KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
When it comes to human rights and civil rights abuses on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea gets most of the attention. But these days, democratic South Korea is being criticized for how its government deals with dissent. NPR's Elise Hu reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Korean).
ELISE HU, BYLINE: Sixty thousand people, or the seating capacity of Soldier Field, is how many South Koreans showed up for a mass protest against their president in November. One of them was labor group representative Ryu Mi-gyung.
RYU MI-GYUNG: Every issue that we are facing violates the core principles of democracy.
HU: The issues vary and include union-busting labor laws, attempts to ban protests, jailing journalists, using a Cold War-era national security law to criminalize certain kinds of speech, and a recent move to issue only state-written history textbooks to middle and high school students across the country.
PHIL ROBERTSON: A real sort of gamut of ongoing concerns about freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of peaceful public protest in South Korea.
HU: That's Phil Robertson, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. He's part of a wider international audience now paying closer attention to President Park Geun-hye's government and how it's handling dissent inside the country.
ROBERTSON: We don't take opinion, left or right. We just take opinion that there shouldn't be censorship. And the idea of, like, basically disallowing a number of different points of views and only allowing one specific textbook, you know, raises some serious concerns.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Speaking Korean).
HU: When protesters raised those concerns in street demonstrations, the national police force moved to quell the unrest with tear gas, paint and water cannons so strong that one demonstrator is still hospitalized in critical condition.
T. KUMAR: The police should use proportionate force, not excessive force.
HU: T. Kumar is international advocacy director for Amnesty International.
KUMAR: Our main concern is freedom of expression, as well as excessive use of force by the police officers against largely peaceful protest. The current president is going to fail if she tries to reverse the course to its democracy by using excuses to silence political critics.
HU: The presidential office and the president's ruling party counters that South Korea makes these moves because it's in a unique security situation.
KIM YONG-WOO: (Through interpreter) South Korea is still in conflict with North Korea. We're still living in the Cold War era.
HU: Kim Yong-woo is chief spokesman for the party.
YONG-WOO: (Through interpreter) South Korea respects the freedom of citizens to express themselves and assemble, but any activities that threaten the national security must be dealt with the National Security Law or else we may end up with very dangerous results.
HU: Kim says suppressing protests is justified since demonstrators have gotten violent, wielding lead pipes and breaking barricades, and because the government has to protect itself from North Korean sympathizers within its borders.
YONG-WOO: (Through interpreter) They're anti-government. They praise North Korea and bring all sort of political issues onto the table. These demonstrations don't have a just cause and are impure.
HU: But who gets to decide which causes are just? Politics and society are polarized along generational lines. A recent Gallup poll shows President Park's approval rating is 75 percent among voters over 60, but at only 16 percent among South Koreans under age 30. International groups are calling for the country's diplomatic allies, like the U.S., to raise rights issues with the Park government. Robertson.
ROBERTSON: South Korea doesn't get a free pass just because it's next to a very horrible, rights-abusing neighbor.
HU: In the most stinging criticism of South Korea's president, she's being compared to her father. That's not a compliment. He was a dictator who ruled South Korea with a heavy hand for nearly two decades. Elise Hu, NPR News, Seoul.