By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A group of 20 conservative civic organizations Tuesday urged the government to actively address North Korean human rights issues as a main agenda item during the Oct. 2-4 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
About 30 representatives from domestic and foreign human rights groups and non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement calling for resolving human rights abuses in the Communist regime, including public executions and political prison camps.
They criticized the Seoul government for giving massive economic support to the regime before resolving such rights issues.
``If the South Korean government does not address human rights issues during the summit talks and enforce extensive and one-sided economic support, grant the legitimacy of political power in the name of peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, contempt will be brought on by the resistance of South Korean citizens and criticism by the international community which respects values of freedom,'' said the statement.
The representatives called on the government to address ``the most cruel and inhumane crimes'' by the North during the summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, referring to public execution, political prison camps, torture of North Korean defectors, South Korean abductees and prisoners of war (POWs) and lack of religious freedom.
According to the latest Defense White Paper, about 200,000 North Koreans are currently forced to work in concentration camps without any judiciary proceedings.
In addition, about 13,000 South Korean POWs and 83,000 kidnapped by the North have not been repatriated, it said.
The South Korean government, however, has not taken up the issue of human rights in past inter-Korean talks, especially since the Kim Dae-jung administration advocated the ``sunshine policy'' of engaging the Stalinist state.
South Korea did not put the rights issue as a main agenda item during the first summit in 2000 between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il.
Those who signed the statement include Lee Sok-yeon, co-president of the Lawyers for Citizens; Suzanne Scholte, representative of North Korea Freedom Coalition of the United States; Norbert Vollertsen, a German human rights activist for North Korea; and Kim Sang-chul, chairman of Save North Korea.