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US envoy calls for pressure on N. Korea to tackle human rights abuses

November 12, 2015

President Park Geun-hye sent a message to the forum that now is the time to extensively make “practical” efforts to improve the North’s dire human rights situation. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A top U.S. official on the North’s human rights on Wednesday called for continued pressure on North Korea to improve its dismal human rights situation, calling the process to resolve it a “long, tough fight.”

Robert King, the U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights issues, stressed that the issue also warrants a variety of approaches as there is no quick fix for the North’s rights abuses.

“What we’ve got to do in terms of dealing with the problems of human rights in North Korea is to look at this as a long, tough fight,” Amb. King said in a forum on the North’s rights records held in Seoul. “I think we need continued pressure.”

His remarks came as the United Nations took a critical step last year by adopting a landmark resolution calling on the Security Council to refer the North’s abuses to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Next month, the General Assembly is set to endorse a similar resolution.

North Korea has long been branded as one of the worst human rights violators. Pyongyang has bristled at such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.

King said that the U.N. should continue to raise this issue even if the Security Council’s referral of the North’s rights abuses to the ICC would not take place due to veto powers by China and Russia.

Along with such pressure, the global community needs to provide humanitarian assistance to those who are needy in the North, but with strengthened monitoring for the North’s use of the aid.

The U.S. envoy also added that it remains to be seen whether the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint industrial park, can play a role in terms of the North’s rights issue as its role is currently focused on the economic side.

The forum brought about iconic figures on North Korea’s human rights issues such as Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, and Michael Kirby, a former chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry.

President Park Geun-hye sent a message to the forum that now is the time to extensively make “practical” efforts to improve the North’s dire human rights situation.