wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Rhee rails against Korea bill

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Note #8401 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Rhee rails against Korea bill
GA04102
July 1, 2004

Rhee rails against Korea bill

Says hard-line 'Human Rights Act' would further isolate North Korea

by Erin Cox-Holmes

RICHMOND, July 1 - "We must be faithful in politics as the servants of God,"
former Moderator Rev. Syngman Rhee told members of the Association of Retired
Ministers, Their Spouses or Survivors (ARMSS) during the group's Assembly
luncheon on Thursday.

While the retired ministers and spouses group may have gathered for
fellowship, what they heard from Rhee was a call to action on the North
Korean Human Rights Act.

"I am asking you to be political Christians and contact Congress
immediately," Rhee said. He hopes Presbyterians reading this article will do
the same. Here's why:

Many Presbyterians have heard the story of Rhee's difficult childhood growing
up in Japanese-occupied Korea. "I cannot begin to say how horrible it is to
be occupied by another power," he said Thursday. "There is no experience so
dehumanizing as to have your identity taken away from you."

Korean children were forced to study in Japanese and were brutally punished
if they spoke their native Korean language even on the playground. Even
Korean family names were changed to Japanese ones.

What many of us don't realize, Rhee said, is how the church brought hope,
even during those times of occupation. One of the reasons the Korean church
has grown so phenomenally is because of the role it played in preserving
national identity as well as spiritual identity during the occupation.

Rhee also shared his story of escape from North Korea as a young man during
the Korean War. In South Korea, when church leaders struggled for human
rights under military dictatorship and for reconciliation and reunification,
U.S. church leaders came to South Korea to stand with Korean Christians
facing persecution, he said.

And when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung initiated his "Sunshine Policy"
in 2000, resulting in a historic summit meeting and a slow opening of doors
between North and South, it was his Christian faith that pushed him to work
for reconciliation, Rhee said.

Now, he added, people of faith must act again.

"There is a bill currently before the House Judiciary Committee known as the
North Korean Human Rights Act. Unfortunately, in the name of improving human
rights in North Korea, it is pushing North Korea further and further into
isolation. It is a hard-line bill which threatens to withdraw even
humanitarian aid."

 Rhee explained that if the act is passed, it may undermine the painstaking
negotiations for reconciliation on the entire peninsula. The policy could
create a large refugee exodus from Korea into China, which would further
destabilize the situation. He supports alternative means of nudging North
Korea on human rights.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the acts on July 8.
Rhee is urging that people write their representatives in Congress opposing
the bill. "I am urging Presbyterians to fax letters expressing deep concern
that this is not the way to improve human rights in North Korea," he said.
"This is urgent and critical."

A sample letter and the list of key representatives to contact is available
at www.pcusa.org/korean/letter.htm.

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