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NORTH KOREA: Focus Shifts From N-Bombs to Human Rights
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, May 10, 2006 (IPS) - For all the enormous attention that is being paid to the abductions of Japanese and South Korean nationals by North Korea, decades ago, it would seem that the nuclear threat over East Asia has vanished.
At least two dozen Japanese citizens were abducted in the late 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the cold war, as part of a bizarre plan to train them as spies and agents for the ‘hermit kingdom'. But in 2002, Pyongyang officially admitted to the abductions and allowed a few of the victims to return home while declaring several others dead.
Yet, the abductions are now a leading national issue in Japan where public sympathy for the families of the abductees is widespread. Tokyo sees the abductions as a serious violation of human rights, to be cited in order to press for change, including regime change, in North Korea. In this, it has the support of the United States and its Western allies, and now the United Nations.
South Korea, which has a longer list of abductees, has been pushing for a more conciliatory ‘sunshine' approach.
Much store is being set here by the ongoing discussions at the U.N. to establish a new human rights treaty that will hold countries responsible for enforced disappearances of foreign nationals. Those affected and their supporters want the proposed treaty to focus on other human rights violations by the totalitarian regime in Pyongyang, including those against its own people.
''The fact that the U.N. has publicly criticised North Korea for kidnapping Japanese nationals is very important to us. A treaty in the making on stopping the kidnappings of foreign nationals must be aimed at stopping the North Korean regime from committing more crimes,'' explained Ryutaro Hirata, spokesman for the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea.
Last week, Sakie Yokota, mother of Megumi, who was abducted when she was 12 years old, visited Washington to testify before the House of Representatives on North Korea's human rights and abduction issues and also met with President George W. Bush - an event that was splashed across the Japanese media.
‘'The President of the United States has clearly issued a message that the human rights issues of North Korea are unforgivable,'' said Yokota, speaking to presspersons on May 1. Pyongyang has said that Megumi, who married an abducted South Korean national, committed suicide but her parents believe she is alive.
Yokota and other relatives of the abductees are calling for economic sanctions against North Korea. ‘'The visit to Washington was aimed at pressuring the Japanese government to go ahead with economic sanctions against Pyongyang to punish the regime for human rights violations. We really don't know what is stopping the government from doing so,'' Hirata told IPS.
However, in the background of Yokota's visit to Washington, which included a 30-minute meeting with Bush at the White House, is a 30 billion dollar plan to massively beef up U.S. forces in Japan by 2014 - of which 26 billion dollars will be footed by Tokyo.
According to Kazuhiro Araki, director of the Research Group for Japanese Abductees, a solution is now being sought on two fronts- bilaterally between Tokyo and Pyongyang and internationally as a human rights issue.
''The initial battle (for the abductees) was between Japan and North Korea while the international community focused on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. But now, as the number of known victims grows in different countries and information on the horrific conditions faced by North Korean nationals themselves becomes available, the human rights front is a key thrust in our campaign for justice,'' he explained.
Araki says that, in this context, the UN General Assembly resolution in December 2005, that expressed ‘serious concern' over the human rights situation in North Korea, was highly welcome.
''The fact that the U.N. has taken on the abduction issue is a huge step in galvanizing the world's attention on atrocities committed by North Korea, ultimately leading to a regime change which will bring democracy to that country,'' he said.
Experts contend the human rights violation factor will intensify by the end of this month when the Japanese Diet (parliament) is expected to pass a resolution against North Korea that could pave to pave the way for economic sanctions against the country.
But such a move would be contrary to an initiative by China, running since August 2003, to broker a solution to Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, through the so-called ‘six-party talks' because it involves the key protagonists, the United States, Japan and North Korea along with neighbours - South Korea, China, and Russia.
Under a historic agreement arrived at in September, last year, North Korea agreed to dismantle "all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes", return to the nuclear Non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and allow international inspections in return for the supply of a light-water reactor for its energy needs.
Although differences arose immediately afterwards over when or whether North Korea could have a civilian nuclear programme, the Beijing initiative led to Washington shifting the rhetoric for 'regime change' in North Korea to one of 'regime transformation'..
Since then, Japan has been harping on North Korea's human rights record, though the kidnappings took place only decades after the end of the World War II during and before which Imperial Japan carried out some of the worst recorded atrocities ever on its neighbours, including undivided Korea.
China and South Korea have repeatedly accused Japan of being unrepentant about its wartime record. There have been no summits between Japan and China for over four years now and Beijing vigorously opposes Japan's entry into the U.N. Security Council as a permanent member.
''A U.N. human rights treaty will definitely boost our long struggle to bring home the large number of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea. At the same time, I think the international treaty will also contribute to improving Japan's own human rights record in the long run,'' said human rights lawyer Hiroshi Kawahito, a member of a group of attorneys supporting the families of adducted Japanese.
The Japanese foreign ministry is lending support to the planned convention. An official in the human rights and humanitarian section, who preferred not to be named, said that the treaty ‘'would be a landmark in protecting the human rights of victims of kidnapping in the future''. (END)
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