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Profile of the Pro-North Korea movement in the United States

Lawrence Peck
(Image: iStock/vladm)

Editorial Note: The following article gives an overview of the character of the pro-North Korea movement in the U.S. It provides a portrait of the basic nature and scope of pro-North Korea activities and the operational methods of the groups and activists involved. The author has spent over 25 years of intensive research into and experience with this subject matter.

Despite a widespread and unfortunate lack of awareness, it is an indisputable fact that there exists a pro-North Korea movement in the U.S.  

Pro-North forces constitute a “movement” in the sense that it is self-conscious and consists of a highly interconnected and often overlapping network of closely allied and mutually collaborating organizations. Although the movement’s constituent groups and activists may function in varying manners with distinct organizational forms and have different target audiences, they share most of the same basic views and goals.  

With regard to the use of term “pro-North” itself, to avoid any definitional confusion or controversy, it should be defined in the simplest, fairest, and most accurate manner, as a group or individual that supports or defends the North Korean regime, its policies or actions, that excuses, downplays or denies its essential nature and crimes, or is affiliated or allied with an entity which does the same.  

Of course, the mere fact that a group or individual may disagree with or condemn any given policy of the ROK or the U.S. with regard to the North, or the fact that a group or individual may be leftist in overall orientation, does not necessarily mean that the group or individual in question should be characterized as pro-North. However, if a group or individual consistently condemns the policies of the ROK or the U.S. towards the North, in a completely one-sided manner which avoids any significant criticism of the North, thereby evincing a clear double standard, that is surely a strong indication that the group or individual in question may indeed be pro-North in orientation.  

Pro-North Korea groups in the U.S. that meet this definition have varying characteristics in terms of their methods of operation precisely because they target different audiences and sometimes have different memberships.  

There are what may be termed “hardcore” or “openly” pro-North groups, some of which consist largely or entirely of Korean Americans and others whose members are mostly non-Koreans.  

These groups, because of their extreme and highly sectarian nature, tend to focus, in terms of their target audiences, on those Korean Americans or other Americans who are already predisposed to support or who are active on the far left. The non-Korean groups within this “hardcore” category are often Marxist-Leninist in nature and function in the English language, whereas the Korean American groups within this category often function primarily or even entirely in the Korean language.  

Hardcore pro-North groups in some cases feature openly racist, anti-Christian, and quite rabidly anti-Jewish content on their websites. Another common feature of such hardcore groups is that most of them have ties to the North Korean regime and its representatives, including its intelligence agents engaged in “united front” work in the U.S., such as those stationed at the North’s Mission to the United Nations in New York City.  

These North Korean intelligence agents, deceptively posing as ordinary diplomats, have for years been communicating, meeting, and collaborating with pro-North forces in the U.S.  

North Korean agents have arbitrated and issued “rulings” in bitter disputes between pro-North groups and activists, issued instructions and policy guidelines to them, and in some cases even “coronated” the leaders of hardcore pro-North groups.

Another major type are the “front” organizations. These are groups which typically deny that they are pro-North in public, because they seek to recruit and seek support from individuals and collaborate with other left-leaning groups which may not want to be affiliated or involved with “hardcore” or “openly” pro-North groups.  

Some of these front groups consist of Korean Americans and therefore operate largely in the Korean language. Others consist of both Korean Americans and non-Korean speaking Americans and operate in English, since their primary target audience consists of American society in general, especially other organizations, media, and religious and political circles in the broadest sense. This latter category includes some of the most influential pro-North entities in the U.S.

Pro-North front groups have been increasingly focused in recent years on lobbying the U.S. government, and especially the U.S. Congress, in favor of measures which the North supports, and against measures which the North opposes. This includes campaigning in support of proposals for a no-preconditions peace agreement between the U.S. and the North, as well as against human rights-related legislation. The members of Congress targeted are most likely unaware that the activists and groups that they and their staff are meeting with in this regard are supporters of North Korea who in some cases have ties to the regime and its intelligence agents and have essentially been engaged in an “influence operation” on behalf of the North.

This basic distinction between hardcore, openly pro-North groups and pro-North front groups is useful in the sense that it explains the different public relations strategies and other operational methods of both types.  

However, in recent years there has been a significant blurring of this distinction, which sometimes makes it difficult to firmly place a given group in one category or the other. This is due to the fact that the front groups, which have always been quietly allied and collaborating with the hardcore groups, have in recent years been working together with the hardcore groups in a more overt manner and most leaders of the fronts are personally friendly with and supportive of the leaders of hardcore groups. 

It is nevertheless important to keep in mind that the hardcore groups and the fronts, despite their differences, have essentially the same goals and positions, especially at the core leadership level. In some cases, the two types of groups may even have overlapping staff members at their leadership levels and to a lesser degree among active members. 

It is also crucial to note that some of the fronts, like their hardcore allies, maintain direct ties to the regime and its agents at the U.N. Mission. In recent months and years, there has been a trend of some major fronts becoming more extreme and to a certain degree more openly pro-North.

Without a doubt, the most successful groups, in terms of their influence, have been the front groups. This is because they strive and are often successful in maintaining a “public face” of respectability and an important public deniability as to their pro-North nature, which has thereby enabled them to attract support from and forge alliances with groups and individuals, sometimes termed “useful idiots” or “dupes,” who are typically left-wing, isolationist, or both, but not themselves devotedly pro-North in nature.  

