Amnesty Korea director tackles N. Korea human rights
By Choi Ha-young
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Kim Hee-jin
It has been about a year since Amnesty International Korea started to voice its views on North Korean human rights. The international human rights watchdog has been known for its activities on conscientious objectors and freedom of speech in South Korea, but this is a first for human rights in the North.
Kim Hee-jin, Amnesty International Korea director, started the initiative to address human rights in North Korea, an issue has long dominated by conservative groups.
She decided to commit to the issue after attending an international conference on it. “All the panels were made up of foreigners,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times during Jeju Human Rights Conference. “Since they were all outsiders, they easily discussed air strikes to kill Kim Jong-un as a measure to improve human rights without considering Koreans, both in the North and South.”
Amnesty International headquarters had dissuaded its Seoul branch from being involved in the movement given the political partiality of the agenda. However, Kim thinks human rights in North Korea are never biased. “The problem is how the issue is addressed.”
Outside conventional campaigns to improve human rights, Amnesty International has pioneered different issues. For example, the organization issued a report, “Connection Denied: Restrictions on Mobile Phones and Outside Information in North Korea,” in March last year.
“Some experts criticized that it’s too trivial to talk about telephone communication in the North,” Kim said. “However, through the report we wanted to find a new target to facilitate outside information exchanges in North Korea. The mobile phone company Orascom that monopolizes the market of information exchange with North Korea was really sensitive about our project.”
The organization is seeking broader attention on the issue, beyond the small community of activists. “It’s a very popular matter in other countries, but not in South Korea,” Kim said. “Other than the nuclear issue and Kim Jong-un, the general understanding of North Korea is very meager.”
To get people’s attention, Amnesty International Korea published a series of webtoons last year. “It showed diverse social issues in North Korea, for example, the fever for education there. It largely went viral online. Now we are concerned with how to connect this interest to the human rights agenda.”
Kim emphasized that human rights in the two Koreas are closely linked. “Ironically, the National Security Law is a stumbling block to our efforts to improve North Korean human rights,” she said. Last month, the activist planned to petition North Korean diplomats based in New York to release Korean Canadian pastor Lim Hyun-soo, who is now detained in Pyongyang. But they gave up the attempt since South Korea deems it illegal to contact North Koreans without prior government approval.
President Moon Jae-in is trying to make a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations. For former liberal administrations, which also attempted to do this, North Korean human rights have been taboo in summits.
“I think Moon would be different,” Kim said. “He revealed a very firm stance against the North when Otto Warmbier died. Amnesty International Korea will make efforts not to exclude the human rights issue in possible inter-Korean talks.”