US mum on North Korea abuses

A US State Department spokeswoman declined to say whether human rights abuses were on the agenda of meetings with North Korea, despite criticism by successive administrations and a US government report on Tuesday that described Pyongyang as running a system of prison labour camps.

‘I’m not saying it will be, I’m not saying it won’t be. I’m just not going to get ahead of the Secretary’s meetings that start this week,’ spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, referring to a meeting on Thursday in New York between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, ahead of a potential summit.

Any summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-in would chiefly focus on Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes, Nauert said.

While the United States has long criticised North Korea for rights abuses, a possible meeting in Singapore on June 12 would be the first opportunity for a sitting US president to directly raise the issue with the North Koreans.

The White House was not immediately available to comment on whether North Korea’s rights record would be raised.

While talks are expected to focus mainly on North Korea’s denuclearisation and its security, the United Nations and other groups have urged the United States not to neglect human rights.

Human rights abuses in North Korea, including violations of religious freedom, are a ‘matter of discussion’ for the United States, said Sam Brownback, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, in releasing the US State Department’s 2017 International Religious Freedom Report.

‘You’ve got a gulag system operating in North Korea, and it’s been a terrible situation for ... many years,’ said Brownback. North Korea has long been designated as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ in the report.