From Regime Change to Nation Building
By Edward Kim
Many things have happened in the North Korean human rights movement since my last editorial (“Anti-war versus Anti-genocide”, 4/26/04). The U.S. enacted the NK Human Rights Act, groups like Helping Hands Korea, Citizen’s Alliance, and LFNK are sheltering more refugees in China, documentaries like Seoul Train have brought awareness to a more popular audience, substantive reports have been written by HRNK’s David Hawk, and more second generation Korean-Americans have been mobilized by groups like LiNK and NK Missions.
In the midst of this exciting and long overdue upsurge of rescue and concern, I find myself in a moment of transition. The recent Iraq war has made me more mindful of the importance of thinking about what happens after a totalitarian regime has been removed or collapsed. Kim Jong Il is old and his Hennessy-shot liver is giving way quickly, so the day of exodus is approaching.
Just to assume that freedom and responsibility will prevail in the hearts and minds of a tyrannized and brainwashed people is to lack sufficient compassion for the plight of the victim. So in addition to rescue activities during this dead man walking waiting period, more planning and preparation needs to be done for a post-KJI era. This is not to say that much planning in this area has not already been in the works most obviously by the South Koreans. But for less obvious reasons, as shown below, much preparation is yet to be done.
The problem that is North Korea will quickly become a different and perhaps bigger problem (at least in the immediate aftermath) once Kim Jong Il meets his Maker. We are talking about the problem of deprogramming members of a cult the size of 20 million, two generations of people whose lives revolved around pleasing Kim Il Sung and his son. Professionals in the areas of psychiatry, theology, and counseling need to be ready.
We are talking about the problem of rerooting a society that has been suffering from a Cultural Revolution for the past 50 years. The burden of reintroducing the rich Korean heritage will likely fall on historians, teachers, the elderly, artists and writers.
We are talking about the problem of reeducating a society raised on a command economy to the new world order of corporations and globalization. Enterpreneuers, economists, and technology experts must be ready to begin from ground zero.
We are talking about the problem of protecting the rights and dignity of North Koreans against carpetbagging exploitations from the South and its neighboring countries. Priests, Human Rights Watch, and public defenders must rise to the occasion here.
We are talking about the problem of changing South Koreans’ general aversion to adopting non-relatives in the face of the flood of North Korean orphans that is sure to come (a popular estimate is currently 200,000). Domestic adoptees in South Korea between 1953-2001 was 62,100. Overseas adoptees of SK orphans during that same period was 148,394. This is problematic on many different levels.. What will happen to North Korea’s orphans? Today 11 of the world’s 12 largest churches are located in Seoul. Behind the U.S., South Korea is the second largest missionary sending country. The South Korean church (13 million people strong) - whose fundamental premise for existing is that God has adopted them - will need to begin practicing at home what they preach abroad, namely, a theology of adoption.
Much of what has been said above is obvious and well known. My point is not to raise awareness to these problems but to draw attention to their possible solutions.
One natural place to begin this paradigm shift from regime change to nation building is with the ready sample available in South Korea: the hundreds of N. Korean defectors who have already encountered many of the problems listed above. How are they assimilating? Who is helping them? What more needs to be done for them? The answers to these questions will determine the future of 20 million in the near future. We wait to answer these questions after regime change has occurred to their peril.
