Human Rights Law Set to Spend Christmas in Limbo

It is now more than likely that the long-pending North Korean Human Rights Law will not pass during the last regular session of the National Assembly this year.

The Law, which passed the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee of the National Assembly in February, has now been held up for more than ten months in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. There are only three days left until the end of the regular session of the National Assembly, yet progress is not expected. Woo Yoon Keun, a Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker and Chairman of Legislation and Judiciary Committee, is resisting bringing in the bill itself, while Park Jie Won, the leader of the DP in the Assembly, has reconfirmed that there is no change to the party’s overall opposition to it.

Speaking with The Daily NK last night, Joo Sung Young, a ruling Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker and Deputy Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee lamented, "The North Korean Human Rights Law is not being approved due to the opposition of the Democratic Party. How can we pass the bill when the Democratic Party will not even debate it?"

Regarding the idea of forcing the bill through on the authority of the National Assembly chairman, Joo explained, "It is not the kind of bill to be forced through based on that authority. I believe it is appropriate to proceed on agreement between the ruling and opposition parties."

The GNP included the North Korean Human Rights Law on its list of priority bills to process within this session, and clearly wishes to see it enacted. At a joint meeting of influential leading figures at the beginning of this month, GNP Floor Leader Kim Moo Sung suggested, "The Democratic Party needs to show its humanitarian face at the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Law, rather than via rice aid which just goes into military provisions. The North Korean Human Rights Law should be passed based on non-partisan agreement."

At the same meeting, Hong Joon Pyo a senior member of the GNP, and Ko Heung Kil, Chairman of the GNP Policy Committee, continuously clarified their intention to make an attempt to pass the bill, while Chang Yoon Seok, Vice Chairman of the GNP Policy Committee, stated, "I will make an attempt to pass the bill within this regular session of the National Assembly through more determined processes like requesting that the bill be brought forward based on the chairman’s authority."

However, given the unwavering opposition of the DP, the GNP is unlikely to make any extreme effort to get the Law approved. There is a large chance that the GNP will simply blame the DP and allow the clock to run out.

On this, one of the GNP’s leading unification policy makers, Park Chan Bong told The Daily NK yesterday, "We need to wait and see, keeping all our options open."

"It is true,” Park went on, “that the North Korean Human Rights Law is continually postponed by the opposition of the Democratic Party, and it is regrettable that the Democratic Party is shirking responsibility. If the media or civil society continuously pressured the Democratic Party or raised the necessity of the Law, then even the Democratic Party would feel the existence of a limit to holding out."


(2010-12-8/dailynk.com)