Seoul (AsiaNews) North Korea's human rights situation will be the subject of a European Union parliamentary session on 23 March in Brussels. The MPs will hear the testimonies of some refugees, including a North Korean woman who was a victim of human trafficking, an ex political prisoner and a former government official.
This will be an opportunity to inform public opinion, which is well aware of the problem of North Korea's nuclear arms but knows little about human rights abuses there: forced labour camps for political dissidents, torture, illegal detention and public executions.
Next month's session is a step in the journey taken up by the EU some time ago for this martyred people. Since 2002, for three consecutive years, member states of the Community have approved motions against abuses in North Korea presented by the UN Human Rights Commission. And last year, the EU took the initiative of adopting a resolution on human rights violations in North Korea, to be submitted for the first time to the UN General Assembly.
The United States has been the first to react in this sector. Their initiatives have taken concrete shape, especially in the law on human rights in North Korea (North Korea Human Rights Act) approved by Congress in 2004: this empowers the president to appoint a special permanent envoy to monitor the situation in that country and to allocate funds to private organizations involved in the sector.
One such agency, Freedom House, has decided to hold its third conference in Brussels on 22 and 23 March, to coincide with the session which will be held in the European Parliament. Jae Ku, director of the group for the North Korea section, said Istvan Szent-Ivany, Hungarian member of the European Parliament, Jay Lefkowitz, US human rights envoy, and a Thai scholar and UN special rapporteur for this topic, Vitit Muntarbhorm, will participate in the conference. "Europe, together with the United States and the UN, is building a global alliance to obtain an effective improvement of human rights in North Korea," said Jae Ku.
The government of Seoul is missing from this international alliance. Lee Jong-seok, Minister of Unification and National Security, said the government position about human rights in the North, is to refrain from discussing them, in the interest of ties between the two nations. While honestly admitting that future administrations may choose to follow different approaches, he reiterated that the government of Roh Moo-hyun does not intend to change its stand. Even at United Nations level, every time a motion was presented against human rights abuses in the North, the Seoul representative has abstained from voting. This attitude is hard to understand, especially coming from a president who as a lawyer gained popularity for his commitment to defending human rights.
The columnist of the daily paper, JoongAng, has criticised the government position. "Minister Lee's comments may well not only loosen ties with the United States, they could also isolate South Korea from the international community. We acknowledge that for a government which puts improved ties with the North as a priority, the subject of human rights presents a thorny problem. But the administration must take into account that violations of human rights are not a matter of internal politics, they are a negation of universal values."
