N. Korea: U.S. Group to Fight North's Rights Abuses

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 06/27/03 | Joo Yong-jung

[TigerLikesRooster]

U.S. Group to Fight North's Rights Abuses

by Joo Yong-jung (midway@chosun.com)

WASHINGTON - Several religious and human rights groups in the United States are driving forward to establish an organization that would strive to protect the freedom and rights of the North Korean people. To form the North Korea Freedom Coalition, representatives from 13 groups, including Concerned Women for America, the Defense Forum and the Hudson Institute, held a preliminary meeting Thursday. They decided to sponsor Congress's North Korea Freedom Act, and announced the general principles for extending liberties to North Koreans.

Michael Horowitz from the Hudson Institute said in a press conference later that more groups will be joining when the coalition is inaugurated next month. Interest in North Korea's human rights is increasing in the United States, he said.

Horowitz also said the coalition would boost global awareness of Pyongyang's human rights violations, stop all economic support as long as the abuses continue, lobby the U.S. government to adopt policies that would bring democracy to North Korea and help North Korean defectors settle in free countries.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Would compassionate liberals of S. Korea and U.S. join the efforts? Probably not.

[OahuBreeze]

One would hope.... It's just not on their radar, not a cause celebre (sorry to say that, but it's true). Where are all these bleeding hearts who were so worried about Saddam's prisoners (/citizens) being hit by bombs... about one tenth of the NK population is already dead...? Sigh....

Pacificism: Peace is a great thing, but it isn't all. If your children are starving to deathwhile the dictator regime is living fat and happy and couldn't care less...; if you haven't been allowed a chance to vote in fifty years and if you say anything that can be construed as against the regime you're shot or off to the gulag...; if you're in an alley and you see someone being raped... are you going to forgo violence?; will you feel like you've done something good afterward or like a fool and a coward....

Russia and China are really championing the human rights issue in North Korea though (snicker snicker), with the ROK coming in a close third...