My little trip to the International Symposium on North Korean Human Rights; Part Two (What's up with LiNK?)

(Here is part two of my my first-hand account of part of the International Symposium on North Korean Human Rights, which was held at the Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies on Saturday, November 27.)

In part one, I talked about the morning session of the symposium. .

After a lunch of stale bread from a bakery near Yonsei University's east gate, I got to see some of the second round action.

The Line-up

The afternoon battle royal panel discussion

When the folks at LiNK say that they want to bring different groups together for dialog, they aren't joking.  The afternoon forum had members from all over Korea's political spectrum and some of them clearly detested each other.  The participants where (from stage right to stage left on the podium):

-Adrian Hong; Executive Director of LiNK (more on him in a moment).

-Lee Yeong-hwan with Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.  I suspect that they are pretty right-wing, because they are helping North Korean refugees in China and Russia.  They certainly don't seem to have any love for Kim Jong-il and the boys. 

-Park Jeong-eun with The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.  They are pretty left-wing and think that any problem with the Norks is America's fault.

-Park Il-Hwan with 자유민주남복청년희 or the (time for a tortured translation) United Korean Youth for Freedom and Democracy Association.  [Somebody please tell me their real English name so I can find a link.  Or better yet, give me a link.  Never mind, I now know that the English name is Korean Youth United. They don't seem to have a web page yet, which is weird since everyone in Korea has a web page.]  Anyway, Park is a defector from North Korea.  He is currently a college student.

-Lee Seung-yong with Good Friends.  This seems to be a Buddhist counterpart to the Christian groups who are helping North Koreans.  Unsurprisingly, it is also pretty left-wing (most Korean Christians being on the Right).

Tarik Radiwan, a professor and human rights attorney.  Radiwan was the most impressive of the folks that I saw that afternoon, mainly because he seemed to be the only one up there without an agenda other than talking about human rights in North Korea.  Unsurprisingly, he took a legalistic approach to the issue and said that the Chinese are bound by the international agreements they have signed to take in North Korean refugees.  Yeah, that sounded naive to me too.

I only wish that I could have stuck around for the whole thing (I don't get to spend enough time with Lady Yangban these days and I wanted to get home for some QT).

What's up with LiNK?

In past posts I've expressed my admiration for the folks who are organizing LiNK and hope that they and other Korean-American groups can help pull their Korean cousins' heads out of the sand regarding the Norks.

Something I saw at the symposium has made me believe that I may have been too hopeful.  When the leftists on the panel began attacking the North Korea Freedom Act (NKFA), Adrian Hong (Link's rep) went into full back pedal mode and said that LiNK did not and perhaps legally could not take a stand on specific legislation.

Really?  Is this the same organization that protested and gathered signatures in support of the North Korean Human Rights Act (the Senate version of NKFA)?  You can see more pics of the event at LiNK's blog here. Why the change?

I see a couple of possibilities.  First, the Ryongchang disaster may have started a change in the perceptions of some LiNK members away from opposition to the North Korean government towards more of a politically neutral stance.  Second, their may have been a leadership change in the organization with a corresponding shift in direction.

However, I think the most likely explanation is that most political of motivations: expediency.  Check out this quote from LiNK's  own coverage of the event: 

These reactions (of Korean groups to the NKFA) and polarization makes useful discourse about the subject difficult. Most separate themselves into two camps: those who support the Sunshine policy and reunification above all else versus those who want to push for human rights now.

Diana Sur, one of the event organizers who is also starting a Seoul chapter of LiNK, mentioned the frustration of trying to bring the two sides together. "One group would find out another was attending and refuse to appear," she said.

So I think Hong's backpedaling may have simply been a way to try to keep the peace among some of the participants.  It could very well be that LiNK is a two-headed beast: agitator in America and facilitator in Korea.

If some kind of consensus can be achieved, great.  But I would not hold my breath.  After all, this is a land where brawls on the floor of the legislature are commonplace.

If any LiNKers out there see this, I would certainly appreciate some enlightenment.

UPDATE:  My first comment confirmed that there has been a shift in thinking at the top of the organization.  I would certainly like to hear more about this (and any other views).

