Teacher’s Unions: Pro-North?

A sweeping generalization, but that explains why most South Koreans are either indifferent or hostile to the plight of North Koreans (Via. The Marmot)

The nation’s progressive teachers’ union is losing its influence, following a recent defeat in a national education committee election after its alleged promotion of pro-North Korean ideology.

…

The New Right Union, a conservative civic group, said the Pusan chapter of the union handed out the booklets to its members in a series of seminars last year. The booklets contained some articles copied from a North Korean history textbook, titled “Modern Choson History.'’ Pyongyang’s state scholars wrote the textbook in 1983.

The Pusan chapter claimed the booklets were seminar material to check North Korea’s historical view and were not used as teaching material. But in Monday’s election, not a single nominee from the union was elected in Pusan.

It was also found that the union’s Seoul chapter recommended teachers put up a North Korean propaganda poster for decoration in classrooms in elementary, middle and high schools.

I believe I have highlighted this before, but this shows how deep Pro-North Korean ideology cuts into South Korean society. Apparently, not are they pro-North, the unions themselves run like the Korean Worker’s Party

A handful of seven or eight figures make all the important decisions on the direction and purposes of the hugely powerful, 90,000-member Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union. They are in charge of core departments under the executive committee, the union’s supreme decision-making body. A union source said Wednesday it is that group on the executive board who are responsible for the union’s pursuit of a “proletarian and democratic” ideology in the union’s struggles.

…

The union leadership publishes teaching materials on major social issues like the Korean War, APEC and the planned fee trade agreement between Korea and the U.S. and offers them to schools. They often contain outspoken anti-American and pro-North Korean views and aim to instill in students a rejection of privileged groups. One government official says the union leadership’s ultimate goal is to propagate socialist and pro-North Korean views among students. One way to do that are the class materials.

And that is the mindset we have to face if we want to succeed in putting the the human rights issue on the map.