I’m not sure that Roh Moo Hyun can’t do more. Maybe he can, maybe he can get a little more creative, despite the big China obstacle. However, I’m not sure that he’s doing anything specificially wrong, though I’m perfectly willing to recognize as much if it turns out he is. It would be really, really nice to hear from Hamel what that might be, just for once. In the meantime, South Korea has long been my home and I would like it to be a society where the law make sense, where you can’t get executed for what you think and where people with a common paternal ancestor 20 generations ago are allowed to marry, and I’m tired of seeing the hypocritical slander and disinformation used to convince the public that common sense reforms will “ruin the country,” as Park Geun Hye alleges.

I’d like to talk to MLS in a partking lot about NK human rights if the point is NK human rights, but I’m tired of seeing improvements in civil liberties in SK derailed in their name.

Regards,

Marc.

This is the likely order of events, in my speculation:
What likely happened is:
1) Norbert turns up at Busan/Pusan
2) gets taken to a room for questioning
3) is asked to sign an undertaking
4) refuses
5) is left alone to think (at which point he calls my journalist friend)
6) the officers come back in and Dr V still refuses
7) something like this goes on for 10 hours the officers, perhaps cognizant of the kind of stir Dr V could cause if denied entry to Korea and sent back to Japan, issue him a letter urging him to respect the laws of Korea and let him in with a warning. Dr V enters Korea without signing the letter.

Someone wrote, “I?€™m angry at the old dictatorship types still in the GNP and right-wing movements for using him to legitimize their own political demands.”
I have to agree 100%. But I want to add, that I’m also angry with Korea’s left for failing to support Vollertsen and taking violent stance against him and NK defectors resideing in SK.

Also, hey if the GNP is pushing human rights in North Korea, good for them. We all know Roh and URI proactively try to sweep it all under the carpet. Sometimes a political “shift” occurs and for the past 5 or more years the GNP has been the party pushing human rights in North Korea.

I?€™m not the Marmot but I am pretty sure this story was not done just to smear the government and Roh.

To Kimbob: when I got the story at 5:30 this afternoon there was no print story yet - Dr V was still sitting in a room somewhere at Pusan harbour. Thanks to Marmot and Oranckay for both linking to a story with more details.

Says here that the govt believes there was reason to deny him entry, but let him in anyway after giving him a “recommendation” (probably in written form) that he obey the ROK’s laws.

Says the reason they let him in anyway was “out of consideration of the fact he is a human rights activist,” but that it could take action against him should fail to obey the law in the future. Finally, it says that they tried to get him to sign papers saying he would obey the law, but that he refused. In other words, they’re letting him in without signing anything.

RE Hamel’s : “At last count he was still there at the Immigration Office, and the officials said they would make their decision very soon as to what to do with him. Knowing Norbert, he would be highly unlikely to sign the statement, almost certainly guaranteeing his immediate deportation.”

If the goal isn’t to slander the govt at the slightest opprotunity, then I’m wondering if next time it wouldn’t be worth counting to ten before posting. I think the nature of this post is at best irresponsible.

Given the things he has said and the things he has done, I have long wondered why the government let him stay around so long, either by denying him re-entry like it did in Busan or by detaining and deporting him. The only reason I can think of that it didn’t all this time is because it is scared of being accused of things. Frankly, if a communist or pro-North type had been telling people to rush the system like he did it might have meant jail time then deportation. Don’t get me wrong, I do wish it let him back in, but as these cases go his is as clear cut as they come, wrong as they may be.

I’m angry at the old dictatorship types still in the GNP and right-wing movements for using him to legitimize their own political demands. Or, if he really knew what they’re all about, then the tragedy is that he let a righteous cause be co-opted by people who in 50 years in power never shows the slightest interest in human rights and still want to have laws that denied those rights around. Sadly - and this is an issue entirely separate from his re-entry denial - his face on Korean TV came to be a symbol of the desperate movement to keep Korea in the eighties and before. Ten years from now the things his friends are fighting will all be taken for granted as a matter of course for a mature democracy, and well look back at the history books and see pictures of The Good Doctor on the wrong side.

I only got to meet him once and he is indeed as likeable as they say. I wish him the best and expect that he’ll probably keep up with the same work.

I might mention that I, too, could have been deported many times over for political activities, especially during my student days, but that didn’t happen. I’ve often wondered why. I mean, even now in Seoul I meet people from my school who I never knew but remember me as “politically active,” so if any of the authorities had ever cared I guess I could’ve been in trouble. Probably I didn’t because I was never a prominent leader, most of the time never made that much a difference doing anything, and many people close to me were doing so much more. If doing anything about me was ever contemplated (and I doubt it) then maybe someone figured students would be students and indeed, I learned a lot about Korea than I ever would’ve in a classroom.

Just to clarify - I think that the government is only being consistent by denying him entry and like I say his case is as clear cut as they come given what he’s been up to, but I still think it shouldn’t have and think it would be worth protesting the action against him, as I expect no small number of politicians to do tomorrow.