Asia Times: Rights record dulls Kim's popularity



	April 23, 1999	atimes.com

The Koreas

Rights record dulls Kim's popularity
By Ahn Mi-young

SEOUL - South Korea's Kim Dae-jung enjoysinternational stature due to his background as a human rightsactivist, but his rights record as president is coming underincreasingly uncomfortable scrutiny.

The Korean office of Amnesty International is in the middle ofa campaign, from March 17 to May 30, that seeks a package of reformsin the area of human rights.

These include the release of former union leaders in prison,the abolition of the death penalty, amendments to the NationalSecurity Law and establishment of a state human rights committee.

The campaign is being conducted jointly with the human rightsorganization's 120 regional offices worldwide.

Whether to keep the National Security Law is central to thehuman rights debate in South Korea, where concern remains heavyabout tense ties with North Korea, with which it technically stillremains at war.

The national security establishment says the law has to be kept,given the tension on the Korean peninsula, but critics say it hasbeen used to crack down on dissidents.

Kim, the first oppositionist to make it to the South Koreanpresidency, was himself the victim of this law, which provided thelegal basis for a death sentence handed down on him in the 1980s.

Since Kim took office in February 1998, the law has stayed onthe books.

Just how touchy the issue remains is highlighted by the releasein recent months of a 70-year-old North Korean named Woo Yong-gak,believed to be the world's longest-serving political prisoner. Hehad spent 41 years in solitary confinement on spying charges.

But the release of Woo and other North Korean prisoners upset the conservative anti-communist camphere, which is demanding reciprocal action by North Korea.

''How could we release them when some 441 South Koreans arebelieved to be somewhere in North Korea, including 22 confirmed to be jailed on a POW camp in North Korea?'' saidLee Chull-seung, who leads an anti-communist group called theNational Council for Freedom and Democracy.

The occasion stirred renewed debate on the status of''political prisoners'' still held in South Korea's jails.

Now, Seoul admits that there are 199 political prisoners (181 former student activists and 18 former laborunion leaders) in detention.

This is the figure that remains after 158 were released fromprison under a special amnesty to celebrate the first anniversaryof Kim Dae-jung's inauguration on March 1, 1999.

Among the newly released were 17 communist spies who haveserved 29 years or more in prison.

During a visit to South Korea in September, Amnesty Secretary-general Pierre Sane said: ''There are more than 400 prisoners ofconscience still behind bars, even after Kim Dae-jung took office,''in February 1998.

He said that he supports Kim's efforts to improve human rights,but that more remains to be done, as long as the NationalSecurity Law is abused, the death penalty system is stillin place and political prisoners are still held in jail.

The maintenance of the death penalty has also disappointedmany. An outcry was raised by civic and religious groups after 26prisoners were executed in early 1998, immediately after formerdissident Kim became president.

Still, some observers say the fact that Koreans can nowcomplain about issues like political prisoners and openly debatethem is itself a sign of change.

''In [South] Korea, the human rights record has much improved sincePresident Kim Dae-jung took office,'' said a senior officer at theKorea office of Amnesty International in Taegu, who asked foranonymity.

''For example, once you were arrested on an espionage chargein the 1970s and 1980s, you had to live at least 20 and 30 yearsbehind bars. Today, you would spend only one or two years,'' hesaid.

(Inter Press Service)

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