Must Agenda for Summit

Seoul Should Tackle North Korean Human Rights Issue

Twenty three civic groups from across the world working for the human rights of North Koreans have demanded the South Korean government include the human rights issue in the North in the agenda for the upcoming summit of the two Koreas.

They said that the North Korean regime ``violates the human rights of North Koreans,’’ citing the frequent public executions and punishing of defectors repatriated mainly from China in the northern part of the peninsula.

The domestic and overseas organizations stress the Seoul government should not disregard the grave human rights situation in the North any more. They revealed that 13,000 1950-53 Korean War prisoners and 83,000 kidnapped civilians are still in the North, while many people are imprisoned in concentration camps or suffering from hunger.

In particular, a U.S.-based group said that it would hold assemblies in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 1 to call for the repatriation of the people abducted to the North during the war and would seek to present a resolution to that effect to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The campaigners for the protection of and improvement in North Koreans’ human rights made such a request due to concerns about the possibility that President Roh Moo-hyun may avoid the issue in his talks with his North’s counterpart Kim Jong-il apparently in order not to hurt the feelings of the Pyongyang leader.

To recall, former President Kim Dae-jung, indeed, did not raise the issue at all during the historic first-ever inter-Korean summit he held with Kim Jong-il in June 2000 in Pyongyang.

Over the past nine years since the inauguration of the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1998, Seoul has been providing huge economic aid to the North under the ``Sunshine Policy’’ of engaging the reclusive Stalinist country amid fierce criticism, especially from among the conservatives.

The South is continuing to extend its helping hands to the North to help the flood-stricken people there, while agreeing to postpone the summit talks for a month to October due to the natural disaster.

The South helps the North despite their unhappy discord of the past, including the Korean War, stressing that the two peoples are of the same race, speak the same language and live together on the Korean Peninsula.

In this regard, the South should be concerned more about how the people in the North live, especially about their human rights. The October summit is a good opportunity for Seoul to urge the North to improve its people’s rights.

President Roh used to be a human rights activist and attorney. He has to convey to Kim the worries of the world about the human rights situation in the North. If he keeps silent like his predecessor, he will face criticism from the people who respect the value of freedom and human dignity.