My professor from my North Korea class works at the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU) which hosted the 4th Chaillot Human Rights Forum on Thursday. He graciously invited our class to the conference which includes talks from very important officials and academics as well as a free lunch. The conference took place at the Westin Chosun Hotel, arguably South Korea's most famous, and fanciest, hotel. The conference consisted of three sessions after an opening ceremony where the President of KINU, Jinwook Choi, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Unification, Nam-Sik Kim, and the Former Chairman of Foreign Affairs in the National Assembly, Jin Park, spoke. The first session's topic was "Evaluation on the Status of North Korean Human Rights and Plans for Practical Improvement." The speakers included Robert King, the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues and Marzuki Darusman, the U.N. Special Rapparteur on the Human Rights Situation in the DPRK. Jung-Hoon Lee, the Human Rights Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, acted as the chairperson. This was the most well-attended session as it should be; Mr. Darusman is the person responsible for pushing the human rights agenda regarding North Korea in the U.N. As a member of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), he is responsible for the COI's 2013 report on the violations of human rights in North Korea, an extremely important report that has now linked human rights violations with accountability in North Korea which has not been done before. Instead of the leaders in the DPRK getting away with crimes against humanity, they will now face consequences if this report is discussed in the U.N. Security Council and then passed to the International Criminal Court where sanctions will be taken against those the most responsible for the human rights violations. With this report, the DPRK also became more concerned with their human rights which has never happened before. This is evidenced by their presentation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to the U.N. where they made effort to show that progress has been made. For the first time, the DPRK played by the rules which is very, very significant. There is now a paradigm shift in how the international community deals with North Korea; the DPRK can no longer divert the international community like it has been doing for decades. I am so fortunate to live in a time when these events are occurring and I even had the chance to meet and introduce myself to Mr. Darusman. I now realize what K-pop fans feel like at a concert because I was fangirling the whole time with these important policymakers, haha.
From left to right: my classmate, Mr. Darusman, me, and my professor.
Mr. Darusman also emphasized that accountability and cooperation is needed when dealing with the DPRK, and not one or the other. Additionally, Darusman discussed that if the COI had more time to write the report, it would have looked into the deep structures of the North Korea set up (such as the flow of policy processes), would have included targeted sanctions, and would have included issues of North Korean workers abroad and whether it is forced labor or not. Mr. King commented on Mr. Darusman's words throughout the session and emphasized the support the U.S. has for South Korea regarding policy towards North Korea and his praise for the COI report, which he said was the best report the COI has ever written. He also commented on the recent release of the American citizens from North Korea which he said was not done on a secret deal with North Korea. He honestly did not know why North Korea decided to release the individuals at that time, but it might have been related to the U.N. resolution and the DPRK wanting to make a good gesture.
Robert King, the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues.
The first session ended with a delicious lunch, which I still can't believe I got for free. The second session's topic was titled "Human Rights Situation in North Korea -- Ordinary Prison Camps (Kyohwaso)." For both session two and three, there was one chairperson, three presentations, and three discussants who commented on the presentations. The title of session two is slightly misleading because while one presentation did focus on the prison camps, the other two focused on health, specifically how we can research human rights violations in North Korea and how we can deal with those affected with psychological disorders after going through human rights violations. What stood out for me from this session is how we should think of about human rights as health so as not to offend governments. For example, instead of accusing a government that they are violating human rights, instead say they are hurting the health of their citizens. I think this way of thinking is very important and if adopted maybe more change towards eradicating human rights violations can be brought about.
The lunch that was provided.
Some of the press that was at the conference. There were a lot more represented in session one.
After a short coffee break, session three began which was titled "Practical Ways to Improve Human Rights in North Korea -- Maternal and Child Health Program." The title for this session is explicit and it is exactly what the participants discussed, child and maternal health. One detail that stuck with me from this session is that at the U.N. level, the DPRK is grouped with the East Asian region, but at the WHO level, the DPRK is grouped with the Southeast Asian region. Therefore, research about the DPRK and how it is compared regionally can get really confusing really fast. There are obviously many, many more details I am leaving out from this conference and my opinions toward what was discussed, so if you want to hear more feel free to contact me.
