[Editorial] NK Must Answer Demands About Human Rights

The United Nations General Assembly is soon to vote on a resolution regarding the human rights situation in North Korea. The U.N.'s human rights commission has adopted resolutions on North Korean human rights before, but this will be the first General Assembly resolution. Since last year a U.N. special rapporteur has been watching the situation in the North. The issue has already become one that the North cannot escape.

The fact that Pyongyang reacts sensitively when the international community mentions human rights is not entirely impossible to understand. A typical concern would be how the US invoked human rights while invading Iraq and plotted regime change. Of the stories about extreme abuses in the North, some are hard to say for sure whether they are exaggerated or authentic. Also, the North is carefully going down a road of openness and reform while risking the stability of its regime.

However, all those things are not reason to leave the universal values of human rights behind. The North is a member of the U.N. and is a signatory nation to four international agreements relating to human rights. That being the case, it needs to answer in good faith to demands by the U.N., even if it is going to disregard pressure by the U.S. for being of suspicious intent. It must clearly show the international community that it is seriously working to improve its human rights situation. Cooperating to the greatest extent in allowing the international community access to certain sites so that accurate information can be obtained would be an important sign in that regard.

The South Korean government's worries are well expressed in human rights ambassador Park Kyeong Seo's statement that "North Korean human rights should not be addressed as part of the agenda until the North and South have signed a non-aggression pact. In other words, establishing peace on the Korean peninsula is the priority. The South Korean government has abstained from resolution votes in the past for the same reason. That does not mean that it can be negligent in working to make Pyongyang understand the importance of improving its record.

The Hankyoreh, 5 November 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]