Meet on North Korea's human rights

It is in the face of North Korea's nuclear proliferation that Congressman Gary Ackerman, human rights officials, and the Flushing Korean community met to discuss North Korea's religious and human rights abuses, emphasizing that the problems of North Korea must be solved by Koreans with the help of the United States and the international community.
Approximately 200 people attended the discussion held at the Korean American Senior Center in Hyo Shin Bible Presbyterian Church, located at 42-15 166th Street in Flushing, to hear what David C. Lee, Chairman of the Korean American Association of Long Island considers, &#8220good attention for the community,” and hope for the human rights mission.
David Hawk, a prominent human rights investigator, advocate, and author of the booklet &#8220Thank You Father Kim Il Sung”: Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in North Korea, published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, presented the 133-page booklet. It documents accounts of North Korean human rights abuses and suppression of speech and religion.
The booklet's title stems from accounts of the life-long indoctrination North Koreans endure, under the rule of Kim Il Sung. According to Hawk, the first phase that North Korean parents are forced to teach their children is &#8220thank you Father Kim Il Sung.”
In the booklet, Hawk describes North Korea's history prior to Kim Il Sung's authoritative government to the present time. Interviews of forty people who fled the North Korean government attest to the dearth of religious institutions, and persecution including executions and/or imprisonment of those caught engaging in religious activity.
Ackerman described his own visit to North Korea in 1994 to meet Il Sung, to discuss his nuclear mission. There, Ackerman recalled witnessing instances of &#8220brainwashing.” Supervised by what he called a &#8220minder,” Ackerman, noticing that there were no cars on the road, asked &#8220where were the cars?” The &#8220minder,” displaying great reverence for Kim Il Sung, stated &#8220The great leader has invented underground highways. There are many people underneath us, who are going to where they want to go.”
This same &#8220minder” also shared with Ackerman, that the great leader, Il Sung, had invented a means of giving light to rice crops at night to provide for his people in contrast to the many starving people in Tokyo and Seoul. &#8220I've been to Tokyo and Seoul; I did not see starving lines of people,” said Congressman Ackerman.
According to Hawk, the most important thing that must be done to foster human rights resides in the power of South Koreans. It is for South Koreans to put human rights on the engagement agenda with North Korea.
&#8220It's the Korean people who must bring freedom and human rights to North Korea, the same as it was the Korean people who bought human rights and democracy to South Korea,” Hawk said.
It is Hawk's contention that because North Korea does not have the ability to feed its country, that humanitarians providing asylum provide the most immediate conduit to fight human right violations.
&#8220North Koreans fleeing to South Korea can obtain asylum in South Korea, the U.S., and China,” he stated.