald):
Rights body draws fire over disabled protesters
The state human rights watchdog has come under fire for recently asking police to forcibly quell a sit-in by disabled protesters at its building in downtown Seoul, civic activists said Monday, accusing the agency of contradicting its perennial pledge to protect the rights of the socially underprivileged.
About 160 disabled activists from across the nation went to a sit-in protest last Thursday after occupying the offices of the National Human Rights Commission(*), demanding the commission chairman resign and restrictions on financial aid for the disabled be eased. Most of the activists had withdrawn from the building by late Friday, but a dozen protesters stayed and staged a sit-in throughout the weekend.
The NHRC sent an official document on the second day of the protest asking police to disperse the protesters, mostly in wheelchairs, civic activists said, claiming that its request goes against its role to protect underprivileged people, like the disabled.
The NHRC explained the request was an inevitable decision to normalize its operation.
“(The protesters) did not get out no matter how many times we have persuaded them (to leave), so we had to normalize the official business as soon as possible before being paralyzed. We were left with no option,” an NHRC official said.
Several troops of riot police surrounding the building currently remain on standby for a possible conflict, according to officials.
“We are discussing measures against the remaining protesters considering their special status as disabled people,” a police official said.
Founded in 2001 during the administration of then-President Kim Dae-jung, the human rights watchdog has a symbolic standing in a country where individuals’ rights were violated by past authoritarian regimes. But its chairman, Hyun Byung-chul, who took office as chairman of the commission in July 2009, has come under pressure to resign after members of the commission quit en masse in protest against him for his failure to speak on key issues that are sensitive for the government.
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101206000726
2. Last Friday(12.03) Yonhap News Agency reported that...
South Korea's state human rights agency will submit a bill next week to recommend the government resume anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts on the border, officials said Friday, amid heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula after the North's shelling on a South Korean island.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said a nine-member meeting will discuss the proposal on the resumption of the propaganda broadcasts on Monday and put it to a vote.
The bill, proposed by six conservative commissioners, advises the government to resume anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts on the heavily armed border to show the real state of the world to the people inside the reclusive country. The first proposal was put to a vote in June, but failed to win a majority vote.
Loudspeakers are designed to send broadcasts up to 24 kilometers into North Korea's interior at night and 10 kilometers during the day. Pyongyang has consistently warned that it will shoot the loudspeakers if they are turned on.
Citing the North's military provocations, the NHRC is calling for the passing of a North Korean human rights bill, while opposing another bill on allowing civic groups to establish North Korean human rights foundations, both pending at the National Assembly, according to officials...
The proposal is likely to draw criticism as critics argue that it could feed already high tension near border areas and say anti-Pyongyang propaganda goes beyond the NHRC's original role.
* Related article:
☞ Rights agency occupied by disabled (K. Times, 12.03)
1. The KTU is always characterized as a PROGRESSIVE union of S. Korean teachers, under the umbrella of KCTU(*)...
So the following article, published in yesterday's (bourgeois-reactionary)JoongAng Ilbo, must be just a scurrility(???)...
Teachers’ union critical of corporal punishment ban
Members of the Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU), a liberal teachers’ union, had scathing remarks about Seoul’s recent ban on corporal punishment, saying it created friction between students and teachers and did not properly reflect the reality in schools.
It is a reversal of the position the liberal-minded union initially took.
Seoul’s education superintendent, Kwak No-hyun, and around 100 teachers of the KTU held a meeting hosted by the union on Wednesday at a local education office in Songpa District, southern Seoul. They discussed issues such as personnel management of teachers and school reforms.
The ban on corporal punishment drew the harshest criticism, however.
A middle school teacher in Seoul, surnamed Park, said, “As soon as the corporal punishment ban began [on Nov. 1 in Seoul], a slew of absurd things happened.”
After a confrontation between a teacher and a student, “The teacher was told by the student, ‘Sir, you should now retire,’” Park said.
