영화 서울기차

[김영원]

얼마전 아틀란타 중앙 도서관에서 서울기차의 상영이 있었다. 목숨을 걸고 탈북을 시도하는 동포들과 온갖 위험을 무릅쓰고 그들을 돕는 이들 (주로 남한이나 재미 동포 목사들)의 이야기였다. 배운 것은 1. 중국에 가까이 사는 동포들은 식량을 구하러 가끔 중국을 드나든다. 2. 그러다 중국이나 북한에서 잡히게 되어도 식량을 구하는 목적으로 만 드나든 것이 드러나면 큰 곤욕을 치루지 않고 풀려난다. 3. 그러나 남한이나 미국의 행동대원과 접촉한 것이 드러나면 큰 곤욕을 치룬다. 4. 한국정부와 동포들은 오히려 잠잠한데 미국인들이 탈북자을 난민 refugee으로 인정해 달라는 activist들이 많아 유엔과 미 정부에 로비 활동을 벌리고 있다. 같은 동포의 입장에서 눈물 없이는 볼 수 없는 애절한 영화였다. 마침 Newletter가 왔기에 여기 올려본다.

November 2005 Newsletter	To ensure that emails from us don't get put into your junk mail folder, add info@seoultrain.com to your address book. If you can't see this email in graphics mode, you may view it online at http://www.seoultrain.com/newsletter/ST_Newsletter_0511.htm Feel free to forward this email to others.

Seoul Train DVD Now Available!

The long-awaited limited edition DVD version of Seoul Train is now available! It features the full theatrical cut of the movie, plus the following bonus features:

• More than 2 hours of bonus video, including extra interviews, discussions by the filmmakers, North Korean executions and other scenes not in the movie
• Community action and teacher’s guide
• Subtitle options in ten languages: English, Korean, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Polish and Catalan
• Many resources and documents for further education and research, including legal & human rights documents, maps, articles, and special reports like The Hidden Gulag and Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea
• Links to key organizations and websites

DVDs are $24.99 for individuals and $174.99 for the academic/institutional version (which includes screening rights), and can be purchased from the Seoul Train website.

Click here to buy the Seoul Train DVD. And remember, all purchases are tax-deductible!

How Your Group Can Sell the DVD

If you have a group, NGO, church or other organization and are interested in selling Seoul Train DVDs as a fundraiser for your group, please contact us for special pricing.

Recap of the Past Year

It was exactly one year ago that Seoul Train premièred in Hollywood, CA, and since then we’ve screened the film in more than 60 of the leading film festivals worldwide, on Capitol Hill three times, to the Council on Foreign Relations, to parliamentary members of eight countries, and to hundreds of events hosted by NGOs, student groups, churches and other grass roots organizations focused on North Korean human rights. Seoul Train has been translated to nearly 20 languages, and has played in dozens of countries on five continents. In short, the reach and effectiveness of the film has far exceeded our wildest dreams, and it’s thanks to you!

In addition, Seoul Train has achieved critical acclaim, having won eleven film festival awards (including audience and jury awards for best film), and scores of positive critic reviews.

“A truly remarkable film...raw emotional power.”
Council on Foreign Relations

“Drive, walk, run – but however you do it, be sure to see SEOUL TRAIN.”
Denver Post

“A harrowing geopolitical study...SEOUL TRAIN is a must see.”
Honolulu Weekly

“A gripping documentary.”
ABC News

“Emotionally evocative”
Cleveland Free Times

“An unprecedented exposé...a stunning portrait
of a humanitarian crisis in the making”
Bright Lights Film Journal

“A groundbreaking documentary.”
KoreAm Journal

“A powerful documentary that clearly reveals
the tragic human conditions in North Korea.”
Venice Magazine

“SEOUL TRAIN is a must see.”
Film Freak Central

“Intensely visceral, illuminating, and deeply moving”
Strictly Film School

The NKHRA Remains Unfunded

Eleven months after the North Korea Human Rights Act (“NKHRA”) was signed into law, the Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights, Jay Lefkowitz, was finally appointed and took office. Although this is a positive step, Congress has yet to appropriate any of the $24 million in annual funding authorized under the NKHRA, and relief groups remain critically under-funded.

