Sat, Dec 12, 2009 page3

• INTERVIEW: Taiwan could play role in tackling Kim Jong-il: activist

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan / STAFF REPORTER
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  North Korea may be a mystery to most Taiwanese, but Taiwan could play a vital role in changing the country’s authoritarian regime, which has one of the worst human rights records in the world, said Kim Seong-min, founder of South Korea’s Free North Korea Radio (FNKR).

  “China is the key to influencing North Korea, and the country which can influence China most is Taiwan,” Kim told the Taipei Times in an interview on Wednesday.

  Kim said he hoped Taiwan could make use of the cross-strait relationship to push China to do more on North Korean issues because no other country in the international community can have as much sway over China as Taiwan.

  There is a similarity in the China-Taiwan and North-South Korea situations — the confrontation between communism and capitalism.

  “Taiwanese people can somewhat understand the North Korean mentality,” while the same language makes it easy for them to understand each other, he said.

  As Kim was in Taipei to receive the 2009 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award from the Taiwan Foundation Democracy, his country’s delegation was in Geneva for its first Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, under which each member is reviewed every four years.

  Welcoming the demands by many UN members that North Korea grant access to the UN Special Rapporteur and allow an independent assessment of its human rights situation, a demand dismissed by North Korea’s ambassador Ri Tcheul, Kim said that he doubted the effectiveness of the UN move.

  “Since Kim Jong-il was named [by his father Kim Il-sung] as his successor in 1974, he never gave a damn about condemnation or actions taken against him by the US, Japan ... no matter how severe they are,” the defector said.

  Despite North Korea’s defiance, international society should continue its efforts to demand the regime address its serious human rights violations, but “more important is the role of China,” that provides it with resources and food, Kim said.

  Kim said that the North Korean regime knows that it cannot afford to lose its ally China, otherwise it would be completely isolated in the world, thus worsening its food shortages.

  “If China was determined to change North Korea, things would be easier. The problem is that China sometimes is so indifferent to what’s going on in North Korea or it even uses North Korea as a bargaining chip [to make its own political gains in the international community],” he said.

  Even though the UN makes resolutions on various North Korean issues almost every year, Kim said the international community oftentimes misjudges the situation inside the country and is under the mistaken impression that providing aid projects will get the regime to cooperate.

  The visit by former US president Bill Clinton to North Korea in August and the six-party talks have both failed to lead to nuclear disarmament, showing that Kim Jong-il uses negotiations as a means of defrauding people, he said.

  “Innocent people in North Korea and the regime should be treated separately and international norms and principles should be applied to pester Kim Jong-il and force him to surrender,” he said.

  More than 150 defectors from North Korea have signed a petition urging the Hague-based International Criminal Court to investigate North Korea and arrest its authoritarian leader for alleged human rights violations.

  “Three million people have died of hunger in North Korea, while South Korea is such an affluent society. In North Korea, we can only eat candies on Kim Jong-il’s birthday, while candies and cookies are everywhere in South Korea. I just don’t understand,” Kim said.

  Saying that it would take many days and nights to discuss all the atrocities taking place in North Korea, Kim added that famine, public executions, and executions without trial are the most serious human rights violations.

  “There are about 20 prison camps in North Korea for political prisoners, holding an estimated 200,000 inmates,” he said.

  A former military propaganda officer in North Korea, Kim, born in 1962, started to doubt everything he was taught to believe. One day he tuned into a South Korean broadcast using an illegal radio he collected on his patrol.

  In 1996, Kim escaped from North Korea to China, but was arrested and repatriated, where he was tortured in prison and sentenced to death for leaving the country without permission.

  On the way to the execution site from Onseong to Pyongyang, he jumped off a moving train to escape again to China where he worked until he made it to South Korea in 1999.

  In 2004, he established FNKR with a view to undermining the authoritarian state by broadcasting news from the outside world across the border, “especially the concepts of freedom and democracy,” so North Korean people could enhance their push for democratization.

  Growing from its initial 30-minute Internet broadcast, FNKR now broadcasts five hours a day into North Korea using short wave radio signals. It can also be heard in China and South Korea.

  It’s illegal for North Koreans to listen to anything other than state-run radio, and all legal radios are fixed so that they can only receive channels approved by the government, but listenership is rising, he said.

  “A survey conducted by a US committee showed that 35 out of a total of 200 North Korean defectors had listened to FNKR before they were able to escape the country,” Kim said.

  Ever since its launch, Kim and his comrades have experienced numerous hardships — they were forced to relocate offices three times after protests by extreme-left and pro-North Korean groups, while the North Korean regime jams their signals and presses the governments of South Korea, Russia and China to harass FNKR.

  Despite all the harassment, protests and threats to their lives, Kim said that FNKR has received an increasingly positive response, which he described as a “precious treasure.”

  “Some people have even called from the China/North Korea border areas where Chinese cellphone services are available and some have sent us letters. Some just wanted to say thanks, and some asked us how to escape,” he said.

  Kim said that he had very limited understanding of Taiwan before he was given the award early last month and he didn’t realize that Taiwan was more democratic than China.

  “Information about Taiwan in North Korea is all from China, and it is all negative news. Given this, most North Koreans might still think that Taiwan is an abominable country,” said Kim, adding that he plans to reintroduce Taiwan to his listeners when he returns to try to improve its image.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Nuggets snap Warriors’ winning streak

  • 2

    Lee wins silver at All England Open

  • 3

    SPEAK UP: Kylie Minogue & Kenshi Yonezu to rock Taiwan (2/2) 凱莉米諾、米津玄師襲台（下）

  • 4

    US bill to address Taiwan with real name introduced

  • 5

    G7 ministers’ statement supports Taiwan