Photo By Sgt. Sang-cheol Lee | Lee Chul-hwan, a North Korean defector, gives a lecture on national security to Area...... read more read more
CAMP HENRY, South Korea – Area IV Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army soldiers and the Republic of Korea Support Group officers gathered to attend the national security lecture presented by a North Korean defector Nov. 25 at Camp Henry.
Lee Chul-hwan, a North Korean defector, who used to be the Chosun People’s Guard master sergeant, escaped from the North to South Korea in 2003 to seek liberty and democracy. He currently works as national security lecturer at the ROK Army 50th and 53rd Division, giving lectures on the North Korean society, ideology and its reality.
The national security lecture was mainly focused on North Korea’s Military First policy, Forces and people to open KATUSA soldiers’ eyes and make them see through the reality of North Korea.
North Korea is an isolated society that is controlled by Kim Jung Un, the North Korean dictator. His notorious leadership deprives people’s ideology, property, freedom and human rights, which leads to the escape of 1,200-1,300 suffering North Koreans every year. Lee picked this problem as a great loophole and opportunity for South Korea to take advantage of and utilize.
“North Korea is no longer a communist country that pursues its people’s happiness, but a country only for the Kim family,” Lee said. “Even though North Koreans were brainwashed since the beginning of their educational age, they crave for freedom in their deep hearts. I believe we can achieve peaceful reunification by influencing North Koreans with freedom and democracy instead of using armed forces.”
Lee stated that, along with the restrictive social policies of the North and its worsening economy, South Korea is placed at an advantage to perturb the public sentiments in North Korea.
“Because of the accelerating bipolarization in society and its growing subordination to the Chinese economy, the free economic system of the South will be charming to the North Koreans,” Lee suggested.
After talking about the weakness that North Korea has, Lee highlighted “North Korea followers” as the arch enemy and biggest threat that South Korea has to defeat for peace and freedom. North Korea followers are those people who chase down the ideology of Kim family and the Chosun Labor Party.
“North Korea followers never open their mouths for North Korea’s problems such as the lack of human rights and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but admit the hereditary succession of power and Juche Idea [North Korea’s ideology],” Lee said. “If South Korea fails to root out the wrong ideas they possess, it will collapse like the same way that old South Vietnam did.”
While reminding the KATUSA soldiers that South Korea is still a warfare nation and North Korea’s objective to crank down South Korea, Lee demanded them not to overlook the threat on national security and to fight for liberal democracy.
“The truce line is not the border. If we end in failure to protect the liberal democracy, the people’s democracy will dominate the Korean Peninsula,” Kim remarked. “Fight for the country with all your might like those heroes that ROK Forces have turned out.”
Lee finished his lecture with remaining lessons for soldiers to think deeply about their heavy responsibility and enemy’s true nature.
“As a soldier who has responsibility for life and death for the nation and its’ people, the lecture gave me an important time to judge the threatening force to the national security as well as to think about the way our nation should aim at,” said Cpl. Ahn Hee-chang, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command Training Room training specialist.
After the lecture, Area IV KATUSA soldiers felt the need and importance of the dynamic words from the lively witnesses who experienced the enemy at the closest and looked South Korea carefully from the perspective of enemy.
“Today’s education was very innovative in the sense that we could hear first-hand experiences from a North Korean defector. I think we need more training programs from defectors because it provides soldiers the opportunity to learn about the enemy and first-hand experiences of the cruelties a country inflicts on its citizens,” said Sgt. Kim Do-jun, HHC, 19th ESC senior KATUSA. “This course was a fresh reminder that we serve to protect not just our personal safety but also the freedom and basic human rights that guarantee our safety.”
| Date Taken: | 11.27.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 11.26.2013 22:58 |
| Story ID: | 117439 |
| Location: | DAEGU GWANG'YEOGSI [TAEGU-KWANGYOKSHI], KR |
| Web Views: | 335 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NK defector’s lively witness wakes up soldiers, by SGT Sang-cheol Lee, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
