Freedom House IV: LiNK Protest at the South Korean Embassy

As before, LiNK is the youth, the heart, and much of the numerical strength of this small movement. Adrian Hong e-mailed with a link to some great pictures of both the conference and the LiNK protest at the ROK Embassy that afternoon. This picture gives a good idea of the scale of the conference. I might kibbitz with Adrian’s head count, but I don’t disagree that it was a strong success. It likely gave this issue essential momentum and media oxygen.

Tim Peters is in the lower right-hand corner. There’s no more reputable or effective charity helping North Korean refugees than the Family Care Foundation. I had a chance to meet and talk with him and pronounce him genuine–sincere, compassionate, and dignified. As for the latter quality, not even the obnoxious Michael Horowitz (a man esteemed by many and loved by virtually none) could shake it (unrelated note to Horowitz–if you want to quiet down a few hundred Koreans, I’d suggest speaking to them in Korean rather than resorting to the stereotypical American louder-and-slower method).

There’s a special bonus in that picture, too.

I couldn’t attend the protest as I was blogging the conference, but I did survey some of the LiNK members, and they consistently reported that about 50-60 attended. Those numbers mean a great deal more in front of a ROK embassy than in front of a Chinese embassy, particularly when so many of the faces are Korean (many others weren’t–LiNK has ceased to be a Korean-American organization and is well represented across the ethnic spectrum). But the protest really deserves to be remembered for the confrontation that happened when one of the embassy officials (to his credit) came out to talk to LiNK’s Adrian Hong, Paul Lee, and Benjamin Seligman. The LiNK guys were brilliant:

Question from Paul Lee, UCI LiNK Chapter: “Can you explain why South Korea has been abstaining from the [UN] human rights resolution [condemning North Korea’s human rights violations]?”

ROK Official: “Well, you know, uh, we have deep concern on North Korean human rights situations, but you know what is more important at the moment, perhaps it would be hard to understand, but the right to life can be threatened if you take a confrontational approach with North Korean leadership. There’s a humanitarian issue with North Korea- it cannot just remain in the humanitarian domain, it has many implications. It is a strategic issue, it is a diplomatic issue, you have to consider it in a larger context. What we are trying to do is improve substantially their human rights situation through reform and opening.”

Question from Adrian Hong, LiNK: “How long, ballpark, do you think it would take?”

ROK Official: “Well, you know, it’s very difficult to say… I think.”

Adrian: “Just an estimate.”

ROK Official: “I don’t know. I hope sooner.”

Adrian:”Twenty years? One year?”

ROK Official: “If.. I’m not sure… If we talk about human rights issues in an aggressive way, in a provocative way, they will regard it as a confrontation policy towards North Korea, and they will regard the South Korean government as being very hostile to the regime’s survival. Right now the most important question on the Korean peninsula is the nuclear issue.”
. . . .

Adrian: “But weren’t Kim Young Sam and Kim Il Sung supposed to meet before Kim Dae Jung got to office? There was no sunshine policy then… I think the concern here is that given the Sunshine Policy, and North Korea’s ten to one economic difference [ from South Korea ], it sounds like it’ll take, what, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred years- to get reunification. But since 1996 we’ve had 2 million, some people say up to 7 million people die, right now there are 6.5 million people starving, I’m sure more or less, depending on your NIS estimates- so, do we have time to wait that long?”

ROK Official: “Well, I think we don’t have any other alternative.”

Stop what you’re doing this instant and go read every last inspired word.