US Mentions Cho Kuk, Park Won-soon, and North Korea Leaflet Law in South Korea Human Rights Report

Tony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The U.S. Department of State has released a human rights report covering allegations of corruption and sexual harassment involving South Korean passport officials, as well as controversies surrounding the law banning North Korean leaflets. While the report generally presented both the South Korean government's stance and the views of human rights organizations side by side, the mention of sexual harassment and corruption issues involving ruling party figures is expected to pose a considerable burden on our government.

The '2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices' for South Korea, released by the State Department on the 30th (local time), highlighted major human rights issues including ▲restrictions on freedom of expression such as the criminalization of distributing leaflets to North Korea ▲corruption ▲the existence of criminal defamation laws ▲and laws criminalizing homosexuality in the military.

Regarding the case of the North Korean leaflet ban law, the report included the South Korean government's position that it is to protect the lives of residents in border areas, alongside claims from human rights activists and opposition parties that it infringes on freedom of expression.

The report also covered claims by some human rights organizations that the government restricted the activities of certain NGOs focused on North Korea, and the cancellation of the establishment of 'Free North Korea Movement Alliance' and 'Keunsam,' founded by North Korean defectors Park Sang-hak and Park Jung-oh.

The report noted that in August of last year, the Ministry of Unification began audits of 25 NGOs involved in North Korean human rights and defector resettlement support activities, presenting the government's view that this was a delayed procedural process alongside critics' opinions that it was suppression of freedom of expression.

Under the section on 'Corruption and Lack of Government Transparency,' the report mentioned ▲the case of Representative Kim Hong-gul, who was expelled from the Democratic Party of Korea in September last year amid controversy over underreporting assets ▲investigations into corruption allegations involving former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and his wife ▲and the indictment of Democratic Party Representative Yoon Mi-hyang on charges including embezzlement during her operation of a comfort women organization. Cho Kuk was cited for the second consecutive year following the 2019 report.

The report pointed out that "sexual harassment was a serious social issue," stating that "cases of sexual harassment involving public officials and prominent figures were reported in the media throughout the year." In this context, the report referred to the sexual harassment cases of former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.