(Bloomberg) -- The first woman to serve as South Korea's foreign minister says there's room for the United Nations' workers' rights agency to talk to China about its suspected use of forced labor, as Seoul seeks to have her lead the global organization.
Kang Kyung-wha told Bloomberg Television that “forced labor is fundamentally antithetical” to all that the International Labor Organization stands for. She is one of five candidates for the post of director general at the agency, and if selected, would be the first woman and the first Asian to assume the role at the ILO.
“There is space for the ILO to work with Chinese authorities,” she said Monday, when asked about an ILO report by a committee of experts expressing “deep concern” over allegations of discrimination based on race, religion and national extraction affecting ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang region of China.
Kang added the agency is “very aware of the political context in which the issue is being played out but also the fundamental mandate of the ILO to be there, to work with governments to push for these labor rights.”
The ILO will vote for its next leader on March 25, the UN agency said.
The U.S. State Department welcomed the ILO report from last week, saying it reiterates its call for China to end “genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.”
China has consistently denied allegations that it oppresses Muslim Uyghurs, dubbing the accusations “the lie of the century.” In response, Beijing has pressured companies to avoid boycotting Xinjiang and sought to punish those that spoke up, forcing them to choose between being either excoriated for ignoring human-rights abuses or losing access to a market of 1.4 billion increasingly wealthy citizens.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular press briefing on Monday in Beijing that the comments and recommendations of the ILO report were “not objective,” adding the government regretted that the ILO didn't adopt the reply made by Beijing.
Wang sidestepped a question about Kang's comment that there was space for the ILO to work with Chinese authorities, and said Beijing would stay in communication with ILO on the report.
China, a member state of the ILO since 1919, said it's committed to respecting the “full access to productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all China's ethnic minority groups” in the region, according to a tweet posted by its Mission in Geneva.
Kang, who negotiated with North Korea during her nearly four-year stint as foreign minister that ended in 2021, said Pyongyang's recent barrage of missile tests was a worrisome development. She also supported a meeting of foreign ministers from the U.S., Japan and South Korea over the weekend to coordinate policy.
U.S., Japan, S. Korea to Work Together on Ukraine, North Korea
“Dialogue is the only way to resolve this issue,” said Kang, who played a role in talks that led to the historic meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
