In commemoration of the 12th annual North Korea Freedom Week, The Heritage Foundation hosted a panel discussion on human rights violations in North Korea. The discussion emphasized the importance of maintaining focus on the issue and sustaining the momentum generated by the United Nations commission of inquiry (COI) into human rights violations in North Korea.
Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea Freedom Coalition started the first session by shedding light on the bravery and activism of defectors. Due to the efforts of defectors and nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders in civil society, awareness about North Korean human rights has been significantly raised.
Four defectors—Kim Seong-Min, Choi Jeong-Hun, Lee So-Yeon, and Park Kun-Ha—told their stories of escaping North Korea and highlighted their subsequent work to advance freedom in North Korea. “It is crucial to tell [North Koreans] you are also a free person with human rights,” said Kim, the director of Free North Korea Radio (FNKR). Through radio broadcasting, leaflets, and distribution of USB flash drives and CDs of TV dramas, FNKR is already thwarting the Kim regime’s assault on freedom of information. Park Kun-Ha also contended that the use of information technology tools, such as the Internet, are key to improving the flow of information into North Korea.
The second session, moderated by Heritage’s Senior Fellow for Northeast Asia Bruce Klingner, focused on policy solutions to human rights challenges in North Korea.
Highlighting the past 70 years of suppression, Lee Sung-Yoon of the Fletcher School asked for stronger and targeted sanctions. He highlighted sanctions the U.S. levied against Banco Delta Asia in 2005, stating that targeted, specific financial measures are “the only proven method altering equation.” Lee noted that, unfortunately, the U.S. lacks the political will to implement additional sanctions.
Roberta Cohen, co-chair at Human Rights in North Korea and Fellow at The Brookings Institution, suggested that the U.S. government should add names of individuals, like gulag camp commanders and entities complicit in carrying out human rights abuses in North Korea, to a list for potential prosecution at the International Criminal Court. “The threat of indictment is powerful. It might have some deterrent effect,” said Cohen.
Jared Genser, a lawyer from Perseus Strategies and international law expert, claimed that the U.N. Security Council should go beyond just placing human rights issues on the U.N. Security Council agenda. Although it is likely China will exercise its veto authority, he argued that the Council should call for a vote. He also emphasized the need to record cases of human rights abuses in North Korea.
As Klingner observed in his recent Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, no significant measure has been taken yet:
A year after the release of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry report detailing North Korea’s crimes against humanity, the Obama Administration has yet to take any action. The U.S. has penalized other regimes for similar violations, including direct sanctions against two presidents; yet, America has still not taken similar action against Kim Jong-un or his regime.
At the conclusion of Heritage’s event, Klinger repeated the famous Edmund Burke quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It is time to move forward and fight against the Kim regime’s continued oppression of the North Korean people.
Eunjoong Kim is the ASAN Fellow in the Asian Studies Center, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, at The Heritage Foundation.
