Five months have passed since the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights in North Korea released its report, and still the U.S. has done little to hold North Korea accountable for its crimes against humanity. In the absence of executive action, Congress is taking matters into its own hands.
The Senate’s version of the annual intelligence authorization bill would require Congress to report on North Korea’s prison camps, measure the effectiveness of U.S. actions to comply with the COI, and establish a tribunal to hold North Korea accountable for human rights abuses. For its part, the House of Representatives voted in July to increase sanctions against North Korea for its human rights violations.
During the same time frame, the U.S. has levied sanctions against Russia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding humanitarian conflict in the region. While conditions in each of these conflicts are not to be underestimated, the endemic and generational abuse experienced in North Korea is just as deserving of increased attention—if not more so.
According to Bruce Klingner, Heritage’s senior fellow for Northeast Asia:
The United States possesses an array of strong punitive measures that it can levy on Pyongyang. It has employed many of these against Iran. The Obama Administration should overcome its reluctance to impose more extensive punitive measures against Pyongyang and the foreign entities that assist its nuclear and missile programs. It should also make clear to the new Chinese leadership that continued sheltering of its recalcitrant ally will only increase the potential for a crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
President Obama has the authority to sanction individuals not just for their involvement in nuclear proliferation on the peninsula but also for their engagement in human rights abuses against the people of North Korea.
The U.S. has tools available to help the people of North Korea, yet it has lacked the will to do so. The Obama Administration’s continued intransigence has led to an ambiguous policy that lacks gusto and leadership in the Asia–Pacific. Congress has picked up the reins because the Administration has left them hanging. The U.S. has been missing in action on North Korea—and it’s time for that to change.
