New Envoy Will Closely Examine Relations With N. Korea

WASHINGTON – In an effort to curb North Korean human rights abuses, America is reviewing each facet of its relationship with the country, including the humanitarian aid.Yesterday, Jay Lefkowitz, in first press conference as the president’s special envoy for human rights in North Korea, said, “We have to take a look at all the different areas of our relationship,” when asked whether he would consider cutting off food shipments to the hermit Kingdom.“What we are looking at is a very, very tough issue, at a tough set of issues,” he said. “And I think we need to be willing to look at all different aspects of our relationship with North Korea, and our allies’ relationship with North Korea, because the one thing that we know is the situation for more than 20 million North Koreans is really intolerable.”Mr. Lefkowitz’s statement indicated the administration may rethink its longstanding policy not to condition shipments of food, fuel, and medicine to Pyongyang, even regarding its human rights abuses. Since 1995, America has contributed a little more than $1.1 billion in aid shipments, some of it required by the now-defunct 1994 joint framework agreement, which traded fuel shipments for North Korean promises not to build a nuclear program. It is now believed the North Koreans have produced enough fissile material for more than a dozen bombs.Talks between North Korea and America, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, according to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, who yesterday urged all sides to be flexible. News of Mr. Lefkowitz’s appointment last month was met with official protests from the North Koreans, who have insisted that talks be limited to their nuclear program and not include such topics as the country’s vast prison system.The six-party talks are premised on an unwritten understanding that Kim Jong Il will remain in power in exchange for new promises to relinquish his fissile material and end his nuclear program. The appointment of Mr. Lefkowitz may call into question this general agreement by raising questions about how the North Korean leader treats his people.At his press conference yesterday, the former White House lawyer said that he hoped the six-party talks would “lead to more openness and the opportunity to engage in human rights.” He said that apart from these discussions, he intends to raise the nuclear issues in his own parallel effort. When asked for a historical analogue to his current job, he said there were similarities between his mission and that of Americans who negotiated with the Soviets during the Helsinki process.By all accounts, Mr. Lefkowitz plans to be tough with the North Koreans. Yesterday, he referred to Mr. Kim’s prisons as “political concentration camps.” He also stressed that the international legitimacy that North Korea seeks will be contingent on the country’s opening up these secret gulags and allowing the free emigration of its citizens seeking to escape them.“I am particularly concerned about the plight of the thousands of political refugees who are now living over the border in northern China,” he said. “I will work with the U.N. rapporteur to encourage the North Koreans to grant access to the remote areas of their country.”Mr. Lefkowitz stressed that he wanted to open up educational and cultural exchanges with North Korea and develop a regular channel to discuss human rights concerns. For example, he said that he was interested in finding people who escaped the country and publicizing their stories, stressing the importance of giving names to the regime’s victims. He also said he was interested in verifying reports from the BBC and some doctors who have defected that political prisoners were subject to chemical weapons experiments.Mr. Lefkowitz began his official duties on Tuesday and met with leaders of nongovernmental organizations and senior members of the administration including Secretary of State Rice. A former domestic policy adviser to President Bush, Mr. Lefkowitz is rumored to have been offered the job as deputy White House chief of staff. His position was created by the 2004 North Korea Human Rights Act.

New Envoy Will Closely Examine Relations With N. Korea

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