(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton

The UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has drawn a grim picture of human rights in South Korea. According to a leading progressive newspaper, Hankyoreh, the Committee has investigated several issues in South Korea, and damningly so for the Lee Myung Bak regime.

     The investigation found that South Korea's National Human Rights Commission has been downsized 30%, its budget significantly reduced, and headed by a person not competent on the issue of human rights. Similar downsizing seems to have occurred in the Ministry of Gender Equality.

     The CECSR report came down hard on the Lee government's privatization of healthcare, water, and electricity, which put South Korea at the risk of not complying with the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. A massive civil engineering project is also being railroaded through by the administration; according to the report it is far too costly in relation to its economic benefits, and some of the project's budget had been taken from the welfare budget.

     Also mentioned was the February 2009 tragedy in Yongsan district of Seoul, in which the forced evictions of forty people from an apartment complex resulted in the deaths of five people and one police officer. Though Seoul's Central Prosecution Office blamed the protesters, the report condemned the police action as excessive use of force. That no alternative settlement was offered to the evicted tenants is also being held against the government.

     Press freedom also figured prominently in the CECSR report. Numerous journalists have been arrested or harassed for writing negatively about Lee Myung Bak and his policies. Many progressive-minded historians and writers have also faced persecution from the state and pro-government media for airing South Korea's dirty laundry in new history textbooks. One conservative newspaper claimed that such books were "corrupting the minds of the youth."

     Similarly, the recent publication of a three-volume, 2,800-page encyclopedia of Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese by the Institute for Research in Collaboration Activities (IRCA) has again stirred the ire of the country's conservative elite. And no wonder; General Park Chung Hee, dictator of South Korea from 1961-1979, is included for aiding the Japanese in their brutal occupation of Manchuria. Park's political vehicle, the Democratic Justice Party, is now the ruling Grand National Party of Lee Myung Bak, and Park's daughter remains a leading figure of the party and has been a presidential candidate. Also in the list are the founders of two leading newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo and the Dong-A Ilbo, Bang Eun Mo and Kim Seong Su respectively. Both papers were established in the 1920s and served as mouthpieces for the oppressive Japanese administration. Not surprisingly, their role as mouthpieces of the conservative and authoritarian elite continued into post-war South Korea. A state organization that studies collaboration activities also confirmed that Bang urged the Japanese invasions in East Asia during radio broadcasts, and also owned a military supplies manufacturing plant. Meanwhile, Kim was apparently urging the conscription of Koreans for the war effort while working for the colonial administration. However, the state organization has mentioned far fewer names and not included Park Chung Hee on the grounds that simply being pro-Japanese does not make a person a collaborator.

     IRCA's director, Yim Hun Yeong, would beg to differ. According to his organization's encyclopedia, Park swore a blood-oath to join Japan's army, and even after being rejected used a friend's help to enlist. Conservative opponents have accused IRCA of being politically biased. Director Yim claimed in a recent interview that IRCA is not a political think-tank and that the purpose of the encyclopedia is simply to provide a record of historical people who were pro-Japanese to support their personal advancement.

     Nevertheless, Yim noted, IRCA's research funding has been cut and the institution was even under suspicion for its very name; only a 2004 citizens' donation campaign saved the project financially. Some media outlets argued that the project calls into the question the legitimacy of the republic, which was founded largely against the wishes of the majority of Koreans. IRCA would dare not go so far, but director still Yim criticized conservative media editorials that spoke negatively of the project, stating that if they truly represented the "nation's spirit" they would work to rid Korea of the vestiges of Japanese imperialism.

     Labour rights were also discussed in the CESCR. The committee was critical of a penal code article aimed at preventing strikes and demonstrations for "obstructing business". One expert stated that there was a disproportionate number of police and military personnel at such demonstrations. Speaking of strikes, tens of thousands of unionized workers rose in defiance of Seoul's plans to cut union rep wages and revise the Irregular Worker Law. Fifty thousand gathered in Seoul's Yeouido Plaza for a convention hosted by the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions on November 8. The KCTU has threatened Seoul with a general strike on November 22 if its does not take positive action.

     The rights of part-time workers have come up recently. New regulations stipulate that irregular workers have to be moved into full-time positions after two years. In particular, over 1200 lecturers at 112 universities have been dismissed. If the remaining universities are counted, the number amounts to several thousand. Because these part-time lecturers do not have doctoral degrees, they are not considered "specialists" or even "real" staff members, according to one professor. In other words, their status as workers is not guaranteed and the new law is a deceptive means of firing people. Meanwhile, twenty unionized employees at YTN cable news were fired when they opposed the appointment of YTN's new president on the grounds that he was Lee Myung Bak's campaign press officer. Only six of the employees have been absolved by court.

     Though Seoul insists that the Committee's "advice" will "serve as inspiration" for years to come, the continued harassment of those critical of the status quo makes one wonder. Many of these issues have been raised by the opposition, labour organizations, and other progressive groups. Given the "lively" nature of the South Korean legislature, the Grand National Party and Lee Myung Bak are unlikely to give much, if any, ground in the weeks to come.