Comments

[American]

Hi Andy,

this is Neil, the guy who gave you the pictures for the LiNK rally in Washington DC last year. I think I can tell you about what happened, I definately noticed a shift in views IMMEDIATELY after the Washington DC LiNK rally....

A week after the rally I met up with head on LiNK on my campus and she told me that she wished LiNK hadnt supported the NKHRA, which was the whole point of that DC rally. I asked her 'why?!,' trying my best not to look absolutely amazed. She said that some Korean-American group in LA - I believe she characterized it as the American branch of Hannyongchon - complained to LiNK that they were being too pro-American. She said she felt that LiNK had alienated some people. I asked her how the hell LiNK could afraid of upsetting organizations that very likely are in contact with Pyongyang... they are AGAINST NK human rights and friends with North Korea!!! I got no satisfactory answer from her.

I think that the Koreans running LiNK simply did not have the stomach to resist any criticism from fellow Koreans. I also suspect that many of the leadership, like this particular girl running my University's chapter of LiNK, are Left-wing and do not want to appear 'pro-American' ... too bad.

a final note... I told this girl that LiNK's greatest challenge would be overcoming the bias against NK human rights agitation among SK thought leaders and stirring the avg Korean to care about it... I guess this organization will not do this because theyre too sensitive to criticism, they care too much what other Korean NGOs think about them, and they have some wobbly-at-the-knees left wingers in their leadership.

PS youre absolutely right that LiNK supported the NKHRA and was collecting signatures... I was with them when they went door-to-door in the Congressional office building talking to aides. Its shameful that theyre now backpedaling.

[Andy (AKA: The Yangban)]

Neil (American),

If that is true then the leadership of LiNK can learn a lot from Tarik Radiwan (see the first half of the post). It's not about left or right, it's about the Nork boot bashing their cousins' faces in over and over again. Radiwan was right about that.

It's strange that human rights in North Korea beyond food aid seems to have almost become the exclusive territory of the right. I guess the left thinks that the strugle for freedom stops at the DMZ. The left needs to be in this fight too (on the correct side that is).

I can see being a little soft while in Korea since there are already many organizations fighting for human rights in North Korea here but if they aren't fighting for North Korean human rights in the States, what are they doing; Having committee, sub-committee and executive committeee meetings?

Somebody please tell me this isn't so.

[Brendon Carr]

Does Adrian Hong live in South Korea, or visit here regularly? If so, he may have been "reminded" by a friendly note from the government that foreigners' political views are absolutely unwelcome.

[Andy (AKA: The Yangban)]

Brendan,

He's Korean-American and LiNK is an American-based organization. In fact Seoul just got its first LiNK chapter a couple of weeks ago.

[slim]

Whether from ideological rigidity and blindness, hyper-nationalism or just plain naive, wishful thinking, much of the South Korean left appears to categorically rule out the notion that the Kim Jong-il regime could be all that bad. Much of the Western left has similar blind spots on a range of issues -- although not on Kim Jong-il for the most part, but what makes South Korea troubling is how those views have become state policy.

[adrian]

Hello everyone,
First- thank you to the Yangban for always posting so diligently about LiNK and it's exploits- it helps a lot to have enlightened English speaking outlets observe and write about us, certainly to me personally- it helps show how our actions and events come across to the general public.

I would like to clear up a few things, though.

Re: Neil's comments: there was no direct "shift" in views about anything after the rally in DC- it was not until much, much later.

About your comments about the left-right confusion in LiNK, or LiNK's hypersensitivity: I'm not sure if you or anyone you know was able to make it to the Symposium at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. If you do know anyone that made it, please ask them for a rundown of the closing panel. LiNK was involved in a very intense debate with a Korean American professor representing the groups you note- groups affiliated with Pyongyang in one way or another, the same groups that say defectors are lying, that human rights groups are opposing and hindering reunification. We are not afraid of criticism- we welcome it. In fact, I believe that criticism from certain people only gives us more legitimacy, and shows us that we're on the right track.

"a final note... I told this girl that LiNK's greatest challenge would be overcoming the bias against NK human rights agitation among SK thought leaders and stirring the avg Korean to care about it... I guess this organization will not do this because theyre too sensitive to criticism, they care too much what other Korean NGOs think about them, and they have some wobbly-at-the-knees left wingers in their leadership."

