The Marmot’s Hole

As you may not know, judging from the lack of coverage in the West, the NK Human Rights Act was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday — see the Oranckay and NKzone for the details.

Responses from Seoul have been mixed. One Uri Party official said it was “fortunate” that the linkage between human rights and aid to North Korea was passed as a congressional opinion rather than legally binding legislation, and called the watered-down bill the result of efforts by Seoul and Washington to come up with a more “rational” bill. Uri Party lawmaker Jeong Bong-ju, who led a party of 25 other lawmakers in delivering a signed letter to the U.S. Embassy earlier this month for U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar criticizing the NK Human Rights Act, said the bill could “decisively block peace on the Korean Peninsula.” He also expressed concern that the passing of the bill “at a time when reports were coming out concerning N. Korea’s military aggressiveness like moves to launch a missile” could “continue the situation in which North Korea is being pressured in a non-military way.” He also said that until the bill is repassed by the House, both Korea’s “indifferent diplomacy” and the “attitude of the U.S. Embassy” would have to be criticized.

The Democratic Labor Party’s spokesperson condemned the bill’s passage, saying, “As a bill intended to allow the United States, standing on human rights, to unreasonably pressure North Korea, all it will do is heighten the crisis on the Korean Peninsula… We are concerned about the diplomatic incompetence and lethargy of the Roh administration.”

The opposition Grand National Party, of course, welcomed the move. The party’s spokesperson said, “Since the law contains interest in improving North Korea’s human rights and defectors as well as plans for humanitarian assistance, it’s very appropriate and welcomed… We have to find shameful the fact that a foreign country stands ahead of our own in [improving] the human rights situation for people of the same [Korean] race.”

No word from the government from what I’ve seen, and expect President Roh to say a whole lot of nothing about the issue.

The Marmot’s Verdict: Everyone’s full of shit here. The Uri and Democratic Labor party guys are the ones who slam the U.S. for its silence when S. Korea was ruled by military dictators. Now, all of sudden, they understand the utility of “constructive engagement.” These lawmakers might be embarrassed to know that the diplomatic approach they have undertaken really came into its own during the Reagan administration (and specifically, to deal with issues in Southern Africa), and has traditionally been looked upon as the diplomatic tool of choice of U.S. paleo-cons who were more concerned about geopolitical effectiveness than about the human rights records of those whom they were pumping money to engaging.

As for the Grand National Party, well, maybe some of the young guys get a pass, but it seems a bit odd that some of the older lawmakers (like Kim Yong-gap) should take such a keen interest in North Korean human rights when they never really gave two shits about human rights in South Korea. Being anti-communist and being pro-human rights are simply not the same things. Don’t get me wrong — I applaud both their enthusiasm for improving human rights in North Korea and concern for N. Korean defectors. It’s a marked improvement over the silence of the self-styled progressives. But come on, it’s a party with a lot of lawmakers with less than exemplary human rights records, and one that supports keeping the National Security Law around in the South. In fact, if there were any party that I would expect to understand engaging N. Korea while keeping mum about Pyongyang’s human rights record, it’s the GNP.

GNP lawmaker Won Hui-ryong does get bonus points, however, for asking, “Can’t the people who insist on ’saying what we have to say to the United States’ say what they have to say to North Korea?”

As for the law itself, well, I was chatting with the Oranckay just before, and he asked my why I had posted about condoms and hanboks, but not about the NK Human Rights Act. I replied that condoms, hanboks, or Han Chae-yeong’s ample bosom were just as likely to improve human rights in North Korea as this bill. I mean, the intention might be all well and good, and the Dems voted for it, too, so it’s not like this is just an evil Bush/neocon thing. But let’s face it — the only way the outside world could bring about change in N. Korea would be to invade the place, and that just isn’t going to happen. Frankly, some of the guys in the ruling party have a point — this bill isn’t going to help negotiations with N. Korea, and regardless of whether it was “the right thing to do,” given that its actual impact on the human rights situation in N. Korea is likely to be nil (if not negative, given how Pyongyang is likely to react), one has to wonder if the diplomatic headaches — which were already considerable — were really worth the moral satisfaction earned by passing it.

Call me a big, nasty paleo-con if you will, but I simply doubt the wisdom of passing a bill of that nature at this particular juncture.

The defector issue needed to be addressed, of course, and given how Seoul’s dropped the ball on that one, I’m glad to see the U.S. pick it up and run with it. Today, 44 defectors broke into the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, highlighting the urgency of the situation. That being said, the country that really needed to be talked with about this was not North Korea, but China, and that could have been handled in a much quieter fashion (and no, I don’t mean S. Korean-style “quiet diplomacy,” which basically means sitting on your ass and hoping the Chinese can catch and repatriate defectors before they become an “embarrassment”). If you’re going to raise the defector issue in negotiations with regional powers, then do it, but you really don’t need to back it up with such a public display like this, which is more likely to irritate than to actually get results.

A couple of press reactions. The Chosun Ilbo, needless to say, welcomed the passing of the NK Human Rights Act while taking the government to task for its lack of interest in North Korean humans rights:

The logic within the Uri Party that considers a law helping defectors who have risked their lives to escape from a living hell as “interference in North Korea’s internal affairs” would be a mystery to no matter who looked at it. Our placing importance on improving the intra-Korean relationship in ultimately to allow our Northern brothers to live in an improved environment where their human rights are respected. If the government and ruling party agree with this opinion shared by the majority of citizens, rather than expressing opposition and differences of opinion with the North Korean Human Rights Act, it should present a stronger and more direct alternative to improve the human rights of our Northern brothers before the international community does.

My feelings? Basically, see what I said about the GNP above.

The Joongang Ilbo expressed a similar opinion:

Our government must also reassess its position on the matter. We cannot just close our eyes to human rights conditions because we fear we are “inciting” the North. While maintaining dialogue and negotiations with the North, we must speak our minds about the universal value of human rights. Otherwise we will be prone to criticism from the international community.

We must remember that the passage of this bill also means that the United States will not be conscious of the South Korean government’s position toward the North when dealing with human rights.

Then, there is the Hani. Abject horror. How the paper’s editors’ heads don’t explode is simply beyond my admittedly limited ken. Basically, read what was written by the Oranckay, a U.S. liberal who was obviously a victim of the U.S. military-industrial complex’s demonization campaign directed at the DPRK. Poor soul.