According to an interview last week with the Chosun Ilbo, Lefkowitz said that his priority as special envoy would be “to try to promote human rights improvement in North Korea. That’s something that is going to require, first and foremost, obviously the cooperation of the North Korean government, and then I am hoping that I have an opportunity to engage in dialogue with them.” He also stated that he’d like to talk with the North Korean officials directly to discuss human rights, and also visit South Korea “in the near future” to stress “that the promotion of human rights is a really bipartisan goal and something that people on both sides of political divide should embrace.”

Lefkowitz is “troubled” by South Korea’s repeated abstentions on a UN Human Rights Commission resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights record (see related story below). “There is no question, I think, that it is appropriate and would be very timely for the [South] Korean government to join with the rest of the community of nations in condemning ... certain human rights abuses,” he said. Asked about humanitarian aid to North Korea, Lefkowitz said that it was needed, but so was careful monitoring to ensure “that one delivers humanitarian relief that actually reaches the people who need it the most.”

But Lefkowitz disagreed with some that say that human rights should be on the agenda of six-party talks about to resume in Beijing. He said the talks “should be focused as they properly should be on the nuclear issues.” Discussion of human rights at the talks, he said, could be less than constructive. Instead, they are “a critical component [of] the broad vision for North Korea-U.S. relations.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: It is imperative that the U.S. Congress finally appropriate funding of the NKHRA that was authorized 13 months ago. If you’re a U.S. citizen, you should contact your Senator or Representative to urge them to do this immediately.

UNHCR – Some Things Never Change

This past February, Ruud Lubbers (who is featured in Seoul Train) resigned as UN High Commissioner for Refugees in a sexual harassment scandal. He was replaced in June by former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres. Despite early hope, UNHCR has actually mellowed its already feeble stance on the issue of North Korean refugees.

On October 3-7 at the 56th session of the UNHCR Executive Committee, Guterres was disturbingly careful in his statements. First, he avoided referring to North Korean defectors as refugees or asylum-seekers by invoking the vague term of “population displacements” resulting from the human rights violations in North Korea. Secondly, the naming of China as an important actor in solving the North Korean refugee issue apparently has been deliberately omitted. Without pointing to specific countries, Guterres committed the UNHCR to “being very attentive to situations of direct and indirect refoulement (forced repatriation), governed by bilateral agreements which disregard international law or by the treatment of bona fide asylum seekers as illegal immigrants.”

Thus, it looks extremely bleak that the UNHCR will change course and fulfill its mandate to protect North Korean refugees. Not only did Guterres fail to single-out China, which continues its policy of refoulement of North Korean refugees, but it refuses to consider the binding arbitration option at its disposal that would force China’s compliance with the 1951 Refugee Convention. It appears that the new High Commissioner is just as apathetic as his predecessors, and all we will hear from Geneva is lofty statements and no actions toward protection.

Many thanks to Human Rights Without Frontiers for providing this update on the UNHCR Executive Committee.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Phone/email/call/write the High Commissioner, U.S. State Department and/or your local ministry of foreign affairs (if you’re not a U.S. citizen). You can find many of these contacts at the Seoul Train website by clicking on GET INVOLVED.

UN Resolution Condemning NK Human Rights

A resolution submitted last week to the UN General Assembly by the 25 member states of the European Union demands urgent reforms to the way North Korea treats its own people. The resolution expresses serious concern about North Korea’s rejection of UN humanitarian deliveries from the end of the year and urges North Korea to give humanitarian groups full access to the country so they can monitor much-needed aid.

This is the first resolution on North Korea’s human rights problem to go before the full General Assembly. Prior to this, the EU has sponsored three similar resolutions on the subject in the UN Human Rights Commission.

