North Korea recently reminded the world that it was still around
and capable of causing trouble. We have nukes and we don’t want to
talk about it, said Pyongyang in effect. The announcement set off
the usual hand-wringing and pontificating in capitals around the
world.
In fact, no one outside of the so-called Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea really knows if the North has turned plutonium
into bombs. The Kim regime’s latest claim could be a grand,
bombastic bluff. Or it could reflect the DPRK’s determination to
become a full-fledged nuclear state.
Maybe “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il hasn’t decided, and he’s simply
ratcheting up the pressure in advance of another negotiating round.
Knowing so little about both the North’s capabilities and
intentions makes developing rational policy extremely
difficult.
But one issue involving North Korea should be simple: welcoming
refugees. The totalitarian state no longer is able to hermetically
seal its borders, so increasing numbers of DPRK residents have been
fleeing.
Who wouldn’t try to run? German doctor Norbert Vollertsen worked
in North Korean hospitals in 1999 and 2000 and has written of “a
human tragedy of hellish dimensions” in the North. Estimates of the
number of dead from starvation in the late 1990s run up to three
million, an astounding number for any nation, especially one with
only around 23 million people.
Modest economic reforms may have brought some relief, but the
DPRK recently cut the food ration sharply. Reports of some
relaxation of domestic controls, and even signs of opposition
activity, merely highlight the sheer horror of the regime.
Indeed, despite reports that returning refugees are being
punished less severely than before, Lim Young-sun, a North Korean
escapee who now works with defectors, says that those repatriated
“get jail terms of up to 17 years.” Moreover, the Seoul-based
Commission to Help North Korean Refugees reports that as many as 70
defectors were executed last month. No independent confirmation is
possible, but such brutality matches the regime’s reputation.
The U.S., as befits its history of relative generosity towards
political refugees, has supported humane treatment of those who
escape the DPRK hellhole. Last year Congress enacted the North
Korea Human Rights Act, intended to promote human rights in the
North and aid escapees.
But the best transit route obviously is through China, not
America. Alas, Beijing has sought to impede North Koreans seeking
refuge and sends many of them back when it discovers them.
This comes as no surprise: high profile tactics, such as
occupying diplomatic missions, would unsettle even a less
authoritarian regime. And the People’s Republic of China brutally
suppresses democratic “disorder” by its own people.
Moreover, upwards of 200,000 to 300,000 illegal migrants in the
provinces adjoining North Korea creates social and economic
problems. And when Beijing has allowed refugees to leave, North
Korea has protested loudly.
Still, there is no excuse for returning escapees to Pyongyang’s
brutal embrace. Even China has indicated its frustration with lack
of reform and unpleasant saber-rattling by the DPRK. Allowing
desperate North Koreans to leave the PRC for the South (or
elsewhere) is the humane solution for a country seeking to take on
an ever-increasing global role — as well as a subtle means to
pressure the North to moderate its worst excesses.
BUT THE REAL SCANDAL isn’t China. It is South Korea. If any nation
should welcome desperate North Koreans, it is the Republic of
Korea. Yet, writes Vollertsen, “South Korean authorities work
actively to foil our attempts to bring North Korean refugees to
freedom.”
Some 1,300 DPRK escapees reached the South in 2003 and another
1,800 did so last year. But Seoul wants fewer, not more, refugees.
It recently slashed the stipend that it gives escapees by
two-thirds.
Moreover, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young complained: “It
is not desirable for anyone to organize defections, intentionally
bringing people out of North Korea.” The ROK says that it wants
reunification with the North. But it apparently doesn’t want the
North’s people.
Appeasement is a term too-often used against anyone anywhere who
opposes any war advanced by the most extreme hawk. But Seoul has
done more than simply push for engagement with the North. It has
showered Pyongyang with material rewards without holding the Kim
regime responsible for any of its crimes.
Even worse than its reluctance to accept refugees, however, is
its refusal to seek an accounting for the nearly 500 South Koreans
thought to have been abducted by the DPRK since the Korean War. A
much smaller number of kidnappings of Japanese has destroyed the
North’s pursuit of detente with Tokyo. But Seoul appears to have
done little to seek justice for its own citizens.
Obviously, South Korea is entitled to set whatever standards it
desires for welcoming refugees and appropriate whatever sum of
money that it desires to give them. Given its proximity to the
heavily armed North, Seoul understandably pursues policies intended
to foster good bilateral relations.
The South also can legitimately disagree with Washington over
the best strategy for dealing with the DPRK. Argued President Roh
Moo-hyun: “Many people might think that this is the better way to
address the issue of the human rights predicament in North Korea.
However, I feel that the more advisable course would be one that
would not drive North Korea into a corner.”
Fair enough. However, there is no excuse for discouraging
starving and oppressed people from fleeing the North. Nor should
the ROK government ignore the fate of its own citizens kidnapped by
Pyongyang. The DPRK should be expected to give something in return
for the billions of won in aid and trade emanating from South
Korea. Such as an accounting for those abducted.
Publicly labeling North Korea as a member of the “Axis of Evil”
probably was counterproductive. But the North Korean system is
evil. Which other nations, especially South Korea, should remember
as they develop policies towards the North.
