SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea's 'appalling' human rights situation must improve before the country can expect to normalize relations with the United States, President Barack Obama's special envoy on the issue said Monday.

In comments certain to anger North Korea, Robert King blasted its human rights record as a U.S. citizen remains under detention for crossing into the communist country last month without permission.

"It's one of the worst places in terms of lack of human rights," King told reporters after meeting South Korea's foreign minister. "The situation is appalling."

King said that is preventing the normalization of ties between Washington and Pyongyang, which have never had diplomatic relations and remain locked in a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

"Improved relations between the United States and North Korea will have to involve greater respect for human rights by North Korea," he said.

King, a former staff director on the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, is on his first visit overseas as special envoy for North Korean human rights. The position was created in 2005 by Congress to raise the issue of human rights and provide assistance to refugees fleeing North Korea.

King plans to travel to Japan on Friday. He has no plans to visit North Korea, though said he would be "happy to go" if Pyongyang invited him.

King called on North Korea to release the US citizen it is holding, but acknowledged that Washington had little information on the person.

"We are actively working to find out where he is being held and to urge that he be released," King said. "We have requested that our protecting power in Pyongyang determine his condition and we have not heard yet what that is."

In the absence of diplomatic relations, Sweden represents the United States in North Korea.

North Korea announced late last month that it was holding a US citizen for "illegally entering" the country through the North Korea-China border, though did not elaborate. He is widely believed to be Robert Park, an American missionary who South Korean activists say crossed into the country over a frozen river several days earlier to raise the issue of human rights in the North.

King declined to say whether Washington believes Park is the one being held, citing privacy issues and State Department regulations.

North Korea has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records. The country holds some 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according to South Korean government estimates.

Pyongyang denies the existence of prison camps and often reacts strongly to foreign criticism regarding human rights.

Asked if the US plans to make human rights an agenda item at six-nation talks aimed at achieving the North's denuclearization, King said Washington planned to raise the issue with North Korea at the forum.

"We will hold bilateral discussions in the context of the six-party talks, he said, referring to a U.S.-North Korea subgroup that is part of the forum.

North Korea quit the six-nation talks, which began in 2003, last year, though has suggested it may eventually return. They involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Separately, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations' special investigator on human rights in North Korea, kicked off a six-day visit to South Korea to meet government officials, civic activists and North Korean defectors.

Source: Yahoo News.

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The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) seeks to raise awareness about conditions in North Korea and to publish research focusing world attention on human rights abuses in that country. At the same time, the Committee is trying to find creative solutions for improving human rights in North Korea.

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) reported that the North Korea presents an extreme version of the challenge that often faces non-governmental organizations.

It has a daunting record of human rights abuses and atrocities. However, at the same time, North Korea is an isolated hermit state, extremely resistant to outside pressure. The Legal Strategies for protecting Human Rights in North Korea report shows that The options presented are:

	Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea by Paolo Cammarota, Joe Crace, Kim Worly, and Haim Zaltzman (attorneys at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP)
	Referral to the International Criminal Court
	Referral to the U.N. Security Council
	Working with the U.N. Human Rights Council
	Taking action under an international covenant to which North Korea is a party: - The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women - The Convention on the Rights of the Child - The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
	Pursuing a lawsuit under the Alien Tort Claims Act or similar U.S. law
	This is by no means an exhaustive list. For example, other nations have their own domestic analogs to the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act, and different states are parties to different international treaties and conventions. However, this report illustrates the kinds of considerations necessary when evaluating the options available under international treaties or when suing the officials of one country in the courts of another. For the first four of these options, the report explores: - General description of the option - The legal standards for action to be taken - The violations that North Korea has committed of those standards - The institutional process involved in that option - Possible outcomes from the option - Political considerations This report attempts to illustrate how NGOs may conduct their own analysis of which legal options are most helpful in their own situations. More detailed report you may refer to the following link

Flash back to the UN Commission on Human Rights, resolution on North Korea dated 15 April 2003, United Nations provided Commission on Human Rights which was on 59th session Agenda Item 9: 2003/… Situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea):

Reaffirming that all States Members of the United Nations have the obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to implement the obligations they have assumed under the various international instruments.

