Salmon, UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights, Begins Active Engagement; North Korea Strongly Condemns

UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights Begins Meetings with Families of Abductees
North Korea Increases Criticism Based on Salmon's Actions and Statements

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Elizabeth Salmon, the newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights, began meetings on the 29th with South Korean government officials, families of abductees, and North Korean human rights organizations to devise measures addressing North Korean human rights issues.

According to diplomatic sources on the 29th, Salmon, who arrived in South Korea on the 27th, held roundtable discussions on the morning of the 29th with pro-North Korea organizations including the Transitional Justice Working Group, Families of Abductees, the Korean War Abductees’ Families Association, the Korean War POW Families Association, the KAL Flight Abductees’ Families Association, and the North Korean Human Rights Database Center (NKDB).

On the 30th, she will visit the Hanawon Settlement Support Office for North Korean Defectors to meet with defectors undergoing training.

On the 31st, she is scheduled to visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom, where she is also expected to meet with Foreign Minister Park Jin.

On the 1st of next month, Salmon will attend the 2022 International Peace Forum on the Korean Peninsula hosted by the Ministry of Unification. She is scheduled to participate as a panelist in a session titled "Improving Human Rights in North Korea through a Dual Approach of Accountability and Cooperation."

On the 2nd of the same month, she will meet with Minister of Unification Kwon Young-se and hold a press conference for domestic and international journalists to brief on the results of her visit. On the final day of her visit, the 3rd, she will also meet with the family of Lee Dae-jun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official who was shot and killed by North Korean forces in the West Sea.

Salmon, an international law scholar from Peru, is the first woman to be appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights.

The Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights was established in 2004 by a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission and is tasked with investigating and researching the human rights situation in North Korea and reporting to the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council.

North Korea has openly criticized Salmon, who is in charge of these duties. On the 1st, when Salmon began her term, she issued a statement saying, "The human rights situation in North Korea has worsened over the past two years and six months as North Korea took strict measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic."

In response, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Salmon’s statement and denied ever recognizing the existence of this position.

Furthermore, on the 18th, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a message under the name of Jang Cheol-ho, a researcher at the Korean Human Rights Research Association, targeting Salmon, stating, "Our people’s human rights are our responsibility," and "You should first diligently study to understand us correctly."

They questioned the impartiality of Salmon and previous Special Rapporteurs on North Korean Human Rights by likening them to puppets of the United States and the West. "Recently, the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea made outrageous remarks criticizing our human rights reality in the statement issued after taking office," they said.

They added, "Through this statement, he revealed his ignorant and biased view of our country," and called it "a political conspiracy by hostile forces aiming to obliterate our ideology and system under the pretext of human rights."

Contrary to North Korea’s backlash, the South Korean government is aligning with the international community’s response to North Korean human rights by holding the North Korean Human Rights Policy Council.

On the 25th, the first North Korean Human Rights Policy Council under the Yoon Seok-youl administration was held, marking a full-scale offensive against the Kim Jong-un regime centered on the North Korean human rights issue, which the Yoon government has consistently emphasized.

Experts on North Korea predict that North Korea will escalate its criticism of Salmon’s actions and statements, raising concerns that inter-Korean relations and North Korea?US relations may further deteriorate.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.