By Greg ScarlatoiuPresident and CEO, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)
The North Korean human rights movement no longer stands on the high ground it once held. Global interest in North Korean human rights has subsided. Why?
From an international relations theory perspective, the world is now dominated by realism, relying on the sheer projection of power. The reasons are multiple and can’t be confined only to the United States. One reason behind this development could be that President Donald J. Trump’s had a cordial relationship with the late and great Henry Kissinger, the quintessential practitioner of realpolitik, realism in modern American foreign policy. Kissinger thought that President Trump would represent a unique “foreign policy opportunity” as an “unconventional president.” Due to this rise of realism, other approaches to international relations have subsided: liberalism, focused on change from within, through interventions including human rights action; institutionalism, based on cooperation through the UN and other international organizations; and constructivism, relying on values shared with like-minded democracies, including human rights. This has resulted in the decline of attention and support granted to human rights globally. The North Korean human rights movement has surely suffered because of his trend.
The North Korean human rights situation continues to be abysmal. Around 200,000 people are imprisoned at the kwan-li-so political prison camps. Men, women, and children. Young and old. Due to North Korea’s feudal-inspired yeon-jwa-jae system of guilt by association. Up to three generations of the same family are punished, tortured, imprisoned, killed for the perceived wrongdoings of one individual. Perceived wrong-thinking, wrong-association, disloyalty to the Kim family regime are punished harshly. People of faith, Christians in particular, are viewed as enemies of the state. Christianity provides an alternative to the Kim family cult. Underground Christianity provides a venue for free exchange of ideas. Once known as “the Jerusalem of the East,” Pyongyang has become the epicenter of religious persecution in Northeast Asia and beyond. Countless political prisoners, including refugees, mostly women, forcibly repatriated by China, are imprisoned at other detention facilities, especially the kyo-hwa-so reeducation through labor camps. Women have taken the brunt of human rights abuse in North Korea. They are the ones subjected to forced abortions, they are the ones who have to witness the infanticide of their babies if they became pregnant with Chinese men while in China. All because the extreme ethno-nationalist Kim family regime preaches “racial purity.” Women have assumed responsibility for the survival of their families through informal and black market activities. They are the ones who are arrested, abused, and imprisoned for perceived wrongdoing at North Korea’s informal markets.
There is no civil society in North Korea. This is a unique case where human rights advocacy has been conducted by groups and individuals outside the country, including some of the 34,600 escapees in South Korea and those residing in other countries. NGOs run by human rights defenders from South Korea, the United States, Japan, the EU, Canada, Argentina and other countries have also stood on the frontlines of the fight for human rights, freedom, democracy, and prosperity for North Koreans.
The February 2014 report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korean human rights created great momentum. The three COI commissioners, Australia’s Michael Kirby, Indonesia’s Marzuki Darusman and Serbia’s Sonja Biserko continued to promote the findings and recommendations of the report, cooperating with civil society worldwide, and highlighting that the Kim family regime was committing crimes against humanity.
Following the UN COI report, a dedicated and effective international North Korean human rights defenders’ “triumvirate” provided intellectual leadership and boosted the morale of human rights defenders. This comprised UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights Issues Marzuki Darusman, South Korean Ambassador-at-Large for North Korean Human Rights Issues Lee Jung-hoon, and U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King. After they completed their mission and after many tribulations, the “triumvirate” was reconstituted by Peru’s UN Special Rapporteur Elizabeth Salmón, South Korean Ambassador-at-Large Lee Shin-wha, and U.S. Special Envoy Julie Turner.
