North Korea – Drinking in the Last Chance Saloon: a State “without parallel”; Interview on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Programme; Question in Parliament on April 27

Apr 18, 2017 | News

Lord Alton discuss North Korea on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08nf4dw/victoria-derbyshire-26042017 – scroll forward to 1h25m.

North Korea
27 April 2017

Question
 11.29 am

Asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what evaluation they have made of the risks to world peace posed by the situation in North Korea.

Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I should mention that I co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)

My Lords, we have made it clear that North Korea must stop its destabilising behaviour. Its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes are a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and a threat to regional and international security. We fully support action at the United Nations Security Council to counter this threat and maintain pressure on the regime. The Foreign Secretary will shortly be discussing North Korea’s illegal activity at the Security Council.

Lord Alton of Liverpool

My Lords, yesterday’s presidential invitation to the White House of all 100 Members of the United States Senate for a briefing on the unfolding and dangerous crisis on the Korean peninsula underscores its gravity, as does the recollection that the last Korean war cost nearly 3 million lives, including those of 1,000 British servicemen. With one-quarter of North Korea’s gross domestic product used on armaments and over 1 million men under arms, how are we using our own diplomatic presence in Pyongyang and Beijing and at the Security Council to engage China, to avert North Korea’s present and long-term threat, and to forestall a catastrophic outcome? Closer to home, why was the Korea National Insurance Corporation able to use London—an issue that I raised with the Government last January—to generate over £113 million to support both the regime and its nuclear weapons programme?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

I will turn to the specific point before I answer the more general and important point that the noble Lord first made: the EU designated the London office of the Korea National Insurance Corporation on 28 April 2016. Since that date the UK has taken the appropriate actions to sanction the firm and has absolutely followed that through; we take sanctions policy extremely seriously, which is why we issued a White Paper on sanctions just last week. On the general point, we have worked and will continue to work not only through our critical engagement with the North Korean Government in Pyongyang through our embassy there but also at the United Nations, because it is only by work with the United Nations Security Council co-operating and with China exerting influence that there can be any change to North Korean behaviour.

Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)

My Lords, I reinforce the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, that the key to this incredibly dangerous situation is the full engagement and support of the Chinese Government and the sharing of their concerns with ours and those of the rest of the world. Is it not possible that HMG might be able to play a particularly useful intermediary role in this area?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

As always, my noble friend makes a most important point. I can give him an assurance that the Foreign Secretary is meeting the Chinese representatives when he travels later today to New York. He has already had very fruitful discussions with China. It is notable that the whole of the United Nations Security Council, including China, agreed that sanctions should be exerted on the DPRK, and China has shown good faith in that this year in its sanctions on coal.

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke (Lab)

My Lords –

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (LD)

My Lords—

The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)

My Lords, with brief questions we can hear from the Liberal Democrats and then the Labour Benches.

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem

My Lords, what is the response of Her Majesty’s Government to the opinion expressed today by Mr Paul Wolfowitz, who was a member of the Administration of George W Bush and is no shrinking violet in these matters, that the solution to the crisis with North Korea will not rest in military action, not least because of the dangers that that would present to the citizens of South Korea?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary made it clear that he sees military action as undesirable. We, along with our allies in America, have not taken offensive action. It is of course North Korea that has been offensive in its actions. Clearly the position of Seoul on the border means that any military action would be absolutely disastrous. That is why we are all working together as allies in the United Nations to ensure that there are stronger sanctions and, in particular, that there is a stronger will on the part of China to exert its influence on North Korea, to avoid an escalation of what we have seen over the last few weeks.

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke

My Lords, given the uncertainty that exists about North Korea, not least after President Trump’s discussions yesterday with the Senate, if there is the possibility of military engagement by the United States against North Korea, would there be a situation similar to what the Foreign Secretary suggested this morning in relation to Syria, which would engage British troops? If that is the case, what attempts will be made to consult Parliament, given that the elected House will cease to exist in a very few hours’ time?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

My Lords, it is a straightforward fact that the United States has made it clear that it is not seeking military action. It is installing a defensive missile system and working with allies in the area such as South Korea. What came across very strongly in the announcement by the Secretary of State in America yesterday is that the United States is seeking a peaceful resolution. It made it clear that it wants to bring North Korea to its senses, not to its knees.

Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)

I welcome the Minister’s response about the Security Council, but will she reassure us that when the Foreign Secretary is in New York, he will be in communication with his counterpart in the United States to ensure that these two great allies act in concert to ensure effective sanctions?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Yes, my Lords: in New York but also on a more regular basis.

