[USFK Forums] NK Rights Issue No Longer Taboo in South [Korea Times]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, Dec. 9, 2005]

NK Rights Issue No Longer Taboo in South

The Korea Times, Wednesday, December 9, 2005

By Kim Tong-hyung, Staff Reporter

[PHOTO] A girl walks past pictures of North Korean children displayed near Seoul City Hall in central Seoul, Sunday. South Korean civic groups will open a three-day international conference on North Korea’s human rights abuses today to galvanize international pressure on the communist regime to improve its dismal rights record. /Reuters-Yonhap

The international community’s repeated call for North Korea to improve human rights has intensified the struggle between conservatives and progressives in the South to find common ground on which to address the humanitarian situation across the border.

The lengthy debate over the human rights issue was recently re-ignited this month when a number of civic groups and conservative scholars gathered to organize an international forum to discuss the situation in North Korea. The forum, called the ``Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea,’’ will hold its meetings from Thursday to Saturday at the Shilla Hotel in downtown Seoul, with 40 nongovernmental organizations from here and abroad participating.

Alexander Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to Korea, Jay Leftkowitz, U.S. special envoy for human rights to North Korea, and Hwang Jang-yup, former secretary of North Korea's ruling Workers Party who defected to the South in 1997, are among the high-profile participants.

The forum is expected to produce a joint statement on the last day of discussions on Saturday, demanding stronger commitments from Pyongyang to improve the country’s humanitarian situation.

``Due to political reasoning, Seoul had turned a blind eye to the human rights conditions in North Korea, and as a result, put itself in an awkward situation in the international community,’’ said lawyer Lee Seog-yeon, who heads the civic group Lawyers for Citizens and is one of the architects of the Seoul Summit.

``It’s time for our government to take a bolder step and put itself in a better position to help improve the situation in North Korea,’’ Lee said. Lee, who became a prominent public figure after he successfully led a petition against a government plan to relocate the capital out of Seoul last year, stresses that the South Korean government’s efforts to improve ties with Pyongyang must not result in easing the pressure over the human rights abuses in the North.

``By opening discussions on the human rights situation in Korea and sharing ideas with the international community, Seoul could find a way to ensure that its humanitarian assistance to North Korea produces a better human rights situation there, such as the transparent distribution of food aid,’’ he said.

However, cautious voices claim that publicly denouncing North Korea’s human rights situation could sour the relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang, especially ahead of the ministerial meetings between the two countries scheduled for Dec. 13.

The organizers of the Seoul Summit said they had invited Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon and National Human Rights Commission Chairman Cho Young-hwang to the forum but both declined.

Since deploying the ``Sunshine Policy’’ during the 1998-2003 administration of Kim Dae-jung, Seoul had been adopting a softer stance towards North Korea, focusing on easing the political tension between the two countries through greater economic exchanges.

The government fears that an open discussion with North Korea about its human rights abuses will anger Pyongyang and damage improvements in inter-Korean relations.

There are also concerns that the efforts to pressure Pyongyang on its human rights record could threaten the progress in the ongoing six-party talks – involving the two Koreas, the United States, China and Russia – to end North Korea’s nuclear programs.

Korea abstained from a vote on a United Nations (UN) resolution expressing concerns about the human rights situation in North Korea at the General Assembly meeting last month, fearing that it might provoke its northern neighbor.

Left-wing activists are also against increasing public discussions on North Korea’s human rights situations. Progressive civic groups, such as the Sarangbang Group for Human Rights, argue that more focus should be put on the hidden agendas or political motives behind the growing international voices against North Korea.

``The U.S. and other rich nations have continued to disregard the political authority of the North Korean government. The U.S. in particular has shown little recognition of the North’s sovereignty, as seen in its adoption last year of the North Korean Human Rights Act,’’ said Chung Tae-wook, a professor of law at Yeungnam University.

``The progress in North Korea’s human rights situation must be brought about through further diplomatic cooperation with Pyongyang and not confrontation. Otherwise, the human rights issue could degenerate into a mere political tool,’’ he said.

Although North Korea took some initial steps last year to improve its human rights situation, such as revising its penal code to require all criminal procedures to comply with prescribed laws, international aid organizations such as Human Rights Watch doubt that such steps are actually implemented.

According to the Human Rights Watch, about 200,000 political prisoners are held in North Korea, about 1 percent of the entire population, The international NGO has been urging the international community to further pressure North Korea to improve its human rights conditions, such as calling for Pyongyang to stop the practice of forced repatriation of North Koreans in China and to amend its laws to make them consistent with international standards.

After maintaining a cautious approach on the issue, the state-run National Human Rights Commission of Korea said it plans to make a statement on North Korea’s human rights situation later this month. thkim@koreatimes.co.kr 12-07-2005 17:30