ROK-US cooperation needed to promote N. Korea human rights

By Yang Moo-jin

Last week in Washington, D.C, leaders of both the Republic of Korea and the United States reaffirmed the rock-solid cooperation between the two countries. I hope the summit will be the gateway to restart the US-North Korea dialogue to make progress for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Along with the Korean Peninsula peace initiative, North Korean human rights issues are something that should not be overlooked. The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. will deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons and human rights issue together.

Since Biden's diplomacy and national security policy centers around human rights and democratic values, this is not a surprise. However, from the point of view of Korea, a country directly involved with Korean Peninsula issues, we are tasked with having to get the U.S. to resolve denuclearization and human rights through a diplomatic and pragmatic approach. There are three things that the Korean government can suggest to the U.S.

First, the government should persuade the U.S. that humanitarian cooperation to improve access to the minimum needs of North Korean citizens is the way to promote human rights in the North practically. One of the recent developments related to the human rights debate in the international community is to expand the scope of human rights beyond the right to freedom to economic and social rights.

The human right to be free from pain and starvation, to have access to drinkable water and other basics should be considered a necessity for vulnerable people including infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the United Nations have suggested can be one of the ways for humanitarian cooperation.

North Korea is also positive about implementing the SDGs. Why don't we suggest the U.S. government carry out trilateral humanitarian cooperation between it and the two Koreas. The healthcare cooperation that the North Korean leadership is interested in can be one of the ways to start cooperation.

The practical alternative is to start with what we can do and implement measures that would contribute to a pragmatic improvement of the human rights situation in North Korea through cooperation, and this will also contribute to expanding room for engagement.

Second, the government should persuade the U.S. that connecting North Korean human rights and denuclearization negotiations is not the right approach. In 2016, the Obama administration connected these with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution and North Korean Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act to impose sanctions for North Korea's human rights violations. However, human rights and humanitarianism are important values and principles that the United Nations pursue along with international peace and security.

These values should be respected in and of themselves, and adding conditions to these values can be contradictory. It is time for us to suggest to the U.S. that we should build confidence with North Korea through humanitarian cooperation to improve North Korean human rights regardless of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. If we can improve the North Korean people's humanitarian situation, they will be able to build self-reliance and capacity, which will be an important catalyst for peace on the peninsula.

Lastly, the government should continue to persuade the U.S. that actual improvement in North Korea's human rights can only happen if there is peace on the Korean Peninsula. Peace is a prerequisite for human rights, and if there is no peace, an individual cannot enjoy their rights.

In addition, the government can highlight the importance of delicate messaging during the process of negotiations for denuclearization to ensure human rights issues will not negatively influence this. If the U.S. continues to point out North Korean human rights as a way of "naming and shaming," the North Korean regime can use this as a justification to reject talks or use it in their favor under the current Sino-U.S. relations.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for flexible implementation of sanctions to overcome North Korean citizens' humanitarian crisis was raised in the United Nations and the U.S. Congress last year. The easiest way to communicate in the international community is to help each other in times of difficulty based on humanitarian principles.

I hope cooperation that does not stop regardless of the situation will rebuild broken promises and open doors for dialogue. With the hope of restarting the Korean Peninsula peace process from the basis of humanitarian cooperation, it is time to wait and see if the government will wisely mediate the situation.

Yang Moo-jin (yangmj@kyungnam.ac.kr) is a professor at the University of North Korean Studies and vice chairman of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies. He is also a standing committee member of the National Unification Advisory Council and policy consultant at the Ministry of Unification.