============================================================================

NORTH Korea – Drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.

north korea map 2

At the Tumen River border with North Korea in North East China, September 2012, where border guards shoot North Koreans trying to leave their country

In 2012 President Obama warned Syria that if it used chemical weapons it would lead to a military response from the United States. In August 2013, as more than 1,400 civilians were killed in a sarin gas attack near Damascus, the famous “red line” was crossed and along with civilian deaths American credibility was dealt an equally lethal blow. In international diplomacy the most dangerous thing you can do is to make meaningless assertions and not to see them through.

Any parent or school teacher will tell you that a child needs to have certainty about parameters of acceptable behaviour – and know that when a line is crossed it will carry consequences. Uncertainty and unwillingness to see through endless threats or chastisement only result is worsening behaviour and the desire to see how far the red line can be pushed back.

Winston Churchill went further. He said that if you make the mistake of trying to pacify or placate a tyrant the tyrant will eventually come after you: His definition of an appeaser was “one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

But it was Churchill who also said that “To jaw–jaw is always better than to war–war“ and he argued that “The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

That is certainly the case with North Korea.

Starting wars is far easier than ending them or in predicting the law of unintended consequences. Yet, the United States is once again staring at another red line, and at a State which believes it can terrorise its neighbours as well as its own people.

While President Obama insisted on a policy of “strategic patience” – which amounted to doing nothing and hoping for the best – North Korea has been developing a nuclear capability, seeking to miniaturise weapons and to use submarines to threaten American cities and democratic societies.

By doing nothing, the Obama Administration allowed the situation to fester.

A Second Term Obama might have unilaterally ended the continuing state of war with North Korea – a war which between 1950 and 1953 led to the deaths of around 3 million people. It might have opened the way to change – it might not, but now we will never know. Doing nothing rarely achieves anything.

Under Kim Jong-Un North Korea has been drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.

He runs a State which the United Nations says has human rights violations that are “without parallel”. He has intensified his goading and his blackmail and believes he can act with impunity.

The United States knows that if it does not take decisive action now then it will never be able to do so. The crocodile will be waiting for them.

No doubt the decision to drop an 11-ton bomb on eastern Afghanistan was not only designed to attack ISIS in their underground dug-outs but to demonstrate to North korea that their underground nuclear facilities and command centres hidden deep inside mountains ar not impervious to US fire power.

War fever is gripping the region and probably only China can now help avert a catastrophic war.

Also see “A State without Parallel”:

https://www.davidalton.net/2017/03/11/calls-made-in-geneva-to-hold-north-korean-regime-to-account-for-crimes-against-humanity/

Some Recent Questions In Parliament:

Baroness Anelay of St Johns, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL6576):

Question:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of reports of human rights violations committed by the government of North Korea against its exiled citizens, and of some exiled North Koreans having become UK citizens, what is their response to the recommendation by the UNHCR group of independent experts on accountability in their report to the 34th session published on 24 February that UN Member States “enact legislation with extraterritorial effect for gross violations of human rights and, for those States that recognize the principle of universal jurisdiction, consider how they can contribute to securing accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”; and whether they intend to enact such legislation. (HL6576)

Tabled on: 04 April 2017

Answer:
Baroness Anelay of St Johns:

We welcome the UN Group of Independent Experts Report which is an important milestone in the process of developing a viable framework for accountability for those who commit human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). At the UN Human Rights Council in March, the UK strongly supported a new resolution on DPRK human rights which drew on the recommendations in the report. The adoption of the resolution demonstrated that there is broad consensus among the international community on strengthening the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Seoul. This provides OHCHR with additional resources to gather and evaluate evidence and consult legal professionals about how this evidence could be used in any future internationally agreed framework for accountability. Legislation already exists in the UK which covers extraterritoriality. War crimes under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, and a small number of other grave offences, including torture, are already subject to universal jurisdiction.

Date and time of answer: 19 Apr 2017 at 16:33.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL6577):

Question:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are aware of (1) members of Chongryon, formerly known as the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, entering or doing business in the United Kingdom, and (2) whether Chongryon members have had any interactions with diplomats from the DPRK Embassy in London, in the last five years. (HL6577)

Tabled on: 04 April 2017

Answer:
Baroness Anelay of St Johns:

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not monitor the day to day activities of diplomatic missions in London nor do we have records of meetings and engagements arranged by those missions.

Date and time of answer: 19 Apr 2017 at 16:05.

North Korea – Drinking in the Last Chance Saloon: a State “without parallel”; Interview on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Programme; Question in Parliament on April 27

For 18 years David Alton was a Member of the House of Commons and today he is an Independent Crossbench Life Peer in the UK House of Lords.

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