Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Human Rights

I've always been extremely interested in the incredible lack of human rights in North Korea. The prisons are infamous for their poor treatment and the fact that the families are targeted when relatives escape to the North makes the situation even worse. With the poor living conditions and the lack of basic necessities, it's obvious that North Korea has a problem. However, I got to thinking who should be responsible for attempting to fix this problem? Should the UN make greater efforts? Should the US be the leader in human rights in North Korea? Perhaps South Korea? Maybe the neighboring China? Or maybe nobody should be responsible for helping North Korea in this issue. Human rights issues are a sensitive issue in any country, but especially with North Korea because of their lack of openness, I feel that the situation is even more sensitive.

My basic question is, should countries and/or organizations have a moral obligation to help North Korea deal with human rights?

1 comment:

Jolan said...

After reading this post, I decided to browse Amnesty International for reports concerning North Korean human rights abuses. This past February, two border patrolmen were sentenced to execution for helping fellow North Koreans make "unauthorised visits" to China. Interestingly enough, the executions were delayed until after February 16, Kim Jong-Il's birthday, which is a national holiday . . . an odd thing to have to celebrate while waiting in a prison cell.

I couldn't figure out how to link within comments, but the link to the report is here:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA240012007?open&of=ENG-2AS