I'm not going to respond to that directly for fear of offending possible "left-wingers" that may read this blog, but I will say that our actions will speak louder than our words, and if you continue to watch LiNK, particularly our upcoming activities in Seoul, you will see that perhaps your judgment was a bit premature.

What's up with LiNK?

If I had spoken freely at our Yonsei symposium, every panel participant would have left the room, and never would have listened to us again. However, you may be able to judge our stance on things from a talk we had at Chicago's Wheaton University just a week before Seoul. I stated that I believed it was shameful that South Korea, of all nations, would abstain from the UN's vote on the NK human rights record, that Roh, a HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER, would make it policy to not only be silent on the NK human rights record, but actively work AGAINST NGOs and groups trying to bring about change in NK and help the many refugees in China. There was a lot more to it, but I just want to make one thing clear: a large reason for my personal decision to work on something like LiNK was to make up for the inaction and apathy of nearly 50 million of my cousins in South Korea. If they will not take this cause up, then we Korean Americans will. I have said this in every interview with Korean press from Queens to Seoul, and will continue to say it. However, we are trying to awaken South Koreans not with accusations and insults, but by shaming them into action with our own.

This Seoul forum was the first of a few attempts at seeing if South Koreans are going to be reachable, if we will be able to find allies in this movement, if they will hear us and our perspectives on things. We were, effectively, guests in their house, and in the interests of probing more deeply and accurately into each existing group and movement, we left the majority of our stronger beliefs unsaid.

[However, the last two to three hours of the Yonsei event were very much more reflective of LiNK's stance and position on things.]

At the panel, I did say that LiNK does not support the NKHRA. However, I also said that it was because legally, as a non-profit organization, we are barred by law from supporting any legislation or candidate for office. I did also say that regardless of our opinion of it, it is now law, and we must not only work with it in mind, but also see to it that it is not used as merely a political tool, but a genuine movement to help the North Korean people.

"It's not about left or right, it's about the Nork boot bashing their cousins' faces in over and over again."

We said exactly this at the forum, and several articles in Korea Times/Herald/Ohmynews [ yes, the virulently anti-American outlet] made mention of it as well, gratefully.

Mr. Yangban has very shrewd observations. Expediency is precisely one of the main motivations in this development [I would not call it a shift.].

You were also right in your characterization of our role in Seoul- we are, for the time being, merely a facilitator. There was a lot more to LiNK's trip to Seoul than was visible at Yonsei. We met with every major NGO and group, public or underground, working with NK human rights. Some groups we had worked with in the past, others we were being introduced to. Two major responses were evident. The first was that we were too young to be taken seriously, but great for photo ops. The second, was that we were too American to be taken seriously, and anything we said was automatically discounted and even cut-off in mid-sentence. Most of the meetings ended up being worth less than the free tea we were served- just opportunities for "human rights leaders" to lecture us on the lack of understanding we had of the "daily dangers" South Koreans faced from North Korea, and our "ignorance" of Korean history and politics.

You can imagine, then, why we were reluctant to be too forthright in our charges at the Yonsei event.

LiNK will work for a bit to shed the image in Korea of us as "outsiders" and "meddlers." It will take some time, but it is anything but impossible, particularly because many of us are not only of Korean heritage, but also of Korean citizenship. We have found kindred spirits in Seoul and it's universities already, and groups of people have approached us about starting chapters in Seoul.

Once we establish ourselves as a credible voice, we will say nothing different from what we say in New York or Los Angeles.

Our next Korea events will likely be in March/April. Please stay tuned- I greatly appreciate this sort of rare dialogue that I am allowed to engage in on this page, and Yangban's page in general.

Finally, I will tell you in advance that some major developments are coming shortly with LiNK and it's activities, for extremely important reasons of... expediency. LiNK has been engaging in more and more "overseas activities." Most of these developments will be made public as soon as LiNK's leadership has had time to digest it at our bi-annual Summit, in two weeks.

Thanks so much, again, and hopefully we will meet some of you at a future event. Also, if anyone has any further questions, or even criticisms- criticisms are always welcome! Please leave a note.

Adrian

[adrian]

sorry, one more addition:
after the frustration with long-winded koreans and terrible translation, the next symposium we have will be entirely in English. =).