Human rights in South Korea
[1] These rights have evolved significantly from the days of military dictatorship to the current state as a constitutional democracy with free and fair elections for the presidency and the members of the National Assembly.
[2] South Korean democracy has legally protected rights for political, civil and socio-economic individuals, although there are limitations and even discrimination against certain groups.
[1] The National Security Act criminalizes speech in support of communism or North Korea; though it is unevenly enforced and prosecutions decline every year, there are still cases brought annually.
[5] The emergence of human rights can be traced back to the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) with the enlightenment movement reformers Kim Ok-Kyun, So Chae-p'il and Pak Yong-Hyo.
[6] After the liberation from the Japanese rule in 1945, the execution of the human rights was hindered by factors as the division of the northern and southern part and their ideological conflict.
For most of the 20th century South Korean citizens lived under non-democratic rule, most notably under the authoritarian military regimes of Syngman Rhee, Park Chung Hee, Chun Doo-hwan, and Roh Tae-woo.
The intervention of the United States advisors to prevent the use of force and violence in political cases were unsuccessful as well as the sponsorship for legal reforms.
The Burim Case in the 1981, saw innocent individuals, who were part of a book club, arbitrary arrested and severely tortured into making a false confession that they were reading "communist literature.
When his successor Roh followed the former president and promoted reforms such as transparency, expanding welfare and social support, the nation had high hopes.
[citation needed] Following these presidencies are Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-Hye, both rulings led to a downfall of the political freedom and human rights sector through budget cuts, defamation suits against the press.
[10] The National Security Law makes it a crime to express sympathies with North Korea, and though it is not consistently enforced, there are over 100 people imprisoned under it annually.
A play about the Yodok political prison camp in North Korea has come under significant pressure from authorities to tone down its criticism and the producers have allegedly been threatened with prosecution under the security law.
[12] Former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was once accused of attempting to distract reporters from a meeting of activists for human rights in North Korea.
[15] Despite the lifting of most regulations in 1996 and 1998 following a Constitutional Court ruling that they were illegal, scenes of extreme violence can be barred and pornography is forbidden from showing penetration of any kind, and genitals must be blurred out.
The large population of workers from Southeast Asia, over half of whom are estimated to be in the country illegally, face considerable discrimination both in and out of the workplace.
This has led to the privately funded establishment of a school specifically targeted at children with an immigrated parent, with English and Korean as its main languages.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) maintained that the courts had established legal precedents for strict interpretation of the law that preclude arbitrary application.
In August authorities indicted a secondary school teacher on charges of violating the NSL for distributing materials related to the May 1980 Kwangju uprising.
In November 2007 a university professor found guilty of violating the NSL and sentenced in 2006 to two years in prison lost his final appeal.
An Amnesty International (AI) report alleged there were arbitrary arrests of bystanders on at least three occasions during demonstrations against President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul between May and September.
The Supreme Court of Korea pardoned Jeong on October 27, 2011, based on unreliable evidence and illegal police procedures used at that time.
Some foreign women recruited for legal and brokered marriages with Korean men ended up in situations of sexual exploitation, debt bondage, and involuntary servitude once married.
Korean women were trafficked primarily for sexual exploitation to the United States, sometimes through Canada and Mexico, as well as to other countries, such as Australia and Japan.
