Originally published on the CGS blog on August 26, 2014.
We all have some idea of how bad things are in North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We’re also aware that outside efforts to remedy the situation haven’t really panned out. But turning our backs on the suffering civilians is not an option. So where do we go from here?
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect published a policy brief last week offering some possible answers to this question.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a doctrine that obligates countries to safeguard their populations from mass atrocities, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. If a State is unable to fulfill this responsibility, it falls to other countries to provide diplomatic and humanitarian assistance. If the State is unwilling to do so, the international community becomes compelled to intervene.
DPRK clearly falls into the latter category, as its millions of citizens are victimized by the brutal regime every day. The Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (CoI) has found systematic human rights violations, particularly in the form of political prison camps. Hundreds of thousands of inmates in these camps are subjected to starvation, forced labor, execution without trial, torture, rape, forced abortion, and infanticide. Meanwhile, millions of other citizens live in abject poverty, suffering from hunger and malnutrition while the State uses food as a means of control.
A number of international efforts have been made to address the problem. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, for example, has requested a dialogue with DPRK on the matter every year since 2003, while the UN General Assembly has put out annual resolutions condemning the atrocities since 2005. The DPRK government has been largely unresponsive to these actions, other than releasing its own report labeling the United States as the world’s worst human rights violator.
Earlier this year, CGS staffer Josh Spesaison developed several recommendations for addressing the situation in DPRK. The Global Centre’s policy brief concurs with some of his points, suggesting the following as next steps:
- The UN General Assembly should strengthen the text of its annual resolution to condemn crimes against humanity committed by DPRK authorities
- The UNGA should adopt a resolution calling on the UN Security Council to “meaningfully address grave human rights violations” in DPRK
- The UNSC should endorse the recommendation of the CoI and integrate human rights issues into its current work on DPRK
- The UNSC should refer the situation in DPRK to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation
- The UNSC should adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible for mass atrocities, apart from sanctions on nuclear non-proliferation
- China should offer protection to DPRK refugees and end the practice of forcibly repatriating North Koreans
- Countries that have a relationship with DPRK (including donor countries) should work together to develop and enact strategies to promote international human rights law
It is clear that the problem isn’t going to go away on its own; until effective intervention occurs, the human rights abuses will continue. As the Global Centre rightly claims, the international community “has not exhausted all options and can no longer continue to overlook ongoing mass atrocity crimes in DPRK.”
