Wrap your heads around this:
While the [Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea] conference commenced with a welcoming dinner at Shilla Hotel in downtown Seoul, about 20 progressive civic and religious groups denounced the forum in an adjacent part of the city, raising questions over the "hidden political motives" of the forum.
The groups claimed in a news conference that it was "yet another violation to human rights to push for a collapse of one’s regime citing human rights improvement."
Oh, and be sure to check out the very, VERY busy Andy Jackson’s coverage of the Seoul Summit over at One Free Korea.
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The Chung Dong-Young and “progressive civic group” line: “Hey, the dictator has human rights too. And remember, the Republic of Korea constitution — which by its definition applies to the North as well — also guarantees each citizen a right to livelihood. Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-Il’s livelihoods have been predicated on their tyrannical misrule of the 23 million wretched souls of the North. And constitutionally each is a citizen of the Republic of Korea. Therefore, as a matter of constitutional law, attempts to interfere with Kim Jong-Il’s regime are illegal and must be rejected.
“Nosey foreigners, how about a nice cup of STFU.”
Anybody know the turn out #s at the anti-pro-North Korean Human Rights rally?
This sentence is severely garbled:
“[It is] yet another violation to human rights to push for a collapse of one’s regime citing human rights improvement.”
Marmot, do you have access to the original Korean? As this translation stands, it makes no sense.
I’d have to guess that it means:
“Human rights are improving in North Korea, so to push for the collapse of the North Korean government would result in great suffering among the North Korean people, which would also be a violation of human rights.”
Or something like that.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
“yet another violation to human rights to push for a collapse of one’s regime citing human rights improvement.”
Without seeing the original Korean, I’m guessing that means that using the issue of human rights in another country (i.e., saying you’re trying to improve human rights) in order to try to topple the government there, is itself a violation of human rights (since it will cause war, death, etc., I guess).
The chinbo/jinbo “progressive” groups are true believers not deserving of that name. They really believe that the North Korean regime is simply misunderstood and if there is anything bad coming out of it, it was forced to that regrettable situation by outside forces bent on destroying it (thus, the far-left chinbo true believers share something in common with the far-right Yushukan-ite true believers in Japan who believe something similar about Japan in World War II).
Some of them make no secret of where they get their cues from and, depending on the issue, at least a large slice or, probably in this case, the vast majority of South Koreans disagree with them.
In this case, their noise makes them look very, very bad. Let them speak loudly and show the rest of South Korea where they’re really coming from.
It is great to see coverage of the events in the papers, but unfortunately, Joongang Ilbo has gotten thier dates wrong and seem unwilling to change the online version. Anyone interested in the international student rally and candlelight vigil need to turn out on SATURDAY,not Sunday.
That jinbo view is vintage Cumings. Check out his book review at:
http\\www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n24/print/cumi01_.html
Re: “severely garbled,” from what i can gather, basic writing skills are not taught at all up to the high school level, and are not even widely taught at the university level either. There is no universal freshman composition class here, so even articles written by educated people will often be replete with clumsy reasoning.
Jeffery,
I think the quote came from the following Korean, which was reported last night on the KBS 9 O’clock News:
? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ? ?? ??????.
Promoting North Korean human rights by advocating the collapse of the system threatens sovereign rights and is also another human rights violation.
By the way, the above is what the woman said in the news video, but the following is what was transcribed on the KBS news site:
“??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???.”
“On the contrary, talking of human rights is a violation of human rights, or if the method is anti-human rights, this is a serious worry and something that should be opposed.”
The KBS report did not quote anyone, but did paraphrase the following:
??????? ?? ??? ??? ? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????.
The North Korea Human Rights Forum, in the end, is really just being used as a weapon to attack the North’s system.
Here is the link to the KBS report, which seems to be trying to paint “Freedom House” and the others present at the conference as conservative goofballs with an agenda. Here is the lead-in to the KBS report:
??? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????.
Criticism is developing over an international conference on North Korean human rights, which was organizated by a conservative American human rights organization and is being held in Seoul.
Notice that the focus of the lead-in is not the human rights conference, but the criticism of the conference. Also, notice that KBS wants their viewers to know that those attending the conference are “conservative,” which is a dirty word to many in Korea. The reporter on the scene also begins his report by repeating the dirty word:
??? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?????????? 40?? ????? ?? ???? ????.
The “Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea” was organized by America’s conservative human rights organization, “Freedom House,” and was attended by “Headquarters for North Korean Demoncracy Movement” and more than forty convervative organizations, who are actively participating in the forum, which will run until the day after tomorrow.
The KBS report tries to downplay the conference by using the typical Korean media “but” statement at the end of its report to introduce and give almost equal billing to a small group who opposes the conference. The KBS report says the opposing group is “not insignificant,” but if you watch the video, you will notice just how insignificant the group appears to be.
I hate the obvious bias in Korean news reporting, but I still watch it for its entertainment value.
These are Commies. Where is the “StreetCleaner” when you need it? These jerks will fight against SouthKorean and American soldiers when a war breakes out. So, get them before they get you.
In my translation above, I should have written “right of self-determination” instead of “sovereign rights.” Here is the corrected translation:
? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ? ?? ??????.
Promoting North Korean human rights by advocating the collapse of the system threatens the right of self-determination and is also another human rights violation.
It seems the people opposing the human rights forum believes that countries should have the right to decide if they want to violate human rights.
Gerry, thanks for the information, which was very generous of you. I now know what the ‘progressives’ actually said.
My own guess was pretty far off. I should have realized that ‘progressives’ would never suggest that human rights in North Korea are improving.
One can’t improve on perfection.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Actually that Orwellian formulation on human rights quoted by KBS (approvingly it seems) is exactly what North Korea and China assert: that state sovereignty is the highest guarantee of human rights.
Oh no, leftists twisting things around to defend tyrannical murderous ***tards? Say it ain’t so!
“On the contrary, talking of human rights is a violation of human rights, or if the method is anti-human rights, this is a serious worry and something that should be opposed.” Double plus ungood.
Hmm, talking about KJI’s human rights violations is a violation of his human rights. Sounds like the left has found the perfect answer to counter any examination of their favorite mass murderers.
Actually that Orwellian formulation on human rights quoted by KBS (approvingly it seems) is exactly what North Korea and China assert: that state sovereignty is the highest guarantee of human rights.
And the neoconservative perspective is that where human rights are trampled, free peoples should not be deterred from action by the supposed “sovereignty” of the trampler. Sic semper tyrranis.