“It is perfectly reasonable for the UN Security Council to sanction North Korea for its military provocation,” according to former President Kim Young Sam.

Attending a press conference urging a UN investigation into North Korean crimes co-hosted by the National Assembly Human Rights Forum, Crimes against Humanity Investigation Commission, Open Radio for North Korea, and Democracy Network against North Korean Gulag yesterday, former President Kim asserted, “The fact that North Korea is a severe threat to the security of South Korea is very obvious.”

“North Korea’s nuclear tests, missile launches and recent unpardonable torpedo attack on the Cheonan prove the point,” he went on. “North Korea is a serious threat to both its citizens and humanity at large from both humanitarian, human security, and human rights perspectives.”

“While North Korea is threatening the outside with cases like the Cheonan, they are taking away the human rights and lives of their citizens domestically. The international community needs to deal with both these North Korean issues, which are like two sides of the same coin.”

In addition, he urged once again, “North Korea was recently able to participate without sincerity in the ‘Universal Periodic Review (UPR)’, a new UN procedure. The UN Security Council ought to participate better in North Korean issues.”

“The UN needs to deal with human security and human rights when handling things like the Cheonan incident and military provocations.”

Former President Kim suggested, “A good method to resolve this would be to organize an expert group or investigation committee into North Korea’s crimes against humanity in the UN General Assembly.”

In conclusion, he added, “North Korean defectors who suffered torture in prison camps and women who have experienced human trafficking and violence should be considered all the time. These people have requested face-to-face talks with the Secretary General of the United Nations, and I urge the Secretary General to sincerely consider their request.”

Kjell Magne Bondevik, a former Norwegian Prime Minister who was also at the press conference emphasized, “The UN General Assembly should include in its annual resolution on North Korea the ‘duty of a country to protect its citizens’ and reinforce this by recommending the designation of a group of experts to investigate whether the severe infringements of human rights which go on within North Korea are in violation of that principle.”

Former Prime Minister Bondevik added, “South Korea should exceed the level of effort being made in the UN Security Council and urge specific measures to change the strong interest in North Korea’s situation which exists into real action.”

The event, of which yesterday’s press conference was one part, continues today, with former President Kim, former Norwegian Prime Minister Bondevik, lawmaker Hwang Woo Yeo, South Korea’s Human Rights Envoy Je Sung Ho, and Kim Tae Hoon, a member of the North Korea Human Rights Sub-committee of the Korean Bar Association all continuing to participate.