“Stop North Korean Genocide”: Jeong Da-wa Marks 100th Day of Solo Demonstration
2014-03-19 17:43
“International society and the Korean government must work to stop North Korea’s crime of genocide.”
Jeong Da-wa (29, Junim Church) spoke these words resolutely, as she stood in front of the Foreign Ministry offices in the Government’s Seoul Building Annex on March 18, the 100th day of her 1-person protest.
Though some passersby cheer or join in her lonely demonstration, she has also experienced difficulties. She’s been ordered to stop, received threats, and been admonished by persons worried about some kind of accident.
Ms. Jeong, previously an ordinary employee working in the fashion trade, became concerned about North Korea’s mass executions in 2011 through her meeting with a defector from the North who had spent time in a concentration camp as a political prisoner. After learning from the defector about the wretched situation of North Koreans including those in concentration camps, she looked for ways to help the residents of the North. Finally, last December, she quit her job and began her 1-person demonstration, and in future she plans to continue her work for fellow Koreans who live in the North.
As one link in her “Bukjipjung (Stop North Korean genocide) campaign,” she made a picket which she displays every day during her 1-hour, 1-person protest outside the Foreign Ministry. The day she started her demonstration, December 9, was the anniversary of the day in 1948 when the United Nations concluded the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
“I will put this campaign on Facebook and other sites to move international society and opinion,” she said. “The Korean church should show its prayers and actions for Gospel-based reunification, which is God’s will.”
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
