North Korea Agrees to Weigh Steps on Human Rights

North Korea Agrees to Weigh Steps on Human Rights

By Nick Cumming-Bruce, The New York Times

19 September 2014

More than half a year after a landmark report by a United Nations commission of inquiry pinned responsibility for crimes against humanity on North Korea’s leadership, the North’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said Friday that the North had accepted a wide range of recommendations for improving its human rights record.

North Korea’s declaration falls far short of a commitment to follow through with any action, but the contrast with its blanket refusal to even consider similar recommendations in the past could be seen as a willingness to engage on some issues.

“There obviously has been some decision that this is the way the rest of the world relates, and the decision seems to be that North Korea should do it as well,” said Robert R. King, the United States’ special envoy for human rights in North Korea.

Sounding a note of caution, though, Mr. King added, “We ought to be careful about assuming this means a great deal in terms of what they do.”

But, in what is seen as a further sign of North Korea’s growing attention to international criticism, the North’s government is sending its foreign minister to participate in the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in 15 years, Mr. King said.

The 268 recommendations were made under a review process that all member states of the United Nations undergo every four years. The North’s ambassador, So Se-pyong, speaking before the Human Rights Council, signaled that the North’s leadership was now willing to consider suggestions about, among other things, freedom of thought, “free and unimpeded access to all populations in need” for humanitarian agencies and freedom for them to monitor distribution of their aid. The prevention of human rights violations and punishment for violators were also on the list.

But Mr. So said the North had rejected some recommendations that were “based on distorted information provided by hostile forces which aimed to dismantle the country’s social system,” including calls for unfettered access to detainees for the International Committee of the Red Cross, disclosure of the extent and methods of capital punishment, and the end of restrictions on movement and expression.

North Korea has made some progress on disability issues, Mr. King told the council. But laying out the breadth of international concerns, he added that it also needed to “acknowledge the existence of political prison camps, to dismantle all such camps, to release all political prisoners, and to abandon the use of torture, arbitrary detention, summary execution, forced abortion and other forms of sexual violence.”

Last week, North Korea released its own report on the state of human rights in the country that portrayed accusations of abuses as politically motivated. The report did not mention the prison gulags, which defectors have described in detail, and instead claimed that North Koreans enjoyed a wide range of freedoms. It also blamed the United States for blocking a dialogue on human rights with what it called anti-North Korean policies.

Still, the attention to recommendations of other countries in the United Nations review process was a shift from the North’s outright rejection of such suggestions in a previous review. It follows growing attention by North Korea to international human rights concerns since the release of the United Nations commission of inquiry report in February.

“I think the North Koreans are feeling some pressure,” Mr. King said in an interview, noting the practical costs of the outrage stirred by the commission of inquiry. “Contributions to aid groups have declined because North Korea’s reputation has declined. I think growing concerns about human rights conditions in North Korea make it much more difficult to raise money from foreign governments” and private sources.

Secretary of State John Kerry is to host a landmark meeting on human rights in North Korea on Tuesday, just before the General Assembly opens.

Calls for action on North Korea have continued to gather momentum since the appearance of the United Nations report. A strongly worded resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in March urged North Korea’s referral to the International Criminal Court. A similar motion will be presented to the General Assembly next month.

The North’s decision to send its foreign minister to New York for the General Assembly session is a sign of the leadership’s concerns, Mr. King said. “I think there’s a certain recognition on the part of the North Koreans that if you’re going to play with the big boys you’ve got to participate, and I think that’s a positive sign,” he said.

Those signs of engagement dispel what was once a common assumption that the North’s leadership was immune to foreign criticism on issues of human rights, said Param-Preet Singh, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch’s international justice program.

“However sincere or insincere it may be, it’s a reflection it does care what the international community thinks and the international community does have leverage to push for change in North Korea,” Ms. Singh said.