As Ban Takes the Reins, Seoul Prepares To Condemn Pyongyang Violations

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UNITED NATIONS — As its outgoing foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, prepares to take the reins from Secretary-General Annan at the United Nations, Seoul is expected to shift its appeasement policy on Friday and support a resolution condemning human rights violations in North Korea.

South Korea announced yesterday that it will support a non-binding U.N. General Assembly resolution calling on Pyongyang to fully respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the past, Seoul has abstained or has been absent from assembly votes on similar resolutions. Mr. Ban’s new international status played a part in the policy shift, according to diplomats here.

While the United Nations is taking tentative steps to address the human rights situation in North Korea and has been urged to take an even harder line, President Bush set a tough tone yesterday on Pyongyang’s nuclear threat as he began his Asian tour.

“The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action,” Mr. Bush said in a speech at the National University of Singapore.

The president called on Asians to unite and tighten sanctions against North Korea. “For the sake of peace,” he said, “it is vital that the nations of this region send a message to North Korea that the proliferation of nuclear technology to hostile regimes or terrorist networks will not be tolerated.”

Three prominent human rights advocates — the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel; a former Czech president, Vaclav Havel; and a former Norwegian prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik urged the U.N. Security Council to address the humanitarian crisis in North Korea, as well. The human rights situation in North Korea presents a “non-traditional threat” to world peace, Mr. Bondevik told U.N. reporters and diplomats.

It would be difficult to address the deterioration of human rights in North Korea at the Security Council, however, as Pyongyang’s only benefactor, China, has a veto. The issue also is not likely to be raised at the newly created Human Rights Council in Geneva, which so far has declined to address any rights issues outside Israel.

Still, human rights advocates say North Korea is vulnerable to outside pressure. They cite China’s recent cut in the oil rations it pipes into North Korea, which prompted Pyongyang to say it might return to diplomatic talks on its nuclear program. In Seoul, however, several political factions are pressing for appeasement of North Korea, and increasing the pressure is a sensitive political issue.

Mr. Ban “always thought we should be more assertive” on North Korea, the deputy South Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Oh Joon, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Nevertheless, hard-liners in Washington have seen South Korea’s policies as too timid at times. Human rights advocates also have urged the government to toughen its rhetoric on such issues as repression, mass starvation, and imprisonment in gulags across the border.

Some rights advocates said yesterday that Mr. Ban’s ascension at the United Nations likely played an important role in Seoul’s impending policy shift.

“If that is what it takes, then I suppose it’s a good thing,” an Asia authority at Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, told the Sun, referring to Mr. Ban’s need to demonstrate universal principles as he joins the United Nations.

Mr. Oh said that while Mr. Ban’s new U.N. role “could be one of the factors” in his country’s decision to vote for the assembly resolution, it is hardly the only reason. Another factor is “how North Korea is behaving in the world,” he said.

South Korea also took into account the October 9 announcement that Pyongyang had conducted a nuclear test, Mr. Oh said, in its decision to join other nations in highlighting North Korean rights violations in Friday’s vote.


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