After UN resolution, Seoul to focus on NK human rights
Top NK diplomat vows to boycott UNHRC session
By Yi Whan-woo
South Korea is stepping up efforts to address North Korea’s abysmal human rights record in context of worldwide opinion, in conjunction with a new U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution on sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its nuclear and missile tests.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se delivered a keynote speech at the 31st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the purpose of Yun’s UNHRC visit is to raise global awareness of Pyongyang’s state-perpetrated crimes against humanity, including forced labor of tens of thousands North Korean workers abroad.
It is believed that Pyongyang has been pocketing their wages to prop up its cash-strapped regime and carry out development of weapons of mass destruction.
UP to 220,000 people are also thought to be detained, tortured and executed at political prison camps in North Korea while others outside the camps are starved to death.
Yun’s speech came after North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong said Tuesday that his country will boycott the UNHRC session and will not be bound by any U.N. sanctions. Ri was also participating at the annual session aimed at discussing ways to improve international human rights conditions.
Speaking before the UNHRC council, Ri claimed that the United States and its allies are deliberately bringing up issues on North Korean human rights as an alternative way to exert pressure on the Kim regime. He pointed out that Pyongyang has continued to develop nuclear and ballistic missile technology despite a set of four UNSC sanctions imposed between 2006 and 2013.
Citing fire arm-related accidents in the U.S. and Japanese military’s atrocities during World War II, Ri instead held the two countries accountable for violations of human rights.
The Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, refuted Ri’s statements, saying “human rights are universal values.”
“It’s time for North Korea to join the South and members of international community to objectively assess its human rights conditions and take concrete measures for improvement,” unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said.
The UNSC took a vote, Thursday, on a draft resolution aimed at toughening sanctions against North Korea for conducting its latest nuclear test and a recent long-range rocket launch.