National Assembly should pass N.K. human rights bill

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) today plan to introduce a bill on North Korean human rights to the National Assembly. Proposed for the first time in 2005, the bill has never been properly discussed at the National Assembly. However, a U.N. committee last week overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling to referring top North Korean leaders, including Kim Jong Un, to the International Criminal Court for the North`s dire human rights conditions. It is a shame that the South Korean parliament belatedly took on the issue, pressed by the international situation.

The bill, which the ruling party proposed last week by integrating five similar pending bills, calls for setting up an archive for the North`s human rights records under the Justice Ministry and the Unification Ministry`s drawing up of a basic plan for improving the North Korean human rights situation. A North Korea human rights foundation, which will be established partly under the opposition`s proposal, will be in charge of humanitarian aid for the North. The NPAD-proposed North Korean human rights bill is also pending in the Assembly.

Moon Hee-sang, the NPAD`s interim leader, said Friday that it was "outrageous" for Pyongyang to categorically reject the U.N. resolution supported by 111 countries in the world and claim that the resolution was aimed at subverting the North`s socialist system. So far, the NPAD has been perceived as sympathetic to Pyongyang and negative to enacting a North Korea human rights bill. We hope that Moon`s progressive attitude will lead to the passage of the bill that would help the North Korean people of the living hell of human rights.

Moon said his party would not oppose the bill if Saenuri makes some concessions on the anti-Pyongyang leaflet scattering and financial support for civic groups serving as an agency for North Koreans` flight from the North. Some civic groups declare the dates and venues for their leaflet scattering events, inviting the North`s attacks and making local residents jittery. The groups should refrain from making such moves. However, the efforts to help North Korean residents learn the truth about their country and deliver them news on the free world should not be stopped. South Koreans should not turn blind eyes to their compatriots who suffer from fears of forceful repatriations and starvation after fleeing from their impoverished country.

The United State`s North Korean Human Rights Act includes supporting nongovernment organizations for North Korean human rights situation, sponsoring anti-North Korean radio broadcasting and protecting North Korean refugees. The NPAD should not attempt to turn Seoul`s North Korean human rights bill into one calling for providing aid for the North in an attempt to upgrade its "sunshine policy" of engagement with Pyongyang.

Protesting the U.N. committee`s passage of the resolution, North Korea`s foreign ministry indicated that it would conduct a new nuclear test because of Washington`s "hostile act" against Pyongyang. On Sunday, Pyongyang`s National Defense Commission issued a statement calling the resolution "the most undisguised war declaration" to infringe upon the North`s sovereignty. It also reiterated its nuclear threat against Seoul while asking South Korean President Park Geun-hye thinks if her office will be safe in the event of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula. International efforts to improve the human rights conditions for North Koreans should be daunted by such threats, which only reminds us that the Kim Jong Un regime should never be let to possess nuclear weapons.