Foreign Affairs

Human Rights Agenda In South Korea Takes Backseat To U.S.-North Korean Peace Talks

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South Korean human rights groups worry that peace talks between the U.S. and North Korea following the joint summit in June with the nation’s two leaders could be undercutting humanitarian agendas and forcing them to lose funding, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“As South and North Korea have promoted this ‘mood for peace,’ the defectors and North Korean human rights activist groups feel excluded,” said Kim Tae-hee, a North Korean defector who heads the Coalition for North Korean Refugees to Reuters.

Activists groups have been facing financial struggles as they fail to raise money to support initiatives. The South Korean government has even closed down a human  rights office in the country and are forced to cut jobs and programs as well, sources told Reuters.

Kim also says they are facing pressure from the South Korean government to tamp down anti-North Korean rhetoric that may detract from ongoing peace negotiations between the two nations and the U.S.

The government feels that confronting Kim Jong-un on human rights violations would do more harm than good. South Korea’s priority remains forging relationships with the North to protect Pyongyang citizens from their oppressive regime and moving forward with nuclear disarmament talks, senior aides to South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Reuters.

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