Park added, “So far, I have passionately supported Kwak as superintendent, but now it has become hard for me to defend him.”
Teachers also said the corporal punishment ban has been hastily put in place.
A teacher at a vocational high school said, “A toilet was set on fire due to smoking by a student. However, both a vice principal and a guidance teacher passed the buck to get the student counseling.”
The teacher continued, “The head guidance teacher said, ‘What can I do about it since the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education banned corporal punishment?’ Under this circumstance, I am doubtful whether students will follow teachers’ orders to reflect on their misbehavior.”
The KTU initially backed the ban on corporal punishment. And when Kwak described the plan in July, the union defended the superintendent.
Since the launch of the ban this month, however, even liberal-minded teachers have become disgruntled over the new policy, complaining of hardships in dealing with students.
Kwak, however, clearly expressed his position, saying, “The die is cast.”
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928335
* In its self-conception KTU explains "WHAT WE DO":
- We work to improve the working conditions of teachers, student environments and the education system.
- We actively participate in struggles for democratic social reforms...
2. Another strange story "reported" today's KCNA:
17 civic and social organizations of south Korea including the... Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held the 134th movement for independent reunification and peace in Seoul on Nov. 9 denouncing the U.S. for its outrageous action to force south Korea to yield to it. The organizations accused the U.S. of pressuring the south Korean authorities to lift the restrictions on the import of beef infected with mad cow disease, ease quarantine regulations, etc. at the additional negotiations for the conclusion of the FTA...
http://175.45.179.68/English/Today/news4.htm
Sure thing! As we know, the ultimate ambition of the US-Imperialism is the obliteration of the Korean nation - nowadays by the spread of BSE via "beef infected with mad cow disease"!! And so it's KCTU's sacred duty to be on the forefront to defend the survival of the Korean people...
Yesterday's DailyNK (DPRK-friendly? Not at all!!) published the following (disputable, but not uninteresting) piece:
Searching for a New Left and Cooperation
Hereditary succession through three generations is unprecedented in modern history. Anywhere a country has adopted republicanism over monarchy, regardless of whether it is in capitalist or socialist form, a three-generation hereditary succession is a historical abomination hard even to imagine.
Furthermore, since the French revolution of 1789, a majority of countries have adopted the core values of a republic; government by and for the benefit of the citizenry, with elected representatives replaced on a regular basis under universal suffrage.
This is supposed also to be the case in North Korea. The official title of the nation, “Democratic People's Republic of Korea,” clearly states that sovereignty is with the citizens.
However, ever since Kim Il Sung founded an independent government in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula in 1948, there has not been a single change of power by the citizens in that area.
From immediately after the liberation until the 1970s, Kim Il Sung formally imposed a class dictatorship by a supposedly proletarian party, then, since successfully beginning the hereditary succession to Kim Jong Il, the state has been governed by a totalitarian dictatorship even more degenerate than an absolute monarchy. The basic stance of this dictatorship is that authority in North Korea belongs to Kim Il Sung's family, while the citizens and organs of state exist for their benefit.
During the recent Chosun Workers' Party Delegates Conference, North Korea changed the wording of the preamble to the Party regulations from a "Juche-type revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party founded by comrade Kim Il Sung" to the "Party of Great Supreme Leader Kim Il Sung". They might even be lamenting having not changed it to the “Kim Il Sung Party”.
With this act, the Chosun Workers' Party proclaimed to the world that it is the party of the Kim dynasty, by the Kim dynasty, and for the Kim dynasty.
Now, North Korea has only to squeeze Kim Jong Eun, the third son of Kim Jong Il, into the absolutist role. In order to achieve this, they have given this mere 28-year old man the rank of general in the Chosun People's Army and made him Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chosun Workers' Party.
Three generations of hereditary succession related in no way to the will of the citizens is being attempted, yet there are no visible signs of chaos. Why would North Koreans not complain about this? Inside sources are even saying that Kim Jong Eun is worse than his father. The answer is that the people are resigned to it, since they understand the tragedy which can befall a whole family with one word of complaint about Kim Jong Eun.
