'EU willing to dispatch human rights envoy to NK'

By Yi Whan-woo

Stavros Lambrinidis

The European Union (EU) is prepared to send its top human rights official to North Korea amid threats from Pyongyang to close its doors to the outside world, according to the Voice of America (VOA), Wednesday.

The Korean-language edition of the VOA, a media outlet based in Washington D.C., reported that the EU might dispatch Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU Special Representative for Human Rights.

Quoting EU foreign policy chief spokeswoman Maya Kocijanc, the VOA said that North Korea has not dropped its offer for Lambrinidis to visit the country despite the EU being instrumental in the adoption of the resolution on human rights abuses in the reclusive state by the United Nations.

The U.N. General Assembly’s human right committee passed a resolution on Nov. 18. asking for the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to refer Kim Jong-un to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, for state-perpetrated violations of human rights.

“Kocijanc said the EU is concerned about Pyongyang’s human rights record, but that it is still willing to cooperate with North Korea to cope with human rights issues,” the VOA reported.

The EU and Japan initially circulated a draft U.N. resolution on Oct. 9.

This was followed by an invitation on Oct. 30 from North Korea to Lambrinidis to visit the country; Pyongyang’s U.N. envoy Kim Un-chol said at that time that such a visit was expected in March next year.

The internationally-isolated regime later warned it would halt talks with the outside world, including the EU, for backing what it called the U.S-led U.N. resolution.

A total of 111 U.N. member states, including the EU-member countries, the U.S., South Korea and Japan, voted for the resolution during a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

North Korea accused the EU of showing “subservience and sycophancy” to the U.S. It also threatened to carry out nuclear tests as a part of its promise for “unpredictable and serious consequences” if the resolution went forward.

“The enforced adoption of the ‘resolution’ clearly shows that there is no further need for human rights dialogue with the EU,” it said.

On Tuesday, the isolationist state mobilized a mass rally in Pyongyang in protest against the U.N. resolution.