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December 23, 2008
North Korea: Opportunity for Obama?
Bush's special envoy for human rights in North Korea calls for a broader agenda.
President Bush's focus on denying nuclear weapons to the megalomaniacal regime in Pyongyang needs to be broadened, according to Jay Lefkowitz, the outgoing administration's special envoy for human rights in North Korea. There is good precedent, according to Lefkowitz:
Beginning in the mid-1970s, the West and the Eastern Bloc began a long dialogue on security, economic and human-rights issues. The key to the negotiations that ensued -- known as the Helsinki Process -- was explicit linkage between these three "baskets," with the West insisting on verifiable progress in each area as a condition of financial aid or international recognition.
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Today, a Helsinki-style model should be replicated with North Korea, and the U.S. should promote linkage among security, economic and human-rights issues. Significant economic assistance to North Korea should be offered, including development assistance, World Bank loans, trade access and food aid, but it must be given only in return for tangible, verifiable progress on all issues on the agenda. And human-rights progress should not be measured by bureaucrats meeting and reading prepared statements, but by tangible steps that move North Korea closer to the norms of the international community.
Lefkowitz says such a shift presents an opportunity for the Obama administration:
To be sure, the policy I am proposing is diplomacy with our adversaries. But President-elect Obama has made that one of his goals. And if we pursue a comprehensive approach to North Korea, we may find that we'll not only advance our security objectives, but also help some of the world's most abused people.
And the human rights needs are great. According to the Voice of America:
Religious and human rights groups estimate that 150,000 to 200,000 people are believed to be held in political prison camps in remote areas of North Korea, some for religious reasons. Prison conditions are harsh, and refugees and defectors who have been in prison said that prisoners held on the basis of their religious beliefs generally are treated worse than other inmates.
For recent Christianity Today coverage of North Korea, click here.
Comments
Excellent informative article - agree with Leftkowitz that a Helsinki style model presents an opportunity for the Obama administration.
I will never forget reading about an interview with a man who had been in one of the organized "camps". The young British woman interviewer who was producing the documentary could not bring herself to use what she had learned - "we didn't put it in the film," she said from London, England. "It is so appalling, you just can't imagine. He said that 95 percent of people who go into that prison die in the prison. Their whole motivation is to kill these people, but they won't let them die easily. They torture them to death over a very long period of time."
Let us hope that Jack at freekorea.us won't need to reiterate his comment that only in retrospect will we ask ourselves the question, "why didn't we do anything? I shudder the day when North Korea is finally opened."
Posted By: Irene Magurany | December 25, 2008 10:32 PM
I'm not sure U.S. gov't has the right to dictate who does and who does not have nuclear weapons. While I'd like to see change in North Korea, I'd like to see individuals and private organizations stepping up to the plate rather than reliance upon Uncle Sam.
Posted By: Red Monkey | December 28, 2008 4:35 PM
I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too...
Posted By: unlaldido | January 13, 2009 12:27 AM