The resolution criticizes North Korea for blocking the activities of international relief groups and for its failure to abide by the UNHRC resolutions over the past three years. It demands that North Korea give relief groups safe access to every part of the country, that it cooperate fully with the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, and that it end human rights violations such as torture, illegal detention and the brutal treatment of defectors who are caught or repatriated.

On a related note, the South Korean government has already publicly stated that it intends to abstain from voting on the resolution, which it has done on every one of the prior resolutions on North Korean human rights.

According to Elizabeth Batha of CSW, the resolution will be put to a vote sometime between November 14-23. For a copy of the full text of the resolution, please click here.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Contact your country’s UN Ambassador immediately, since the vote will be in the next week or so!

Update on the Special Rapporteur

In Juny 2004, the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) appointed Vitit Muntarbhorn to be its Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in North Korea. Since then, however, North Korea has failed to cooperate with Muntarbhorn and has completely stymied his efforts to fulfill his mandate to investigate North Korea’s compliance with the four key human rights treaties to which it’s a party. North Korea is especially angered by Muntarbhorn’s calls for neighboring countries to protect North Korean refugees and not to repatriate them forcibly.

Muntarbhorn just returned from a 10-day visit to South Korea where, among other things, he met with North Korean defectors. “Muntarbhorn will visit Hanawon on Nov. 8 to meet with about 10 North Korean defectors currently residing there,” said Lee Hyun-shin, a director at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Seoul office. Hanawon is a resettlement center for North Korean defectors located in Anseong, about 80 kilometers south of Seoul. Muntarbhorn also attended a closed-door symposium held by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

A full account of Muntarbhorn’s trip can be read here. Muntarbhorn’s full report on North Korean human rights from March 2005 can be read here.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Contact your country’s UN Ambassador immediately to urge the passing of the aforementioned UN resolution.

WFP Ordered to Leave North Korea

Citing a bumper crop this Fall, the Kim regime has ordered the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to terminate its food distribution and monitoring activities there by December 31st. Of North Korea’s 23 million people, 6.5 million depend on WFP assistance, especially with the Winter months drawing nigh. According to the WFP, of these 6.5 million approximately 3.6 million will not be given WFP cereals this month, including 2.5 million in vulnerable group feedings (including children in kindergartens and nursery schools).

In an emergency effort to maintain WFP’s presence in North Korea, Country Director Richard Ragan returned to Pyongyang after meetings in Rome last week between the North Korean government and WFP. At the conclusion of these discussions, there remained a considerable difference in perspectives between WFP and the North Koreans on the future of WFP there.

This news comes on the heels of meetings in Pyongyang just the week before between other North Korean government officials and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. In these meetings the North Korean side reportedly agreed on terms that were different from those offered by their negotiators in Rome. In the meantime, WFP is preparing a contingency plan for full phase out by March 2006.

As a result, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Nov 9th that it will suspend delivery of the balance of its food aid commitment to North Korea (25,000 tons). The statement further emphasized that without a WFP operation in place, including a full complement of international staff, there will be no way to assure even minimally that the USAID food aid gets to its intended recipients.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Contact your country’s UN Ambassador immediately to urge the passing of the aforementioned UN resolution.

Tim Peters’ First-Hand Testimony

On October 27th, Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea testified alongside several North Korean defectors to the U.S. House International Relations Committee. In his testimony, Peters recalls the plight of one particular refugee.

