Senate Confirms Robert King as N. Korea Human Rights Envoy

The Senate confirmed King on a voice vote:

Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, he defined North Korea as “one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.” He pledged to protect the human rights of the North Koreans, pay attention to South Korean prisoners of war in the North and Japanese abducted to the North, and address China’s deportation of North Korean defectors. [Chosun Ilbo]

More here. It’s good that King will be a full-timer, unlike Jay Lefkowitz. It’s less good that King brings little North Korea-specific expertise, experience, or cred to the job, and that it took the Obama Administration and the Senate ten months to get this done. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea endorsed him, but by then, Jared Genser and David Hawk were both out of the running.

Here’s a pdf of King’s statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.