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The "2008 North Korean Human Rights Campaign" held throughout this week focused on hundreds of thousands of North Korean escapees and their children stranded in China, with the slogan: "Compassion for North Korean Orphans!"
Since the mass famine of the mid-1990s that killed an estimated two million people, more and more North Koreans have crossed the border into China in search of food and freedom. Some of them succeeded in reaching South Korea, but most of them are still hiding in China or in neighboring countries.
"A number of North Koreans – including young children – who defected from their homeland are still barely making a living through begging and prostitution, under the constant menace of forced repatriation," organizers said in a joint statement.
"Some 2,000 North Korean orphans are staying in China, and the number of North Korean children born to Chinese fathers is estimated to be more than 10,000,” the statement read. “They are suffering from poverty, crime and a lack of education and medical services.”
Janice Lyn Marshall, the Seoul representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called for more global efforts to help North Korean children stranded in China.
"The often-distressing experience, situation and treatment of North Koreans who left their country are concerns which preoccupy, to one extent or another, virtually every government, as well as the United Nations and non-government agencies in Northeast Asia," she said. "We need to think creatively and seriously about protection for North Koreans.”
Yoon Yeo-sang, a fellow at the Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, said international efforts are "essential to prevent further human rights violations against the stateless children in China."
"Beijing is urged to intervene to ensure human rights and stable living conditions for North Korean defector children or orphans," said Yoon, whose group jointly organized this week’s human rights campaign.
The five-day campaign included international human rights symposiums, music concerts, book shows and memorial services for those who may have already died. About 20 human rights groups joined the campaign, including several foreign organizations.
In 2005, a similar human rights campaign was held in Seoul, but it was hosted by Freedom House, a New York-based private democracy watchdog, and other overseas organizations, reflecting the reluctance of the South Korean government of the time to raise the issue of North Korean human rights.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun and his liberal predecessor maintained a low-key stance toward human right abuses in North Korea for fear of creating friction with Pyongyang that could upset the fragile inter-Korean reconciliation process.
But President Lee Myung-bak, who took office early this year as the country's first conservative leader in a decade, has vowed to criticize the North over its human rights violations, saying the human rights issue is "something we cannot avoid" and North Korea "should know it."
On the back of the conservative government's policy, this year's human rights campaign was led by South Korean civic groups. "We hope this campaign will expand activities in South Korea to improve human rights conditions in North Korea," said Kim Yoon-tae, secretary-general of the organization committee of the campaign.
Jhe Seong-ho, South Korea's ambassador for human rights, said in a speech at an international symposium on Friday that he would focus on improving human rights conditions in North Korea. Jhe is a law professor who has been a harsh critic of the North's human rights abuses.
At the symposium held at the Seoul Press Center, with hundreds packed in the audience, human right activists called for the Seoul government to review economic aid to the North, monitor where food aid goes and ensure it reaches those most in need.
David Hawk, who works for the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said human rights should become a "central concern" in the process of carrying out a multilateral deal aimed at disarming the North of its nuclear weapons in return for energy aid.
"Human rights, human security and humanitarian concerns should also play a central role in the negotiations to conclude a peace treaty which will replace the current armistice accord that technically ended the 1950-53 Korean War," he said.
In line with this week's civic campaign, South Korea's official human rights watchdog has decided to create a special committee to investigate North Korea's rights record.
"The government should make consistent efforts to cooperate with the international community to bring substantial improvements to the human rights conditions in North Korea," the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
