ID :
35571
Sun, 12/14/2008 - 13:50
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/35571
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea slams Seoul-backed human rights laws
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea slammed South Korea's ruling conservative party Sunday for pushing legislation that would amplify outward criticism of human rights in the North, calling it an "act of anti-unification."
Two legislators from the Grand National Party have each proposed motions that
would expand Seoul's role in denouncing human rights conditions in Pyongyang.
The bills call on the government to provide conservative activist groups with up
to 300 million won (US$218,000) to aid them in making and sending anti-Pyongyang
leaflets across the inter-Korean border.
A recurrence of leafleting by South Korean groups has drawn a backlash from
Pyongyang and contributed to worsening cross-border relations.
North Korea recently placed new restrictions on travel across the shared border
and expelled hundreds of officials from a joint industrial park, calling the move
a retaliatory measure against Seoul's hardline policy stance towards the North.
"Those are poisonous laws that imitate the anti-North Korea laws in the United
States," Tongil Shinbo, Pyongyang's weekly magazine, said of the proposed
legislation. "It goes without saying what will happen to the relationship between
the two Koreas after such laws are established."
Conservative activists here, many of whom are family members of South Koreans
abducted by the North, often fly balloons into North Korea laden with leaflets
denouncing the communist regime and calling for North Koreans to defect to the
South.
Civic groups said earlier this month they will "temporarily" suspend spreading
the flyers to join government efforts to thaw chilling ties with Pyongyang.
The laws are currently pending in Seoul's parliament. They also call for
restoring a propaganda radio broadcast aimed at North Korea that was shut down
under a 2003 joint agreement.
Opposition parties and progressive civic groups in Seoul are strongly opposed to
the North Korea human rights laws, accusing President Lee Myung-bak and his
conservative party of risking further tension with Pyongyang.
Relations between the two Koreas began to sour after the Lee administration took
office in February.
Seeking inter-Korean reconciliation and a peaceful end to the nuclear crisis,
Lee's predecessors had adopted a "silent" approach in dealing with sensitive
political issues such as human rights conditions in the North and defectors.
The incumbent administration, however, has taken a tougher stance, vowing not to
expand inter-Korean cooperation projects or aid to the impoverished state until
North Korea abandons all of its nuclear ambitions.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, are both party to the six-nation
aid-for-denuclearization talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
Two legislators from the Grand National Party have each proposed motions that
would expand Seoul's role in denouncing human rights conditions in Pyongyang.
The bills call on the government to provide conservative activist groups with up
to 300 million won (US$218,000) to aid them in making and sending anti-Pyongyang
leaflets across the inter-Korean border.
A recurrence of leafleting by South Korean groups has drawn a backlash from
Pyongyang and contributed to worsening cross-border relations.
North Korea recently placed new restrictions on travel across the shared border
and expelled hundreds of officials from a joint industrial park, calling the move
a retaliatory measure against Seoul's hardline policy stance towards the North.
"Those are poisonous laws that imitate the anti-North Korea laws in the United
States," Tongil Shinbo, Pyongyang's weekly magazine, said of the proposed
legislation. "It goes without saying what will happen to the relationship between
the two Koreas after such laws are established."
Conservative activists here, many of whom are family members of South Koreans
abducted by the North, often fly balloons into North Korea laden with leaflets
denouncing the communist regime and calling for North Koreans to defect to the
South.
Civic groups said earlier this month they will "temporarily" suspend spreading
the flyers to join government efforts to thaw chilling ties with Pyongyang.
The laws are currently pending in Seoul's parliament. They also call for
restoring a propaganda radio broadcast aimed at North Korea that was shut down
under a 2003 joint agreement.
Opposition parties and progressive civic groups in Seoul are strongly opposed to
the North Korea human rights laws, accusing President Lee Myung-bak and his
conservative party of risking further tension with Pyongyang.
Relations between the two Koreas began to sour after the Lee administration took
office in February.
Seeking inter-Korean reconciliation and a peaceful end to the nuclear crisis,
Lee's predecessors had adopted a "silent" approach in dealing with sensitive
political issues such as human rights conditions in the North and defectors.
The incumbent administration, however, has taken a tougher stance, vowing not to
expand inter-Korean cooperation projects or aid to the impoverished state until
North Korea abandons all of its nuclear ambitions.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, are both party to the six-nation
aid-for-denuclearization talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
