A deliberately delayed or forgotten issue: North Korean human rights as an international legal problem

Abstract

In spite of the recent bilateral peace talks and developments between South and North Korea and between the US and North Korea, it needs to be reminded that the human rights condition in North Korea is already an established legal subject, protected by both international and domestic law, and therefore, unless the human rights condition in North Korea is significantly improved, this issue cannot be legally terminated. In this vein, this paper intends to examine the ways that the issue on North Korean human rights is handled both in international law (especially by the UN, including criminal punishment) and domestic law (especially by the US, including human rights sanctions), and then identify some policy implications for addressing the human rights issue in the context of the Korean peninsula peace talks.