No APEC Afterglow, Part III
As if Roh’s self-inflicted Iraq faux pas wasn’t enough, this was the week that Seoul abstained yet again from a U.N. resolution that condemned North Korea’s human rights record–this time, before the entire General Assembly (from the Joongang Ilbo’s story):
The UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Committee adopted Thursday in New York the measure to show concern over reported torture, public executions and other infringements of basic human rights.
The resolution, sponsored by 37 UN nations led by the European Union, was approved by 84 members of the 191 UN countries. While 22 countries objected to it, 62 abstained.
“The South Korean government is deeply concerned over the human rights condition in the North, but the issue has to be addressed within the framework of Seoul’s North Korea policy,” Choi Young-jin, Seoul’s envoy to the United Nations, said.
. . . .While the resolution is non-binding, it is expected to provide the United Nations a basis to continue focusing attention on rights abuses in the communist country.
The resolution also urged the North to give relief agencies free access. Pyongyang recently asked aid organizations, including the UN-led World Food Program, to cease operations and leave the country by the end of this year.
The Grand National Party earns praise for its unqualified condemnation of the abstention, which marks a departure from the GNP’s previous obfuscation on the issue:
The GNP criticized the government’s abstention in a statement, saying that Korea would be recorded in history as a backward country in terms of human rights development.
“The government has turned a blind eye to the human rights abuse of North Koreans while trying not to hurt the feelings of the North Korean government. The ruling party and government should be held responsible for the decision,” Na Kyung-won, GNP deputy speaker in charge of public relations, said.
Rho then offered this bizarre apologia:
[Rho] cited Abraham Lincoln’s handling of slavery in the United States, saying Lincoln played down efforts to free the slaves “because his first priority was America’s unity.” He said there were parallels with America in the 1860s and the Korean peninsula today.
In response, the bones of Abraham Lincoln reconstituted themselves by sheer force of outrage, erupted from the grave, boarded a flight to Pusan, and stangled Roh with his bony fingers while shouting out the words on the OFK masthead
Chung Dong-Young, North Korea’s Minister for Southern Affairs and unofficial North Korean representative-at-large to the APEC Summit, stood among a crowd of stunned reporters and bodyguards during the incident. He later criticized Lincoln for what Chung said was Lincoln’s role in dividing Korea into post-war occupation zones in 1945.