Fine Young Communists

Uncle Sam Is Losing the War for Students in South Korea

A A A Comments By Cathy Hong Tuesday, Nov 18 2003

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"The media is reluctant to construct Kim Jong Il as a bad person. Instead of an evil, pygmy dictator, he's portrayed as smart and clever. Even professors are reluctant to speak out because they don't want to appear too old-fashioned, too Cold War," Jin Wook Choi says.

Activists who try to denounce Kim Jong Il for human rights violations complain that South Korean government officials have sabotaged their efforts. Human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen, a German, once spent 18 months in Pyongyang working for Doctors Without Borders and witnessed the devastating effects the famine and gulags have had on North Korean citizens. Now residing in South Korea, he complains that he is followed and harassed and says surveillance is so strict, he feels like he is in Pyongyang again.

photo: EPA-photo

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"The youth are quite interested in human rights issues in Iraq, racism in America. They're eager to do something and make changes. But when it comes to North Korea, they are so ignorant and uninformed of human rights violations," Vollertsen says. "When I do college tours, it's quite shocking because first of all they don't want to believe my stories. When I showed them pictures of children starving, they thought the pictures were from Dachau or Auschwitz. They didn't want to believe it was in North Korea. They kept challenging me and saying, 'Are you sure they're starving and dying? Are you sure you're a doctor?' "

Experts and activists, like Vollertsen, claim North Korean agents steer groups such as Hanchongryun, newsrooms, even Roh's administration. But Yoo denies that Hanchongryun has official ties to North Korea, and is quick to defend the country. "Everywhere in the world, there are prisons. North Korea is nothing special," Yoo says, with a sigh. "But if there are human rights problems, then Hanchongryun will help them."

Yoo once had ambitions of being a counselor. Now that the police are looking for him, he realizes his future is limited. He's preoccupied with recruiting more students to Hanchongryun, graduating, and not getting caught. Asked what he wants for a career, he pauses and says, "I'll worry about that after reunification."

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