The Washington Post
"We're in no rush," President Donald Trump declared last week about efforts to slow or reverse North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Well, North Korea is also in no rush. After Trump's showy June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Pyongyang's nuclear materials production, missile operating sites and brutal concentration camps are all still grinding along.
Since the summit, Trump has swooned in unseemly fashion that "we fell in love" when Kim wrote to him: "No, really--he wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters."
Meanwhile, the human rights catastrophe in North Korea is unaddressed. Four years ago, a United Nations commission of inquiry found "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" by North Korea, including "crimes against humanity" perpetrated by the state. Now, the UN special rapporteur on North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said, "The human rights situation at the moment has not changed on the ground in North Korea despite the important progress on security, peace and prosperity." He added, "What is needed from North Korea is a signal that they will discuss human rights . . . . We haven't heard anything coming from the summits in this respect."
A few years ago, the world was shocked to discover North Korea had one, then six, nuclear weapons. The number is now in the dozens. Tens of thousands of people are suffering in brutal prison camps. But who's in a rush?
Editorial on 11/16/2018