US won’t discuss North Korea’s human rights records at summit: report
President Trump and other members of the U.S. delegation on Monday won’t bring up North Korea’s human rights record at a summit with the country’s leader, NBC News reported.
Administration officials told the network that the U.S. has decided against raising North Korea’s human rights issues at the meeting with Kim Jong Un. The summit will instead focus on the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
North Korea’s human rights violations have been well documented: A 2014 United Nations investigation found that the country has committed “unspeakable atrocities” on a scale similar to Nazi Germany.
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Former Obama administration officials told NBC News that it is appropriate for the U.S. to not bring up human rights at the summit, but that the Trump administration should pursue the issue afterward.
Activists and experts argued to the outlet that addressing human rights would be necessary as part of any agreement on the country’s nuclear weapons noting that officials who would be asked to report violations to inspectors may hold back out of fear of imprisonment.
Trump is currently in Singapore ahead of his historic meeting with Kim on Monday. The president initially canceled the meeting last month but declared it was back on after a White House visit from a top North Korean official.
Trump also did not discuss human rights issues during the meeting with the North Korean official, but Trump railed against North Korea’s human rights abuses during an address before the South Korean Parliament in November. He also met with several North Korean defectors during an Oval Office meeting in February.
The president also called out the country’s human rights records during a speech before the United Nations General Assembly last year.
“No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea,” Trump said at the time.
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