And yet, regardless of this unfolding disaster, “progressive” leftist parties in South Korea are watching on from the sidelines. The comment of one leading party of leftists, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), was, "It is appropriate to consider it a matter North Korea will decide on, especially for inter-Korean relations.”
The Democratic Party (DP), whose own highly democratic leadership contest came to a conclusion last night, speaks better, but the result is much the same. Take a look at their comment of September 28th, which starts well, "For people with faith in democracy like us, this is a task which is logically hard to understand, no matter how different the system may be."
However, their conclusion is less auspicious, "The shortcut is to promote opening through interchanges and cooperation." They claim that the answer can only be found in the “Sunshine Policy” of the Kim Dae Jung administration, even though 10 years of such sunshine oversaw the three-generation hereditary succession, while repression of the citizenry did not stop.
Civil society is doing no better. South Korea’s largest NGO, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy caused a big stir last June when it sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council to raise suspicions about the results of the South Korean government's investigation into the Cheonan incident, but is now pretending not to see the hereditary succession. It is the same for Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice and other leftist groups working towards unification.
This stands in contrast to the attitude of conservative groups like Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights or Citizens United for a Better Society, the former stating immediately after the formalization of the third generation hereditary succession at the Delegates’ Conference, "The Kim Jong Il regime should stop this historically extraordinary comedy show now.”.
However, this does not mean that all progressive forces are silent.
One voice of dissent is that of the minority New Progressive Party (NPP), which separated from the Democratic Labor Party after an ideological disagreement in 2008. On September 29th, the Party said of the succession, "This is a considerable distance from the universal sentiment of the citizens or general consciousness of modern democracy."
NPP lawmaker Cho Seung Su, who is running for the office of party representative, also criticized the succession on September 30th, asserting, "The progressive camp needs to presents a clear stance (on the third generation hereditary succession)."
He commented, commendably, "It is important for the progressive camp to decide their attitude towards North Korea. If we do not clarify our position, we will not be acknowledged as a normal organization."
However, the general perspective of the progressive leftist camp is to consider the issue a North Korean domestic matter which South Korea should not get involved in. They mean that we should not aggravate North Korea, which they see as a counterpart for communication and cooperation.
However, communication and cooperation with North Korea is ultimately meant to be for the purpose of unification, and the target is meant to be not only the administration but also the integration of the South and North Korean citizenry. Therefore, it is time for serious concern to be given to what kind of pain the extension of the Kim dynasty through three generations will have on the North Korean citizens.
Based on this thought, an article appeared last week written by Son Ho Cheol, a professor at Sogang University. Entitled, “Progressive Camp Needs to Initiate North Korean Democratization Movement”, it was published in the progressive “Pressian” on September 30th.
In it, Professor Son pointed out that even though left wingers harshly criticized former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung Hwan for the scandal that led to his recent resignation, the same people have kept silent about the North Korean third generation succession. He said they should discard the double standard whereby it is possible to criticize the South Korean government while advocating for the North Korean situation due to the special Korean Peninsula circumstances.
He also commented, "We need to start worrying about the progressive North Korean democratization movement as well.”
However, he also asserted, "Fundamentally, the democratization of North Korea should be reached by the independent will of the North Korean people. It should not be achieved by outside forces like the new right, which is stepping up to help in the democratization of North Korea from the forefront of the 'anti-democratization movement' in South Korean society, which is where we live."
Of course, the feeling of hostility toward this so-called new right camp within Professor Son's assertion is very prejudiced, and the authority to exclude anyone from working towards North Korean democratization is given to no one. The democratization of North Korea is not the exclusive property of any one individual or group which claims moral superiority or a specific philosophy.
North Korean democratization is one proposition which left and right and progressive and conservative can discuss jointly. Through this, we can leave an important stamp on humankind's log book by freeing the poor North Korean citizens, who have no choice but to serve the Kim dynasty.
