DPRK Forum

North Korea can give a rat’s ass about the U.N., and the latest resolution is just a piece of paper to them. I can see Kim Jong Il laughing right now as he orders more innocent people to be sent to the gulags.

A U.N. General Assembly committee adopted a draft resolution Tuesday expressing “very serious concern” at persistent reports of widespread human rights violations in North Korea including torture, inhumane conditions of detention and public executions.

The assembly’s human rights committee approved the resolution by a vote of 97-23 with 60 abstentions, including South Korea. The draft now goes to the 192-member General Assembly for a final vote.

Why does this not surprise me?

The draft resolution, co-sponsored by more than 50 countries including the United States and many other Western nations, also expresses “very serious concern” at North Korea’s refusal to cooperate with the U.N.’s special investigator on human rights in the country.

Yes, that would cause some concern, but words do not do much for those getting publicly executed, living in substandard conditions, or getting tortured does it? Of course North Korea is not going to be cooperative with the U.N’s special investigator on human rights. This is as obvious as the nose on your face.

North Korea said it “categorically resents” the draft resolution which it said is “filled with fabrications” and “cannot be justified in any case” because it does not also condemn human rights violations committed by the countries co-sponsoring it.

Yes, of course it is all a lie. Those risking life to leave the country is just doing it for heck of it. It is fun to cross the river and play “dodge the bullets” or “bribe that guard”. The strongly worded resolution includes the following:

The draft cites North Korea’s “all-pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association” by persecuting people exercising these rights and barring their freedom of movement and travel abroad.

It singles out “the persistence of continuing reports of systematic, widespread and grave violations of civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including inhuman conditions of detention, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention…”

Yes, pretty strong words. One question. Why are these concerns not expressed in the many talks with North Korea? The issue is completely ignored. They just do not want to get Kim mad. Instead, it is easier just to write a mad letter. What a waste of time.

Another surprise:

South Africa, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, Libya and Egypt were among countries opposing the draft.

Alright, maybe not a huge surprise there. It does not really matter anyway. North Korea is going to simply brush this off, give the international hand gesture and continue business as usual. In the meantime, the coddling continues, the unchecked aid gets sent, the untold billions of dollars gets poured into the cooperative projects, and millions are sent to Kim to agree to meetings. He does not meet anybody without a price.

The draft resolution “strongly calls on” North Korea to urgently resolve the issue, an appeal reiterated by the Japanese who said Pyongyang should let abductees return to Japan and other countries they came from.

Kim Jong Il: “I am right on it!”

Update: We know the U.N. resolution is only talk (at this point) but the ROK not present at the meeting is a very telling sign. What makes it even worse, is Roh’s crony openly states:

A presidential spokesman said President Roh Moo-hyun made the decision in order not to damage inter-Korean relations and progress on the six-way talks aimed at scrapping North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Keep with the status quo and keep coddling Kim. That’s the way to do it! Instead:

Roh held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il early last month. They pledged joint efforts in a declaration to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula through South Korean-backed, big-budget cross-border business projects.

The declaration, however, fell short of dealing with rights problems in the North, which regards it an intervention in domestic affairs.

It was not even brought up. Yes, for the reasons stated above. Keep the feel good measures going while people continue to die and live under an oppressive regime. As said before, the resolution is only a strongly worded letter:

The resolution, not legally binding, was passed with 97 ayes, 23 nays and 60 abstentions. The draft now goes to the 192-member General Assembly for a final vote.

As said before, it does not do a whole lot and is only symbolic right now. That does not change the status regarding the fate of normal folks in North Korea. Symbolism does not give them food or a change in Kim’s behavior. In my view, it is a waste of time. Instead, Roh should have stepped to the plate and talked to Kim about the abuses. Fat chance.

But the Seoul government has not taken up the issue of human rights in inter-Korean talks, especially since the Kim Dae-jung administration which advocated the “sunshine policy” of engaging the Stalinist state.

Critics rap Seoul’s lukewarm and “two-faced” attitude toward the rights issue of North Korea.

South Korea last year voted to support a similar resolution following North Korea’s test-launches of medium and long-range missiles and first-ever nuclear test. From 2003 to 2005, however, the Seoul government had not participated in, or abstained from U.N.’s votes on the North’s human rights record not to provoke North Korea.

Professor Kim Sung-han of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul said Seoul’s latest abstention from the human rights vote would harm South Korea’s diplomatic influence in the global community.?

That is an understatement. The whole thing is a farce. Where is the wastebasket? I want to throw up now.