Posted on 09/23/2003 7:07:16 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Vollertsen Makes Scene at Assembly Hearing
by Kwon Dae-yeol (dykwon@chosun.com)
The German human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen walked out of a National Assembly hearing Tuesday after a lawmaker from the new party started shouting at one of Vollertsen's fellow witnesses. The hearing was part of an audit of the National Police Agency, and focused on the violence inflicted by North Korean reporters against Vollertsen and rightist activists at the Daegu Universiade games, as well as an Aug. 30 attack by about 50 leftist activists against a retired military official, Seo Jeong-kap, outside the Chosun Ilbo headquarters. Vollertsen and Seo were in the witness box, along with several others who were with them in the respective attacks.
Seo, leader of the military's retired colonels association, described how he was threatened by the activists from the civic group People's Power as he was walking with Cho Kap-je, publisher of the Monthly Chosun.
The process that led to Vollertsen's sudden exit started when Song Seok-chan, a lawmaker from the new People's Participatory and Unity Party, asked Seo to explain his position on the nation and reunification. Song said that his answer was too complicated, and that Song should refer to his Internet site.
Song got furious and began shouting at Seo, saying, "You are criticizing Roh Moo-hyun as a pro-North Korean leftist."
Then several of the witnesses, including Vollertsen and Seo, stood up, asking Song if he was asking for a fight. "Why are you threatening us," one said. "Why are you shouting? Are you really an assemblyman?"
Then Vollertsen, who had been watching the quarrel, said that he had not heard such loud yelling since Pyongyang, and asked if he could leave. Then he left the building.
With the situation quieted, somewhat, the witnesses, including Seo, said angrily that "our people were mobbed by North Koreans - if you are a real assemblyman, you should try to help us."
Seo said from the witness stand that it was tragic what was happening in the country, and that the police should do their job fairly.
Earlier, from the witness box, Vollertsen was asked whether the police acted fairly when the North Korean reporters used violence. "Never," he said. "The police were not fair. From time to time I feel that this is just like in Pyongyang. In North Korea there was brainwashing and restrictions. I have to admit that to some degree in South Korea also there are similar things, and manipulation and restrictions on human rights."
Asked by the Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Byeong-seok where he thought President Roh was located on the political spectrum, Vollertsen said that Roh was just sitting back, and that Roh doesn't care about North Koreans' human rights. Roh only shows an attitude of supporting the North Korean cheerleaders and the banned student group Hanchongryun, Vollertsen said.
The approach by the governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, Vollertsen said, represent a conspiratorial policy to help North Korea rather than an engagement policy. "Someday, when Korea is united, and all of these facts come to light, like in Germany, I'm sure that the names of the South's pro-North Koreans will be publicized," he said.
Bullseye!
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