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In a stark departure from its liberal predecessors, South Korea's conservative regime has decided to vote in favor of a U.N. resolution against North Korea's human rights abuses, to be introduced this week at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The draft resolution expresses "deep concern" about reports on human rights violations in North Korea, urging the country to fully respect fundamental freedoms and ensure safe and unhindered access to humanitarian aid, according to officials on Thursday. The resolution also calls for the extension by one year of the mandate of Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korean human rights.
The South's decision to back the UNHRC vote signals a change from the policies of the previous liberal governments, which have been accused of ignoring the humanitarian plight facing North Koreans. Seoul has been absent or abstained from a series of U.N. resolution votes on North Korean human rights since 2003, excepting 2006 when the North conducted a nuclear weapons test that put the Asian-Pacific region on alert.
In last year's session, the South's representative just said his country "has concerns about North Korea's human rights situation."
Former President Roh Moo-hyun and his fellow liberal predecessor Kim Dae-jung, who ruled the country for the past decade, had maintained a low-key stance toward human right abuses in North Korea for fear of creating friction with Pyongyang that could upset the fragile inter-Korean reconciliation process.
But President Lee Myung-bak, who took office a month ago, said he would not hesitate to criticize the North over its human rights problems at the risk of worsening cross-border ties, saying the human rights issue is "something we cannot avoid" and North Korea "should know it."
In another move to tackle the human rights issue, South Korea's official human rights watchdog has decided for the first time to investigate alleged human rights abuses in North Korea.
The state-run National Human Rights Commission plans to begin the project next week by interviewing defectors living in the South to find out about human rights conditions in the reclusive communist neighbor.
More than 13,000 North Koreans have resettled in the South after fleeing hunger and suppression in their communist homeland. Some 300,000 North Koreans have also been hiding in China or other neighboring countries, waiting for a chance to reach South Korea, according to Seoul-based human rights groups.
The defectors have testified to human rights abuses in the North, particularly in political prison camps. In its white paper based on their testimonies, Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification said a growing number of inmates of detention or labor camps were killed by torture, forced labor or malnutrition.
Gulag escapees testified that torture, used to extract confessions, ranges from sleep and food deprivation to beating with wooden clubs or shovels and "pigeon torture" whereby the detainee is suspended with hands tied behind his back. South Korea estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 are held in political prisoners' camps in the North.
In another action that can anger the North, South Korea is speeding up its acceptance of North Korean refugees in Thailand. More than 1,000 North Koreans are reportedly staying in Thailand, waiting to be taken to South Korea.
Most North Koreans have sought asylum in South Korea via China. Recently, however, North Koreans have made their way to Southeast Asian countries to avoid harsh crackdowns in China.
Furious about Seoul's toughening stance, North Korea expelled South Korean officials from the joint industrial park in the country's border city of Kaesong. Early Thursday, Seoul withdrew 11 government officials residing in the complex after the North demanded that all the officials leave.
It was the first time the North has expelled South Korean officials since the Kaesong complex was set up in 2005 as a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism and technology with the North's cheap labor.
About 70 South Korean firms employ some 24,000 North Korean workers to manufacture light industrial goods in the joint complex, touted as one of the crowning fruits of inter-Korean dialogue.
But Seoul is standing firm, blasting the North's action. The Unification Ministry that handles inter-Korean relations expressed "deep regret" over the action and said North Korea should assume "full responsibility" for the measure.
