North Korea Newsletter 368 (June 25, 2015)

Topic of the Week (Part 1)

Launch of U.N. human rights office expected to worsen inter-Korean ties

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A United Nations office charged with monitoring human rights abuses in North Korea opened in Seoul on June 23 amid tight security following Pyongyang's threats of retaliation.

The Seoul office of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a follow-up to last year's U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) report that recommended the establishment of a field-based office to monitor and document human rights violations in North Korea.

The launch of the office is set to worsen relations between the two Koreas as Pyongyang has vehemently protested the move. The North has condemned the U.N. office as an "unpardonable provocation" and "open declaration of war against it," showing how severely pressured the North Korean leadership feels by the international move to highlight its human rights record.

At the opening ceremony, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein reminded attendees of the dismal human rights conditions in the North, saying, "We firmly believe this will help lay the basis for future accountability."

   "The Seoul Office also has a mandate for technical cooperation with member states, national institutions and civil society, and will work in partnership with you to strengthen our collective efforts to change human rights in the DPRK (North Korea)."

   "Less than 50 miles from here lies another world marked by the utmost deprivation," he said in his congratulatory remarks. "Tens of thousands of Korean people have escaped that reality and through hazardous means reached a new life in the Republic of Korea. But millions remain trapped in the grip of a totalitarian system which not only denies their freedom but increasingly their basic survival needs."

   South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se expressed hope that the Korean people will later come to see the office's establishment as a "visionary step." "Let us work together so that one day the people of North Korea will come to enjoy the same equality, dignity and freedom they so rightly deserve," he said in his congratulatory remarks.

The event was attended by dozens of South Korean officials, lawmakers and foreign diplomats, including the U.S. and Japanese ambassadors to Seoul.

North Korea has bristled at any mention of its human rights conditions, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime. On May 29, the socialist state threatened to "mercilessly punish" the South for hosting the office, saying it is an "unpardonable provocation" and "open declaration of war against it."

  

A member of a college student group fighting for North Korean human rights wears a mask that looks like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as he takes part in a rally in front of the Seoul office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul's Jongno Ward on June 23, 2015, to welcome the opening of the office the same day. (Yonhap)

Pyongyang's Threats

On the very day of the opening, North Korea's Foreign Ministry threatened to take "toughest counteractions" against the U.N. field office. In a statement, the ministry called it a "ghost agency" aimed at backing the U.S.-led hostile policy toward Pyongyang.

"This is a hideous politically-motivated provocation challenging the dignity and social system of the DPRK and a criminal act of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the region and inciting confrontation under the pretext of "protecting human rights," its unnamed spokesperson said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The ministry claimed it's evident that the organization will be "no more than a center for gathering misinformation cooked up" by North Korean defectors and others. It said North Korea will "decisively foil the reckless 'human rights' racket against the DPRK through resolute toughest counteractions."

   Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the OHCHR has sought to stop Pyongyang's crimes against humanity, including the establishment of an investigative body, in accordance with the COI report. The report accused the socialist regime of running political prison camps where up to 120,000 people are thought to be detained. North Korea has denied accusations brought up by the U.N.

Withdrawal from Gwangju Universiade

This photo, a capture of a video released by Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean propaganda website, on June 24, 2015, shows South Korean detainee Kim Kuk-gi reading out a statement of his guilt at a court before he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of espionage for the South's state spy agency. The North's announcement came as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights opened its office in Seoul the previous day, which will be tasked with monitoring the human rights situation in the North. (Yonhap)

Meanwhile, North Korea canceled an earlier plan to participate in the upcoming Gwangju Summer Universiade in protest of the opening of the U.N. office, the Universiade organizing committee said on June 22.

Pyongyang's notification to the organizing committee of the event, scheduled to run from July 3 to July 14, came on June 19 via email, according to Kim Yoon-suk, the committee's secretary general. "The North said that it could not take part in the event for political reasons because of the opening of the U.N. human rights office in Seoul," said Kim during a press briefing in Gwangju.

Speculation that the North may boycott the event arose last week after it failed to meet the registration deadline on June 15.

Some thought the North had become hesitant because of the ongoing outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in South Korea. The North, however, did not mention MERS in its email but blamed the U.N. human rights field office for its change in plans.

In March, Pyongyang said it would send a delegation of 75 athletes and 33 coaches and officials to take part in the 12-day event.

North Korea's backtracking is a letdown for the government, which hoped its participation could serve as an informal catalyst for easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In October, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent three top officials to the Incheon Asian Games closing ceremony in South Korea to meet with key South Korean officials.

