Posted on 04/22/2003 3:29:07 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Government Bashed for Nuke, Rights Stances
by Hong Seok-jun (udo@chosun.com)
Lawmakers from the Grand National Party blasted the government Thursday for agreeing to be left out of talks aimed at solving the nuclear crisis. They also decried Seoul's abstention from the United Nations vote to condemn North Korea for its human rights violations. The party's chairman, Park Hee-tae said that Korea’s exclusion from the multilateral talks was caused because the Roh Moo-hyun administration was dealing with the nuclear issues as an observer. “It is not too late to solve the North Korean problems on our own," Park said, "as it involves our existence as a nation and matters of life and death.”
The party's secretary-general, Kim Yong-il, said that people should clearly state that support to North Korea will be withheld unless Seoul has a leading role in handling the crisis. “We should gather all our diplomatic forces and open a path by which we can participate while taking the initiative,” he said.
Party Spokesman Park Jong-hee took the government to task for declining to vote on the UN resolution. “The Roh administration’s absence from the resolution is extremely irresponsible and cowardly,” Park said. “They strongly advocate that we must continue providing aid to North Korea regardless of nuclear weapons issues, and yet they are silent on the international society’s efforts to ensure human rights. This will go down in history as a disgrace.”
The ruling Millennium Democratic Party expressed its understanding of the government’s position - that for the time being three-way talks are unavoidable. Still, the party has asked that Seoul play a stronger role in the future. However, the Millennium Democrats criticized the government's abstention from the rights vote.
“We accepted the reasoning that we should not impede talks between the U.S. and North Korea," said the party's chairman, Chyung Dai-chul. "However, there must not be any conclusions reached in talks that we did not participate.”
Lee Man-sup from the GNP and former chairman of the National Assembly, said, “The minister that agreed to the three-way talks must be out of his mind.” Assemblyman Choi Myung-houn said, “I cannot understand why we didn't vote for the UN draft resolution regarding North Korea’s human rights.”
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