Free Joseon (; formerly known as Cheollima Civil Defense, formally styled as The Provisional Government of Free Joseon) is a
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
n activist group and self-proclaimed "
government in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile us ...
" established on 4 March 2017. It has been noted for protecting the family of
Kim Jong-nam
Kim Jong-nam (, ; 10 May 1971 – 13 February 2017) was the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. From roughly 1994 to 2001, he was considered the heir apparent to his father. He was thought to have fallen out of favour after em ...
(including
Kim Han-sol
Kim Han-sol ( ko, 김한솔, born 16 June 1995) is the eldest son of Kim Jong-nam and a grandson of the former North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il. His father was the unofficial heir apparent until 2001, when he fell out of favor with the regime af ...
) following
his assassination in Malaysia. It is also known to support
North Korean defectors
Since the division of Korea after the end of World War II, North Koreans have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons. Such North Koreans are re ...
. On 1 March 2019, "Cheollima Civil Defense" was renamed to "Free Joseon", which is also the proposed name for North Korea if it "overthrows its current government". Similar to the
Fighters for a Free North Korea
Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK,자유북한운동연합) is an organization formed in South Korea that is known for periodically launching balloons carrying human rights and pro-democracy literature, DVDs, transistor radios and USB flash d ...
, the group is considered as a North Korean democracy movement.
Mission
On March 1, 2019, Free Joseon issued the "Declaration for a Free Joseon". Within this declaration, Free Joseon enumerated nine accusations against the
Kim regime in North Korea. These ranged from accusations of torture and
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
to failures to provide food for the people of North Korea. By virtue of these accusations, Free Joseon declared the Kim regime an illegitimate government and proclaimed itself to be the true representative government of the people of North Korea: "We declare on this day the establishment of Free Joseon, a
provisional government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...
preparing the foundations for a future nation built upon respect for principles of
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
and
humanitarianism
Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...
, holding sacred a manifest dignity for every woman, man, and child. We declare this entity the sole legitimate representative of the Korean people of the north." The declaration continues on by calling upon resistance to the Kim regime of those who currently live under its rule and for Koreans abroad to lend their support to Free Joseon.
Activities
On 15 March 2019, ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reported that Free Joseon was involved in the 22 February
incident at North Korea's embassy in Madrid. Spanish media linked several participants in an alleged raid to the CIA.
The group's activities have included numerous defections of North Koreans escaping the country and their embassies abroad. These include former North Korean ambassador to Italy: Jo Song Gil. It is also reported that the incident at the North Korean embassy in Madrid in 2019 may have been a botched defection effort disguised as a staged kidnapping, rather than an alleged raid.
On 18 April 2019, the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
arrested Free Joseon member Christopher Ahn and raided the apartment of member
Adrian Hong.
On 30 June 2019, Free Joseon released a statement on the
2019 Koreas–United States DMZ Summit
The 2019 Koreas–United States DMZ Summit was a one-day summit held at the Korean Demilitarized Zone between North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un, U.S. president Donald Trump, and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, following the 2019 G20 Osaka su ...
, in which
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
met with
Kim Jong-un
Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...
and symbolically stepped across the border into North Korea at the
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone (Korean: ; Hanbando Bimujang Jidae) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in ha ...
. The statement was critical of the true intent of the North Korean regime in reopening dialogue with the United States on the issue of
denuclearisation, stating "Millions starved to death, hundreds of thousands of citizens in
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
, and hundreds of foreigners kidnapped and assassinated will attest that, unfortunately, the regime in
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
has never acted in good faith and only seeks to stall while it continues to proliferate
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...
and commit mass atrocities. Regretfully, these empty gestures by the Kim regime serve only to deceive the world and empower an immoral criminal regime".
[Eric Shawn: President Trump, Kim Jong-un...and Otto Warmbier. America's Newsroom. Fox News Channel. June 30, 2019. https://video.foxnews.com/v/6054047801001/#sp=news-clips/world]
See also
*
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
The Korean Provisional Government (KPG), formally the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, was a partially recognized Korean government-in-exile based in Shanghai, China, and later in Chongqing, during the period of Japanese c ...
*
Righteous army
Righteous armies, sometimes called irregular armies or militias, are informal civilian militias that have appeared several times in Korean history, when the national armies were in need of assistance.
The first righteous armies emerged during th ...
*
Fighters for a Free North Korea
Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK,자유북한운동연합) is an organization formed in South Korea that is known for periodically launching balloons carrying human rights and pro-democracy literature, DVDs, transistor radios and USB flash d ...
*
Free North Korea Radio
The Free North Korea Radio () is an independent radio broadcaster based in Seoul, South Korea. The station is run primarily by North Korean refugees and defectors and frequently broadcasts short-wave transmissions of news and information to the gen ...
*
North Korean People's Liberation Front
North Korean People's Liberation Front (NKPLF; ) is a South Korean militant paramilitary organization consisting of North Korean defectors, formed by former defecting members of the Korean People's Army, planning to overthrow the North Korea ...
*
Human rights in North Korea
The human rights record of North Korea is often considered to be the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the United Nations, the European Union and groups such as Human Rights Watch all critical of the country's record. Most ...
References
External links
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Resistance movements
North Korean democracy movements
{{NorthKorea-stub