Bush Taps New North Korean Envoy

Something else to piss Seoul off with:

Backed by a $2 million budget, a former adviser to President Bush will take charge of a high-profile effort to advance human rights in North Korea, even as negotiations on the country’s nuclear weapons program enter a critical stage.

The appointment Friday of Jay Lefkowitz, who helped shape domestic policy at the White House, frees Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill to concentrate on efforts to end the weapons program.

The South Korean government cannot be to pleased by this because they will look at this as provoking the North Koreans during this time of six party talk negotations that are currently in recess. The South Koreans would prefer to turn a blind eye to human rights violations in North Korea and deal exclusively with brokering a deal that gives North Korea lots of free stuff in return for behaving the next few years until they need more money and the next crisis arrives. From the South Korean viewpoint, things like human rights only tend to complicate things.