“>Endemic corruption and curbs on free speech like a ban on sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea are among the human rights concerns the U.S. State Department has flagged in South Korea in an annual global report.
The State Department's 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices will be published later this month.
A summary of this year's report cites the South Korean government's ban on sending anti-communist propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea as a worrying infringement on the freedom of expression of human rights activists and opposition figures.
It's an infringement on freedom of expression, and a sad display of cowardice in the face of North Korean threats. It's true of course that it's easy to criticise the South from distant safety, when you don't have an unstable nuclear-armed opponent pointing their weapons at you, but still, this was surely a pointless and spineless act of appeasement.
The report is embarrassing for the government not least because it is led by a former human-rights lawyer, President Moon Jae-in. The government here has also assiduously turned a blind eye to flagrant human rights abuses in North Korea in order to achieve some kind of rapprochement with the repressive regime.
Roberta Cohen, a former State Department official, said in an interview with Voice of America that the Moon administration sees human rights issues as an "obstacle" to its overtures to North Korea. She added that peace cannot be achieved if such issues are swept under the rug and criticized the South Korean government for lacking confidence to condemn North Korea's human rights abuses alongside its partners in the UN.
Meanwhile, North Korea is cozying up to fellow human rights abuser China. The North Korean Foreign Ministry said on March 20 that its ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Han Tae-song, called on Western countries to stop "meddling" in China's internal affairs by criticizing its human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
The remarks appear aimed at showing off North Korea's close ties with China as the Biden administration places greater emphasis on the matter than the Trump administration.
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