Activist monk weighs approach to North Korean human rights question

Separating humanitarian, development aid best approaches, he says

Buddhist monk and well-known human rights activist Beobryun stressed that to encourage changes to the North Korean human rights situation, humanitarian aid should be provided to North Korea unconditionally, but development aid should be given only under certain conditions.

Beobryun spoke at the first round of the "Forum to Improve the Human Rights Situation in North Korea." The forum, under the sponsorship of The Hankyoreh, was hosted May 22 by Good Friends, a humanitarian organization run by the monk.

Beobryun said, "North Korean residents are desperate to find food, and they suffer without proper medical treatment. Females in the North are sold to foreign countries, where they are forced into marriage. These circumstances should be stopped as quickly as possible. If humanitarian aid is provided under certain conditions" now, he said, aid will not be necessary in the future.

The monk said it was necessary to pass a humanitarian aid law in reference to North Korea, with a time limit of three to five years to help North Koreans solve their problems. "In order to provide minimum humanitarian aid, we need 1.5 trillion won (1.5 billion USD) annually, including 600 billion won for food, 440 billion won for fertilizer, and 300 billion won for medical supplies,’’ he estimated.

However, Beobryun remarked, "Regarding aid for North Korea’s development, such as in transportation and energy, we can encourage changes by upholding certain conditions in exchange for negotiation."

"If we really want the human rights situation in North Korea to improve,...to intervene by using military force or to impose an economic blockade threatening North Koreans’ right to live can’t be allowed," he said. The monk urged the North Korean government to guarantee its citizens the "right to live," and to punish political prisoners according to the law, saying, "the government in the North should take forward measures to improve its human rights record."

On the same topic, Lee Seong-hun, director-general of Forum Asia, analyzed instances of four developing countries in Asia - Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia - when he made a presentation under the title, "Development Aid to Underdeveloped Countries and Exemplary Cases of Human Rights Improvement."

Mr. Lee said, "Due to efforts to eliminate poverty through humanitarian aid, some human rights such as the right to choose one’s place of residence and the right to access adequate nutrition were improved to a certain degree, but [the aid efforts] didn’t automatically lead to development of comprehensive human rights, including civil and political liberties. Unless the three fundamental requirements of participatory democracy, economic and social development, and peace, are fulfilled, comprehensive human rights improvement will be limited. This should be taken into consideration, Mr. Lee said, "when we provide development aid to North Korea, where there is no independent civil society and international organizations can’t act freely."