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The public campaign to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights comes at a time when tensions across the inter-Korean border are mounting over a separate campaign by the South's civic groups, who have bombarded the North with leaflets accusing its leadership of human rights abuses.
Organizers said the weeklong domestic campaign is aimed at focusing greater public attention on human rights conditions in their communist neighbor. Events include forums, photography exhibitions, documentary shows and memorial services for those killed by the North's terror activities.
"We intend to make people feel more familiar with the North Korean human rights issues, and that is why we have prepared many events outdoors, where people pass by every day," said Do Hee-youn, head of the organizing committee of the campaign, which includes some 30 civic groups, such as family members of those abducted by North Korea, defectors who escaped from the communist country and war veterans.
"I hope the variety of events helps to catch the public eye on human rights conditions in North Korea, especially the dire situation facing North Korean children," said Kang Yu-jin, a super model, named on Wednesday as “ambassador for North Korean human rights.”
The activists also held a street rally in front of the Chinese Embassy in central Seoul to urge Beijing not to forcefully repatriate North Korean refugees in China. "Grant refugee status to North Koreans," they shouted, holding signs that read, "Stop brutality!" and "No repatriation to North Korea."
Since the mass famine of the mid-1990s that killed an estimated two million people, many North Koreans have crossed the border into China in search of food and freedom. Some of them succeeded in reaching South Korea, but most remain in hiding in China or in neighboring countries.
If they are discovered by Chinese authorities, who consider the North Korean escapees illegal "economic immigrants" and not political refugees, they are sent back to the North, where they face sentences including capital punishment.
According to human rights groups, some 1,800 escapees were repatriated to the North last year, while more than 100,000 North Koreans still remain stranded in China and other neighboring countries, waiting for a chance to defect to South Korea.
President Lee Myung-bak, who took office early this year as the country's first conservative leader in a decade, is pushing to have refugee camps built in Thailand, Mongolia and Russia's Far East to house North Korean refugees.
According to a government document obtained by a ruling lawmaker, Lee told his Cabinet to "consult with Mongolia and Russia on establishing refugee centers in those countries if China refuses to recognize the North Korean escapees as political refugees."
Kim Suk-woo, a vice foreign minister who now heads the Seoul-based National Development Institute, said more and more campaigns are necessary to attract public attention to the North's human rights violations. "Just some events cannot grab public attention on the North’s human rights issues. So it is necessary for more and more efforts to spotlight the humanitarian plight facing the Northern brethren," he said.
The human rights campaign comes as the North strengthens social control to keep its people away from leaflets dropped by the South’s civic activists.
The North's regime has reportedly mobilized its troops to sweep up the leaflets, which are critical of its ruler Kim Jong Il and his dictatorship. Troops were dispatched to the western border area to gather the leaflets before local residents, suffering from hunger and suppression, found them. The regime has punished those who read the leaflets, according to Washington-based Radio Free Asia.
The leaflets, printed on plastic sheets with waterproof ink to prevent them from being damaged after falling in mountainous areas or in water, urged North Koreans to join forces against Kim, describing him as "the world's most devilish dictator" who enjoys a lavish life while his people suffer from famine and poverty.
In protest, the North has cut off ties with the South and imposed strict crackdowns on border traffic, jeopardizing inter-Korean joint industrial and tourism projects that are a major cash cow for the impoverished communist country.
The North's military has also threatened to turn everything in the South into "debris" and "ashes" if the South continues its confrontational activities, the distribution of leaflets.
