North Korean Human Rights and the World Community

Abstract

Due to extreme isolation, North Korean human rights situation was not well known to the world. The However, through the food crisis, the increasing number of refugees, the improving North‐South relations, and the increase of North Korean overseas interaction, the true picture of North Korean human rights situation is slowly being revealed. Finally in April 2003, the 59th UN Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution calling for international concern on the North Korean human rights situation. It brings the North Korean human rights issue into a more serious dimension, calling for immediate action by North Korean government. North Korea must now decide which way it will take between continued isolation or participation in the world community.Continuous famine, its dictatorship and nuclear confrontation are three main factors devastating its human rights status. While harsh U.S. economic sanctions and international pressure increases, domestic political control is tightening more and more. Combined with North Koreas never‐ending food shortage, its human rights situation is becoming worse. This could be a regime‐threatening factor, because it creates a vast number of refugees or defectors and draws more international criticism. North Koreas reaction and its genuine will to improve the nuclear crisis will determine the degree of future pressure by the international community.For the last 10 years, the world community through the UN has presented deep concern and critical awareness of North Koreas human rights problems. The 2003 Resolution at the UN Commission on Human Rights provides moral and legal justifications for criticism and intervention by the world community. In order to secure the effectiveness of this measure, the world community must go beyond criticism of the regime. The world community should provide North Korea with a long‐term framework that will set North Korea in the right direction. To achieve this goal, the world community must combine a comprehensive and positive approach, which includes economic aid and humanitarian assistance; with a critical and negative approach, which includes monitoring of human rights and pressure on violators. The UN human rights bodies, with the collaboration of international human rights NGOs, should also provide diverse methods of approach to effectuate the long‐term goals mentioned above. The U.S. human rights initiative will be the most critical source of pushing this international maneuver.