Southern Baptist public-policy leader Richard Land has joined a diverse coalition urging a “third way” to deal with North Korea that rejects military action and promotes human-rights reforms.
The coalition released a statement of principles in response to what it said are the dominant policies proposed regarding North Korea after it conducted missile tests in July.
Those options — bombing North Korea or signing an agreement with the communist regime that ignores human rights — are inconsistent with the values and interests of the United States, the coalition said in its statement.
“Just as the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union did not disappear until people behind the Iron Curtain won their freedom, security on the Korean Peninsula will also depend on progress towards human rights in North Korea,” the coalition said. “The goals of liberty and security are intertwined; the international community must pursue them on a linked, coordinated and interactive basis.”
• The United States should offer an “unconditional humanitarian aid initiative,” including an inoculation program for all of North Korea’s children and the renovation and building of hospitals and water-purification plants.
• The United States should increase, and South Korea should be strongly encouraged to increase, the number of North Korean refugees it admits.
• The United States and other governments should pressure China to end its forcible return of North Korean refugees to their country.
• Talks with the regime of dictator Kim Jong Il should emulate the 1970s Helsinki approach toward the Soviet Union by calling for human-rights commitments while also dealing with “security, economic and humanitarian” issues.
• The U.S. and South Korean governments should work with corporations to institute a code of conduct that ensures their presence in North Korea helps the people, not just the regime.
• Governments should press North Korea for access to its people by family members living throughout the world.
• The U.S. government should provide full funding of programs approved by the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act, including the expansion of broadcasts into the country.
Messengers to the June meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution calling on China to accord refugee status to North Koreans who have fled their country, as well as encouraging the United States and others to accept them as refugees.
Other groups supporting the coalition are Americans for Democratic Action, the Assemblies of God, Institute on Religion and Democracy and Evangelicals for Social Action. (BP)
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