A group of lawmakers from the ruling Uri Party is moving to issue a statement expressing concern about the possible negative impact of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which was unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week. Late reports have it that some other members of parliament representing the opposition Grand National Party and the Democratic Labor Party may join them in protesting the first law devoted to the North Korean human rights issue.
This is a worrisome turn in characteristically unpredictable North Korean affairs. In a vexing show of brinksmanship, Pyongyang also rejected on Saturday the latest U.S. suggestion that it follow the Libyan example and give up its nuclear arms programs to open the way for economic aid and improved ties with Washington. The North has thus chilled the barely warming mood in the erratic six-nation talks to seek peaceful settlement of the dispute surrounding its nuclear ambitions.
No wonder the atmosphere over this divided peninsula seems to be gathering clouds again. It has been an embarrassing irony that the South Korean government has kept its eyes closed to the plight of the North Korean population, officially and publicly at least, in an effort to avoid provoking North Korea's leaders. The flipside of the engagement policy of former President Kim Dae-jung has been a deluge of tragic stories of starving northerners, and refugees fleeing their hunger-stricken homeland.
Kim seemingly believed that the human rights issue could be shelved a while until his generous dose of "sunshine" melted the heart of Kim Jong-il and genuine reconciliation was attained. But his time in office ran out without such a miracle. Now, six years after the "sunshine policy" was announced, food shortages persist in the North and its repressive regime continues to deny its people fundamental human rights, including freedom of movement and expression. Hungry North Koreans continue to sneak into China for food, but only to face other dangers.
The Kim administration made the international community question its moral standards back in 2002 when, despite the dismal condition of the average person in the North, it abstained from voting on a U.N. resolution calling for improvement of human rights in North Korea. The incumbent government of President Roh Moo-hyun inherited the so-called "realistic" mindset of its predecessor. Last year, the current administration's representative cast a blank vote on a second resolution, again proposed by the European Union.
Pursuing the same line of thinking, the defiant Korean legislators assert that the new U.S. measure is designed to justify Washington's intervention in North Korean domestic politics. They argue that an article of the law calling for North Korean human rights to be a major agenda item in negotiations with North Korea will jeopardize the ongoing dialogue for a diplomatic solution. Eventually, they suspect, the U.S. measure is intended to provide a rationale for expediting regime change in the North, which could create chaos on the Korean Peninsula similar to that in Iraq.
It would be a great misfortune if the peninsula were again driven into armed conflict. The Korean lawmakers may believe their apprehension is grounded on the Bush administration's inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the failed primary rationale for going to war to topple Saddam Hussein. But they must admit that the new U.S. law would facilitate, for the first time, comprehensive assistance aimed at improving the human rights situation in the North, increase transparency in humanitarian aid distribution, and help protect defectors.
For this reason, our lawmakers' campaign will likely fail to gain widespread sympathy. As the movement began in the governing party, it will also turn out to be an additional burden for the Roh administration in its already strained relations with the United States. These outspoken lawmakers need to find more reasonable ways to prevent their concerns from turning into reality than by, in effect, defending the dire human rights situation in North Korea. Otherwise, the international community may be forced once again to doubt the moral values of our politicians.