U.N. envoy on N. Korean human rights calls for resumption of aid, dialogue

The U.N. envoy on North Korean human rights urged the international community Friday to once again engage with the communist nation by sending aid to its impoverished people and holding dialogue with the government.

The comments by U.N. Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman came just days after South Korea put on hold shipments of rice and cement over the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island near the tense Yellow Sea border. The sudden daylight attack killed four people and wounded 18 others, escalating tensions on the peninsula to a new high.

"It's logical that any manifestation of acts of violence would have immediate consequences in terms of disruption of normal flows of processes and aid," Darusman told reporters at a briefing that summarized his first visit to Seoul since taking office in June.

"While we need to recognize the immediate impact of these shellings and similar incidents, it's also important to underline that (there is) the need to be ready to continue (aid) immediately after cessation of hostilities ... and to help the ongoing humanitarian situation in (North Korea) in terms of their food sources, the health problem, education, which may be humanitarian in its manifestation, but essentially these are in fact human rights in their social and economic expression."

North Korea has long been accused of human rights abuses, ranging from holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners to torture and public executions. Pyongyang denies the claims, calling them a U.S.-led attempt to overthrow the regime, and refuses to recognize the U.N. post.

Darusman said his request to visit the country last month "did not receive a favorable decision" and that the North Korean government did not provide an explanation. The former envoy, Vitit Muntarbhorn, was never granted a visit during his six years on the job.

While expressing his "deep condolences" to the families of those who died in the attack, Darusman also noted that the recent development highlighted "the importance and need for resumption of multilateral meetings" with Pyongyang.

"(North Korea) should not find itself in isolation at a juncture when it needs the support and cooperation of the international community the most, both to address the human rights situation and the humanitarian needs," he said.

The reclusive nation has often held talks with its neighbors only in dire situations, apparently in hopes of receiving more concessions and aid to prop up its collapsing economy. Early last year, it declared a boycott on the six-party nuclear talks -- involving the two Koreas, United States, Japan, Russia and China -- in protest over U.N. sanctions.

Darusman, whose five-day trip included visits to a resettlement center and a school for North Korean defectors, will travel to Japan next year to collect further material on the North's human rights situation before submitting a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March.


(2010-11-26/Yonhap)