South korea seems to always take the cautious road when approaching north korea and their human rights abuses.
here is an example of the South Korean government arresting civilans who tried to airlift radios into North Korea.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3173541.stm
The South blocking the release of a video of executions in the North and refusing to condemn NK human rights abuses
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1731
To South Korea’s credit they don’t return refugees like China.
In the 60s, 70s & arguably 80s the US supported alot of human rights abusing dictators. We did it because we cared about stability more than human rights. To a large degree that isn’t our modus operandi today and we take human rights more seriously now but our legacy as a country that gave military or moral support to human rights abusing countries in the 60s, 70s & 80s is still present and fuels a good deal of the hatred for the US that exists domestically an internationally.
The South has done alot of good for the North, they’ve tried to send over food aid, agricultural technology and things along those lines to avoid famine. But down the road won’t the South’s ‘we don’t want to know about it’ attitude towards Northern human rights abuses cause a legacy that could take a century to overcome? The US is still condemned on college campuses all over the US for human rights abuses we condoned in the 70s in Chile and Vietnam. However unlike these situations where the US supported/ignored abuses 12000 miles away the North and South Koreans are one country and genetically related, there are old people who are brothers and sisters seperated in the Korean division of the 40s, they aren’t total strangers so the anger will be alot worse. Won’t the South’s refusal to fight the megalomanical human rights abuses of the NK government cause tons of problems for relations between the two countries when the Kim regime eventually falls?