These allies of the fronts are willing to join forces, make common cause with, and provide valuable assistance to such fronts, often in the naive but terribly mistaken belief that they are somehow promoting peace.  

As a direct consequence of such nature and tactics, these fronts have been most suited to lobbying activities, in which they have increasingly engaged. Whereas all types of pro-North groups habitually rely on deception and distortion, the front groups are particularly adept at deceiving their target audiences, and even their own ordinary members, since that is the fundamental basis of their success and in strategic terms their very purpose. 

Although some front groups were specifically created to function as fronts, others are groups which were not originally pro-North but were infiltrated and “captured” by pro-North activists who then transformed them for their own purposes.

Some current and former local, state, and national government officials and members of Congress have been supportive of and involved with pro-North front groups. 

Shockingly, there are even a few individuals associated with well-known human rights organizations who are members or supporters of pro-North fronts. There are pro-North foundations which provide them with funds, and some pro-North groups, not only fronts but also in several cases those of the hardcore variety, have received significant funding from supposedly mainstream foundations and in a few instances even from government-affiliated sources. 

There are also some very wealthy individuals, themselves pro-North or at least supporters of the pro-North movement, who have funded and otherwise assisted and promoted pro-North forces in the U.S.  

A few individual opponents of the North Korean regime, who may be termed “enablers” of the pro-North movement, in spite of not being pro-North themselves, have provided great assistance to pro-North groups and activists by defending them, vouching for their supposedly virtuous intentions, and speaking at their events. 

A previous left-wing Korean government also provided funds to pro-North activists in the U.S. for the purpose of publishing reports opposing sanctions and human rights pressure on the North and advocating a no-preconditions peace agreement between the U.S. and the North. These reports were provided to members of Congress who were likely unaware that they were funded by a foreign government and written by pro-North activists.

Pursuant to the communist doctrine and practice of “revolutionary internationalism” which is now more often referred to by the fashionable term “intersectionality,” the pro-North movement supports a wide variety of causes not directly related to Korea and collaborates closely with its “comrades” in groups which are not explicitly focused on Korean issues.  

Pro-North groups and activists regularly hold joint events with and participate in the various campaigns of a host of Marxist-Leninist and other far-left extremist groups. These include support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, dictatorial regimes in Venezuela and Cuba, communist rebels in the Philippines, and in recent months and years especially, the actions and policy positions of China and Russia.  

Pro-North groups and activists habitually and aggressively oppose and defame North Korea human rights organizations and have specifically targeted groups such as the Human Rights Foundation, among others. 

This anti-human rights stance of pro-North forces is sometimes quite overt, in that it involves denying or dismissing the North’s well-documented crimes against humanity, but in other instances, depending on their target audiences, it is strategically disguised by very deceptively terming it a “peace first” approach. In almost all cases, pro-North groups and activists employ a crass moral relativism, to excuse, diminish, or distract from the North’s crimes.  

At other times, pro-North activists find it convenient to simply ignore the subject of human rights entirely, or when forced to confront it in certain circumstances, use the most value-neutral or passive, non-judgmental terminology, referring euphemistically only to human rights “issues” or “problems” in the North.  

They also seek to distract from the North’s crimes by making allegations, real and imaginary, of often non-systemic, episodic human rights violations of varying degrees in free nations. 

When not engaged in their usual practice of disparaging defectors from the North, front groups have occasionally even been able to cynically make use, for their own purposes, of a few deeply misguided defectors.  

On their visits to the U.S., certain left-wing Korean politicians, former government officials, NGO leaders, and academics have met with pro-North activists and participated in the events of both hardcore pro-North groups and pro-North fronts, probably in the expectation that such collaboration with pro-North forces would not be known or widely publicized in South Korea. 

In addition, under left-wing South Korean governments, Korean diplomats posted in the U.S. have had friendly meetings with leading pro-North activists in the U.S. and participated in the events of pro-North groups, with such disreputable behavior apparently having no discernable negative impact on their careers. In a few cases, Korean diplomats appointed by left-wing Korean governments have even expressed hostility towards North Korea human rights activists in the U.S.

Due to the lack of attention paid to the pro-North movement, which has an impact not only within the U.S., but also within the ROK, and which is obviously relevant to relations between and among the U.S., ROK, and North Korea, pro-North forces have in recent years been more intensively engaged, usually with little or no opposition, in lobbying U.S. administrations, and particularly the U.S. Congress, with varying degrees of success.  

In light of the direct ties which leading pro-North groups and activists have with the North Korean regime and its intelligence agents, the activities of the pro-North movement in the U.S. should surely be a matter of serious concern to Americans as well as Koreans, and in particular, more concerted efforts should be made to publicly expose their nefarious activities. As the old adage goes, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

Lawrence Peck is a correspondent for NK Insider based in Seoul and Los Angeles. Having intensively researched and closely monitored the activities of pro-North Korea and other extremist groups and activists in the U.S. for over 25 years, he has been recognized in the U.S. and Korea as one of the leading American authorities on such topics, and has lectured, written extensively and been interviewed on such topics in the U.S. and Korea. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. He previously worked in Korea for several of the largest Korean business groups in the fields of intellectual property licensing and international business development. He has also served as an advisor to the North Korea Freedom Coalition of the U.S.  Lawrence may be reached at the email address:  lawrence.nkinsider@gmail.com.

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