Defectors to hold global rally on NK leader’s birthday

By Kang Hyun-kyung

North Korean defectors here are preparing for a large-scale gathering with fellow defectors living overseas on Kim Jong-il’s birthday next year to urge him to overhaul his country’s flawed economy and stop abusing the people there.

An Chan-il, the initiator of the rally, said in an interview Friday that Kim’s mismanagement was the key driver behind North Koreans’ continued fleeing from the communist state to look for food and freedom.

“When his father Kim Il-sung ruled the North, few people looked to the outside world for food. After Kim Jong-il took power, however, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have left the reclusive country,” he said.

During the rally to be held in Seoul, An, 57, said he and his fellow defectors will announce a statement urging the North Korean leader to reform the economy, open it up to the outside world and stop human rights abuses.

Nearly 1,000 defectors living in South Korea and about 20 representatives of overseas branches in Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania will join the rare gathering slated for February 16 next year in Seoul.

“We will also urge the North Korean leader to scrap political prisons aimed at repressing dissidents as these facilities are a haven for human rights violators,” An, the first North Korean defector to earn a Ph.D. in political science from a South Korean university, said.

Nearly 20,000 North Korean defectors reside in the South. The number has soared since the mid-1990s when devastating floods and then drought caused widespread famine in the communist country which led to the death of millions of people.

An, director of the North Korean Research Center, a small non-profit group based in Seoul, said an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans are living in China, mostly in the three northeastern provinces near the China-North Korea border.

Some 3,000 are scattered in Australia and New Zealand as well, he said.

To make the global gathering go ahead as planned, An is working closely with other North Korean defectors and their groups based in Seoul.

Next year is crucial for North Korea as the regime previously declared 2012 as the first year when the impoverished nation will become “a prosperous and strong state.”

Some analysts here say North Korea’s soft stance toward the United States is closely related to its preparation for the key year.

The impoverished state needs sufficient food and cash to sponsor massive propaganda shows to be held next year.

The North will celebrate the year when the dynastic leadership succession gets underway from Kim Jong-il to his third son, Jong-un.

An said the gathering aims to send a clear message to the North Korean leader that misleading propaganda or repression of its citizens through coercive measures will not improve the living standards of North Koreans.

An crossed the inter-Korean border to defect to the South in 1979 while serving as a North Korean military officer. He graduated from the department of political science at Korea University and earned his doctoral degree in political science from Konkuk University in Seoul.