UN Security Council to Tackle N.Korean Human Rights

The UN Security Council is to put North Korea's human rights violations on its agenda later this month, U.S. human rights envoy Robert King told a forum in Washington on Friday.

"We'll see that the North Korea human rights issue is put on the agenda of the Security Council," King said. "There may be a discussion at the Security Council later this month."

Among the 15 member nations of the Security Council, South Korea, Australia, Chile, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Rwanda, the U.K. and the U.S. signed a letter to the council's president seeking to place the issue on its agenda. But Argentina, Chad, China, Nigeria and Russia did not sign.

The council consists of five permanent members and 10 nations rotating as non-permanent members every two years. An issue is placed on the council's agenda if more than nine out of its 15 member nations support it.

The council has held several meetings on North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but this is the first time that its human rights abuses will be discussed.

A government official here said, "If an issue is placed on the agenda, it is customarily discussed for three years."

Last April, the council was briefed on North Korea's human rights abuses by Michael Kirby, a former Australian High Court judge who led the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea. But the meeting was held behind closed doors.

The council's official meetings, by contrast, are open to the media and will lead to increased international attention on the North's horrific human rights abuses.

The council has the right to refer high-ranking North Korean officials to the International Criminal Court or impose additional sanctions on the North, but China and Russia, which have friendly ties with the North and veto power, oppose the move.

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UN Moves Closer to Indicting N.Korean Rights Abusers

The UN human rights committee passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on the Security Council to refer high-ranking North Korean officials to the International Criminal Court. The decision is expected to increase international pressure on Pyongyang to address its dire human rights situation.

The non-binding recommendation, which was proposed by 60 countries including the EU, was passed 111 in favor and 19 against with 55 abstentions and is expected to be passed by the UN General Assembly next month.

North Korean delegates watch vote results during a meeting of the UN human rights committee at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday. /AP-Newsis

The next step is the Security Council, which will consider whether to refer North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and other officials to the ICC and subject them to UN-led sanctions. But since the North's long-time allies China and Russia have a veto in the Security Council, the process will probably stop there.

Still, the latest resolution is the most forceful criticism yet of North Korea's human rights abuses. South Korean Ambassador to the UN Oh Joon hailed it as "historic" since it has created the legal basis to single out those in the North responsible for human rights abuses.?

Choe Myong-nam, a North Korean official in charge of UN affairs and human rights, denounced the resolution as being "full of groundless criticisms" and added the usual warning of "serious consequences" if it is passed.

Choe added the move leaves North Korea no choice but to continue with its nuclear weapons program.

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Jennifer Lopez unaware of rights issues before Turkmenistan visit -publicist

By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jennifer Lopez would not have performed a private concert in Turkmenistan at the weekend had she known about charges of human rights violations in the Central Asian nation, her publicist said on Monday.

Human rights campaigners, who accuse Turkmenistan's government of restricting free speech and jailing political opponents, criticized Lopez for performing at the concert attended by Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Saturday.

The 43-year-old singer came under particular scrutiny after singing "Happy Birthday" to Berdymukhamedov at the event, which was put on for local executives of the China National Petroleum Corp in the resource-rich desert nation.

"The event was vetted by her representatives, had there been knowledge of human-right issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended," Lopez's publicist Mark Young said in a statement.

"This was not a government sponsored event or political in nature," the statement added.

Rachel Denber, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, commended Lopez for coming clean about the performance but said any sort of vetting on the country should have been easy.

"Just do a few Google clicks to look up their human-rights record," she said. "It's hard to know why they (pop stars) gravitate towards these unsavory leaders. It's worth noting that these leaders want public noticeability and prestige that these celebrities offer."

Young said the birthday song was not in Lopez's contract for the show but the company had made a "last-minute 'birthday greeting' request" which she obliged.

Berdymukhamedov became Turkmenistan's president in 2006 after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov, who took absolute control of the former Soviet republic following independence in 1991.

Berdymukhamedov's regime has been accused by Western states at the United Nations of systemic repression of its 5.5 million people, but the country, which has world's fourth-largest known natural gas reserves, enjoys support from fellow Islamic and Asian nations.

Young said there had not been any discussion of Lopez donating her performance fee to charity. Other pop stars, including Mariah Carey and Beyonce, did donate their fees after coming under fire for performing for the family of former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and David Brunnstrom)

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