Obama urged to address human rights in negotiations with N. Korea

Obama urged to address human rights in negotiations with N. Korea
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. congressman urged the Obama administration
to address human rights in North Korea in future nuclear and other negotiations
with the reclusive communist state.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) was discussing a lack of concrete steps by U.S.
President Barack Obama since taking office in January to address North Korea's
"dismal" human rights record.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in February that human rights
violations should not serve as a hurdle to improvements in relations with China,
triggering concerns the new U.S. president might follow his predecessor in
skipping over the thorny issue to avoid provoking either Pyongyang or Beijing,
key players in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
The U.S. State Department issued an annual human rights report in February
expressing concerns about human trafficking and repatriation of North Korean
refugees, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last week
again listed North Korea among 12 nations where freedoms are squashed.
In a statement last week to mark North Korea Freedom Week, sponsored by human
rights groups based in Washington, the State Department pledged to make efforts
to improve human rights conditions in North Korea and help North Korean defectors
settle in the United States.
The statement denounced the North for continued human rights violations, but
stopped short of raising China's repatriation of North Korean refugees under a
secret agreement with North Korea.
"Injecting human rights can't make the six-party talks go any worse than they are
now," Royce said in a forum sponsored by the Heritage Foundation on Thursday.
"After all, this morning we read that North Korea is threatening more nuclear and
missile tests. The transcript of his remarks were posted on Tuesday.
The conservative congressman was referring to North Korea's threat to boycott the
six-party talks, conduct further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and restart
its disabled nuclear facilities in anger over the U.N. Security Council's rebuke
of its April 5 rocket launch.
"But that misses the larger point. North Korea will keep or rid itself of its
nuclear weapons based upon a reading of its own interests -- not how loudly or
softly we protest how it mistreats its people," Royce said. "But why not shake up
negotiations? The human rights plank is untested. Several versions of the 1994
Agreed Framework model have failed to produce results."
Royce deplored Obama's appointment of Stephen Bosworth as part-time
representative to North Korea. Bosworth concurrently serves as the dean of the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston.
"A part-time Special Envoy for North Korea doesn't signal a willingness to
confront Pyongyang in a meaningful way," he said. "It tells me they are looking
to simply keep the lid on North Korea for as long as possible, hoping it doesn't
get worse."
The congressman also expressed displeasure with Obama's failure to appoint
someone to replace Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. special envoy for human rights in
North Korea.
In his final report wrapping up a four-year term, Lefkowitz in January urged
Obama to emphasize human rights in the multilateral nuclear talks and proposed
that the U.S. and its allies link any aid with human rights improvements.
"Given the link between security and human rights, many members of Congress have
endorsed pursuing a Helsinki Process for Pyongyang," Royce said. "Lefkowitz
endorsed this approach. Key to the Helsinki model was the linkage between
security, economic and human rights issues, with progress on all three as a
condition for aid and recognition."
The congressman said that the Helsinki process "forced the Soviets to deal with
these issues, and the fine cracks in the vase became bigger."
He noted similar cracks in North Korea.
"The North Korean state may not be as ironclad as it once was," he said.
"Defectors tell us of a functioning black market and smuggling ... an explosion
of corruption and an erosion of the state's ability to control information and an
increasing tendency to blame the government for their plight."
"Given these fine cracks in the vase, now seems like the time to have a
coordinated human rights push on North Korea," he said. "Doing so is not only a
moral imperative, but it's fundamentally linked to our security."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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