Therefore, we need to consider the fact that Professor Son urged the awakening of the progressive camp on the issue of North Korea's democratization movement. As can be seen from the situation of the Democratic Labor Party, the issue of pro-North Korea sentiment is not something that can be solved easily.
However, it does not mean the task is impossible. Any group with a healthy and reasonable outlook within the progressive leftist camp can initiate a sincere discussion on its negligence toward North Korean democratization. Indeed, Social Democratic Solidarity, which is led by Joo Dae Hwan, a representative and former member of the Democratic Labor Party, is actively seeking a role for leftist group in North Korean human rights and democratization.
Within North Korea's third generation hereditary succession, which is blocking the advance of humankind, lays an opportunity. It is to be hoped that an honest discussion of the “progressive democratization movement theory” proposed by Professor Son will soon come to pass.
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00300&num=6867
The Korean version (well, it could/should be a basis for discussion!!) you can read here:
☞ 南 진보는 北 민주화 위해 보수와 경쟁할 때다
Last February Seoul's "re-development" Mafia (a collaboration of the city bureaucracy with the construction Mafia) selected the next victim to realize its f*cking gentrification (and anti-migrant workers) program: the Filipino Market in Hyehwa-dong...
...the Sunday venue for the migrant worker community from the Philippines...
One month later, in March, almost everyone was optimistic that the danger for the market was averted, at least for the time being...
But last week's (bourgeois/reactionary) JoongAng Ilbo(9.29) proved that "the opera ain't over until the fat lady sings":
Seoul’s Filipino market to be cut in half
Citing traffic and overcrowding, the district office is moving ahead with its plan, despite objections from marketgoers.
The Filipino market in Hyehwa-dong is facing a new obstacle in its 15-year history.
Jongno District officials are planning to cut the size of the market in half, following complaints from local residents and overcrowding in the area around the market.
The market has become a popular weekend gathering place in Seoul for expats from various countries, and expats have already raised objections to the plan.
The Filipino market is held every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in front of Dongsung High School, where vendors sell everything from daily necessities, like shampoo and soap, to specialty comestible ingredients made in the Philippines.
Seoul’s Jongno District Office said yesterday in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that the size of the market will soon be cut to half, partially because the stalls interfere with pedestrian and vehicle traffic and also because of complaints from residents nearby.
“We plan to expel unauthorized vendors, but will allow 15 shops that have been in business for the past 15 years to remain,” said Choe Seong-min, the director of the district’s construction management division. “We know the place is a meeting spot for Philippine nationals in Korea, but the stalls cannot be legalized and residents have voiced lots of complaints about the market.”
Recently, the district office had white lines painted on the marketplace grounds to demarcate the stalls, allowing four square meters (43 square feet) for each one.
Vendors who cross the line will face consequences, the district office said.
“District office officials said if we cross the designated line, we will lose some of our merchandise,” said Park Il-sun, the leader of Hanbihoe, an association of Philippine merchants in Korea.
The market sprang up after a Filipino priest began conducting mass in Tagalog - the main spoken language in the Philippines - at Hyewha Cathedral in 1996, drawing a number of foreign nationals to the area. Today, the area is both a market and meeting place for Filipinos, Koreans and other expats.
The market is already half of its original size - it used to be 100 meters long. It will be cut in half again after the district’s plan is implemented...
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2926463
Barely Enough to Keep Body and Soul Together
The minimum cost of living for a four-member household next year has been set at 1.43 million won ($1,200), up 5.6 percent from this year, the S. Korean gov't announced two weeks ago, according to Korea Herald(8.24)...
Almost three weeks earlier Kim So-yeon (Hankyoreh journalist) reported about his experience how he - alone, not a four-member household(!!) - survived with 1,110,919 won ($946.29) for one month:
☞ 30 days on the minimum cost of living (Hankyoreh, 8.02)
Any more questions?
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