“I learned in June of this year that a North Korean man had made his way to Thailand. All indications suggested that he belonged to a nascent resistance movement within North Korea. Due to political developments in South Korea that this refugee deemed to be overly submissive to Pyongyang, he hesitated to ask for resettlement in South Korea, worrying for his own personal safety there and the possible impediments to his continued liaison work with fellow resistance members in North Korea. He specifically requested assistance from activists to obtain entry into the United States. I immediately called a U.S. embassy official in Seoul, whom I had found to be both knowledgeable and helpful in refugee matters. Outlining this refugee’s remarkable situation, I asked the embassy official if he could coordinate communication with the State Department and his colleagues in Thailand to consider this man’s exceptional situation, for which the North Korean Human Rights Act seemed particularly well-suited. He did so promptly. But again, the relayed responses from Washington and the U.S. embassy in Bangkok were both opaque and equivocal. We were urged NOT to take him to the U.S. embassy in Bangkok, but instead to the UNHCR office in Thailand to determine his status as a refugee and which country would be best suited for his resettlement. I was assured that if the UNHCR were to recommend his resettlement in the U.S., then the U.S. would be willing to accept him. I agreed to take him to UNHCR, but I notified the State Dept. that there was a high likelihood that this man’s movements were being monitored by North Korean agents in Thailand. Therefore, I requested a non-contact security escort for this North Korean refugee, a fellow activist and myself, as we physically escorted this resistance figure to the UNHCR office in Bangkok. I was told that the U.S. embassy in Bangkok would not provide such security for us as we were not diplomats. On the day we took him to the UNHCR office, we simply invoked the power of prayer and the time-honored promises of Psalm 91 for our protection. I’m happy to report that no untoward incident occurred despite our obvious vulnerability.

What has transpired in the past four months was nothing short of a Catch-22 scenario between the UNHCR Bangkok office and the U.S. embassy. According to our understanding, the U.S. embassy in Bangkok never came forward to declare to the UNHCR its willingness to take this refugee. We subsequently discovered that the UNHCR in Bangkok does not routinely make a determination of the suitability of other possible countries of resettlement for the North Korean refugees, but instead, simply treats them as de facto South Korean citizens. Consequently, this brave North Korean refugee fell between the bureaucratic cracks and, at one point, ended up on the streets of Bangkok, working as an illegal construction worker to make ends meet. Finally, after months of waiting and flagging hopes, in early October this refugee resigned himself to the stark reality that the State Department would not be willing to invoke the provisions of the North Korean Human Rights Act on his behalf, and contacted the Republic of Korea’s embassy in Bangkok that he would go to South Korea. He still awaits processing and remains vulnerable in Thailand.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Read Tim Peters’ full testimony then contact the U.S. State Department and your Congressional representatives to urge immediate and full compliance with the NKHRA.

Washington DC Confrontation

On the same day as Tim Peters’ testimony (October 27th), an amazing confrontation occurred between North Korea’s deputy chief to the UN and the director of Free North Korea Radio. Present at the confrontation was Suzanne Scholte, who is featured prominently in Seoul Train. We’re including below two stories on the confrontation that appeared in John McCaslin’s column “Inside the Beltway” in the Washington Times. For the record, we’re believing Scholte!

November 1, 2005 — An unexpected face-to-face encounter – in the hallowed halls of Congress, no less – turned downright ugly when North Korea’s deputy chief to the United Nations, Ambassador Han Song-ryol, purportedly threatened the life of a North Korean defector, Kim Seung-min, director of Free North Korea Radio.

Our story begins last Thursday, when Republican Reps. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey and Jim Leach of Iowa, the respective chairmen of the subcommittees on global human rights and Asia and the Pacific, were preparing to hear testimony from Mr. Kim and North Korean defectors Cha Kyeong-sook and Ma Soon-hee, both women.

Also in attendance was Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation that sponsored and arranged for the defectors’ testimony. She tells Inside the Beltway that never, in their wildest dreams, did the trio of defectors expect to confront the enemy, who ironically was being feted at a congressional luncheon just across the hall hosted by Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, and attended by some 20 members of Congress.

“When [we] arrived for the hearing,” Mrs. Scholte says, “we discovered that the ambassador...was being honored by members of Congress...across the hall from the hearing.” So, she continues, “The three North Korean defectors and I went into the room,” where Mr. Kim held up a sign in Korean that read: “The Road to Peace on the Korean Peninsula is the Expulsion of [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il.” ”Kim then said these same words to Ambassador Han as he was walking across the room,” Mrs. Scholte says, at which time she adds “Han then threatened Kim with, ‘Do you want to die...?’”

