For so long, it’s been easy for conservatives to feel atomized in the fight against global totalitarianism.
While our devotion to rugged individualism and our belief in national sovereignty are rooted in proven moral principles, they have often resulted in our going it alone against the left in our own countries. Meanwhile, the socialists we face have historically been internationalist in nature, making use of their cross-border party allegiance to support comrades in nations where they are weaker until they gradually become dominant everywhere.
But those days are coming to an end. Those who hold freedom and limited government dear are now joining together to create a unified anti-socialist front, bonded together by the understanding that communism is a cancer which, if allowed to take root in one country, inevitably spreads far and wide.
And if anyone is on the front lines of the fight against cancerous socialism, it’s the Korean people.
A group of native-born and heritage Koreans from both the North and South are working to bring liberty to the Korean Peninsula while preserving it here in America. Under the banner of the One Korea Network (OKN), this group of (largely young) men and women are producing hard-hitting reporting and in-depth analysis of Korean politics with an unapologetically conservative voice.
OKN has partnered with the American Conservative Union to create CPAC Korea, also known as KCPAC, an annual conference designed to educate, organize, and galvanize the conservative movement in the Koreas.
North Korean expatriate Arthur Hyunseung Lee is regional director of KCPAC’s New Institute program in Washington, D.C. Speaking with him at CPAC in Orlando late February, I was able to gain a unique insight into the state of Korean politics.
Although North Korea is known for its murderous communist dictatorship, Arthur explained that the current South Korean government under Moon Jae-in is a rabidly leftist one that is enabling the Kim regime.
“The current leaders of the South Korean government, and the South Korean Liberal Party, have always been fascinated by Communist and socialist theories,” Arthur said. “These are the people who only know about socialism through books; they don’t know anything about real socialism. They even believe that the North Korean dictator is doing a good job. They refuse to denounce him and they refuse to talk about North Korean human rights.
“Every day, the North Korean people are suffering and dying at the hands of the dictatorship, but South Korean leaders won’t talk about it.
“Now they are even oppressing those in their own country who want to give a voice to North Korean human rights. For example, the South Korean government is censoring those who try to send real news and information from the outside world back into North Korea. The North Korean regime obviously is very mad about that information. But the South Korean government is oppressing people who want to send truth across the border.
“The South Korean government established a law to ban sending news and information to the people of North Korea. According to that law, if someone tries to spread the truth, that person could be put in prison for three years or fined $30,000. I’ve never heard of such a law before. It’s very problematic.
“Also, the current South Korean government puts more importance on China and North Korea than on America. They always talk about cooperation with China and North Korea. But they’re trying to reduce cooperation with the United States, even though America and South Korea are longtime allies.”
For Arthur, it’s important that Americans “trust, but verify” anything coming out of the current South Korean government. He described his own escape from North Korea.
“I escaped North Korea in October 2014. I was the deputy manager of a North Korea state-owned company in China. I managed shipping in the natural resources business. And my dad was a special advisor to the North Korean government on economy and investment.
“Around that time, in late 2013, the current dictator, Kim Jong-un, started killing a lot of the North Korean elites, and he even killed his uncle. We had a good relationship with his uncle. Kim killed 500 officials and sent their families to prison camps. So my family and I realized this wasn’t the country we wanted and Kim Jong-un wasn’t the kind of leader we wanted to serve. We couldn’t stay under those conditions. That’s how we decided to escape.
“Since we were working in China, it was relatively easy for us to escape and we had help from the South Korean government. We first went to live in South Korea. But in South Korea, there are lots of North Korean spies—that’s something a lot of Americans don’t know about. Because of those spies, we were afraid of assassination attempts, so we left South Korea in 2016 and moved to the United States.”
Arthur explained what drew him to the work of OKN and KCPAC, which held its first conference in 2019:
“It was very interesting to see the agenda of CPAC 2020: America vs. Socialism. And I was really surprised. I never expected the American people to think about socialism. I want people to understand that socialism is a failed system.
“North Korea is a socialist country, they even call themselves socialist in their constitution. And China is a communist country, a form of socialism. And then, all the systems we experience are failed systems, because they can’t provide food for people, they can’t even provide privacy to their citizens. But I’ve heard so many young people say ‘socialism is a good thing,’ especially college students. So I was very surprised to see such understanding about socialism at CPAC.
“Then I met the KCPAC people last year and I began working with them because we have the same goal and agenda: To tell the world that socialism and communism are not the way that America should go.”
Finally, Arthur said he and his colleagues hope to testify during the upcoming Korea hearing at Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He sees hope that the Kim regime’s persecution of many of the country’s elite, and the resultant dissatisfaction among its ruling class, will lead North Korea’s high-ranking officials to turn against Kim.
In the meantime, he will continue spreading the truth about socialism.
“All of our countries should work together to fight against communism and socialism,” Arthur declared. “We don’t want to see South Korea or America become socialist or end up with a dictatorship. We have to keep them free.”
