Vollertsen Interview Part II, On Arirang, Food Aid, and the General Assembly Vote on N. Korean Human Rights

Q: So whatever happened with the planned demonstration at the Arirang Festival?

Just nature: The Kashmir earthquake – and some medical emergency call[s] – but maybe the timing will be even better during the APEC summit.

Q: What is your latest word on the food situation in North Korea?

Kim Jong-Il is using food as a weapon against his own people – there is enough food in North Korea for the elite – there is no need for hunger in the communities in the country side which will not get any more state rations when they are opposing Pyongyang.

Q: When we speak of peaceful solutions in North Korea, can you suggest one that doesn’t simply ask the people of North Korea to patiently die in place?

Freedom of press and travel guaranteed in some sort of Helsinki agreement during the 6-party-talks which will make it happen that [there] is real monitoring of any food-distribution – photographed by foreign correspondents.

Q: How do you think the Kim Dynasty will end?

Like the one in Roumania or Yugoslavia–at the wall in front of a firing squat or at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Q: What do you recommend that other nations, or their citizens, can do to bring about such a result?

Keep on the pressure with human right issues – get the emotional moving Hollywood blockbuster out and then the people worldwide will care.

Q: Do you think we’ll live to see the limit to their patience?

Yes – because it depends on us – and when we will hurry up it will end very soon.

Q: Do you have any comment on the reports that South Korea will yet again abstain on a U.N. Resolution–this one before the General Assembly–on human rights in North Korea?

Maybe the South Korean government can only act in this way under the current situation when they really want to implement a honest engagement or sunshine policy. But history will show if there was any hidden agenda.

[Separately, Dr. Vollertsen e-mailed these more extensive comments:]

The EU resolution on human rights in the DPRK has now been sent to New York and it is therefore appropriate timing to be approaching the voting countries to seek their support for the resolution. The voting on this resolution is significantly different from that in the UN Commission on Human Rights, as all 191 member states vote at the General Assembly, in contrast to the 53 states that vote at the Commission. This means that the majority of votes at the GA will be cast by countries which have not had to vote on this issue before.

It is therefore important to seek to ensure that all those that could be persuaded to vote yes do so and that all those that could be moved from a possible no are encouraged to abstain instead. We have seen tremendous success at the CHR votes and it is important that we seek to maintain or extend the broad level of support as the matter goes up within the UN.

We will stress the nature of the abuses and the complete lack of co-operation by North Korea, including the refusal to recognize the mandate of, or extend co-operation with, the Special Rapporteur and refusal to engage in technical co-operation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Operational paragraph 13 of the CHR resolution 2005/11 ‘urges other United Nations bodies, inparticular the General Assembly, to take up the question of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea if the Government does not extend cooperation to the SpecialRapporteur and if improvement of the situation of human rights in the country is not observed’. This such lack of co-operation makes a General Assembly resolution virtually inevitable. Opposition or neutrality is morally inappropriate in the context of the very severe human rights violations.

The window of time is fairly narrow. The EU did not want lobbying done until the resolution was sent to New York. However, it is likely to be tabled on 2nd or 3rd November. The voting date appears to be uncertain, though we have been told that it could be as soon as a week after tabling.