Debate on N Korea vital to resolve abduction issue

For the first time ever, the UN Security Council has held official discussions on human rights concerns involving North Korea, including the abduction of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang.

The Security Council debate comes in the wake of a UN General Assembly resolution last week that harshly condemned North Korea’s widespread human rights violations, urging the Security Council to refer North Korea’s human rights situation to the International Criminal Court.

Such infringements of human rights in North Korea as torture, public executions, detention of political prisoners and abductions of people from abroad were recognised in the resolution as “crimes against humanity”.

The General Assembly resolution also stipulated that such human rights violations have been committed in accordance with “policies established at the highest level of the state for decades”.

The resolution, which accuses North Korea of perpetrating state crimes, is harsher than ever.

At the Security Council meeting on Monday, three of the five permanent members – the United States, Britain and France – were in favour of having North Korea’s record of human rights violations referred to the ICC. 

But China raised an objection on the grounds that the council “should refrain from doing anything that might cause the escalation of tensions”. Russia also opposed the idea of referring the situation to the ICC.

After the turn of the year, it will be extremely difficult for the Security Council to decide on the proposed ICC referral.

However, the Security Council’s continued consultations on Pyongyang’s human rights problems will likely have a degree of impact on efforts to pressure North Korea to make policy changes.

The UN General Assembly resolution was based on a report issued in February by the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The resolution is the outcome of Japan’s proactive involvement in the matter, which has ranged from the establishment of an inquiry commission in March 2013 to the adoption of the General Assembly resolution.

The resolution has expressed the world body’s hopes of seeing the investigations into abduction victims and related matters that North Korea started in July produce “specific results”. Based on the resolution, it is highly important for Japan to aggressively press Pyongyang to ensure that the nation is swiftly and accurately informed of the content of Pyongyang’s probes.

North Korea, for its part, has responded harshly to the moves in the United Nations, arguing that they reflect a US policy of hostility against Pyongyang, even threatening further nuclear tests as a countermeasure.

Pyongyang’s tactic of trying to rattle its opponents through hard-line language is an old trick. Japan must not be swayed by this, and must preserve its basic policy of “dialogue and pressure” in tackling negotiations with the North.

Relations between Washington and Pyongyang are currently strained. This is because the US government has concluded that the North was involved in cyber-attacks on a film company that produced a movie depicting the assassination of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

Although there may be arguments for and against the wisdom of producing a comedy mocking a country’s leader, the US representative at the Security Council meeting denounced North Korea, saying Pyongyang was trying to suppress freedom of speech in the United States.

Having received terrorist threats against movie theatres that screened the movie in question, the film company at one point cancelled the scheduled screenings, but the firm later decided to release the film at some theatres and on the Internet, taking into account public opinion seeking the movie’s release. To cope with attacks in cyberspace, it is of essential significance for the international community to address the challenges in collaboration among countries.