[USFK Forums] EU Zooms In on N.Korean Rights as Conference Starts [Chosun]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, March 23, 2006

EU Zooms In on N.Korean Rights as Conference Starts

The Chosun Ilbo: Updated Mar.23,2006 17:42 KST

International pressure on North Korea to improve its dismal human rights record increased on Wednesday, when the European Parliament decided to link humanitarian aid to the issue while a conference highlighting abuses in the North opened in the EU capital Brussels.

Thursday sees the first hearing on North Korean human rights before the European Parliament.

At the conference, which was led by activist groups from the U.S. and across Europe, Hungarian member of the European Parliament Istvan Szent-Ivany said the bloc has been too passive on the question of human rights in North Korea but is awakening to the seriousness of the issue.

Szent-Ivany said he disapproved of providing unconditional aid to the North the way the South Korean government does. He stressed any humanitarian aid from the EU must reach those who need it most, including political prisoners in concentrations camp, and expressed hope that monitoring and control of aid distribution to the North can be tightened.

The Japanese Ambassador for Human Rights Fumiko Saiga highlighted the issue of Japanese abducted by the North in the 1970s and 80s, which she said was a “top priority” of Tokyo’s policy.

She called on the international community to join hands in resolving the problem of human rights in the North. Kang Chol-hwan, a Chosun Ilbo reporter and defector from North Korea, told the conference North Korea “abuses the South Korean government’s unconditional aid,” and called on Seoul to stop aid separately from the international community, which insists on stricter monitoring.

On Thursday, the conference will adopt a "Brussels Declaration" calling for greater international solidarity in improving North Korean human rights conditions.

Meanwhile, some 100 students and civil activists from the South are in the Belgian capital on an “Expedition for Peace on the Korean Peninsula” to protests against what they see as a hidden agenda behind the conference to further U.S. hegemony. They distributed leaflets and held various protest performances at university campuses and elsewhere in Brussels.

(englishnews@chosun.com)

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url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...603230007.html