DEFECTORS SEEK NK REGIME CHANGE THROUGH CIVIL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 000194

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2027
TAGS: PREL PREF PGOV PINR KS KN
SUBJECT: DEFECTORS SEEK NK REGIME CHANGE THROUGH CIVIL
ACTIVISM

REF: A. 06 SEOUL 4281

B. 06 SEOUL 4282

C. 06 SEOUL 4283

D. 06 SEOUL 4284

Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

SUMMARY
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1. (C) People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE)
is an organization newly founded by resettled North Koreans.
While its short-term goal is to increase awareness of North
Korea's human rights issues, the organization hopes
ultimately to establish a network in the ROK, China and North
Korea that will force regime change in the DPRK. The group,
with neither money nor experience, has an uncertain future,
but represents civil activism by North Korean defectors
frustrated by the lack of interest in their issues by ROK
civil society. END SUMMARY.

ORIGINS OF PSCORE
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2. (C) Kim Young-il is a 28-year-old North Korean defector
who arrived in South Korea in 2001. Having graduated in 2006
from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Kim was
amazed that his South Korean classmates knew so little about
North Korea and had such little interest in North Korean
human rights. He told poloff on January 14 that because the
groups that were focused on North Korean human rights issues
were all run by South Koreans or foreigners, the leaders --
without firsthand experience of North Korea -- could not
fully understand the issue. He also said that South
Korean-led groups were too reluctant to discuss questions of
unification and democratization of North Korea.


3. (SBU) Accordingly, Kim and six fellow defectors created
PSCORE in October 2006. It now has 120 members, Kim said,
about half of whom are resettled North Koreans. About forty
members gather for two meetings a month where they discuss
human rights, study unification scenarios, and plan group
activities. PSCORE relies on member donations for funding.

RAISING AWARENESS
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4. (C) The primary objectives of the organization are to
raise awareness of North Korean human rights issues and
support democracy and human rights in North Korea as a means
of facilitating peaceful unification. Through December 2007,
Kim said PSCORE would focus on recruiting through campaigns,
seminars, and regular meetings. The centerpiece of the
campus program would be an experiential retreat where, for
three days, participants would study North Korea while eating
a typical North Korean diet. Kim believes that such an
experience would motivate South Korean students to become
more active in pursuing North Korean human rights.
Meanwhile, PSCORE plans to lobby the National Assembly to
establish a budget for North Korean democracy and to create a
depository for evidence of North Korean human rights abuse.

INSTIGATING REGIME CHANGE
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5. (C) PSCORE's longer term plans are more ambitious.
According to Kim, PSCORE in 2008 would establish a network
among North Koreans resident in China and the DPRK which
would ultimately form the framework for a North Korean
interim government. Meanwhile, the network would continue to
educate North Korean residents through educational materials
that affiliates would smuggle into North Korea through the
Chinese border. In 2009, they would attempt to overthrow the
DPRK regime and establish an "Administrative Interim
Government of the Northern Peninsula," which would be in
place for approximately ten years. Its basic purpose would
be to help North Koreans adapt to capitalism and minimize the
economic shock to South Korea during the transition period.
North and South would unify when the North Korean economy
stabilizes and majorities in North and South Korea agree.

NO POLITICAL VOICE IN THE ROK
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8. (SBU) Kim said that PSCORE does not have any political
affiliation. He said that the ruling Uri Party is more
interested in appeasing the DPRK than talking about human
rights. Indeed, Kim has not registered PSCORE as an NGO
because he believes that the government would try to control
its activities. While Kim believes that the Grand National
Party or another conservative group would be more sympathetic
to the concerns of defectors, he perceives that conservative
parties are likely to exploit defectors for political gain
rather than make sincere efforts on their behalf.

COMMENT
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9. (C) Although the idea of attracting campus attention
through a defector-run experiential program is likely to
resonate with increasingly conservative university students,
PSCORE, with neither money nor experience, may fail as an
organization. Its formation, however, is significant as an
early manifestation of resettled North Koreans seeking their
own political voice, one which is far more radical than that
of the mainstream South Korean public. Further, Kim Young-il
may be someone to watch. He is not a celebrity defector --
like thousands of others, he left North Korea in the
mid-1990s because of famine -- and his long-term vision for
the Peninsula borders on fantasy. However, he is smart,
ambitious and well-spoken. Regardless of PSCORE's fate, Kim
could emerge as a representative for a defector constituency
that is frustrated not just with the difficulties of
integrating into South Korean society (reftels),but also
with the general ROK silence on DPRK human rights and the
long-term view most South Koreans have toward unification.
STANTON