[Editorial] Gov't needs clear stance on North's human rights

The National Human Rights Commission's special committee on North Korean human rights is said to have drafted the commission's position as it will stand when it is finalized at the end of the year. The part people want to know about most is whether the draft says the commission has the authority to investigate human rights infringements in North Korea, and what it is going to say about defectors in third countries. Conservative groups have demanded that the commission and President Roh Moo-hyun's government take a strong stance on both, and there has been no decision on the issue of what should be done about human rights and North Korea.

This draft is a relatively composed and realistic response to the situation. The special committee begins by making it clear that North Korean human rights violations cannot be the subject of commission inquiries. Its decision is entirely reasonable. Investigating abuses in which the South does not have jurisdiction in the practical sense would be neither possible nor effective. Unless the goal is to use human rights to attack Pyongyang, there is no reason to insist on being able to investigate. It is time to end the debate and take interest in ways to improve the human rights situation in the North.

If certain conservative groups do not change their stance, they will be increasingly criticized for and suspected of using human rights for a political attack on North Korea. No country is free from questions about human rights, so political offensives that invoke them for political goals are a good way to cultivate conflict between nations. If that kind of conflict arises, it will make improving the situation even more difficult.

The special committee's view on what to do about defectors in third countries looks very realistic, first of all because it defines them as rights abuse victims who have sought to escape things such as threats to their right to survive, and furthermore because it calls for the government to engage in proactive diplomacy to protect these defectors' rights. What defectors need most urgently is to have their rights guaranteed in the third countries they are in currently, and realistically speaking, the government is the only entity that can do anything on their behalf.

There does, however, need to be prudent consideration as to whether or not the government should define the repatriation of North Korean defectors to the North by third countries. The overwhelming view of the experts is that most defectors are essentially "economic refugees," the implication being that the motivation for leaving the North is not to go to the South or other countries. What they might want is to be able to return to the North without being punished. What is needed, then, is for a survey of what their actual conditions are, and not conclusions made without definite basis. It is for this reason the human rights commission needs to work closely with the government and private groups to survey the conditions of North Korean defectors.

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