North Korean human rights group marks 30 years
· UPIJuly 9 (Aisa Today) -- The Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights held a seminar Thursday to mark its 30th anniversary, reviewing its work and setting out tasks for the next three decades.
The alliance was founded in 1996 by its first chairman, Yoon Hyun. Since then, it has worked to expose human rights abuses in North Korea, turn the issue into an international agenda and support North Korean defectors who have resettled in South Korea.
More recently, the group has been identifying, analyzing and disclosing international supply and distribution networks linked to goods produced through forced labor in North Korea.
Kim Suk-woo, chairman of the alliance, said in opening remarks that speaking about the human rights of North Koreans was "a lonely and difficult task" 30 years ago.
"The next 30 years should be a time to create hope together with the next generation," Kim said.
Won Jae-chun, a professor at Handong Global University, said the North Korean human rights movement should move beyond reports and seminars and consider cultural approaches such as webtoons, films, music and digital content. He also called for the use of artificial intelligence.
"Creating a cultural language that younger generations can understand and take part in will be an important task for the North Korean human rights movement," Won said. "It will become even more important to tell the stories of North Koreans in a way that global citizens can empathize with and to express freedom and human dignity through culture and creativity."
Won also said the movement should expand its partnerships beyond the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe to countries in the Global South.
He said advocates should place greater focus on religious freedom in addressing North Korean human rights.
"Freedom of conscience, freedom and religious freedom are the starting point of all freedoms, so this is an area where the international community must continue to pay attention," Won said. "Human dignity can become whole only when it includes freedom of faith and conscience."
Lee Kwang-baek, head of Unification Media Group, said strengthening the flow of outside information into North Korea is one of the most effective ways to improve human rights conditions.
Lee proposed expanding the delivery of portable storage devices into North Korea and increasing audiences for radio broadcasts targeting the country.
"According to a related 2024 survey, the most common way North Koreans view or listen to outside information is by using digital files stored on devices and playing them through televisions, computers or Notel portable media players," Lee said. "Listeners to South Korean and Chinese radio broadcasts also accounted for 12%, showing that storage devices and radio waves are representative ways to provide information to North Korean residents."
Lee said the movement should focus on younger North Koreans born after the 1990s, often called the "jangmadang generation" because they grew up amid North Korea's informal markets.
"The jangmadang generation is estimated to account for about 50% of the total population and is expected to make up 60% to 65% in 10 years," Lee said. "It is the generation likely to have the greatest influence on social change."
Participants cited several achievements by the alliance and other North Korean human rights groups over the past 30 years. They included exposing political prison camps, making North Korean human rights a U.N. agenda item, contributing to the establishment and report of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on North Korea, opening the U.N. human rights office in Seoul and accelerating NGO work to establish accountability for human rights abuses.
Lee Young-hwan, executive director of Transitional Justice Working Group, said signs have emerged under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the number of political prison camps and detainees has declined and that the types and frequency of executions have changed.
He said those changes support the view that persistent monitoring and reporting by NGOs, strong international criticism and resolutions, naming perpetrators and targeted sanctions are essential to changing the perceptions of Kim and the behavior of North Korean officials.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260709010003672