Though personally I could live without the disrupting part (via OFK)

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) — South Korean human rights groups said Thursday they will block the Olympic torch relay in protest at China’s alleged human rights violations against Tibetans and North Korean defectors.

The torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is scheduled to reach South Korea on April 27 and be passed on to North Korea on the following day. It will arrive in Beijing in early May.

“We urge China, as a host of the Olympic Games, to abide by the common values of humankind and respect the human rights of the weak,” said Christian Accountability for Society, Save North Korea and Helping Hands Korea in a joint press conference held in front of the World Peace Gate at Seoul’s Olympic Park. “China must stop its forceful repatriation of North Korean refugees and its violent crackdown on Tibetan protestors.

The civic groups said they will gather again in front of the gate on Sunday morning to disrupt the torch run.

They added that some North Korean human rights groups are also planning on Sunday to blockade the bridges on the Han River, which runs through the heart of the city, in order to stop the torch bearer from crossing the river.

It is my hope that the protesters do not pull stunts like torch grabbing. I do want the violent radicals that protest the war here in America to hijack our cause. Their goal ought to be engaging the Chinese to respect North Korean Human Rights rather than marginalize them.

The think-tank ISRIA put together documented cases of westerners kidnapped by North Korea. This was based on a recent article from Le Figaro on three French citizens kidnapped in the 70′s.

According to my high school French (or you can read the ISRIA link), western women were tricked into marrying North Korean agents disguised as wealthy heiresses. Once they were brought to Pyongyang, they were detained and forced into indoctrination and espionage for the North Koreans. According to a Korean abductee, there were a total of 28 women in total in 1979 from France, Italy, Holland, and the Middle East.

Since these sources come from NARKN, there is no doubt that they are attempting to make the North Korean kidnappings a global issue, which I agree.

Of course, would the rest of the world care enough to take action?

According to the DailyNK, it seems the discipline within North Korea’s intelligence agency has relaxed to a point that one is able to acquire videos of interrogations. In the video obtained by the DailyNK, it shows an NSA agent beating a what appears to be a female defector.

Expect more of these types of footage to pop up from time to time.