SOUTH KOREA: South Koreans burn North Korean flags, defectors not surprised by announcement of successful nuclear test

Record ID: 212672

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Koreans burn North Korean flags, defectors not surprised by announcement of successful nuclear test
  • Date: 12th October 2006
  • Summary: COMPUTER SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA7Z6X4EBEQTGMFL49BM3T3D46E
  • Story Text: South Koreans burned North Korean flags in downtown Seoul on Thursday (October 12), calling its nuclear test a major threat to security.
    Dozens of protesters waved South Korean flags and demanded that Kim Jong-il's rule of North Korea come to an end.
    "We will not accept Kim Jong-il's extreme tactics and we will work with the international community to end the military-first dictatorship," said protest leader Park Chan-sung.
    North Korea's announcement that it had held a nuclear test on Monday (October 9) prompted protests every day in South Korea.
    Meanwhile, the U.S. and Japan are pushing for tough measures against the North, although diplomats say China opposes the more punitive parts of a draft resolution Washington wants the U.N. Security Council to adopt in a vote, possibly on Friday (October 13).
    North Korea has brandished the threat of more tests, calling U.S. pressure to rein in its nuclear programme tantamount to a "declaration of war."
    A U.N. Security Council vote on the U.S.-drafted resolution could come on Friday, when the leaders of China and South Korea - on which Pyongyang relies for economic aid and a level of diplomatic protection - are also due to meet in Beijing.
    North Koreans defectors are not at all surprised that their country announced it had successfully conducted a nuclear test.
    For 53-year-old Kim Yong-hwa, a former North Korean military chief who defected to the South in 1994, said on Thursday (October 12) that North Korea's nuclear programme allows it to blame the U.S. and Japan for the poverty and famine of the North Korean people.
    "My opinion is, of course North Korea is going to conduct a nuclear test. The reason why is because the North Korean people are starving and dying and from the standpoint of the North Korean government, they have to aim the arrow at the U.S. or Japan or their administration will be overthrown," Kim said during an interview with Reuters at his home.
    At least one million people are believed to have died of starvation in North Korea while Pyongyang diverted resources to develop a nuclear arms programme at the centre of a long-running diplomatic crisis.
    North Korea says the purpose of its nuclear capabilities are to protect its regime from U.S. military aggression, but U.S. President George Bush said he was committed to diplomacy and has given repeated assurances the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea.
    Kim suggests that to solve the nuclear weapons programme, South Korea should help North Koreans overthrow the regime by accepting as many North Korean defectors as possible.
    "We have to lead North Korea to its own destruction if the proliferation of nuclear weapons is to be stopped. Even by accepting many defectors through five-way talks instead of six-way talks with China, the U.S., Japan and South Korea will help," he added.
    Thousands of North Koreans have fled to the South in recent years from the communist state, which has been condemned by the United Nations for human rights violations.
    Six-way talks between the two Koreas, Japan, China the U.S. and Russia, aimed at solving the nuclear crisis, have been stalled since last November. North Korean human rights issues have not been discussed.
    North Korea's announcement that it had conducted its first nuclear test on Monday (October 9) has caused Japan and the U.S. to back a U.N. Security Council draft to place more sanctions on North Korea.
    Sohn Jung-hoon, another defector who is also an activist working for the democratisation of North Korea, says Pyongyang tells its people that sanctions are the cause of poverty.
    "To quiet down public opinion, North Koreans are taught that the U.S.'s economic sanctions are causing the misfortune of the North Korean people," he said.
    Sohn also added that inter-Korean projects initiated after the unprecedented summit meeting between Former President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 has pumped a lot of money into North Korea.
    But he complains that this money was used not to fill empty stomachs.
    "Using a proactive engagement policy as a reason, a lot of money streamed into the North Korean government with the start of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. Therefore, I think a chance for North Korea to proactively develop its nuclear programme was provided," he told Reuters.
    The North's nuclear announcement threw the projects -- a mountain resort and industrial complex in North Korea -- into jeopardy.
    The tourism and business projects are meant to promote North-South ties.
    President Roh Moo-hyun said this week that he might have to review his policy of engagement with the North, and suggested the government may also have to alter its policy on how it supports the resort and industrial park, the only two areas in the North that ordinary South Koreans can easily visit.
    If the U.N. Security Council passes the resolution, it would place an arms embargo, a ban on any transfers or development of weapons of mass destruction, and halt exports of luxury goods to the North.
    Kim is afraid that that would only bring more misfortune to North Koreans by heightening Pyongyang's wrath even more.
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