Exposing North Koreans to outside information may be the key to bringing a much needed change to worsening human rights conditions in North Korea, South Korea’s special envoy for North Korean human rights said Friday.
Lee Shin-hwa, ambassador-at-large for international cooperation on North Korean human rights, insisted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his regime are one of the “worst” violators of human rights.
“There are still some places in the world where human rights are violated by dictators and authoritarian leaders, and North Korea is one of the worst,” she said in a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
South Korea’s special envoy for North Korean human rights, Lee Shin-wha, is seen delivering opening remarks in a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, on April 21, 2023, in this captured image.
Lee noted that Pyongyang continues to develop weapons of mass destruction, while a United Nations report says over 41 percent of its entire population was malnourished between 2019 and 2021.
“North Korea fired some 100 missiles within less than two years, including 71 last year alone, which you can buy 1 million tons of rice, enough to cover annual food shortages even with some surpluses,” she said.
Lee insisted that years of efforts to denuclearize North Korea have done little but to “embolden” and “spoil” the recalcitrant regime.
“That’s why we have to mainstream human rights issues no matter what kind of foreign policy we are taking when it comes to North Korea,” she told the forum in Washington.
The South Korean envoy pointed to new laws North Korea enacted recently to crack down on people who have access to outside information, including South Korean pop culture.
“The tight control imposed by these laws is clear evidence that capitalist culture is already deeply rooted in (the) North Korean society. It shows that the regime considers information flow to be the most serious security threat,” Lee said.
She argued that the young generation of North Korea may have the power to voice their opinions and potentially change the way their dictatorial regime treats its people.
“We should recognize that a new generation is growing up and they can offer, once again, new ideas and full energy to take up long-standing issues, like freedom, democracy (and) human rights of North Korea,” Lee said.
“These young people have the power to use their voice, and these people can have our future designed differently,” she added.
Cho Hyun-dong, South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, said Seoul will work to improve human rights conditions “everywhere” and “anywhere,” including North Korea.
To this end, he stressed the importance of working with the international community to hold the North Korean regime accountable.
“If we are to hold the Pyongyang regime responsible and accountable for its actions, bring about substantive changes to its human rights practice and achieve our shared goal of complete denuclearization of the DPRK, it is imperative that we work together with the international community,” he said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Source: Yonhap News Agency