Over the weekend I finally took the trip I've been meaning to do all semester: to go to Andong, specifically Hahoe Folk Village (prounced Ha-Hway, despite the English spelling). The village is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a valuable part of Korean culture because it preserves Joseon period-style architecture, folk traditions, valuable books, and old tradition of clan-based villages. Lea, Marisa, and I met at 7 a.m. in Sinchon on Saturday, took the subway to the bus terminal in East Seoul, and then took a 3-hour bus ride to Andong. From there we took a taxi to the village (although coming back we realized there was a bus that goes directly from the terminal to the village which would have saved us money). The taxi dropped us off in the part of the village that had the museums and restaurants but we had to pay an admission fee and then take a short shuttle bus ride to the actual village (a lot of traveling!). We made a reservation to stay in a guesthouse so our first order of business was to find where it is so we can put our belongings in there while we explore for the rest of the day. I wanted to stay in a traditional house to get a real feel for Korean traditional life, so this included sleeping on the floor in a tiny room with the bathroom in another building. For many Westerners this set-up would have probably been uncomfortable, but I actually really enjoyed my stay and I found the room to be very cozy despite sleeping on the floor and it was largely due to the floor heating. The owners were also very, very nice and if anyone wants to visit the village, I highly recommend staying in the guesthouse we did.
A photo of the guesthouse. This photo only captures a part because the house is formed in a square with several buildings and rooms.
A corner of our room: tiny but very cozy!
A photo of me sitting by the sign listing the village as a World Heritage site.
After setting down our stuff, we walked back to the entrance to watch the mask dance that the village performs every day. The mask dance consists of 10 stages and it was really amusing. Marisa told me that commoners would criticize the upper class back in the day because they could get away with it by wearing masks. After the mask dance we walked to the edge of the village by the river (the river encloses the entire village which makes it very scenic) to take a very short ferry ride to the other side where we climbed a cliff to be able to see the whole village. The hike was very therapeutic and it was nice being out of the city in a quiet, peaceful village which had mountains, trees, fields, and a river surrounding it. In fact I felt as if I went to a spa after we returned to Seoul, which I think demonstrates how relaxing the trip was.
One of the stages of the mask dance: castrating the bull.
A view of the village when we were on the cliff.
After the hike to the cliff, we went back to the village across the river where we walked around to view the various traditional houses, some with thatched roofs and others with tiled roofs. The village is not large so you can easily walk around the entire village in half an hour. I loved being able to appreciate the architecture of the houses and how well-preserved the houses were. We then headed to dinner in the market area where the restaurants were. I had tofu and kimchi, and the kimchi was delicious and I knew exactly why: it was homemade and fresh. The village had several cabbage fields (cabbage is used in kimchi) and when walking around I saw that a couple of the houses were in the process of making kimchi which made sense because kimchi is typically made before winter where it stored for the winter months. After dinner we walked around looking for an ATM and for some snacks to buy for breakfast in the morning. At this point it was already dark even though it was only 6:00 p.m. and unlike the city, the village suddenly becomes very dark and silent after sunset and almost everything closes. So we walked back to the guesthouse for the remainder of the night where we ended our day playing card games and talking. Since we wanted to be up early tomorrow, we ended up going to bed at 9 p.m. (which actually felt like midnight since everything in the village was closed).
Some of the tiled roof houses.
A thatched roof house.
We woke up nice and early at 7 a.m. on Sunday and headed toward the shuttle bus because we wanted to see a temple on the other side of the mountains surrounding the village. After seeing the temple, which wasn't as large as I expected it to be but beautiful nonetheless, we headed back the village and walked around again. We found a cafe where we sat and had hot chocolate and we also found a folk playground which had some very large swings we went on. Unlike swings I'm used to, for these swings you stood up, making swinging that much more difficult. We also visited a couple of shops in the village which sold the traditional masks that Andong is known for. I bought two as a remembrance of my time in the village.
A photo of part of the temple.
Another photo of the temple.
We then grabbed our stuff from the guesthouse to check out and we said goodbye to the village to head back to Seoul. We wanted to leave around 12:00 p.m. because we wanted to be back in Seoul by dinnertime. After traveling by shuttle bus, bus, and then subway, we made it back to Sinchon where we had dinner together and then headed our separate ways.
The bus back to Seoul.
I ended my Sunday night with homework and laundry (which was much needed at this point). I highly, highly recommend visiting Hahoe Folk Village for all of those who are in Korea or planning to visit Korea. The village is incredibly scenic and relaxing, exactly what I needed after a very stressful couple of weeks. The village was such a contrast to the bustling city of Seoul and it made you appreciate what Korea has to offer with its history, food, culture, and scenery. Similar to the conference, I could talk about the village a lot more and I'm leaving a lot of details out, but if you would like to learn more feel free to contact me. I will see you all next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment