By Na Jeong-ju
The state human rights agency is coming under fire for “begging” for reports from North Korean defectors on human rights abuses by the Kim Jong-il regime.
The National Human Rights Commission set up a center specializing in human rights violations taking place in the North in March as part of the government’s efforts to raise public awareness of the issue and share related information with the rest of the world.
The center’s key mission is to investigate abuse cases based on reports from defectors and record them. However, the center allegedly solicited reports from concerned groups and made their claims public without proper investigations, critics say.
“Given the nature of claims on human rights abuses in North Korea, it is impossible to look into because we can’t visit there or meet North Korean officials,” a committee spokesman said. “So we just record them based on claims by defectors and consider them when drawing up related policies.”
According to committee officials, a total of 820 people submitted 71 petitions to the center since its establishment on March 15. About 680 people were from groups representing families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and 50 from families of South Korean prisoners of war who are still alive in the North.
Some defectors shared their harsh experiences at prison camps in the communist country, according to the officials.
“The problem is that it is impossible for the panel to conduct a thorough investigation into their allegations,” said Kim Hyung-wan, head of the Seoul-based Korea Human Rights Policy Institute. “Despite that, the committee is focusing on human rights violations in the North. Rather, it should put top priority on helping defectors settle in the South and improving social acceptance of them.”
Other critics say the panel’s handling of human rights situation in the communist country represents the interests of those who support a hard-line policy toward the North.
Conservative parties submitted the North Korean Human Rights Bill to the National Assembly in 2005, a year after the United States enforced the act on human rights violations in Pyongyang.
The Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee passed the revised bill last year and put it to a vote, but liberals have refused to pass it.
Some have argued that the bill, which calls for more financial support for civic groups campaigning for the improvement of human rights in the North, would only aggravate relations between the two Koreas.
The commission’s Chairman Hyun Byung-chul earlier said the center’s activities are meaningful in that it will make the rest of the world see how tragically human rights are abused in North Korea.
“We will thoroughly examine the cases and publicize the results worldwide,” he said.