hankyoreh

The administration of President Lee Myung-bak continues to take actions that risk exacerbating already serious tensions between North and South Korea. It is openly participating as a co-sponsor in the United Nations’ human rights resolution on North Korea, something that will invariably infuriate the Northerners, and is openly considering full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative.

Speaking to reporters at the Central Government Complex in Seoul’s Doryeom-dong, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Friday that “if North Korea fires a missile, that brings up the issue of non-proliferation and could lead us to consider participating in the PSI.”

Hwang Jin-ha, a Grand National Party member of the National Assembly, announced that the Lee administration is “considering active participation” in the PSI, saying there is “no reason to be half-hearted” about the initiative. His statement indicates there is no difference of opinion on the PSI between the ruling GNP and the Lee administration.

Also on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced that South Korea, together with Japan, became a co-sponsor of a similar resolution initially sponsored by the European Union at the current meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The resolution will be put to vote this coming week, possibly on Thursday. South Korea was not a co-sponsor of the same resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in March of last year, but did participate in sponsoring another resolution in November 2008 at the UN General Assembly.

“We took into account the basic position that the universal value of human rights must be kept separate from all else and be dealt with as such, as well as the precedent of our participation as a co-sponsor of last year’s UN General Assembly resolution on North Korean human rights,” said ministry spokesperson Moon Tae-young.

However, many observers are saying that the decision contradicts other precedents. South Korea abstained from a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israeli human rights violations in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip.

North Korea has always lashed out in response to any South Korean vote in favor of or the co-sponsoring of resolutions condemning the human rights situation there. Usually it accuses Seoul of violating the spirit of the historic inter-Korean summits of June 2000 and October 2007,” and that the South “must take responsibility for any results of its anti-North campaign.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]