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| Kenneth Bae, the president of Nehemia Global Initiative, speaks during a session of the International Forum for One Korea in Seoul Dragon City, Thursday. From left are Ahn Chan-il, head of the World North Korea Research Center; Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; Kang Young-sik, the secretary-general of humanitarian aid group Korean Sharing Movement (KSM); Lee Young-jong, the director at Unification Research Center of JoongAng Daily; Bae; Kim Hun-il, the secretary-general of Unitas; and Joo Hyun-lip, head of projects at the North Korea Service for Peace Foundation. / Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation |
Civic groups boost unification movement amid security crisis on peninsula
By Kim Hyo-jin
Humanitarian aid for North Korea should continue to better connect the people in the country with the outside world despite heightened missile threats by its regime, civic activists said Thursday.
"North Koreans should be informed that the outside world actually cares about them," said Kenneth Bae, president of the Nehemia Global Initiative who was once detained in a North Korean labor camp. "Helping North Koreans open their minds to the outside world is critical to prepare for a unified Korea."
Kang Young-sik, secretary-general of the humanitarian aid group the Korean Sharing Movement (KSM), added, "Humanitarian assistance still does the role of enhancing North Koreans' human rights. As long as transparency of the distribution process is secured, it should be further facilitated."
These views were shared during the International Forum for One Korea sponsored by the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and the U.S.-based think tank the EastWest Institute.
The two-day forum ran through Friday with dozens of North Korea experts and civic activists discussing security concerns on the Korean Peninsula and identifying measures to facilitate peaceful unification of the two Koreas. It was a follow-up event to another forum in Washington, D.C., held Nov. 14 and 15.
To resolve North Korea's nuclear threats at a state level, Joseph Bosco, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), claimed Beijing should be actively engaged in sanctions against the Kim Jong-un regime. Bosco served as China director in the office of the U.S. secretary of defense between 2005 and 2006.
"It has never really done all it can do to pressure North Korea. It could cut off oil supplies but it refuses to do that. It objects to international sanctions, waters them down so they are not as biting as they could be toward North Korea," Bosco said. "China needs to realize that the price it will pay for supporting the North is too high."
Mitsuhiro Mimura, a senior researcher at Japan's Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA), offered a fresh look, saying the international community should incorporate the isolated country into the world economy to better deter Pyongyang's nuclear ambition.
"The country is further introducing a merit-based system offering economic incentives. North Koreans have learned how money works," the expert said, stressing the country's economic shift to marketization. "Personally, I think it would be wise if we help Kim Jong-un pave the way for rapid economic growth in cooperation with the global market."
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| Global Peace Foundation (GPF) Chairman Moon Hyun-jin gives an opening speech at the International Forum on One Korea at Seoul Dragon City, Thursday. / Courtesy of GPF |
"South Korea should position itself now so it be in a favorable situation in terms of what's happening in the geopolitical situation now," he said. "The time of uncertainty can be turned into a time when Koreans can be in charge of their own fate to design and define their own future."
Expansion of campaign
Moon organized an alliance of about 920 NGOs, Action for Korea United (AKU), in 2012 and mounted various campaigns including one to encourage South Koreans to donate 1,000 won each, equal to the cost of three meals for one North Korean.
The AKU launched the One-K Global Campaign Organizing Committee for its long-term, expanded unification campaign in 2015.
The committee has released campaign songs that promote Korean unification ― the first one produced by Korean composer Kim Hyung-suk in 2016 and the second, by Grammy-winning producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis early this year.
It held a One-K global concert in Manila in March to introduce the latest song with K-pop idol groups participating. GPF Chairman Moon plans to make it an annual concert for young people who have been estranged from the idea of unification.
In 2019, the AKU will renew their campaign, aiming to make it the largest-ever unification movement in Korea's history. The project includes a music concert and a documentary film to be made under the theme of Korean unification, its co-Chair Seo In-teck said.
"In the year that marks 100th anniversary of the March 1 Movement in 1919, we will seek the revival of a strong civic-led movement," Seo said during an event for AKU members. "That historic event should be re-evaluated as a nation-building movement. The people intended to take the initiative in building a new peace-seeking country. And we'd like to do the same, turning the current crisis into an opportunity."
British filmmakers Robert Cannan and Ross Adam will participate in the film project, he said. Much attention was paid to their recent documentary film called "The Lovers and the Despot," a story of the 1978 abduction of South Korean actor Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok by then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
"I was inspired by Moon's idea of building not only the Korean Peninsula but also global peace," Cannon said, referring to the GPF chairman's book, "Korean Dream." "I'm determined to make a potentially historic event into a film."
"I'd like to produce a film that can help end suppression and dictatorship of the North Korean regime," Adam said.
The envisioned music concert will be orchestrated by composer Kim, Seo said, with producers Jam and Lewis and overseas singers participating.
The civic group also plans a 20-day performance in which art directors ride a train from Busan to Seoul, and Beijing to Berlin with symbolic artworks of installation artist Jeon Soo-chun promoting the Korea unification loaded, he added.
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| British filmmaker Robert Cannan, right, speaks during an event for Action for Korea United members at Seoul Dragon City, Thursday, with his co-worker Ross Adam, left. / Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation |
