The ongoing detente between North Korea and the United States has done little, if anything, to improve Pyongyang’s abysmal rights record, the U. N. independ
The ongoing detente between North Korea and the United States has done little, if anything, to improve Pyongyang’s abysmal rights record, the U. N. independent investigator on human rights in the nuclear-armed country said Tuesday, just weeks before the expected passage of a Japan-led resolution condemning the situation there.
“The human rights situation at the moment has not changed on the ground in North Korea despite this important progress on security, peace and prosperity,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U. N. special rapporteur on North Korea, said at a televised news conference.
“It is the time for North Korea to show commitment to the human rights agenda in some way or another.”
Although Quintana, an Argentinian lawyer, characterized the recent moves — including the landmark summit between the U. S. and North Korean leader — as “extraordinary developments” toward achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula, he was unequivocal that more must be done on the issue of human rights.
“What I think is needed now from North Korea and in the context of the peace talks, etc. is a sign, a signal from North Korea that they will discuss human rights at some point,” he said. “I would like to see a signal to start working based on that commitment.”
He said one of his proposals is to ask the new U. N. human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, to initiate “a process of engagement” with North Korea.
U. S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore in June for a historic summit aimed at convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. Kim has also met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three times, agreeing to a number of grandiose statements laying out future goals.
Amid this push, critics say the human rights issue has been brushed aside as the U. S., South Korea and others focus on the North’s nuclear arsenal.
In an interview earlier this month with The Washington Post, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha admitted to the difficulties of broaching the issue in government to government talks with the North, saying that “there are times to raise these issues” and that now was not the time “when we very much need to move forward on the denuclearization issue.
Домой
GRASP/Korea Human rights situation in North Korea ‘has not changed’ despite Pyongyang’s warming...