Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft during a luncheon with the permanent representatives of the United Nations Security Council in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Dec. 5. EPA |
The United States is still undecided on whether to agree to the holding of a United Nations Security Council meeting, Tuesday, to discuss human rights abuses in North Korea. This message was delivered by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft, even as the prospect of such a meeting has angered Pyongyang.
At least eight members of the 15-member council support the request for the meeting and the final decision rests with the United States, diplomats said. A minimum of nine countries need to support the move in order to defeat any bid to block it. Between 2014 and 2017, China failed to stop the annual discussion
Such a meeting would come at a time of increasing tension between Washington and Pyongyang as the end of the year approaches which North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un set as a deadline for the U.S. to show more flexibility in talks Washington hopes will lead to the North abandoning its nuclear and missile programs.
The deadline has raised concerns among some diplomats that North Korea could resume nuclear and long-range missile testing, suspended since 2017, next year. U.S. President Donald Trump has lauded the suspension of tests as a key achievement of his North Korea engagement policy.
"Human rights to me are important, I don't care where it is," Craft said in a news conference on Friday to mark the U.S. presidency of the Security Council for December. "We have not made a decision on whether or not there's a Dec. 10 meeting."
Last year, the United States dropped a push for the council to hold a meeting as it did not have enough support, the diplomats said. It could have tried again in January when five new members rotated onto the council, but failed to do so.
On Wednesday, North Korea's U.N. ambassador Kim Song warned the council in a letter that any discussion of the country's human rights situation would be a "serious provocation," and Pyongyang would "respond strongly."
Kim Song wrote that such a meeting would be an "act of conniving at and siding with the U.S.' hostile policy, which will lead to undermining rather than helping reduction of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and resolution of the nuclear issue."
"I have read the letter. We care about human rights," Craft told reporters. "None of us can stand by and allow ... human rights to be abused."
North Korea has repeatedly rejected accusations of human rights abuses and blames sanctions for its dire humanitarian situation. Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
A landmark 2014 U.N. report on North Korean human rights concluded that security chiefs there ― and possibly Kim Jong-un himself ― should face justice for overseeing a state-controlled system of "Nazi-style" atrocities. The United States blacklisted Kim in 2016 for human rights abuses. (Reuters)
