US push for NK to improve human rights will not affect nuke talks

SEOUL, Jan. 11 — The United States' renewed call for North Korea to improve its human rights record may create some hurdles in bilateral relations with Pyongyang but is not expected to seriously impact multilateral talks over its nuclear ambitions.

The issue should not be seen as a new obstacle hampering progress on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, observers said Monday after a special US envoy earlier in the day described human rights conditions in the communist North as "appalling."

US special envoy for North Korean human rights Robert King, on a five-day visit to Seoul to gather information on conditions in the North, said the issue should be taken up within the context of the six-nation nuclear negotiations that involve South and North Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia.

"This just means the human rights issue should also be an important part of the six-party talks, not that the U.S. will directly link the issue to the nuclear negotiations, or that it will not agree to a denuclearization deal unless North Korea improves its human rights conditions," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said.

Yang noted that Washington may continue to raise the issue of human rights with Pyongyang, though only in the sense that it eventually needs to be addressed if the countries are to normalize ties.

"I believe the administration of Barack Obama is approaching the human rights issue not as part of the North Korean nuclear issue but as part of its larger dealing with North Korea," he said in a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency.

"This means the US will seek to improve human rights conditions in North Korea, but stop short of giving up on nuclear negotiations to achieve that end," Yang said.

King's remarks, which came during his first trip to Seoul since taking office six weeks ago, raised speculation here that the US may put nuclear negotiations on hold until the communist nation agrees to improve its human rights conditions, especially as his visit coincided with that of a special UN rapporteur on North Korean human rights, Vitit Muntarbhorn.

Kim Young-sun, a spokesman for Seoul's foreign ministry, said South Korea, too, was actively taking part in international efforts to help improve rights conditions in North Korea but that the issue must be dealt with separately from other issues.

"Our government's position is that human rights are a universal value shared by all mankind and that the issue must be dealt with in and of itself, that is, apart from other issues," he told a press briefing.

Jung Seong-jang, senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute, noted the issue might create obstacles in bilateral talks between the US and North Korea on normalizing ties but that the two sides will eventually reach a point of compromise on the issue.

"Demanding that North Korea guarantee all human rights is to demand that North Korea accept full-fledged democracy, and even the US will not make such a demand. North Korea, too, cannot reject the US's demands forever, so the sides will eventually find a compromise along with other issues," he said.

The US removed North Korea from its list of terrorism sponsoring states in late 2008 as a result of working group talks with Pyongyang on the normalization of ties. The talks have since stalled, however, as the North boycotted the six-party nuclear negotiations later that year. (PNA/Yonhap)

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