EU, Korea to talk human rights in Seoul

The EU Ambassador is to open a conference connecting South Korea and Europe on human rights in Seoul on March 20. Tomasz Kozlowski is to speak at the conference’s opening along with Christian Hegemer, director of the Institute for International Cooperation, and Tae-woo Kim, president of Korea Institute for National Unification. The opening conference of the EU-Korea Human Rights and Democratic Transition Dialogue Program aims to connect European and Korean rights organizations to fight against human rights violations in North Korea. It will be held at the National Assembly Members’ Office Conference Room from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Hanns-Seidel-Foundation and Korean groups have joined to seek ways to improve the human rights situation in North Korea using the European experience of moving on from the Cold War. Korean participants are People for the Successful Corean Unification (PSCORE), North Korean Intellectual Solidarity and the North Korea Human Rights Database Center. “We hope to make the European experiences on human rights issues and in particular democratic transition after Cold War available to Korea,” said Bernhard Seliger of the Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea Office. “With this program we want to stimulate dialogue on human rights between European and Korea civil society organizations.

“The dilemma of finding a delicate balance between rapprochement and defense of human rights has been a dilemma in Europe during the Cold War as it is today in many parts of the world, among them in particular North Korea. “Our program hopes to convey some of the European experiences by bringing leading actors of Eastern European civil society and European civil society organizations together with our Korean partners.”

The first conference will see Korean and European experts discuss human rights violations, integration and unification, as well as the importance of peace on the Korean Peninsula and ways to defend human rights.