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US: NKorea must address "abysmal" human rights

By FOSTER KLUG,Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, August 1

WASHINGTON - The chief U.S. envoy at North Korean nuclear talks on Thursday criticized as "abysmal" that country's human rights record, and promised a Senate panel that he would continue raising concerns in future talks.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill offered the criticism during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, in which he also noted efforts by diplomats to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, a frequent critic of the North's human rights, grilled Hill during the hearing about the issue. Brownback has blocked the Bush administration's nominee for U.S. ambassador to South Korea, D. Kathleen Stephens, over concerns about how human rights are being addressed in six-nation nuclear negotiations.

Brownback said outside the hearing room that he was pleased that Hill, under questioning, said the matter of human rights would be "riveted" into a future North Korean-U.S. working group. Brownback also suggested that he would be making an announcement soon about Stephens' nomination, but did not provide specifics.

Hill's strong comments on North Korean human rights come ahead of President Bush's trip next month to South Korea.

North Korea's rights record is a delicate matter in the often deadlocked nuclear disarmament negotiations. North Korea rails against any criticism of its human rights record as a U.S.-backed effort to seek the overthrow of Kim Jong Il's government.

Last month, North Korea demolished its nuclear reactor's cooling tower, a symbolic effort to show its commitment to abandoning nuclear weapons.

The destruction of the tower followed North Korea's long-awaited presentation of a 60-page accounting of its nuclear efforts. The declaration triggered an announcement from Bush that he was moving to ease some sanctions on the North.

The U.S. and other members of negotiations are now working to set up a plan to verify North Korea's declaration.

Despite some success in negotiations, including the North's inability to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear reactor, Hill said the U.S. is not yet satisfied.

The United States will continue to press the North on questions about whether it attempted to enrich uranium and sell nuclear technology to other countries, he said.

But he was also critical of North Korean human rights. Hill called the North's extensive prison camp system "truly a scar on the Korean Peninsula" and spoke of reports that North Koreans suffer torture, forced abortions and, in some cases, execution.

The country's "human rights record is abysmal, and every day that the people of North Korea continue to suffer represents an unacceptable continuation of oppression," Hill said, adding that Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, will soon travel to South Korea.

"The North Koreans don't like to hear the term 'human rights,' but that does not mean that we shouldn't raise it," Hill said.

Brownback urged Hill to invite Lefkowitz to future talks with North Korea, something Hill said he would do.

Also at the hearing, William H. Tobey, deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, estimated that the future U.S. costs of North Korea's nuclear disarmament will be "substantially higher" than the amount spent so far. The Energy Department has spent about $15 million to date, and the State Department has provided about $20 million.

If disarmament efforts continue, he estimated costs of about $34 million in fiscal year 2008 and more than $360 million in fiscal year 2009.

This week, the State Department's top Korea expert is visiting China for meetings with North Korean officials. Sung Kim's trip is meant to move forward efforts to determine how to verify the North's accounting of its nuclear activities.

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