Kim Young-hwan, an advocate for human rights in North Korea, speaks at
an international conference at the Seoul Global Center, Jongno, downtown Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap
Human rights abuses in North Korea are a global concern, but the U.S. and South Korea have taken a refrained approach to this issue recently.
This is possibly because the two allies have a common understanding that raising human rights issues now could spoil ongoing denuclearization talks with North Korea.
However, their “strategic ignorance” will not continue for long. If the North takes the path to becoming a “normal country” and expands exchanges with the outside world as a result of the talks, the issue could take center stage in relations with the North, according to analysts.
“In the past, the North Korea human rights movement was merely empty echoes in the international sphere,” Kim Young-hwan, a North Korea human rights activist, said at a conference, Thursday. “But now, if open-market reforms are pursued and foreign investment goes up, North Korea will become more sensitive to outside voices concerning human rights.”
According to Kim, open-market reforms have already advanced to irreversible stages in North Korea.
“The new Ryomyong street in North Korea is lined with 40 high-rise buildings, including a 71-floor building, built entirely with private capital,” Kim said. “North Korea’s key goal at this stage is economic development.”
Kim Young-hwan is better known for his past as a pro-North student activist who met Kim Jong-un’s grandfather Kim Il-sung in the 1990s. Kim turned his back on the North Korean regime shortly afterwards to become North Korea’s pro-democracy activist instead.
Others were more skeptical about the opening up of North Korea, as well as the possibility of more effective international pressure on human rights issues in North Korea.
“I have suspicions that North Korea is interested in reform without opening,” said David Hawk, senior adviser at the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). “There will be continued marketization from below and above but not the kind of opening that occurred in China or Vietnam.”
In terms of strategy, Kim Young-hwan emphasized it was important to separate the goal of protecting human rights from that of democratization in North Korea.
“In order for the human rights movement to easily approach the North Korean people and so it can be adopted as an internal movement, it is essential to separate the human rights movement from democratization,” Kim said.
