Who is really helping N. Korea?

North Korean defectors are making efforts to seek democratization of the communist state and peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula, putting South Koreans to shame. Twenty-seven defector groups including the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea launched a hunger strike Sunday in front of the National Assembly in Seoul to urge the passage of a law on North Korean human rights. “We began an indefinite hunger strike on behalf of the 24 million North Koreans to urge parliament to promptly pass the North Korean humans rights law,” they said in a statement. After passing the National Assembly`s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee in February last year, the bill has remained in limbo for more than a year with the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. What a pity to see parliament neglect a law that had been enacted long ago in Japan.

Pro-democracy protests in North Africa and the Middle East have prompted North Korean defectors to spread their impact to the North Korean people. The head of Korean Defector Balloons, Lee Min-bok, and the leader of Fighters for a Free North Korea Park Sang-hak continue to send the North a bag of leaflets despite Pyongyang’s threat of retaliation. Even amid protests by left-wing groups and residents in South Korea`s Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, they strive to inform North Koreans of the truth of the communist regime. Defectors are also leading private broadcasting to North Korea. They are warriors fighting to find ways to help North Koreans know the truth.

The number of defectors in South Korea exceeded 20,000 last year. South Korea must embrace those who have escaped the North at great risk to their lives. South Koreans have come to know the North`s dire situation better through the defectors. Advice from defectors from various regions and classes are invaluable information for Seoul`s policy toward Pyongyang.

Most defectors lead tough lives in South Korea. Just 41.9 percent of them have jobs, far below the national average of 59.3 percent. According to a survey conducted by Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, 57.5 percent of South Koreans say they feel no sense of closeness toward defectors. Though the defectors struggle to survive and are given the cold shoulder, they still try their best to change North Korea because they know how important freedom and democracy are. They fully deserve happy lives.

Defectors are the guiding light to reunification of the peninsula. Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean soldier who heads the World Center for North Korea Studies, said, “The South Korean government should utilize North Korean defectors as true workers for unification.” South Korea must encourage these defectors and actively support them with the sincere wish of democratization of North Korea and eventual reunification. Only after South Koreans and North Korean defectors in the South communicate with each other in unity can the dream of Korean reunification be achieved.