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Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung emerges from a seminar hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a gathering of senior journalists, at the Seoul Press Center on Thursday, where he confronted protest from the families of South Koreans abducted by North Korea.
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Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Thursday said the issue of human rights in North Korea ¡°is directly linked with the question of its political system" and a moral and ethical stance ¡°is not the only way¡± to approach the issue. Lee was speaking at a seminar hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a gathering of senior journalists, at the Seoul Press Center. The remarks came in answer to a question whether addressing North Korea's human rights situation would constitute an interference in the internal affairs of the other, which the leaders of the two Koreas during their latest summit agreed to desist from.
But an article about the North Korean human rights situation on the Unification Ministry's website says, "Human rights are universal values. The government is seriously concerned about the human rights of North Koreans." Lee was criticized for remarks similar to Thursday¡¯s in September, when he said human rights in North Korea ¡°have to be seen from the standpoint of its own local environment and characteristics."
As for South Korean POWs and abduction victims, Lee admitted the latest inter-Korean summit ¡°didn't discuss the issue." He implied that although President Roh Moo-hyun brought it up, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made no specific mention of it.
"Some 3,400, or 87 percent of 3,900 victims¡± including South Korean POWs and abduction victims ¡°have returned. The problem lies with those still left behind in the North. It's a little unfair for you to talk as if the government had solved nothing,¡± he said. But critics say North Korea released most of the 3,400 returned abduction victims of its own accord, not as a result of any South Korean government efforts.
Choi Sung-yong, the president of activist group Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea, said, "Most of the returned victims came back during military governments. The current government is saying 87 percent of the victims have come home as if it had done something for their release."
During inter-Korean ministerial talks in June, Lee came under fire for humbling himself before North Korea's Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho-ung, repeatedly apologizing to him. At the time, Lee said, he did it because Kwon ¡°is our guest." But when the shoe was on the other foot, he urged respect for North Korea¡¯s demand that the South Korean delegation watch the ¡°Arirang¡± mass propaganda performance in Pyongyang ¡°because it is the host."
Asked on Thursday why his ministry hastily struck the expression "reform and opening" from its website for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, Lee said, "The Kaesong Industrial Complex is not aimed at reforming and opening North Korea but at testing inter-Korean cooperation." Only two days earlier, the ministry's website had said, "The Kaesong Industrial Complex is the foundation for future reform and opening¡± in North Korea.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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