[USFK Forums] U.S. Urges Seoul to Endorse NK Rights Resolution [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee, Friday, November 11, 2005] Here is an article being carried by the Korea Times from Yonhap News as follows:
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US Urges Seoul to Endorse NK Rights Resolution

The Korea Times, Thursday, November 10, 2005

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States called on South Korea on Wednesday to support a U.N. resolution condemning North Korea's human rights conditions and reaffirmed its own support.

Mark Lagon, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, welcomed the European Union (EU)'s lead in drafting the resolution and said it "fully deserves co-sponsorship and support." "We fully support the idea that one of the most oppressive regimes in the world ought to be addressed with a resolution," he said at a Foreign Press Center briefing here.

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to pass the EU-submitted resolution by the week after next. South Korea has not said whether and how it will vote, but has abstained or stayed away from similar resolutions before the U.N. Human Rights Committee.

"As for South Korea, they have their sovereign decision to make," Lagon said. But South Koreans "should be able to see" how people in the North suffer from oppression, he said.

Defectors who have escaped from North Korea tell of political prisons, labor camps and widespread starvation. The communist state is also accused of religious oppression, public executions and human trafficking.

11-10-2005 19:38