[USFK Forums] U.S. aide asks Seoul to press rights in North [Korea Times]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, December 10, 2005]

U.S. aide asks Seoul to press rights in North

Uri Party officials react angrily to comments urging more active role

December 10, 2005 ㅡ A visiting U.S. envoy yesterday made a blunt call to the South Korean government to stop shirking its duty to challenge the North Korean regime’s human rights abuses.

He noted repeatedly that Washington and Seoul have differences in their tactical approaches to promoting human rights in the reclusive communist state.Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea, said the international community has been working on a series of approaches to improve the rights situation in North Korea.

At a hastily called news conference yesterday afternoon, he urged Seoul “to participate and be a little more vocal.” He added, “There is never an inappropriate time to talk about human rights.” Referring to the recently adopted UN resolution condemning the North Korean regime’s rights abuses, Mr. Lefkowitz said it was time for Seoul to stop dithering. “In the future, South Korea can join,” he said.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution last month, but South Korea abstained, as it has consistently on such resolutions. Asked why the United States has canceled its promised 250,000 tons of food assistance to North Korea for this year despite the continuing famine in the North, Mr. Lefkowitz cited suspicions of misuse of the contributions.

“The United States does not play politics with humanitarian aid,” he said, adding that reports about food aid diverted to feed military or exported for hard currency had prompted Washington to make the decision. It is a duty for the U.S. people and North Korean citizens “to insist on some transparency and monitoring,” Mr. Lefkowitz said, asking Seoul to do the same.

While the United States provides its aid to the North through the UN-led World Food Program, South Korea has promised 500,000 tons of food aid this year through direct shipments, and more than 160,000 tons have already been shipped to the North.

Mr. Lefkowitz said he met with senior South Korean officials at the Foreign and Unification ministries as well as at the National Assembly during his visit. The U.S. envoy said he had “good, candid discussions” with his interlocutors, who agreed on the need for changes in the North.

“Obviously, there is difference about how to bring about change,” he said, but he said he understood South Korea’s peculiar position ― sharing a border with the North ― and the security concerns that implied.Promising better U.S. efforts to fund activists supporting North Korean defectors in China, Mr. Lefkowitz also asked Beijing to play a role in promoting rights in the North, particularly by protecting refugees.

The U.S. envoy was in Korea to attend a U.S.-backed international conference in Seoul on human rights in the North. The three-day conference ends today. Yesterday, it adopted a declaration urging Pyongyang to stop its repression and Seoul to show a genuine interest in the matter.

An eight-point statement titled “Declaration of the Seoul Summit on North Korea’s Human Rights” challenged Seoul’s explanation of its silence about human rights abuses by Pyongyang. The government contends that publicly addressing the matter could hinder inter-Korean relations and the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

The governing Uri Party reacted with outrage to the declaration. “The Korean Peninsula is currently facing a critical juncture between crisis and peace over the nuclear issue,” said a statement issued by five senior Uri Party members.

“We are deeply concerned that intemperate demands to improve human rights conditions in the North at this particular point would hinder the reconciliatory atmosphere between the two Koreas.”The lawmakers backed the Roh administration’s explanation of its silence: Stability on the Korean Peninsula takes priority over human rights in the North.

In contrast, the conservative opposition Grand National Party criticized both the Uri Party and the administration. “The government and the governing party are too indifferent” to the conference, said Representative Lee Key-jin, the spokesman of the Grand Nationals. “The government knows better than anyone the accurate rights situation in the North, but it completely turned its back on the issue.

That is nearly like assisting the North Korean regime’s rights abuses.”The administration continued to shun the rights conference yesterday. The Unification Ministry prepared a six-page press handout to answer journalists’ questions on the issue, and Seoul officials have been repeating their basic position: “The government is seriously concerned about rights abuses in the North, but making an open demand for improvement will worsen inter-Korean relations.”

North Korea reacted furiously to the conference. “The United States is the worst human rights violator in the world,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency said yesterday in a commentary. Pointing to the Iraq war and the Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged operation of secret prisons in Eastern Europe, North Korea said the United States was attempting to interfere in other countries’ domestic affairs under the justification of human rights.

by Ser Myo-ja