Republican representative says US should focus on abuses in North Korea before UN council

The United Nations Human Rights Council is preparing for its fourth Universal Periodic Review of North Korea in November. The council will collect information from the Member States to compile a comprehensive profile human rights abuses that take place in the hermit land.

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Republican Steel, a native of South Korea, submitted a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday outlining key concerns of herself and the large contingent of Korean immigrants in her district.

Concerns cited include the forced repatriation of escaped North Korean refugees, as well as the North Korean government’s previous kidnappings of Japanese, South Koreans and other foreigners.

North Korea’s kidnapping of foreigners has been extensively documented in the decades since the Korean War, especially from the border towns of South Korea and the coastal areas of Japan. These individuals, most of whom were held in the country for decades, have been almost completely lost in the opacity of North Korean society.

Furthermore, in recent years, China has pursued a policy of cooperating with the North Korean regime to return escaped North Korean nationals when they are caught attempting to flee through its territory.

The situation amounts to a kind of prison state: those inside struggle to escape, while many outsiders have been quietly smuggled in and held in isolation for most of their lives.

China and Russia have benefited enormously from the control exerted by the North Korean government, Steel emphasizes in the letter. The two regional allies regularly import North Koreans for labor, in defiance of long-standing UN resolutions.

Steel urged Blinken in the letter to clarify that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s regime has failed to adhere to previously agreed improvements to human rights conditions, such as ending the use of torture.

The California lawmaker told the Washington Examiner that these issues are particularly close to her heart as a South Korean immigrant born to two refugees from the North. Her parents met in a refugee camp after they all individually escaped across the border.

“Decades after my parents fled following a communist takeover, the North Korean government continues to violate basic human rights and aggressively persecute its own citizens,” Steel said.

She continued: “Innocent North Koreans, defectors, and detained foreign citizens need the United States’ help now more than ever.”

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North Korea’s crimes on the international stage have taken on new urgency as the United States, South Korea and the United Nations have confirmed that there is evidence that North Korean troops will be deployed to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

Thousands of soldiers have been documented moving from Pyongyang to the Russian port city of Vladivostok via ships. They are expected to join the fighting taking place in Russia’s Kursk region, currently held by Ukrainian forces.