North Korea's withdrawal from the Gwangju Universiade has also put a damper on Seoul's plans to hold a joint event to mark the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan's colonial rule. The Gwangju Universiade was seen as an opportune occasion for such a joint event, and efforts were made to form a unified team, invite North Korean cheerleaders and light the Universiade torch at the border village Panmunjom.

N. Korea's Sentence of Two S. Koreans

On the same day, the North on June 23 sentenced two South Koreans detained there to a "life of hard labor" for spying for South Korea's intelligence agency in a move expected to worsen inter-Korean ties.

The Supreme Court of the secretive socialist nation held a trial for Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil in front of citizens from various fields and convicted them of spying for the South and the United States, said the North's official KCNA.

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for them but "the defense counsel" asked the court to commute it to another punishment as the accused have confessed their crimes and repented, it said.

Kim and Choe took part in the "state-sponsored political terrorism and anti-DPRK hostility of the U.S. and the South Korean puppet regime," including the gathering of information on the North's "supreme leadership" and other state and military secrets, according to the KCNA.

The North's Korean Central Television also carried a report of punishment against Kim and Choe, who are among four South Koreans detained in North Korea. The two others are missionary Kim Jung-wook and Joo Won-moon, a 21-year-old South Korean student with a U.S. green card.

In March, the North invited foreign and local media outlets for a press conference during which it said that it had arrested the two, calling them "spies." At the news conference, the North claimed they collected secret documents from the North's ruling Workers' Party and military and state organizations under the direction or support of the U.S. and South Korean intelligence institutions and that they attempted to spread the "capitalist bourgeois" way of life inside the reclusive state.

Seoul, Washington's Reaction

But the South Korean government voiced "strong" regret over the North's sentence. "Despite repeated calls for their release, the North took such improper actions without giving any explanation to the Seoul government or their families," the Unification Ministry said in a statement. "The move runs counter to international practices and the spirit of human rights and humanity."

   The ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, urged Pyongyang to immediately set all detained South Koreans free. "We call on the North to immediately free and repatriate those four detainees, including Kim and Choe. The government will do its best to bring them back home," it said.

Under the situation, the U.S. offered congratulations on June 23 on the U.N. office opening in Seoul, saying it will lay the groundwork for bringing those responsible to justice.

"Today we also want to congratulate the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the opening of its new field office in Seoul. And we thank the Republic of Korea for hosting this office," State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a regular press briefing.

The new office will continue the documentation work initiated by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the North's human rights situation and such efforts "will lay the groundwork for bringing to account those responsible for atrocities in the DPRK," he said.

Kirby also called the establishment of the office "an important step" in implementing COI recommendations. "We've seen the threatening comments made by North Korean officials regarding this field office that's being stood up. And obviously, we certainly have deep concerns about those comments and would just reiterate that they do nothing to help the security and stability on the Korean peninsula," Kirby said.

"This office is all about trying to help -- potentially down the road help hold those accountable, those who are responsible for human rights violations in the North. That's a good thing. Again, we welcome the standup of this office, and it's in nobody's interest to do anything to interfere with that work," he said.

Experts Opinion

Experts say, however, that to bring about real change in the North, the international community should mix pressure with humanitarian assistance rather than focus wholly on pressuring the reclusive regime. They also said that the international community should show the North that what it strives to do is to improve the human rights of North Koreans, not bring down the regime.

Observers also speculate the U.N. office will facilitate the South Korean National Assembly in passing pending bills to improve Pyongyang's human rights record. They said such legislative actions will effectively press the Kim Jong-un regime harder and help in the U.N.'s ongoing fight.

"The establishment of a U.N. presence in Seoul means the U.N. will put more pressure on North Korea," said Koh Yoo-hwan, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University. "It also means South Korea will have a higher chance to enact a law to join the U.N.'s fight against Pyongyang."

   The National Assembly has not passed a bill on Pyongyang's inhumane conditions after a related proposal was first made in August 2004. A total of 19 bills on North Korea's human rights have been proposed since then.

Analysts also noted that excessive pressure could be counterproductive given that it could lead the North to further tighten control over its people and cut itself off from the international community -- moves that would exacerbate the suffering of North Koreans.

Seoul may need to consider increasing humanitarian aid and ease the ban on inter-Korean projects -- except for a joint industrial park -- on condition that transparency will be enhanced to ensure benefits from such measures are channeled to ordinary people in the North, they emphasized.

(END)