Establishing North Korean human rights foundation for both Koreas

By Jeon Su-mi

Since the current government came to power, discussions about creating a North Korean human rights foundation have been rekindled. The North Korean Human Rights Act was narrowly enacted in 2016 when the ruling and opposition parties finally reached an agreement, after repeated proposals and rejections over the previous 11 years. According to Article 10 of the act, the government must establish a foundation to investigate the state of North Korean human rights and to conduct research and policy development related to the promotion of human rights in North Korea.

South Korea was relatively late in enacting such a law, compared to the U.S.' North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004 and Japan's North Korean Human Rights Act in 2006. The reason for this lies in the logic of the left and right-wing camps regarding the issue of North Korean human rights. The liberal Democratic Party of Korea was reluctant to mention North Korean human rights because it feared it would hinder dialogue and relations with the North. On the other hand, the conservative Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the current ruling People Power Party (PPP), took the position that North Korea was South Korea's "main enemy" and that the atrocities of this enemy country should be actively revealed.

In general, the camp that focuses on improving inter-Korean relations focuses on human rights, labor, and welfare, and the camp that is critical of the North Korean system focuses on economics and security. Some in the left-leaning camp, perceiving North Korea as a partner in mutual reconciliation and cooperation to overcome the longstanding division of the Korean Peninsula, were somewhat uncomfortable with the voices of North Korean refugees who denounced the human rights violations of the North Korean regime. This discomfort arose out of concern that these anti-regime voices might make North Korea reluctant to engage in cooperative ventures and inter-Korean exchanges.

But are the critics of the North Korean system more serious about the human rights of North Koreans? Not necessarily. When North Korean women report that they have been sexually assaulted by North Korean men, these critics are silent about human rights violations against North Korean refugee women because the violations were committed by other North Korean refugees and cannot be used as a means of attacking the progressive camp politically.

Thus, when they focus only on the testimony of defectors who reject and criticize the North Korean regime, they appear to be using North Korean human rights as a political tool. As a result, North Korean refugee women, who already lacked a voice in South Korean society, are isolated still further and have become a new lower class even within the North Korean refugee community.

During the 70-year division of the Korean Peninsula, it has been in a volatile state, having gone through the Korean War, which devastated the entire peninsula, the anger and resentment of North against South and South against North, and people from opposing systems being used as political pawns to prove the superiority of each side's regime. North Korean refugees have been being thoroughly exploited as part of this political game, and we South Koreans have been ignoring the voices of North Korean refugee women, a minority group caught in the blind spot of human rights advocacy.

Based on South Korea's view of security, newly arrived refugees are subjected to investigation by the National Intelligence Service, compulsory education at Hanawon, and assignment of a personal protection officer, reflecting the state's attitude of regarding North Korean defectors as "double agents" that it must monitor and control.

Therefore, in the discussion around establishing the North Korean human rights foundation, we must expand and improve our efforts in regard to the human rights of North Korean refugees, especially women, residing in South Korea. In order to achieve this, we need to overcome and remove the existing Cold War mentality and its militaristic logic.

Moreover, it is essential, first, to recognize that the existing concept of North Korean human rights has often been politicized as a means to attack North Korea; then, to break away from the existing political discourse on North Korean human rights; and so, to discuss Korean human rights centered on humans. In this way, we will be able to expand the scope of the discussion from North Korean human rights to the entirety Korean human rights, which is essential for us to be able legitimately to raise the rights issues in relation to North Korea.

At present, we have a North Korean Refugee Support Act, but it does not include provisions to deal with the human rights of North Korean refugees, and the discussion of the issue has hitherto largely neglected the human rights needs of these refugees.

The North Korean human rights foundation will be most meaningful and effective if it is mandated to address the human rights of all North Koreans living in the Korean Peninsula. Such a move would open a new chapter in our efforts to improve human rights on the Korean Peninsula, since North Korean human rights, up to now are too often discussed only as a political tool to some other end and would be reconstructed based on the universal values of mankind.

Jeon Su-mi (sumijeon@ssu.ac.kr), an attorney, is an invited professor at the Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification. She was a member of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation. Her specialty includes South Korean politics and foreign policy, North Korea politics and human rights.