[imText1]“We cannot disregard the fact that the official demand for improvement of NK human rights, which North Korea is regarding as a threat to change its political system, could aggravate instability.”
During an interview in a press briefing on the 14th of last month, Lee Jong Seuk, the newly appointed Minister to the Ministry of National Unification, announced that this is the method of approach of this Participating government(Chameu government) regarding the NK human rights issue.
Minister Lee emphasized that, “In that human rights are a universal value, the government accedes to and has been taking positive, practical actions to improve a real state of NK human rights.”
At the same time, he explained that, “Putting priority on North Koreans’ right to live, the government has continued to send food and fertilizers to North Korea at the humanitarian level. Moreover, the government has accepted all of the defectors who have wanted to come into South Korea at the cost of good North-South relations.
After being inaugurated on the 10th of last month, Minister Lee has spent a great deal of time in obtaining and explaining people’s consent, whether they are Conservatives or Progressives. During the time, Minister Lee revealed that, “In all processes of all policies from the drafting of unification policies to enforcement and assessment, I will guarantee people’s participations in them, and execute the wide collection of public opinions by respective stages.”
On the other hand, last January 19th, Ban Gi Moon, the Minister of the Ministry of Foreign trades and affairs and Condolizza Rice, the Secretary of State had a ministry-level strategic meeting. Afterwards, they reached a mutual agreement on ‘Strategic Flexibility’ of the US Army in South Korea which has been a controversial issue for 3 years and announced a Korea-U.S. Joint Statement. Yet, it is rising as a socially controversial issue.
Regarding this issue, they emphasized that, “The agreement is based on the condition that the U.S. Army will not use the Korean peninsular as a home for intervention into local conflicts.” Also, they added, “This is just a political declaration in which no specific legal rights and obligations were formulated and ‘Strategic Flexibility’ is not incompatible with the Mutual Defense Treaty in form and content.”
Regarding the reopening of Six-party talks, Minister Lee stated that, “Currently because of illegal issues such as counterfeit money, we could not arrange a meeting date, yet we are trying to restart it as soon as possible,” adding that, “All of the countries including North Korea, which participated in the previous talks, conceded the continuance of the Six-party talks.”
