To Brussels!

The usual suspects, "Union for Unification" (T'ongil Yôndae) and "Special Investigation Committee of Korea of Truth Concerning the USFK Crimes" are recruiting people for the "Peace in the Korean Peninsula Group" (Hanbando P'yônghwa Wônjôngdae) to be sent to Brussels in March 20-25, when European Union will have hearings concering the DPRK human rights and Freedom House will have a conference on the same topic. Sure Freedom House is based mainly in the US (with offices in several other places as well), but these above-mentioned organizations are so sweet when the only thing they can appeal to in order to prove how wrong it's to treat the DPRK human rights is the United States. Only thing they know is USA, and all they are able think in order to whitewash the DPRK human rights problem is USA; European Union is too complex to mention at length, and EU approaching the DPRK human rights is too difficult to struggle (t'ujaeng) against. The following are the slogans which are used against the DPRK human rights events by the European Union and Freedom House: Against USA that uses human rights as pretext for hegemonism! Against the USA interventionist policy that violates the peace and self-determination of the Korean peninsula! Let's unite the strengths of our nation and realize self-determination and peace in in the Korean peninsula! It's like the woman whom I met in a sesame oil shop in Sillim-dong; she talked about how her son had gotten married with a miguksaram (American), but as she spoke it became apparent that Miguk was just a synonym for "foreign country" and that the bride was somewhere from Southeast Asia. Update, March 14, 2006. To see what the delegation to be sent to Brussels is up to, Voice of People was the place to go. An article which introduces the future plans of the Unification League (T'ongil yôndae, 6.15남북공동선언실현과 한반도평화를위한 통일연대) tells that the delegation is going to inform the world about the evils of the USA: "reveal the truth about human rights in the USA and make up a network including America, Europe, and Japan" in the words of Kim Sông-ran, head of the Overseas Cooperation committee of the Unification League. The partners in the operation will be the Worker's Party of Belgium (Pelgie Nodongdang, which I assume is the one that I linked to) , Korea is One and - last but not least - the International Action Center. What are these friends of the peace delegation and of DPRK? Worker's Party of Belgium is not a social democratic party but one that rallies under sickle and hammer. To describe the news that "Korea is One" conveys from the Korean peninsula, those concerning the northern part are about visits, exhibitions, friendship, and joint ventures, and those of south are about strikes, protests, prostitutes, unemployment etc. And now that Slobodan Milosevic passed away, "International Action Center" and Ramsay Clark have one dictator less to defend, so they can perhaps use more energy for DPRK and its leader now. Update, March 15, 2006. Here's the "Brussels Struggle Plan 2" of Hanchongnyon (한총련 브뤼셀 투쟁계획 2) from the organization's homepage. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Koreanpolitics • DPRK