By Kim Young-jin
DAEJEON -- Their feet are swollen from weeks of walking and faces chapped from the winter wind. But these citizens say the discomfort is nothing compared to that of Shin Sook-ja, the 69-year-old woman they are walking the entire length of the nation to rescue from detention in North Korea.
The contingent of some 30 marched their way through this city Saturday on their way from the southern coast to the northern border, a 680-kilometer journey to raise awareness on the plight of Shin and her two daughters, believed to have been trapped in the Stalinist state for over two decades.
“We’re hurting and some of us are taking medicine for the pain,” said Choi Hong-jae, the main organizer of the trek, while briskly walking. “City by city, people can see what we are going through and appreciate the pain of the women better.”
Clad in bright yellow jackets, the group that set off from Shin’s town of Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province last month is the latest manifestation of a movement to save the three women that has gripped the nation. They were met at Daejeon Station by Shin’s husband, Oh Kil-nam, for a spirited rally.
The movement has quickly gathered pace since August when Oh took out full-page ads in local dailies calling on the international community to help him reunite with his family.
The retired economist voluntarily took the family to the North in 1985 after being duped by the regime. He later fled when dispatched to Germany to lure in more South Koreans and has been fighting for their release ever since. His daughters _ Hye-won and Kyu-won _ would be in their 30s today if indeed alive.
The trek is expected to arrive in Seoul on Dec. 10, where the group will join up with a large scale march downtown to call for their release, part of a day of international actions for the cause. They will then proceed to the border park of Imjingak, where they will wrap up the journey.
The group, which includes a handful of young people, has so far held awareness-raising events in several cities including Busan and Daegu while walking an average of 35 kilometers per day. The size of the group varies as some supporters join the march in stints.
Pyongyang is believed to have abducted 3,835 South Korean citizens, mostly fishermen, since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War with 500 thought to remain there along with other foreign nationals. Activists say Shin’s case has increased public awareness in the problem and other human rights abuses by Pyongyang.
“People see us and applaud,” Choi said. “This shows that more and more people know about Shin’s case and are supporting the cause.”
The “Rescue the Daughter of Tongyeong” campaign has impelled the South Korean government to look into setting up a task force to handle such cases and the U.N. special envoy on North Korean human rights, Marzuki Darusman, recently vowed to do all he could on Oh’s behalf.
Some analysts say it could be difficult for Pyongyang to release Shin because she is suspected of having been kept at its secretive Yodok Prison camp, where defectors say conditions are brutal. But amid slightly warming ties, they say it may not be impossible for the case to be addressed in the framework of larger talks involving humanitarian aid, given the international scrutiny and because she entered the North of her own will.
The government, especially during past liberal administrations, has been criticized for overlooking the detainee issue in the name of maintaining inter-Korean ties. Japan, meanwhile, has worked the secure the release of some of its abducted.
Whatever the outcome, activists say that the campaign has greatly raised the profile of North Korean rights work here by giving the movement a name and face at a time when South Koreans are said to be losing interest in the North Korean populace due to a widening cultural gap. They also say growing interest around the nation could impel lawmakers to take up the issue more earnestly.
“It is really exciting,” said Dan Bielefeld, who works for the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights (NKnet) and participated in the trek. “I have been paying close attention to South Korean attitudes on North Korean human rights and I can see the awareness growing.”
For trek leader Choi, the journey is something of a catharsis after he, like many other progressives, held pro-North tendencies in his student days. He suggested a similar healing could occur for the nation if the government works hard to resolve the issue.
“Japan has worked hard to get its citizens back. We haven’t. If we do, it will bring our country closer to being whole,” he said.