Full Text of Kim Moon Soo’s Speech to FH Conference;

The Flying Yangban is still not finished documenting Freedom House’s Seoul conference on human rights in North Korea (you can read his excellent OFK posts on the subject here, right below my own posts on the FH Washington conference). Andy’s latest is the text of a speech by the Korean politician I most admire, and one of a very few I admire at all: Kim Moon Soo. New readers with a deep interest in Korean politics may want to read the two–parter I wrote about Kim, a third-term assemblyman. . . .

What distinguishes Kim Moon Soo from so many of his peers is a combination of vision, conscience, and courage that consistently puts him on the right side of history. Kim fought for democracy and spent time in jail for it during the old right-wing dictatorship. Now, he fights for human rights in North Korea. He shares the distinction of being the primary champion of the North Korean people with fellow assemblyman and more traditional conservative Hwang Woo-Yea (regrettably, the two don’t seem to cooperate much on their legislative proposals). Kim is also unique, thus far, for his lack of any serious ethical blemishes on his record (Hwang was accused of taking an inappropriate contribution, but the charge appears not to have stuck, as a finding of guilt would likely have cost Hwang his seat by operation of law).

I’d hoped Kim, a charismatic speaker, would run for president in ’07, but I hear a steady stream of rumors that he has his eye on the governorship of Kyonggi-do, the province that surrounds Seoul. I recall reading recently that he was leading in the polls for that race, which sets him up for a presidential run in 2012.