We rang the North Korean mission at the U.N. yesterday, but received no immediate response concerning Mr. Han’s purported comments.

Mrs. Scholte, who is also the vice chairman of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, finds it disturbing that while some members of Congress are working to expose the suffering of the North Korean people, “other members seem intent on downplaying the atrocities by honoring the representatives of this brutal regime.”

November 11, 2005 — Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who recently hosted a Capitol Hill luncheon “in honor” of North Korea’s deputy chief to the United Nations, says that, contrary to a report in this column, his guest never threatened the life of a North Korean defector and journalist who testified that same day on Capitol Hill.

Instead, Mr. Weldon writes in a scathing letter to Inside the Beltway, Ambassador Han Song-ryol was expressing any anger he had at “the deluge of paparazzi-like reporters that descended upon him without warning.”

Meanwhile, it was learned yesterday that Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has warned Pak Gil-yon, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, that his government will be held responsible if any harm comes to Kim Seung-min, the North Korean defector and journalist purportedly threatened on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Hyde told the ambassador that the incident in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building, “where my own office is located, [has] raised concerns once again about the hostile intent of your government directed at those who express concerns regarding North Korea’s human rights policies. The threat made against [Mr. Kim], director of Free North Korea Radio...is of particular concern...as Mr. Kim was in a House office building at the time and had come to Washington at the invitation of our committee to testify at a hearing conducted by two of our subcommittees. If any unpleasant incident were to take place involving [Mr. Kim] in the future, at any time or in any place, this would gravely influence” U.S.-North Korean relations, Mr. Hyde said.

Nevertheless, Mr. Weldon in his letter blasted the president of the bipartisan Defense Forum Foundation (DFF), Suzanne Scholte, and her recollection of events as they unfolded after his Gold Room lunch Oct. 27.

In the Nov. 1 Inside the Beltway column, Mrs. Scholte charged that Mr. Han threatened Mr. Kim in the moments before he and two fellow North Korean defectors, both women, testified about purported human rights atrocities in the communist country. Mrs. Scholte had arranged for the defectors’ congressional testimony as head of the DFF. She said others accompanied the defectors into the Gold Room, where Mr. Kim held up a sign in Korean that read: “The Road to Peace on the Korean Peninsula is the Expulsion of [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il.” “Kim then said these same words to Ambassador Han as he was walking across the room,” said Mrs. Scholte, at which time “Han then threatened Kim with ‘Do you want to die...?’”

Mr. Weldon calls Mrs. Scholte’s recollection “grossly inaccurate,” containing a “litany of misrepresentations and falsehoods,” and “perhaps the most patently false is the claim that the ambassador threatened the life of a North Korean protester. Ambassador Han never came into contact with any of the protesters, and whatever anger he expressed was toward the deluge of paparazzi-like reporters that descended upon him without warning,” the lawmaker said. “As exciting as the confrontation dreamed up by Mrs. Scholte might sound...it never happened.”

But in an interview with this columnist yesterday, a senior congressional aide who speaks Korean confirmed that he had accompanied Mrs. Scholte into the Gold Room, and immediately afterward, while agreeing to serve as an interpreter for an Associated Press reporter, spoke to Mr. Kim about his verbal exchange with the ambassador. “I quoted Mr. Kim as saying that, ‘Ambassador Han looked at me, and with a threatening gesture, he said, “You bastard...Do you want to die?”’ I translated that,” the aide said.

Mrs. Scholte, who was out of town yesterday delivering a speech, said by telephone that she stands behind all her earlier statements. Furthermore, she said a Korean lawyer on hand in the Gold Room is “willing to sign an affidavit” about what she had witnessed.

And in closing...

Finally, a word of thanks to the countless people that have helped us produce and distribute Seoul Train. It’s been an amazing experience, and we couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you so much!!

Lisa & Jim

Incite Productions info@seoultrain.com" shape="rect" style="">info@seoultrain.com 917-385-1024 http://www.seoultrain.com

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[Steve Kim]

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