US links better rights record in North Korea with improved ties

Mon, 11 Jan 2010

Seoul - The United States has conditioned improved relations with North Korea on the protection of human rights in the communist country, a US envoy said Monday. "It is one of the worst places in terms of lack of human rights," Robert King, the special US envoy for human rights issues in North Korea, said while on a visit to Seoul. "The situation is appalling."

King, who took up his post six weeks ago, said human rights was not only "one of the important conditions" in improving US-North Korean ties, but it was also an issue that must be taken up in the six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The envoy was in South Korea gathering information on human rights in North Korea, and on the second day of a five-day visit met with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan. His predecessor, Jay Lefkowitz, who was the first to hold the post, was never allowed to visit the North.

The United States accuses North Korea of such rights abuses as torture, executions without trial and forced labor under inhumane conditions. North Korea insists there are no human rights abuses in the country.

Human rights are not the only bone of contention between Washington and Pyongyang, which have had tense relations since they were on opposite sides of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North's nuclear program has also proven problematic.

Both countries are involved in the six-nation talks on the program, but negotiations have been stalled since late 2008. North Korea unilaterally pulled out of the talks last year, expelled international inspectors and restarted its plutonium factory before conducting its second nuclear test in May.

However, in a New Year's message, North Korea said improved relations with the United States was a top goal in 2010.

"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the USA," an editorial carried in state media said, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Efforts were also under way to restart the six-nation talks. US nuclear envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang last month to revive the negotiations and improve US-North Korean relations.

"Improved relations between the United States and North Korea will have to involve greater respect for human rights by North Korea," King said Monday.

He also said people fleeing North Korea should be recognized as refugees. US embassies have been told to open their doors to North Korean defectors seeking asylum in other countries, and ease their asylum-application process.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303028,us-links-better-rights-record-in-north-korea-with-improved-ties.html.