Controversy over woman's law and pro-poor policies..

Korea's gender laws are not exactly known for being the most progressive in the world, and are pretty terrible for a country as developed as Korea. One controversial law is currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Gender Equality who has submitted to the Constitutional Court is against the spirit of the basic law (whatever that means).

The law as stipulated in the country's criminal code states, "Men may be punished by a maximum prison term of two years or a maximum fine of 5 million won for luring chaste women to have sex with them through false promises of marriage or other deceptions."

The part the ministry specifically objects to refers to is "chaste women," saying that it carries implications of sexual discrimination.

The ministry also added that the concept of the law runs the risk of perpetuating the stereotype that women don't possess the ability to make decisions using their own free will.

"In the United States and Germany, for example, there is a clear tendency to bring the sense of equality and revise anti-rape laws by no longer defining women as sole victims. Women are replaced by persons in these countries' laws," a ministry spokesman said.

"Chastity is expected not just from women but also from men," he said, explaining that the law as it is, sees women as the only gender that should abide by chastity.

The ministry's opinion comes at a time when the Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold an open hearing on a petition filed by a man who has been accused of having sex with a female colleague on four occasions after he promised to introduce her to his parents, a usual part of marriage protocols.

In its July 2002 ruling, the court supported the constitutionality of the law in a 7-to-2 majority decision. At that time, the majority opinion was based on the court's view that the law helped preserve the spirit of chastity in society.

Good point, but how about the concept that women should be chaste for this law to work being a major issue? Or how about the fact that the law makes it look like chaste women are just a bunch of children who will be lured into indecency with a few tricks? If I want to get some action in Suwon, do I just have to promise some random virgin marriage?

In other news, the new chair of the Grand National Party (GNP) has publicly stated that the GNP will focus on protecting the working class and poor sections of society.

``There has been a rising demand for policy responses to improve the livelihood of working class families and underprivileged people and this requires the ruling party to respond,'' he said.

Here is one way that will help the underprivileged in Korean society; stop screwing around with irregular workers who generally represent the most marginalized and poorest sections of Korea. Stop allowing corporations to push back the date when they have to transition their irregular workers to regular, and stop cutting back benefits for companies that do this. That should help. But then again, I am just some crazy American so what do I know?

YH Incident anniversary....

If you have not yet read Matt's blog called Gusts of Popular Feeling yet you should be ashamed of yourself and go there right now. Today is the thirty year anniversary of the Y.H. Incident which I would not have been aware of if Matt had not posted about it today. He also posted a nice article on women's labor and the democratization movement that I will read later today. You should all do the same.

Article on sex and woman's rights in the DPRK...

Andrei Lankov, probably the biggest expert on the DPRK, wrote a great article on the changing image of sex and woman's rights in the DPRK.

In the North, this approach was soon taken to the extreme. From the late 1950s even the slightest references to sexual activity were purged from North Korean art. Only villains could be depicted as thinking about sex, while the positive heroes were always asexual. Divorce was made difficult, almost impossible.

It seems that the government control, along with the activities of the neighborhood watch groups, the infamous ``inminban,'' helped to maintain the officially endorsed standards of sexual behavior. The powerful few sometimes could have extra-marital affairs, but they were an exception.

I also know of some cases when women got pregnant from premarital sex ― like a female soldier who once ``did it'' with her boyfriend in the late 1970s.

But once she found out that she was pregnant, she knew she was in serious trouble: if discovered, a pregnancy would lead to a dishonorable discharge from the army, after which nobody would allow her to return to her family in privileged Pyongyang.

Suck it all you Marxist-Leninist who talk about how the DPRK "liberated" women. Despite early progressive reforms when it came to issue of women, the DPRK has historically made women nothing more then machines that produce revolutionary men. The fact that this is changing further shows that the DPRK population is not as "brainwashed" as people make it sound as well as the decline of the Stalinist state.