Need for Bipartisan Cooperation to Realize the Dresden Plan Featuring Humanitarian Aid to North Korea and Form Domestic and Overseas Circumstances for the Improvement of Human Rights in North Korea
On the occasion of the 5th Humanitarian and Human Rights Committee Meetingof the 16th NUAC to advise on the national unification policy of the President, activities related to improving human rights in North Koreaparticularly those carried out by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) were reviewed,with the method of enhancing national interest in it and promoting the policy efficiently discussed by the committee members in depth.
"Issues of managing the inter-Korean relations (division) and preparation for unification are promoted simultaneously on the Korean peninsula at the moment. Humanitarian aid and human rights in North Korea carry important significance in managing inter-Korean relations and unification," said Park Chan-bong, Secretary General of NUAC.
Park Chan-bong, Secretary General of NUAC
Park also stressed the need to “make a good contribution to the government policy of humanitarian aid and human rights issues of North Korea by recommending good ideas related to them including the program for supporting pregnant women and infants in North Korea, as indicated by the Dresden Plan."
According to Je Sung-ho, chief of the committee, many of the committee members voluntarily visited Jindo Island to help and comfort the victims’ bereaved families of the Sewol ferry disaster. He said, “It is time for us to exert our efforts to solve the humanitarian issue of North Korean people with such spirit.”
"Considering the worst status of human rights in North Korea, its real situation is not that well-known to international societies unlike Africa, Southeast Asia, or Syria. It is because we do not provide real and sufficient photos that can showthe terrible scenes of human rights violation by the North Korean regime. Since the UN Human Rights Committee, the USA, and other nations are now more active than before in improving the human rights situation in North Korea, we should pay more keen attention to it including establishing the relevant legislation,"Lee Jeong-hun, Ambassador of Human Rights of Korea and member of the Planning & Legal Committee of NUAC, explained.
Ambassador Lee noted that West German ChancellorKohl, at the time of German unification,asked East Germany to improve human rights and democratization as a priority to proceed with discussing unification. “Improvement of human rights in North Korea will be a very important issue while proceeding with the unification of the two Koreas as well," he added.
Ambassador Lee Jeong-hun
Prof. Park Heung-sun
Committee Meeting
During the group discussion of the committee, many members presented their opinions on how to realize the Dresden Planand draw bipartisan cooperation to form domestic and overseas circumstances to improve the human rights situation in North Korea
