(New York) - President Barack Obama should take a strong stance on North Korean human rights issues during talks in South Korea on November 18 and 19, 2009, Human Rights Watch said today. Obama is scheduled to visit to discuss North Korea's nuclear capabilities and the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, among other issues.
Obama and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea should make a public commitment to address human rights concerns in North Korea as well as the plight of North Korean refugees, Human Rights Watch said.
"North Korea's nuclear ambitions have overwhelmed all other issues for too long," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Obama and Lee can raise the profile on human rights."
Issues the two leaders should discuss include public executions, detention abuses, punishment of North Koreans who are repatriated from China, and workers' rights, Human Rights Watch said.
Obama and Lee should also press China to stop arresting and repatriating North Korean refugees, and instead to offer them protection and shelter in line with China's international obligations. South Korea has resettled about 17,000 North Korean refugees, most in the past decade, under a constitution that defines the entire Korean Peninsula as South Korean territory.
In a November 17 open letter to Obama's special representative for North Korea policy, Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, Human Rights Watch, Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, and The Society to Help Returnees to North Korea provided recommendations on how the US can take a more active role in addressing human rights in North Korea and the situation of North Korean refugees.
The letter noted that the US has been a generous donor to North Korea since it suffered a famine in the 1990s and through most of the current decade. In 2004, former US President George W. Bush signed into law the North Korean Human Rights Act. The law calls for humanitarian aid, extended radio broadcasts to North Korea, assistance to and resettlement of North Korean refugees, funding of nongovernmental organizations focusing on human rights and democracy, and the appointment of a special envoy, among other measures.
However, the number of North Korean refugees resettled in the US in the past five years remains fewer than 100, largely because of a "lengthy and cumbersome" screening process, in the words of Jay Lefkowitz, the former special envoy on North Korean human rights.
"US law commits the government to helping North Korean refugees, but so far only a small number of them have benefited," Pearson said. "The US needs to speed up refugee screening and send its embassies clear instructions on how to help them."
Obama and Lee are likely to discuss the Free Trade Agreement, which, although signed in 2007, has yet to be ratified by each country's legislature. The letter urged the US to ensure that basic labor rights are protected in North Korean outward processing zones, such as the Kaesong Industrial Complex where some 40,000 North Korean workers produce goods for South Korean employers.
Annex 22-B to the agreement creates the possibility that goods manufactured by North Korean workers in specially designated outward processing zones could enter the United States duty free. Human Rights Watch said Obama should make clear that carrying out this provision will depend on improved conditions for North Korean workers at the complex in line with international labor standards.
Human Rights Watch has long expressed concerns about the failure to guarantee some fundamental labor rights at the Kaesong complex, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, the right to strike, a ban on sex discrimination and sexual harassment, and a ban on harmful child labor. International human rights organizations have never been given access to the complex, which opened in June 2004.
"Obama should tell Lee the US won't include goods produced by North Korean workers under the Free Trade Agreement until their fundamental labor rights are guaranteed," Pearson said. "How the US handles this issue sets a precedent for its commitment to protecting human rights in North Korea."
