How Would North Koreans Vote?

By Andy Jackson

Which presidential candidate would North Koreans vote for if they had the chance?

That question is, of course, academic since voting is one of the many rights denied to Koreans who had the misfortune to be born north of the DMZ.

It is also impossible to ask North Koreans their opinion since an open expression of 'politically incorrect' views would result in arrest or worse.

Adrian Hong, Executive Director of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), probably knows as much as any American about what problems common North Koreans face.

Through his work with LiNK, Hong has come into contact with many North Koreans, both in South Korea and China.

Hong has been working to help alleviate the suffering of North Korean refugees in China and to put human rights for North Koreans on the front burner in both the United States and South Korea in their negotiations with Pyongyang.

LiNK operates a network of underground shelters throughout Asia, which acts as an underground railroad escorting refugees to freedom without charging fees and without the usage of brokers.

On December 21 of 2006, he was arrested by Chinese authorities in Beijing.

Two LiNK fieldworkers and six North Korean defectors were seized en route from Shenyang to Beijing the same day.

Hong and the fieldworkers were soon deported. The ``Shenyang six,'' as they came to be known, languished in prison for nine months before the Chinese government, in response to international criticism, released them in July of this year.

Hong is currently in Seoul meeting with North Korean human rights activists.

He is also meeting with members of Korea's political class in an effort to make North Korean human rights a first tier issue for the incoming new President of Korea, whoever that may be.

I had a chance to speak with Hong some over the past several days.

One thing that came through clearly was his frustration at what he sees as a lack of concern from the candidates about the ongoing human rights crisis in North Korea and among Korean refugees in China.

``There is no talk of North Korea's concentration camps, the restrictions on freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, movement or dissent, or public executions. No candidate has made strong statements relating to China's repatriation of North Korean refugees in huge numbers; including some that had been resettled in South Korea and given South Korean passports,'' Hong said.

He was quick to note that, as a non-partisan organization, LiNK does not support any particular candidate.

However, he would like to see the next president take a different direction with Seoul's engagement policy with Pyongyang.

``I'd like to see the new president make a bold outreach effort to North Korea - friendly but firm. Package economic investment, development and cooperation, a graduate detente between the two nations, a peace treaty and other incentives with strong conditions on human rights improvements, family reunions and the treatment of escapees repatriated from China.''

Hong's recommendation sounds similar to the Helsinki process, the 1975 agreement in which western governments pledged to emphasize progress on human rights in their dealings with the Soviet Union.

Former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok rejected that idea last year, saying that it would have little impact and was seen by some as a means of regime change.

Hong considers such thinking a false dichotomy and a relic of outdated thinking.

``Past Korean presidents have presented a false choice ― unconditional, unaccountable engagement, or hard-line confrontation. There is another way that can prevent overt hostilities while showing the North Korean government and its people that human rights is not a weapon to be used to undermine the system, but a conditional requirement necessary if North Korea wishes to truly join the international community.''

North Koreans who have relocated to South Korea are taking a clear stand on which presidential candidates they support.

``The North Korean defectors I have met overwhelmingly favor a conservative candidate,'' he said.

``The North Korean people have been the greatest victims of the past two administrations in South Korea.''

``Unconditional humanitarian aid, massive cash transfers and a generally imbalanced relationship between the ROK and DPRK without reciprocity have emboldened the North Korean government's human rights abusers and strengthened the government's usage of concentration camps, public executions, and the usage of food as a weapon.''

Above all, Hong hopes that the next president of Korea will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

``Korea's new president must provide moral leadership on this issue, for the sake of 24 million forgotten Koreans in the North.

``If Free Korea does not speak up for these citizens, why should America, or Europe, or the rest of the world?''

Andy Jackson teaches American government in the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at andyinrok@yahoo.com