A widening rift between Seoul and Washington over how to approach North Korea’s human rights abuses was highlighted yesterday by U.S. officials pressing South Korea to adopt a tougher line against the communist country. At a Washington-funded conference in Seoul, U.S. special envoy Jay Lefkowitz called on South Korea and the international community to work together on calling attention to human suffering in North Korea. But in a separate event celebrating the fifth anniversary of former President Kim Dae-jung’s Nobel Peace Prize, the creator of South Korea’s “sunshine” policy toward the North said gradual reconciliation, not coercion, is the only way to resolve the human rights problem.


US Seeks to Pressure Pyongyang
A U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights Friday dismissed South Korean concerns that speaking out on humanitarian abuses by the Pyongyang regime will undermine peace on the Korean peninsula.


DJ Wants Pragmatic Approach
Former President Kim Daejung has stressed human rights conditions in North Korea can be improved through economic cooperation and cultural exchanges on a gradual basis, warning that any forcible and arbitrary outside move to change the human rights situation in the North would not be successful. In a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of Kim’s