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Don't Ignore North Korea Human Rights, UN Says

William Gallo

   SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Negotiations with North Korea have been stalled
   for months, butif and whenthey resume, the United States and South
   Korea should ensure the talks incorporate concerns about North Korean
   human rights abuses, the United Nations' human rights office in Seoul
   said Tuesday.

   Activist groups have long complained that human rights were not
   discussed during the 2018-19 North Korea talks, which focused on
   eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons and improving Pyongyang's
   relations with Washington and Seoul.

   "Human rights issues have so far not been part of this process, and the
   voices of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
   including women, have been absent," said areportpublished Tuesday by
   the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul.

   The paper, presented at the South Korean government-hosted Korea Global
   Forum for Peace, said Seoul and Washington should "integrate human
   rights into the peace and denuclearization talks" and "promote a
   participatory and inclusive peace process" by involving escapees living
   outside North Korea.

   Escapee complaints

   The report was based on interviews with 63 people who recently left
   North Korea, mostly in 2018 and 2019. Many expressed concerns that
   Pyongyang's rights abuses have been ignored.

   "This is a disappointment to escapees living in South Korea because, in
   the past, both the United States and South Korea raised North Korea's
   human rights issues but, with the start of the summits, the human
   rights agenda has disappeared," lamented one escapee quoted in the
   report.

   Since the start of 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met three
   times with U.S. President Donald Trump and conducted three summits with
   South Korean President Moon Jae-in. North Korea eventually walked away
   from the talks, after the UnitedStatesrefused to relax sanctions and
   provide security guarantees.

   Some membersof the Trump administration have raised concerns about
   North Korean human rights abuses. But Trump himself rarely mentions the
   issue.

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