North Korea Demands Removal of U.S. Envoy
North Korea opposed the recent appointment of the U.S. special envoy for human rights as it demanded its rescindment.
North Korea opposed the recent appointment of the U.S. special envoy for human rights as it demanded its rescindment on Saturday.
Jay Lefkowitz, who recently served as Deputy Assistant to President Bush for Domestic Policy, was announced to oversee efforts in increasing awareness and improving "the human rights of the long-suffering North Korean people," stated a senior administration official last week.
Lefkowitz, also a former member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, will meet with international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to promote coordinated humanitarian activities in North Korea and "will also engage with North Korea on human rights concerns."
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However, warning that the position "is an act of bad omen" that could hurt international efforts to resolve the nuclear weapons issue, North Korea called for the envoy's immediate removal, according to the Associated Press. The North Korea demand came as efforts were being made to resume nuclear negotiations.
Six-party talks were set to resume this week, but North Korea said Monday it would push back the meetings by two weeks with part of the blame placed on Washington's special envoy appointment.
"The fact that the North Koreans reacted that way shows how really important [this] is," said Suzanne Scholte, president of Defense Forum Foundation, who marked the new post as a major step in advancing the human rights agenda.
Scholte also noted the close relations that Lefkowitz has with President Bush as his former adviser. The new appointment could thus allow for the President, who has expressed concerns for the people in North Korea, to get his "ear on this issue" of human rights.
While the issue on human rights in North Korea has come up during the recent disarmament negotiations, it has not been a central focus.
"Any negotiations should include human rights," said Scholte. "Human rights are the most important thing that we should be talking about."
Not to discuss the issue "is to betray our own values" and also the people in North Korea, she continued.
Nevertheless, more attention is being brought to the suffering and the human rights abuses in the tyrannical regime, noted Scholte, who recently organized a protest with the North Korea Freedom Coalition at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Washington, D.C.
The Aug. 20 protest gathered religious leaders and human rights advocates to demand a stop to China's violent repatriation of North Korean defectors.
"When North Korean refugees are returned to North Korea, they routinely face torture and imprisonment," said Congressman Chris Smith in a statement read at the protest. "Eye witnesses have testified before Congress and told us horrific stories of savage torture, forced abortions, and persecution of Christians."
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a growing number of reports from North Korean refugees reveals that any unauthorized religious activity inside North Korea is met with arrest, imprisonment, torture, and sometimes execution by North Korean officials. Additionally, defectors have also reported on the continual increase of Christians placed in the prison system.
There are virtually no personal freedoms in North Korea.
Scholte said helping the refugees should be the priority in humanitarian aid. Defectors themselves are also at the forefront of spreading awareness and bringing freedom to the suffering children and families through such medium as the radio.
We have to "let them know that we care very much about the suffering in [North Korea]," she added.
The new envoy appointment is part of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 which provides $24 million a year in humanitarian aid to both the citizens and refugees of the communist country until 2008.