Mindful that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a Party to the International Covenants on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

Taking note also of the concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Committee concerning the reports that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has submitted to them,

Reaffirming that it is the responsibility of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of its entire population,

Underlining the importance of the effective continuation of the process of rapprochement between the two Koreas and noting the recent progress in this respect, Desiring.

See more detailed in below:

U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, David Hawk talks about the serious situation including WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY: the a North Korean gulag2 of forced-labor colonies, camps, and prisons where scores of thousands of prisoners — some political, some convicted felons — are worked, many to their deaths, in mining, logging, farming, and industrial enterprises, often in remote valleys located in the mountainous areas of North Korea; and second, a system of smaller, shorter-term detention facilities along the North Korea–China border used to brutally punish North Koreans who flee to China — usually in search of food during the North Korean famine crisis of the middle to late 1990s — but are arrested by Chinese police and forcibly repatriated to the DPRK. More details see below link provided.

A new organisation made up of 120 defectors from the secretive state, claim that the regimes prison camps now hold 300,000 people. Many escapee of North Koreas most brutal prison camp has lived unspeakable horror and Starved of food and common humanity which made available witnesses via YouTube however, still the North Korea weapons plane seized-- -
14 Dec 09: Police in Thailand have seized a cargo plane carrying 35 tonnes of battlefield weapons, including missile launchers, made in North Korea. The seizure is one of the biggest ever busts which shows Al Jazeera Report via Youtube.

Sources:

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)

Yahoo News

YouTube

The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps Prisoners’ Testimonies and Satellite Photographs

 

letmypeoplego2008.com:

p://www.hrnk.org/legalStrategies-1107.pdf

 

WASHINGTON - Declaring North Korea a "grave threat" to the world, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged the U.S. and its allies will aggressively enforce fresh international penalties against the nuclear-armed nation and stop rewarding its leaders for repeated provocations.

In a display of unity with South Korea's leader, Obama said the world must break a pattern in which North Korea puts the globe on edge, only to put itself in line for concessions if it holds out long enough.

"We are more than willing to engage in negotiations to get North Korea on a path of peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, and we want to encourage their prosperity," Obama said in the Rose Garden alongside South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. "But belligerent, provocative behavior that threatens neighbors will be met with significant and serious enforcement of sanctions that are in place."

Obama's comments came at a time of intensifying concern, with the North stepping up its bomb-making activities and threatening war against any country that blockades its ships. Pentagon officials warned on Tuesday that North Korea's missiles could strike the U.S. within three years if its weapons growth goes unchecked.

Emboldened by fresh assurances of protection by the United States, Lee went even further in warning that North Korea's tactics will not be tolerated. Asked if he felt his country was under the threat of attack from the North, Lee said his country's alliance with the U.S. will "prevent anything from happening."

He said of the North Koreans, "They will think twice about taking any measures that they will regret."

Defiantly pursuing its nuclear ambitions, North Korea has posed a major foreign policy challenge for Obama. However, the new president has found support from the international community, including a swift resolution of sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council just last week.

The new punishments toughen an arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart the Koreans' nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The U.N., however, did not authorize military force to enforce the measures.

North Korea provoked that rebuke by conducting its second nuclear test on May 25, following recent missile launches that had already alarmed the world.

Beyond enforcement of the new U.N. penalties, Lee said he and Obama agreed on something more _ a push for other new policies that will "effectively persuade North Korea to irrevocably dismantle all their nuclear weapons programs." The South Korean leader said those measures will be discussed among the five nations that had been working with North Korea on disarmament until talks stalled: the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.

He did not elaborate, and the White House had no comment on the matter.

North Korea has bargained with other countries for more than a decade about giving up its nuclear program, gaining such concessions as energy and economic aid, and then reneging.

The North is thought to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs and is believed to be preparing for another nuclear test. Deepening the crisis, it responded to the new sanctions by promising to "weaponize" all its plutonium and step up its nuclear bomb-making by enriching uranium _ the first time it had acknowledged it had such a program. Both plutonium and uranium can be used to make atomic bombs.

With all that as a backdrop, Lee's treatment at the White House was meant to underscore solidarity at a perilous time.

