The WaPo, via the Chosun Ilbo, reports that State Department officials are at odds over the wording of the department’s annual report on North Korean human rights:
According to the newspaper, diplomats at the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs disagreed with officials at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) over the tone and nuance of the report.
DRL officials tend to be hard-line human rights advocates, the newspaper said, while those at the regional bureau prefer a more diplomatic approach, so as not to irritate North Korea.
More specifically, we’re looking at stuff like this e-mail from deputy assistant secretary in the East Asia bureau Glyn Davies to deputy assistant secretary in the DRL bureau Erica Barks-Ruggles:
According to the newspaper, Davies said in the e-mail, “I know you are under the NSC [National Security Council] gun,” apparently to get the report done so the NSC can review it, “but hope given the Secretary’s priority on the six-party talks, we can sacrifice a few adjectives for the cause.”
Positively Roh Moo-hyun-esque.
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Fight? Well, it’s not as if they were throwing shoes at each other, is it?
I’ll bet INR is with DRL.