Yonhap is reporting that the government has decided to vote in favor of an upcoming EU-sponsored UN resolution censoring North Korea for its human rights situation.
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17 Comments
The reflected prestige for S.K. of having Ban as the UN chief probably led to this decision, not a sudden realization that N.K. needs to be censored.
Sorry to sound so cynical.
I’ll believe it when it happens.
For whatever reason, this is a step in the right direction.
Yeah, I agree, it’s just that the motives are suspect. But will S.K. ever pass anything remotely resembling the North Korean Human Rights Act? You know, for the minjok?
“The Grand National Party has submitted a total of 10 bills on North Korean human rights to the National Assembly, including five legislations that I sponsored on North Korean human rights, abductees, prisoners-of-war, North Korean refugees and separated families. I also submitted on Dec. 5. a resolution demanding a parliamentary investigation into the 2000 abduction case of Rev. Kim Dong-shik and repatriation of POW Han Man-taek early this year. But despite the wide support of our party, not one human rights bill has been able to pass through the Assembly, as the GNP is not a majority.”
http://66.39.74.146/wp-content.....Summit.pdf
American officials say that Roh, in a visit to Washington before the nuclear test, had indicated that if North Korea detonated a nuclear test, it would “change everything” in relations between North and South.
One of Bush’s senior national security aides, speaking in Washington before the president left, but declining to talk on the record about the friction between Washington and Seoul, said, “It seems to have changed almost nothing.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....16bush.php
I rest my case.
You may all bitch about how this is just a publicity stunt and blah blah, but you also have to understand that South Korean government is taking a HUGE risk in taking an action that could possibly bring the inter-Korean relations to a rubble.
Now I do not believe the South Korean administration will change its pro-North Korean policy completely, but this news at least shows a faint glimmer of hope.
It is never too late to grow a spine toward North Korea. I’ve always argued that South Korea should never have been ashamed to be better than North Korea in every way and should have forced large dollops of humilioty down the North’s throat along with all that unreciprocated aid.
why is this news so surprising? shouldn’t the fact that Bush didn’t veto Ban mean something?
It’s now officially a done deal. Although it doesn’t do much except remind KJI that, yes, he is a turd.
“South Korean government is taking a HUGE risk in taking an action that could possibly bring the inter-Korean relations to a rubble” Huge in what way? Will the norks retaliate militarily? Refuse to accept more cash and rice?
Inter-Korean “relations” are a joke already–Kim Jongil cancels the family reunions and doesn’t implement agreements (how’s that cross-border railway going?). But I’m certain he will continue to take the money the Roh gov’t keeps throwing at him.
I agree ZZOOzzoo that the importance of this vote is more than some of the commentors so far have said, but I find the “HUGE risk” argument to fall flat. If SK were gaining much from the “inter-Korean relations”, I might entertain the idea, but since it is a one-way gift-fest for the North, I fail to see how much “risk” the South is running. The North isn’t going to allow South Korea to give them much needed foreign currency through sweat-shop (if not slave) labor in Kaesong? The North isn’t going to allow the South to pour more money into it through Hyundai and the moutain tours? It isn’t going to allow some South Korean politicians to come and pay homage to Kim Il Sung?
I give the UN vote more significance than some of the first commentors, because the new guy at the Human Rights Commission didn’t just hum and haw when he “changed” directions in what the commission was willing to say about NK’s human rights record. He spoke boldly. Suprisingly so.
That comission has diddly squat in the way of power, but it was still a big step for that comission.
SK casting a vote in the UN is also an important step - with little in the way of substanative meaning —- it sure as hell isn’t a vote on sanctions - but at least it is plugging a huge hole and embarrassement for SK.
More importantly, it will make it look worse, and thus be at least a little harder, for Ban to obstruct or ignore issues concerning NK that will definately come up the next couple of years, and it will make it at least a little harder for Korea to abstain from other votes in the UN against the North that might have more direct action in them.
I am not an optimist. I believe as long as Roh and crew are in the Blue House, South Korea will never take real concrete steps to put pressure on the North and will not join in UN efforts to do so, but this vote in the UN still has some significance as does the Korean human rights commission head speaking out as hard as he did recently.
A woman who fucks two men will be abandoned by both men.
And, she will be killed by one of them. Kim DaeJung and Rho MuHyen have brought this end for Korea.
baduk, you almost sound as if you are speaking from experience, there.
Baduk is back, locked and loaded.
USinK, the new HRC chief Ahn Kyong-hwan, who did speak boldly, gets some props, although right now he’s a voice in the wilderness of the Roh gov’t.
Asia Times Online has an interesting take on this whole thing…
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HK18Dg01.html
This UN paper means nothing, and the fact ROK signed it means nothing. DPRK tests nuke, and Roh Moo Hyun’s response:
1. “We cannot continue to appease without getting something in return” Then proceed to do just that.
2. “Ban” DPRK officials from coming to South Korea. WTF?
3. Watch his ministers turn against him, then shuffle the remaining rascals. Wow Roh, you really got a great plan and sense of timing for this.
4. Sign a UN piece of paper that says Kim Jong Il is an arse.
Roh failed the test when he didn’t stop geumgang. Which in all truth, just as meaningless as the UN resolution, because it really isn’t that much cash involved. It’s meaningful only in so far that it pisses off the DPRK. But it would have kept America happy, and the alliance strong. It would have been better if Roh cut off Geumgang, and then NOT signed the resolution. That would have sent a better message to KJI.
The next test for Roh will be this spring when NK refugees storm into China. But there is no point in having hopes in Roh. He seems to believe that because Seoul will be destroyed either way with nuke or without, testing nuke doesn’t matter. But a significantly greater number of south korean people will die by nuclearized DPRK. This isn’t just death of South Koreans vs death of Japanse or American issue. This is something that Roh cannot grasp and will never grasp since for him “war is unthinkable” in a literal sense. When DPRK tests a hydrogen bomb, Roh probably won’t be able to grasp the simple mathmatical idea that a fusion explosion is significantly larger than a fission explosion. This too will be “unthinkable” for him.
Maybe he realizes that he can win a lot of political points by dealing with the real estate issue–namely when KJI attacks, the real estate price of Seoul will plummet, thereby solving the problem of unattainable housing. I beg the Dear Leader to do to Roh what he did to Mrs. Park.
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