Withholding Aid as a Human Rights Violation

After visiting North Korea to discuss ways to lower tensions on the Korean Peninsula, former President Jimmy Carter excoriated the United States for withholding humanitarian aid from North Korea. He maintained that given the country's impoverished state, refusing North Korean citizens assistance could be categorized as a human rights violation.

Carter traveled with three other members of Elders, which is a group of world leaders established by Nelson Mandala. The group that traveled to North Korea consisted of Carter, Harlem Brundtland of Norway, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, and Mary Robinson of Ireland. Robinson and Brundtland provided more details on the seriousness of the crisis in North Korea: a lack of food supplies, severe flooding, disease, a lack of running water in hospitals, a shortage of important medicines, and malnourishment in children to the point of brain damage.

Although the group was supposed to meet with Kim Jong-il, but that didn't end up happneing. Instead, they met with Kim Yong-nam, who is the head of the North Korean People's Assembly, who read them a letter from Kim Jong-il. The letter said that he is ready to negotiate with South Korea, the U.S., or any other countries that made up the six-party talks that ended in 2009 when North Korea withdrew.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/world/asia/29korea.html?_r=1&ref=world

-Gracie Hollister