North Korea Human Rights Debate Sought by U.S., Allies at UN
North Korean Human Rights Debate Sought by U.S., Allies at UN
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and key allies are seeking to hold a United Nations Security Council debate on North Korea’s human rights record after failing to do so last year, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions.
France, the U.K., Germany, Belgium and the U.S. want to hold the meeting on Dec. 10, during a month when the U.S. is slated to have the rotating presidency of the Security Council. Such a decision would risk angering North Korean officials just as Kim Jong Un’s regime vows to pursue a “new path” if talks with the Americans don’t yield significant results by the end of the year.
North Korea’s human rights violations have been widely documented, but the decision to give the issue a prominent spotlight at the UN’s most important body is usually contested. China has argued that the Security Council is not the venue in which to discuss human rights because they don’t pose a threat to international peace and security.
While such a debate has taken place most years since 2014, it wasn’t held last year as President Donald Trump sought a second summit with Kim. Diplomats also said the U.S. was concerned it couldn’t gather enough votes together to hold the meeting.
It remains unclear whether the number of votes needed to hold the meeting will be secured this time around.
Diplomats said the Security Council’s schedule for December hasn’t been finalized, and China is expected to request that a procedural vote be held, which would then require nine votes in favor of the meeting. The council has 15 members, 5 permanent and 10 chosen on a temporary basis.
Early Test
Getting the meeting on the agenda will also be an early test of U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, who took up her post in September after succeeding Nikki Haley.
“Ambassador Craft has the perfect opportunity, now that she is confirmed to serve, to demonstrate her diplomatic skill by getting this issue on the Security Council agenda this December,” Robert R. King, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, wrote in September. “The human rights abuses are horrific, and this is the opportunity to reaffirm United States leadership.”
North Korea remains one of the world’s most repressive states, according to Human Rights Watch. Kim exercises almost total political control, restricting civil and political liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly, association and religion, the group said.
The government routinely uses arbitrary arrest and punishment of crimes, torture in custody and executions to maintain fear and control over the population, Human Rights Watch said. A UN committee dealing with human rights on Thursday passed a resolution condemning human rights violations in North Korea.
North Korea’s UN mission in New York lashed out at the European Union, which put forth the proposal, in a statement Thursday.
“We express deep concern with and alarm at the fact that some hostile forces,
including the EU, incite confrontation in the holy stage of the United Nations by forcibly adopting the anti-DPRK ‘resolution on human rights’,” according to the statement, referring to the country’s formal name as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Wainer in New York at dwainer3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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