President Park demands end to North Korea’s “tyranny”

Park Geun-hye has a long and distinguished history of saying next to nothing about human rights in North Korea, so these remarks are another welcome step in the right direction:

“I will sternly and strongly deal with North Korea … until North Korea embarks on the path toward denuclearization and ends the tyranny of oppressing the human rights of North Korean people and pushing them to starvation,” Park said in an annual meeting with South Korea’s top envoys around.

A U.N. report showed last year that about 70 percent of North Korea’s 24 million people are suffering due to food shortages. It said 1.8 million, including children and pregnant women, are in need of nutritional food supplies aimed at fighting malnutrition. [Yonhap]

With the U.N. increasingly calling for the prosecution of His Corpulency for crimes against humanity, South Korea risks being sidelined by foreigners as a force in its own history. Park’s words are welcome, but the ones who really need to hear them are the North Koreans themselves. South Korea could gradually, patiently, and clandestinely build a base of influence among them by helping to provide for the unmet needs that their own government refuses to meet.