The Power of Shame

The South Korean Human Rights Commission may be focused on haircuts (a wierd photonegative image of another government gone mad with its own intrusive state power), but the Korean government has come to the conclusion that it can no longer ignore the rights of the North Korean people.

It was confirmed on July 8 that Cheong Wa Dae formed a special task force team under the Presidential secretarial office for civic and social agendas to precisely grasp the human rights situation in North Korea.

Last year the National Human Rights Commission formed a North Korea human rights situation investigation team to understand the status of North Korean defectors. But this is the first attempt at the government level to get a good grasp of the North Korean human rights situation.

Many are watching with keen interest if this new move causes any changes in the government’s attitude toward the North Korean human rights issue.

One government official said, “As the North Korea human rights issue has emerged as one of top agendas in the international community, an increasing number of scholars and civic right activists are voicing their views that the government can no longer turn a blind eye to the issue,” adding, “So the government created a task force team based on the recognition that the government can no longer take a passive stance on the North Korea human rights issue.

Of course, the ROK government was shamed into this. Recently, several of us in the human rights mini-movement here in Washington have noticed a difference. Suzanne Scholte and Rabbi Cooper of the North Korean Freedom Coalition were able to meet with the South Korean Ambassador, and Prof. Jae Ku tells me that the ROK embassy has shown intense interest in Freedom House’s activities. I’ve even seen a number of visits from the embassy and ROK government agencies on my visitors’ log. Too late, they realize that this is no longer an issue they can afford to ignore, despite the fact that they’d obviously prefer to do just that.