NEW YORK -- From Dec. 10-16, Japan observed "Korea Human Rights Week," a new occasion stipulated by the June 2006 North Korean Human Rights Act. The act, which built on Japan's cosponsorship of the 2005 United Nations General Assembly resolution, is supposed to increase public awareness of, and prevent, a variety of human rights abuses in North Korea, including torture, abuse of repatriated refugees, constraints on freedom of thought, expression and religion, and trafficking of women in China.
Throughout the week, nongovernmental organizations held a series of thought-provoking conferences, and the government produced posters about abuses and hosted a rally against North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens.
While these were positive steps, Japan can and must do more to promote human rights in North Korea -- and elsewhere -- if its commitments are to be meaningful rather than merely rhetorical. Although the rights of abducted Japanese and their family members remain a serious concern, the Japanese government's exclusive focus on these few dozen people -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has established a new desk in his office to track the problem -- is counterproductive.