While much of world is preoccupied by the unfolding refugee crisis in Europe, President Park Geun-hye used the podium of the U.N. General Assembly to bring renewed international attention to the issue of North Korean nuclear disarmament.
Noting that the North Korean nuclear issue posed a serious threat to peace in Northeast Asia and beyond, Park urged giving highest priority to resolving it. With the Iranian denuclearization deal reached in July, North Korea is now the biggest unresolved nuclear issue.
Park sought to bring the world leaders’ attention to North Korea’s latest threats of provocations — firing of long-range missiles — that would be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolution. In the U.N. address, Park warned North Korea that acts of provocation would undermine the recent ease in inter-Korean tensions as well as the efforts of the countries involved in the six party talks on North Korean denuclearization. She also made a very public call on North Korea to choose the path of reform and openness, pledging support for its economic development.
In strong terms, Park also refocused attention on the dire human rights situation in North Korea. Reminding the audience of last year’s Commission of Inquiry report on the state of human rights in North Korea and how that report resulted in the discussion of the issue at the Security Council, Park urged North Korea to improve its human rights.
While Park was strong in her statements concerning North Korea, her statements concerning the unresolved issue of Japanese military sexual slavery during World War II were more reserved. She was right to frame the military sex slaves issue as sexual violence against women during an armed conflict and as a human rights violation. However, she failed the surviving former Japanese military sex slaves by indirectly referring to them as “victims of brutal sexual violence during World War II.” If the audience were unaware of the fact of Japanese military sexual slavery, it would be difficult to know who Park is referring to as victims and who the perpetrators of the crime were.
Park never mentions Japan and former military sex slaves, even as she urges “solutions that can bring healing to their hearts need to be devised quickly.” In fact, Park seems to do no better than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in not referring to the matter in a direct manner. The U.N. General Assembly was an ideal platform to press Japan to act but Park did not properly seize the opportunity.
