Trump-Kim Summit Seen Unlikely to Touch on Human Rights
North Korea’s human rights issues are likely to be sidelined at the upcoming second summit between Washington and Pyongyang, according to experts, but a top U.N. rights official hopes progress is made on the subject.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi Feb. 27-28, with hopes of making progress on denuclearization following vague outcomes reached at the historic first summit in Singapore in June.
Trump said he mentioned North Korea’s human rights issues at the first summit, but some observers criticized him for what they saw as shrugging off Pyongyang’s human rights record while meetiTomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, stressed that it is important “North Korea meets and starts a dialogue” with U.N. officials, and said he hoped Trump would raise the subject of human rights at the summit.
“What I would like to see coming from the summit in the upcoming month is concrete and tangible results in regards to the engagement of North Korea with my office,” Quintana told VOA’s Korean service last week. “And that would be the starting point, the starting point to then address substantive issues on North Korea.”ng with Kim.
Not a security threat
Other experts, however, say human rights are unlikely to be on the summit agenda because North Korea’s violations of international norms do not directly threaten U.S. security.
Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, said, “If the United States is planning on going in there and trying to make some headway on denuclearization, they will probably not say anything about human rights, or keep it to a minimum.”
Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said human rights were unlikely to be discussed because the subject “does not impact the U.S., its allies, and other [countries] of Northeast Asia in anything like the existential threat of missile and/or nuclear attack.”
Signs depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are displayed in a barbershop in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 19, 2019. The two leaders have become style icons ahead of their upcoming summit in Hanoi.
Some experts also warn that bringing up human rights with North Korea in the early stages of negotiations on denuclearization will be counterproductive.
“If [Trump] wants to get anything done with North Korea, he probably shouldn’t bring it up, because North Korea will recoil against any attempts to lecture them on human rights,” said Gause.
John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus, agreed, saying, “I believe if the United States wants to get a deal on North Korea’s nuclear program, it should stick to talking about national security questions.”
‘Code’ for regime change
Manning said mentioning human rights to North Korea, which “terrorizes its citizens to maintain order and social control,” will be seen as “a code word for regime change.”
Quintana agreed, adding, “North Korea has seen the issue of human rights for decades as an issue used for political purposes, an issue used to change the system of North Korea.”
Experts said human rights would most likely be brought up in the future if there were improvements in North Korea’s relationships with the U.S. and the international community.