HUMAN RIGHTS: North Korea Protests U.N. Resolution

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 27 1997 (IPS) - North Korea announced Wednesday that it would withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in protest against a recent condemnation by the United Nations Subcommission on Human Rights.

Han Chang On, who heads the North Korean delegation in Geneva, called the U.N. resolution approved last week “a political maneuvre” based on “false information provided by an antagonistic party” — an allusion to South Korea.

The Subcommission demanded that Pyongyang ensure the rights of North Koreans to depart from and return to their country, as stipulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The resolution also lamented North Korea’s nearly 10 year delay in presenting its first periodic report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

The Subcommission expressed concern over reports of serious human rights violations in the Asian country, as well as the confinement of large numbers of people in administrative detention centres.

Han Chang On accused “the United States and the western forces of attacking with no reason countries that are not under their influence.”

He warned that the “attacks” on North Korea could hurt conversations towards peace on the Korean peninsula scheduled for mid-September in New York, with the participation of China and the United States.

Meanwhile, other North Korean sources cited by international dispatches said the coming peace talks would not be affected by the recent defection of two North Korean diplomats who were granted asylum in the United States.

The head of the North Korean delegation in Geneva also criticised U.N. human rights bodies for failing to adopt rigorous resolutions against “the constant brutal repression of the South Korean people, who are demanding reunification and independence from the United States.”

The resolution of the Subcommission on Human Rights urged the international community to pay more attention to North Korea’s human rights record, in order to help the population of that country “escape the isolation in which it is kept.”

The Subcommission, which ends its period of sessions Friday, also called on the international community to provide food aid to help North Korea make it through its current famine.