The South Korean president was the first foreign leader in Obama's nearly five-month-old presidency to get the honor of a joint appearance in the Rose Garden. He spoke repeatedly of his nation's firm partnership with the United States and thanked the American people "for their selfless sacrifice in defending my country and its people." Obama said the friendship was anchored in democratic values, and then he turned his words on the country's northern neighbor.

"North Korea has abandoned its own commitments and violated international law," Obama said. "Its nuclear and ballistic missile programs post a grave threat to peace and security of Asia and to the world."

Obama said that North Korea's record of threatening other countries and spreading nuclear technology around the world means it should not be recognized as a legitimate nuclear power.

At a missile defense hearing on Capitol Hill, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn pointed to North Korea's recent steps to speed up its long-range weapons program and agreed with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that the U.S. should be prepared for a "worst-case scenario."

"We think it ultimately could _ if taken to its conclusion _ it could present a threat to the homeland," Lynn said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

At the Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell declined to say when interdiction operations might begin under the new U.N. sanctions, but he said the U.S. already has enough ships and other resources in the region to do the job. Morrell was asked what the point of the activity would be _ and whether it was only a half-measure _ as long as there was no authority to forcibly board Korean ships.

"I think if the world is in agreement that we are all going to monitor and then attempt to compliantly board and attempt to then direct those ships into a port where they can then be inspected, that is real progress," he said. "That is more than what we were doing before."

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Pauline Jelinek, Lara Jakes and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

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According to the FAS report, there are reportedly as many as 22 nuclear facilities in 18 locations in North Korea. These include uranium mines, refinery plants, nuclear fuel plants, nuclear reactors, reprocessing facilities, and research facilities.

FAS statement shows that the North Korea has atomic energy research centers in Yongbyon and Sunchon and a atomic power plant in Sinpo. Nuclear weapons development organs include the Atomic Energy Department of Kim Il-song University; the Physics Department of Kanggye Defense College; the metal science department under the Chemical Department of and the physics Research Institute of Pyongsong College of Science; the college of physics in Yongbyon atomic research center; and uranium mines in Kusong in North Pyongan province, an unidentified place in North Hwanghae province, and Sunchon in South Pyongan province. Natural uranium has been processed near the cities of Sunchon and Pyongsan since the 1960's.

See the following locations for the Nuclear Facilities (Source: FAS):
FAS (Federation of American Scientists)

Recent IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Press Release shows that International Nuclear Safety Experts Conclude IAEA Peer Review of Canada´s Regulatory System. An international team of nuclear safety experts today completed a two-week IAEA review of the regulatory framework and effectiveness of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The team identified good practices within the system and gave advice on some areas for improvement. The IAEA has conveyed initial findings to Canadian authorities; the final report will be submitted by autumn.

The IAEA is the world´s center of cooperation in the nuclear field. It was set up as the world´s "Atoms for Peace" organization in 1957 within the United Nations family. The Agency works with its Member States and multiple partners worldwide to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies.

The IAEA works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. Its key roles contribute to international peace and security, and to the World's Millennium Goals for social, economic and environmental development.

The IAEA is the world's nuclear inspectorate, with more than four decades of verification experience. Inspectors work to verify that safeguarded nuclear material and activities are not used for military purposes. The Agency is additionally responsible for the nuclear file in Iraq as mandated by the UN Security Council.

The IAEA helps countries to upgrade nuclear safety and security, and to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Work is keyed to international conventions, standards and expert guidance. The main aim is to protect people and the environment from harmful radiation exposure.

The IAEA also helps countries mobilize peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology. The work contributes to goals of sustainable development in fields of energy, environment, health, and agriculture, among others, and to cooperation in key areas of nuclear science and technology.

The IAEA's programmes encourage the development of the peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. The organization and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize announced on 7 October 2005.

Although IAEA represents the International, it is our responsible to take care the nature resources and healthy environment, secure, clean energy economic development and make the green world. Here is a great example from King County , Washington for environmental support in order to preparing for climate change impacts.

Reported by catch4all.com, Sandra Englund, June 16, 2009.

Resources:

Yahoo.com

King County Solid Waste Division

IAEA.org

Wikipedia