[USFK Forums] S. Korea defends Seoul stance on North human rights [Reuters]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, December 20, 2005]

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Tuesday December 20, 6:10 AM

S.Korea defends Seoul stance on North human rights

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korea is working to improve human rights in North Korea through aid and trade, but will not publicly condemn its communist neighbor, Seoul's minister in charge of relations with the North said on Monday.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young compared South Korea's approach, which has been criticized by human rights activists, to the U.S. policy of engaging China. "With the exception of directly and openly criticizing North Korea, we are exhausting every means to improve human rights in North Korea," Chung said in Washington.

The South Korean government, formed of activists who fought against military rule in Seoul in the 1970s and 1980s, has come under fire from the human rights community for abstaining from key United Nations resolutions critical of North Korea.

South Korean officials also stayed away from a major human rights conference in Seoul this month that featured the U.S. special envoy for human rights in North Korea, Jay Lefkowitz. But Chung told reporters and Korea experts at a news conference that critics' were wrong to claim that South Korea was neglecting the North Korean human rights situation.

"South Koreans are as much concerned over and sympathetic to the human rights conditions as others," Chung said. "When it comes to the human rights issue in North Korea, our government feels that action precedes words," he said.

Chung noted that South Korea had taken in 7,500 refugees from the North in recent years, and asserted that the South was the only state to permanently settle refugees from the North.

Promoting peace and stability on the heavily armed Korean peninsula was no less important than promoting human rights, Chung said, adding that there was an economic dimension to improving rights in the impoverished North. "For the improvement of the human rights situation in North Korea, satisfying their basic everyday needs should be a priority," he said.

Human rights groups say North Korea is one of the world's worst abusers, with prison camps, public executions and widespread intimidation of citizens. The North says rights criticism is part of a U.S. conspiracy to topple its government.

Chung is in Washington to explain to U.S. officials the outcome of North-South Korean ministerial talks last week, at which Seoul failed to persuade Pyongyang to return to six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programs.