World seen neglecting N. Korea human rights abuses

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The world should stop neglecting North Korea's human rights abuses as it focuses on persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program, an independent report said on Monday.

"The international community has far too long neglected the human rights situation in North Korea because of the nuclear threat," said the report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the law firm DLA Piper LLP, both based in Washington.

"It is the purpose of this report to emphasize that human rights should be part of all international involvement with the country. The people of North Korea deserve nothing less," said the report, issued on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

It was endorsed by former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

While there had been "halting progress" on the nuclear issue, progress on human rights had been negligible and "an issue of secondary concern."

The report followed a 2006 assessment that accused Pyongyang of failing to live up to its responsibility under international law to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.

FOOD PROBLEM

One of the most pressing problems, it said, is food distribution, which is based on a discriminatory system in which the military's needs are top priority.

"Large segments of the North Korean population never receive any of the food provided by international relief agencies and other countries," it said, noting that prisons still operate with "brutality and massive disregard for basic human rights."

Havel, Wiesel and Bondevik said in a foreword to the report that all dialogue with North Korea -- including the nuclear talks -- must make as a starting point Pyongyang's commitments under global treaties and laws on rights and other issues.

They said the world must stress that "flagrant violations of and disregard for the international commitments assumed by North Korea will only serve to undermine its credibility, both among its people and within the international community."

Among the report's specific recommendations is that governments without diplomatic missions in North Korea should consider establishing them and it calls for the provision of unconditional aid, preferably through international organizations and NGOs.

The international community should also insist on swift access to the people in North Korea most in need of food.

The report urged the U.N. General Assembly to ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint an expert panel to determine whether North Korea was guilty of breaching its duty to protect its citizens from crimes against humanity.

North Korea recently took steps to restart its nuclear program after agreeing in November to dismantle it as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal that was rocky from the start.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)