Blatant Reality

The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee will bring a draft condemning North Korea’s human rights violations to the General Assembly for a final vote. In the draft along with singling out North Korea, the committee also condemned the human rights record of Iran and Myanmar. Cuba, probably feeling like they may be the next to be singled out for their human rights record, tried to rally some nations against the draft.

Before the vote, Cuba rallied members of the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement which it heads not to approve the draft resolution because it singled out North Korea.

However, that didn’t seem to do much because the draft passed easily with a 97-23 vote with only 60 abstentions. I really don’t know what the fuss is about; The result of the vote in the General Assembly will be non-binding and will most likely have no affect on the countries what-so-ever. The world already knows that human rights are constantly being ignored in those countries so its not like it will even raise awareness of the atrocities happening there.

UPDATE:

Yea, Iran was pretty angry with the UN’s panel including them in it’s draft so you know what they did? Sentence 50 college age kids to death because of “immorality.” Hmmm, for some reason I don’t think that will help their case.

In the past six years alone, North Korea has violated the Northern Limit Line 135 times, with 2/3 of those incursions being with military patrol boats.

Baek Seung-joo, chief researcher of the North Korean Studies Division for the Korean Institute for Defense Analysis, said that the crossing of North Korean fishing boats “can be understood as the pursuit of economic purposes. But patrol ships’ violations are an obvious sign that North Korea has no intention to respect the NLL.” Baek recalled that the North has repeatedly demanded a redrawing of the line but mainly uses the matter as a convenient pretext to reject South Korean proposal to build up mutual military trust.

Even though North Korea has promised to dismantle its nuclear program, the country still celebrated the one year anniversary of their first nuclear detonation.

On the one-year anniversary of its first nuclear test, North Korea gushed praise over the country’s success and its leader, saying the test was a “miracle.”

 

“Our leader Kim Jong-il has brought to us, 70 million people (on the Korean Peninsula), the sky of lasting peace, prosperity and hope,” said the Rodong Shinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers’ Party monitored in Seoul.

With North Korea shutting down its nuclear facilities, questions arise about where will all the atomic physicist go.

Unlike the arms engineers of the former Soviet Union, the North Korean experts are far from the forefront of their field. But they have honed skills in old technology that could spread with relative ease.

Washington and the North’s neighbors worry they could follow the path of Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan, who became a merchant of nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea itself.

A more immediate concern is that failing to assure the scientists’ future could give Pyongyang another reason to resist disarmament.

As with most solutions, more problems always seem to crop up.

In their talks with South Korea, North Korea wants to redraw its borders with the Yellow Sea.

North Korea pressed South Korea yesterday to discuss redrawing their disputed sea border, the scene of bloody clashes in the past, as the two sides began high-level military talks on easing tensions.

North Korea’s lackadaisical approach to the nuclear talks delayed South Korea’s life sustaining shipment of food.

Starvation deaths in North Korea have returned to 1990s levels. That means over a thousand people a week dying from lack of food. Over a million people died during the 1990s food shortages. This time around, the shortages are caused by government refusal to allow in food that must have its distribution monitored (making it difficult for the government to divert the food to the army or private sale). The government also took its time with the current round of nuclear disarmament talks, delaying shipments of food from South Korea. These have just arrived and are being distributed.

Read the rest here.