(News Focus) U.S. push for NK to improve human rights will not affect nuke talks

SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States' renewed call for North Korea to
improve its human rights record may create some hurdles in bilateral relations
with Pyongyang but is not expected to seriously impact multilateral talks over
its nuclear ambitions.
The issue should not be seen as a new obstacle hampering progress on ending North
Korea's nuclear ambitions, observers said Monday after a special U.S. envoy
earlier in the day described human rights conditions in the communist North as
"appalling."
U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights Robert King, on a five-day visit
to Seoul to gather information on conditions in the North, said the issue should
be taken up within the context of the six-nation nuclear negotiations that
involve South and North Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.
"This just means the human rights issue should also be an important part of the
six-party talks, not that the U.S. will directly link the issue to the nuclear
negotiations, or that it will not agree to a denuclearization deal unless North
Korea improves its human rights conditions," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's
University of North Korean Studies, said.
Yang noted that Washington may continue to raise the issue of human rights with
Pyongyang, though only in the sense that it eventually needs to be addressed if
the countries are to normalize ties.
"I believe the administration of Barack Obama is approaching the human rights
issue not as part of the North Korean nuclear issue but as part of its larger
dealing with North Korea," he said in a telephone interview with Yonhap News
Agency. "This means the U.S. will seek to improve human rights conditions in
North Korea, but stop short of giving up on nuclear negotiations to achieve that
end."
King's remarks, which came during his first trip to Seoul since taking office six
weeks ago, raised speculation here that the U.S. may put nuclear negotiations on
hold until the communist nation agrees to improve its human rights conditions,
especially as his visit coincided with that of a special U.N. rapporteur on North
Korean human rights, Vitit Muntarbhorn.
Kim Young-sun, a spokesman for Seoul's foreign ministry, said South Korea, too,
was actively taking part in international efforts to help improve rights
conditions in North Korea but that the issue must be dealt with separately from
other issues.
"Our government's position is that human rights are a universal value shared by
all mankind and that the issue must be dealt with in and of itself, that is,
apart from other issues," he told a press briefing.
Jung Seong-jang, senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute, noted the
issue might create obstacles in bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea
on normalizing ties but that the two sides will eventually reach a point of
compromise on the issue.
"Demanding that North Korea guarantee all human rights is to demand that North
Korea accept full-fledged democracy, and even the U.S. will not make such a
demand. North Korea, too, cannot reject the U.S's demands forever, so the sides
will eventually find a compromise along with other issues," he said.
The U.S. removed North Korea from its list of terrorism sponsoring states in late
2008 as a result of working group talks with Pyongyang on the normalization of
ties. The talks have since stalled, however, as the North boycotted the six-party
nuclear negotiations later that year.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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