Korea: Bom Min Ryun (Bominryun, Bomminryun, Bumminryun, Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, PKAR) and Jun Dae Hyup (Jundaehyup, Chundaehyup, Chondaehyop, National Council of Student Representatives), 1999-2000 (follow-up to KOR34575.E of 9 June 2000)

No reports mentioning Bominryun additional to those referred to in KOR34575.E of 9 June 2000 could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

According to the 14 February 1997 issue of Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network Daily Report, Hanchongryun, a student organization that promotes closer ties between North and South Korea, is the successor organization to Chundaehyup (National Council of Student Representatives). For information on Hanchongryun, please consult KOR34154.E of 15 November 1999.

According to information in a May 1992 report presented to the UN Human Rights Committee by Lawyers for a Democratic Society and the Human Rights Committee of the National Council of Churches in Korea, Chundaehyup also endeavoured to build better relations between North and South Korea. Chundaehyup was composed of 19 regional bodies and special committees, and its policies were determined by the representatives of those 19 bodies (ibid.). In 1989 the organization reportedly had the capacity to mobilize some 30,000 students (ibid.). In December 1989 Chundaehyup's chairman, Im Chong Sok, was arrested by police and charged under the National Security Act (NSA) with sending a Chundaehyup representative to the July 1989 13th World Youth and Student Festival, held in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (Angel 1990, 319). Other arrests of students who attended the festival followed (ibid.; Lawyers for a Democratic Society May 1992). One Chundaehyup representative who attended and spoke at the festival was judged by the courts, under article 4 of the NSA, to have committed an act of providing North Korea with military benefits (ibid.).

None of the sources consulted indicated when Chundaehyup was succeeded by Hanchongryun.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Angel, William D. 1990. Youth Movements of the World. London: Longman Group UK.

Lawyers for a Democratic Society/Human Rights Committee of the National Council of Churches in Korea. May 1992. Counter Report to the Human Rights Committee on the Initial Report Filed by the Republic of Korea under Article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [Accessed 12 Oct. 2000]

The Nautilus Institute. 14 February 1997. Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network: Daily Report. [Accessed 12 Oct. 2000]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases.

LEXIS-NEXIS.

World News Connection (WNC).

Internet sites including:

Amnesty International.

Chosun Ilbo [Seoul].

Joon Ang Ilbo.

Korea Herald [Seoul].

The Korea Post.

Korea Times [Seoul].

Korea Web Weekly.

Seoul Daily News.