May 18th Democratization Movement’s spirit into the North Korean Human Rights Movement!
– Properly enforce the North Korean Human Rights Act as soon as possible, and abolish the Anti North Korea Leaflet Law –
Date and time : May 18, 2021 (Tue) 11:00
Place : In front of the main gate of the National Assembly (press conference)
The May 18th Democratization Movement, which took place 41 years ago against the military coup, was a great cornerstone in our formation of today’s democratic society. It was no different from the current Myanmar people’s resistance to the military coup. Today, the May 18th spirit itself is already a valuable asset, but we must channel it into the energy of national development. We must look at the future, not the past, and find a way to integration and coexistence, free from conflict and confrontation.
Today in North Korea, 25 million North Koreans have been groaning in human rights hell for more than 70 years. The international community also consensus on the necessity of improving the world’s worst human rights situation in North Korea. In March, the 46th UN Human Rights Council strongly condemned human rights violations in North Korea through consensus without voting for 19 consecutive years, and urged that the situation in North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court in order to determine the responsibility for crimes against humanity.
However, the Moon administration made the North Korean Human Rights Act a dead letter, which was enacted in 11 years, by preventing the launch of the North Korean Human Rights Foundation, and even enacted the Anti North Korea Leaflet Law, in December last year, that aided North Korea’s crimes against humanity. Criticism from the international community, including the UN and the U.S. “Lentos Human Rights Commission,” has poured in, and the image of a “model country for democratization and industrialization” achieved by the Republic of Korea has collapsed. With the South Korea-U.S. summit on the 21st ahead, the Korea-U.S. alliance, which is a value alliance, is being endangered.
The May 18 pro-democracy movement has an important meaning that the people, who are sovereign, exercised their right to resist for the universal value of liberal democracy and human rights. We must develop the noble spirit of the May 18th movement against the military dictatorship into a spiritual support for the protest movement against the dictatorship of Kim Jong-Un. Human rights in North Korea are a matter of conscience not only in the Korean peninsula, but also around the world. We must not act shameful to the democratic spirits who died 41 years ago to protect freedom and democracy.
North Korean human rights and civic groups, such as Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea formed a “Citizens Group for the Proper North Korean Human Rights Law” in 2014, and every Tuesday rally is held to urge the normal enforcement of the North Korean Human Rights Act. And also it has been campaigning for human rights in North Korea, including filling a constitutional petition for the ban on the Anti North Korea Leaflet Law. Member of National Assembly Tae Young-Ho and former Governor Kim Moon-Soo will attend the 111th Tuesday Rally.
May 17th, 2021
Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea and Citizens Group for the Proper North Korean Human Rights Law
Representative Kim Tae-Hoon
