As expected, the White House has appointed Jay Lefkowitz as Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, a position mandated by Section 107 of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004. In naming Mr. Lefkowitz at this time, the administration appears to have waited for a “decent interval” between negotiating sessions with North Korea during six-nation talks. The Washington Post covered the story with an article written by Reuters, which benefits from actually taking the trouble to contact the people who were behind the NKHRA in the first place:

But U.S. officials said the appointment, announced by the White House, had been in the works for some time and was not aimed at putting pressure on the North Koreans ahead of the resumption of the nuclear talks.

"It's taken this long to line everything up. I think people will read a little more into the timing than they should," said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
. . . .

Suzanne Scholte, a leader of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, said her umbrella group of religious and rights activists had been eagerly waiting for the appointment. "This man I understand is close to President Bush, so that means he'll have his ear on North Korean human rights, so we're very excited about the appointment," she said.

"It's so critical that we let the North Korean people know that we know that they're suffering," said Scholte, whose coalition will stage protests and prayer meetings in Washington over the weekend to support human rights in North Korea.

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator in the six-party talks, said this week that he had raised the issue of human rights during the recent session in Beijing. He described rights scrutiny as the "cost of admission" to international society.

My only quibble with the Reuters report is with the estimated death toll of 1 million. Although that number is not outside the range of reasonable estimates, most reasonable estimates of the death toll are twice that.

The New York Times also reported the story, noting that the timing and circumstances of the announcement suggests an effort by the White House to keep the appointment low-key. That seems plausible. If so, don't expect to hear much from Jay Lefkowitz until after the next session of the six-party talks, scheduled to begin on August 29th. Even less encouraging is the fact that Lefkowitz will continue working his day job with the Washington law firm of Kirkland and Ellis, at least on a part-time basis. That could prove a considerable distraction from his duties as Special Envoy.

Here is the text of Section 107 of the NKHRA, which created the position of Special Envoy:

(a) Special Envoy.--The President shall appoint a special envoy for human rights in North Korea within the Department of State hereafter in this section referred to as the ``Special Envoy''). The Special Envoy should be a person of recognized distinction in the field of human rights.

(d) Report on Activities.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually for the subsequent 5 year-period, the Special Envoy shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the activities undertaken in the preceding 12 months under subsection ©.