S. Korean Human Rights Commission Will Investigate Atrocities in N. Korea

South Korea’s human rights agency said yesterday it would launch a probe into abuses in North Korea by interviewing defectors from the communist state.  The National Human Rights Commission has included investigating its neighbor ¡ ¯s record as one of its major tasks this year.

“We will conduct a survey on the overall human rights conditions in North Korea this year by hearing from defectors, said commission spokesman Lee Myung-jae.  The number of defectors to be interviewed could be in the hundreds or thousands,” he said. [Joongang Ilbo]

The investigation, to be completed in  the next few  weeks, will question defectors and refugees in both South Korea and China, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

An NHRC official said the survey will focus on North Korean defectors who were caught by North Korean authorities while attempting to escape and will ask how they were treated after they were caught. Those in South Korea will be questioned first, but the commission will fly to China and interview North Korean refugees there if necessary. The NHRC official said that the method and date of the survey has not been finalized, but it will be “part of the commission’s efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North.   [Chosun Ilbo]

I should note that the Chosun Ilbo’s report is contradicted by both the Joongang Ilbo (on the number of defectors to be questioned) and the Daily NK (on whether it will send investigators to China border region).

It’s not the first time the HRC has said it would finally talk about, you know, actual  grave human rights violations against Koreans, only to change  its mind later.  What makes this time different, we hope, is the change of presidential administration. And although the HRC is nominally independent, no serious person can believe that.

For years, the HRC has endured withering criticism and charges of hypocrisy for refusing to inquire into the  atrocities that may have killed millions of North Koreans.  If the HRC decides to bow to  its critics, it  would  mark the end of five years of exquisite blogging material.  For example, In the past, when asked why it never mentioned  the atrocities  in the  North, the HRC has denied that its jurisidiction extends beyond the de facto boundaries of the Republic of Korea,  regardless of  its constitutional boundaries (see  Articles 2 and 3): 

“It is practically impossible for the South Korean government to exercise jurisdiction in North Korea”¦.  We studied international and domestic laws, and found that North Korean citizens, in reality, can not be recognized as South Koreans.   [Joongang Ilbo, Dec. 12, 2006, quoted here]

In 2003, however,  the HRC denounced the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  And the basis for the HRC’s jurisdiction this time?  It speculated that “the world peace threatened by the U.S. invasion of Iraq  could also endanger  Korea’s survival,” and that [t]he Iraq war can be connected to the North Korean issue.”

During the Roh Administration, it often seemed as though North Korea could not commit and abuse too grave to ignore, nor could the United States commit a slight too small to ignore. Thus, the HRC spent most of the Roh Administration protecting the sanctity of teenagers’ hairstyles and diaries, interspersed with occasional good acts  to oppose civil rights violations  that nonetheless paled in comparison to the Holocaust in North Korea.

When the HRC decides to start its work in earnest, there will be plenty to talk about:

A nine year-old boy, Ahn Sung Hoon appeared with his father. He had experienced repatriation from China to North Korea with his mother when he was only 2 years old. This two year old boy who was under detention in National Security Agency charged with escape. In a prison, Ahn was separated with his mother and put in a cell for male prisoners. He was constantly abused ‘for being fretful and looking for his mother’ and suffered from malnutrition and microbial colitis. Ahn is still going through aftereffects like insecurities and developmental disability. [Daily NK]

I might suggest that this incident might be worth a closer look, and so might this.  It’s good that the HRC can make itself honest.  What remains to be seen is whether it can make itself relevant.