Pyongyang urges EU to soften rights resolution
By Shim Jae-yun
North Korea has called on the European Union to tone down its criticism over its alleged violations of human rights, according to diplomatic sources.
Kang Sok-ju, a secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party, asked Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, to soften the EU’s stance when they met in Belgium early last month.
Kang is a key figure under Kim Jong-un’s leadership and has been handling major security and international affairs for decades.
“We are currently confirming the fact though we are not supposed to unveil the contents of the meeting between North Korea and EU,” said a foreign ministry official.
The international community has been ramping up pressure on the North over its human rights violations, threatening to bring the North Korean leader to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The U.N. Committee for Inquiry (COI) has reported about the human rights situation in the North with focus on the North’s holding of hundreds of thousands of prisoners in concentration camps, in addition to public executions.
Yonhap News quoted multiple diplomatic sources as having confirmed that Kang had asked the EU to soften its resolution.
There has been speculation over the North’s motives when Kang embarked on a rare visit to the EU. North Korea also sent its foreign minister Ri- Su-yong to the United Nations, apparently to persuade U.N. members to ease their criticism on the North’s rights violations.
Kang expressed willingness that the North would be willing to sit for talks in order to improve its human rights situation once the EU accepts its proposal, according to the sources.
In response, EU officials underlined how serious the North's violations were, while calling on Pyongyang to improve its human rights situation, thus avoid punitive action from the U.N..
Though not binding, the resolution, once it passed through the U.N. General Assembly, would likely pose considerable burden on U.N. Security Council members, including the North’s allies – China and Russia.
The Seoul government, for its part, is poised to support the U.N.’s move against the Pyongyang regime, as it also has criticized the reclusive nation’s violation of human rights.
President Park Geun-hye raised the issue during her speech at the U.N. General Assembly, inviting severe criticism from the North.
Experts are concerned, however, that the South’s participation in the U.N.’s envisioned punishment against the North would bring negative impact upon inter-Korean relations.