The United Nations is set to open its field office in Seoul on Tuesday to deal with the human rights situation in North Korea. The move risks aggravating inter-Korean relations that have remained frozen in the past years, but marks a significant step forward in international efforts to improve dismal rights conditions in the communist state.
The field office, which will be run by five or six staff, will monitor and document the North’s human rights situation. Its role is based on a report released in February by the Commission of Inquiry, a U.N. panel tasked with probing rights violations in the North, wrapping up its yearlong mission. The report called for a series of actions, including the establishment of a field-based structure, to address the problems.
In March, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that reflected the COI’s recommendations. South Korea has since worked together with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up the proposed office on its soil.
The South Korean government recommended locating the office in Songdo, a newly-developed international business district in Incheon, but the OHCHR insisted the office be located in Seoul to ensure operational efficiency.
The office is expected to be an outpost for the global task of tackling human rights violations by the oppressive North Korean regime. As an entity under the wing of the U.N., it is set to play a bridging role between domestic civic groups committed to improving the North’s rights conditions and the international community.
But caution is needed to avoid the overlap of activities between the office and local civic organizations. The U.N. personnel should also be cautious not to be involved in or swayed by political controversies here over how to handle North Korean issues.
The launch of the office is set to worsen relations between the two Koreas as Pyongyang has vehemently protested the move. The North last month threatened to retaliate against the South over the plan to open the office. North Korea would “mercilessly punish” South Korea by all means possible if a U.N. office was set up in Seoul, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement. It condemned the envisioned office as an “unpardonable provocation” and “open declaration of war against it,” showing how severely pressured the North Korean leadership feels by the international move to highlight its human rights record.
This backlash from Pyongyang may hamper Seoul’s bid to improve inter-Korean relations in the lead-up to the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule on Aug. 15.
Seoul is now required to work out sophisticated strategies to make a breakthrough in the frozen ties with Pyongyang, while taking a more principled and concrete stance on North Korean human rights. It may need to consider increasing humanitarian aid and ease the ban on inter-Korean projects ― except for a joint industrial park ― on condition that transparency will be enhanced to ensure benefits from such measures are channeled to ordinary people in the North.
