1 of 6 | The North Korea Human Rights Museum opened Wednesday in Seoul with its inaugural exhibition, The Echo Never Stops. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- The first museum centering on North Korean human rights opened this week in Seoul, with an inaugural exhibition that highlights the authoritarian regime's heavy restrictions on freedom of expression.
The Echo Never Stops combines art, archives and documentary video to portray the everyday repression that North Koreans face and the lengths they will go to make their voices heard. It was curated by Seoul-based rights group Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, or NKDB.
"North Koreans yearn for freedom of expression despite facing severe punishment," NKDB researcher Kim Su-jin said at an opening ceremony for the North Korean Human Rights Museum on Wednesday. "Through this exhibition, we attempt to listen to the voices of North Koreans who desire to speak freely."
Objects on display include smuggled leaflets and small handheld radios that North Koreans use to surreptitiously pick up broadcasts from neighboring South Korea and China.
Art by Sun Mu, a North Korean defector, explores the connection between the divided countries on the Peninsula. In one sculpture, a vase holds a bouquet of flowers on stems made of barbed wire, while a painting mimics the style of North Korean propaganda posters with a young woman flashing the common South Korean hand symbol for "love."
An installation by artist Kim Young-seop, meanwhile, features a wall of speakers pulsating but not emitting any sound.
The small exhibition space, located on the third floor of an office building in downtown Seoul, was funded in part by the South Korean Unification Ministry. Organizers and supporters, including several other rights NGOs, said they are hoping that it will be a stepping stone to a larger presence in a society where interest in North Korean rights has flagged.
"I think for South Korea, [North Korean human rights] is an issue that has been going on for so long that there's so much fatigue," Hanna Song, NKDB's director of international cooperation, told UPI."We felt that we needed something in South Korea to memorialize the voices of the North Korean escapees, but also as an educational platform for the average South Korean."
A United Nations General Assembly committee on Wednesday passed a resolution on North Korean human rights for the 19th consecutive year, condemning "in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights" in the North, which it said may amount to crimes against humanity.
Song said that the first exhibition's focus on freedom of expression was meant to make the everyday struggles that North Koreans face more relatable to a local audience.
"People often know the most severe cases, such as public executions," she said. "We wanted to start on a theme that people can relate to a little bit more -- just being able to speak freely. And showing that even the most fundamental freedom that we have here is not possible for North Koreans."
Other artifacts on display include a red diary that some North Koreans are forced to keep and fill each day with positive affirmations about the regime of leader Kim Jong Un. The books are checked regularly, and any deviation is cause for punishment.
On one wall, small slips of paper are printed with phrases that defectors have reported getting in trouble for saying, such as "I'm too hungry to work" or "I've heard South Korea is a nice place to live." The back of the paper lists the punishment received, including being sent to a political prison camp.
Organizers said they are also looking to lift North Korean human rights outside of the political arena, where it has become a wedge issue in South Korea.
Under the previous administration of liberal President Moon Jae-in, human rights were downplayed during a period of diplomatic engagement with the North. Since the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office last year, Seoul has adopted a more aggressive stance toward Pyongyang, highlighting its human rights abuses while heavily criticizing the opposition party's approach.
"Human rights are so politicized and usually just seem to be a conservative, one-party issue," Song said. "And so we're hoping to be able to show that this universal issue transcends politics."
The Echo Never Stops runs until March 31, 2024, at the North Korean Human Rights Museum Exhibition Hall in Seoul. Admission is free.
