Human rights vital for N.Korea ties: US

Thu Oct 21, 10:43 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – North Korea must carry out its promises to give up its nuclear program, but improvements in human rights will also be vital to any relations with the United States, a US official said Thursday.

Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea, said that Washington was "carefully watching" developments in Pyongyang. A South Korean newspaper said that the communist state may be preparing a third nuclear test.

The United States wants North Korea to comply with a six-nation agreement in 2005 to give up its nuclear program and to end its "belligerence," King said.

North Korea must "take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law and obligations," King told a forum at the National Endowment for Democracy.

But King said that the United States also had "deep concern" about human rights in North Korea, including the treatment of refugees fleeing the impoverished country.

"Human rights are a top United States priority and addressing human rights issues will have a significant impact on the prospect for closer relations between the United States and DPRK," King said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Human rights groups and foreign governments say that North Korea has one of the world's most dismal human rights records.

The latest annual State Department report said the situation in North Korea was "deplorable," with the regime engaging in extrajudicial killings, torture and forced abortions.

The report said that North Korean authorities detain expectant mothers who try to flee the country and force them to watch their newborn infants being killed.