hankyoreh

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

On Mar. 5, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se criticized Japan for moves toward negating responsibility for the comfort women issue at the 25th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Comfort women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial army. It is extremely unusual for the foreign minister to appear at a meeting of the UNHRC and make remarks about pending issues. The move seems to indicate that the South Korean government will respond forcefully to Japan’s recent anti-historical actions.

In his address on Wednesday, Yun called for a swift resolution to the issue of the former comfort women, which he said was “not only a question of universal human rights but also a question that remains relevant today.” He observed that UN human rights organizations had continued to urge for the past 20 years that this problem be resolved and that many countries had adopted resolutions protesting Japan’s attitude on the issue.

Despite this, Yun said in his speech, certain Japanese politicians had recently been attempting to deny the Murayama Statement and the Kono Statement, in which the Japanese government admitted responsibility and expressed remorse for the comfort women issue. Yun called on Japan to acknowledge its responsibility for past mistakes and to give students a proper historical education.

Along with this, Yun noted the necessity of improving human rights in North Korea. He predicted that the report submitted by the UN commission of inquiry into North Korean human rights would be a historical milestone on the issue. “Practical measures for improving human rights in North Korea must be taken, and the international community must swiftly adopt follow-up measures,” Yun asserted.

Follow-up measures for the commission of inquiry, Yun said, could include strengthening UN human rights mechanisms with the special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea playing a central role, banning the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, and rapidly devising solutions for humanitarian issues including the families divided by the Korean War, victims of hijackings, and South Korean prisoners of war.

The last time a South Korean foreign minister attended a meeting of the UNHRC was when current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did so in 2006. Foreign ministers from around 50 countries attended this session of the UNHRC, though Japan’s foreign minister was not present.

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