South Korea Abstains from Vote on NK Human Rights Violations

The Korean government decided not to take part in the resolution vote criticizing North Korea`s violations of human rights scheduled for April 16.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Yoon Young-kwan explained at the Unification, Foreign Affairs & Trade Committee meeting on April 15 that “after analyzing what effect the participation of our government in the resolution would have on the North`s nuclear issue, we judged that would be undesirable to get involved.”

As the international community has been keenly interested in North Korean human rights issues, the statement by the minister is expected to cause controversy because it may be regarded as too sympathetic towards the North.

When asked about the North possibly denying inclusion of South Korea in multilateral talks for resolution of the nuclear issue, Minister Yoon said that given the importance of the issue, even if Korea is not included in the meeting, dialogue should be started and it is likely that there could be North-South discussions after the Korea and U.S. summit meeting scheduled for May 14.

On the same day, Minister of Culture and Tourism Lee Chang-dong was grilled by Grand National Party (GNP) representatives and some Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) lawmakers over the press policy of the current government.

“If the Roh administration restricts and distorts news coverage, it basically would amount to unfettered dictatorship,” Goh Heung-gil and Jung Byoung-gook of the GNP said. “If the president`s suggestion is accepted, press reports will become nothing more than stenographic records without any function.”

MDP lawmaker Shim Jae-kwun also said that some parts of the government`s press guidelines should be repealed because they, especially the item requiring disclosure of source names, are intended to reduce news reporting critical of the government.

“The press guidelines are not politically motivated and are merely intended to offer equal opportunity for reporters,” Minister Lee said in response. “I have no intention to disregard the National Assembly when I participated in the question-answer session. If my attitude, however, caused any misunderstanding, it must have come from my lack of ability to express myself, and I would like to apologize for that.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Labor Kweon Ki-hong said at the Environment and Labor Committee meeting: “In principle, the industrial trainee system should be abolished and an employment permission system should be introduced. If specific and concrete measures are proposed after opinion adjustment, then I will review those cases.”

Yeon-Wook Jung Jong-Hoon Lee jyw11@donga.com taylor55@donga.com