Human Rights in North Korea and International Community

 

Abstracts

Human Rights in North Korea and International

Community: Improving Strategy and Comparative Analysis

                                Kang Myoung-Ok,

                                A Dissertation submitted

                                for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

                                to the Faculty of Political Science     

                                Yonsei University, summer 2006

   North Korea's natural disaster in the middle of the 1990's caused North Korean people's massive evacuation from North Korea. Since then North Korea's human rights situation has been continuously questioned in the international community. Nowadays a lot of human rights activist groups and governments in the world are acting for the promotion of North Korean human rights situation. It is said, however, that their activities are not conducted in a concerted manner because of remarkable differences in their behavioral patterns. Reflecting such phenomenon, this thesis will in the main concentrate its efforts on two questions; firstly why the acting patterns of the actors are so different from each other, and secondly which pattern is most efficient for the promotion of North Korean human rights situation.

   This thesis  firstly paid its attention to the brief evaluation of North Korean human rights situation. Let's have a look at North Korea's concept on the human right. We can easily find that North Korea's concept on human right is different from that of outside society especially from that of countries of the liberal democracy. In north Korea, human rights are considered as collective rights, the basic concept of which thoroughly comply with Chuche Principle. State power always supercedes individual human rights. In North Korea, economic and social rights are more emphasized than civic and political rights. They call their own human rights situation "human rights of our own way".

  Then this dissertation classifies the acting patterns of the actors of the concerned governments and other international activist groups into four types.

   The first type is "rapid - overturning". This type of actors argued that North Korean human rights situation should be improved rapidly. And for this target, North Korean regime should be overturned as soon as possible. The Government of the United States, US Congress, US NGOs and Japanese Government, and South Korean actors including opposition party Hannaradang and conservative news paper Chosunilbo fall into this type. They are conservatives or neo-conservatives.  They tend to utilize human rights issues as means of political pressure, or as means for the realization of their own political purposes rather than the promotion of human rights in North Korea.

   The second type is "rapid - progressive". This type of actors see that amelioration of North Korean human rights situation is imminent. They, however, do not consider the human rights issue as a matter of political system change. Main actors are including UN agencies of human rights activities, European Union and a lot of NGOs inside and outside of Korea. They tend not to carry  political orientation because most of the actors of this type concentrate their efforts on the promotion of human rights in North Korea itself.

   The third type is "gradual - progressive". This type of actors do not connect human rights issues with political system change. They tolerate gradual improvement of human rights situation in North Korea within the present regime of North Korea. Korean Government, Korean National Human Rights Commission and a lot of humanitarian aid groups inside and outside of Korea belong to this type. They tend to put strength on the peace on the Korean peninsula or basic human needs. Political ideology of many of them are liberal.

   The fourth type is " gradual - overturning". Actors of this type should argue that gradual improvement of human rights situation and immediate political system change simultaneously. But this type actors are non- existent.

    This dissertation also paid its analytical attention to the causal factors of the above mentioned four types. These are in the main following three factors.

   The first major factor to decide actor's acting pattern is actor's political position. Political position of the actors is the most influential factor deciding the behavioral pattern. US Government, Japanese Government, Korean conservative opposition party Hannaradang categorized as "rapid - overturning" type are all politically conservative. International human rights organizations and other human rights NGOs classified as "rapid - progressive" type mainly do not carry political orientation. Korean Government of "gradual - progressive" type is politically liberal.

   The second major factor to decide actor's acting pattern is actor's focusing area of assistance. If an actor prefers to provide aid in the field of civic and political rights, it tends to be "rapid - overturning" type while an actor which prefers to give assistance in the field of economic and social rights tends to be "gradual - progressive" type.

   The third major factor to decide actor's acting pattern is whether an actor is Korean actor or not. Korean actors tend to be weak in attacking North Korean regime compared with non-Korean actors regardless of their political position.

   Then let's turn our attention to efficiency of the activities. The two major factors to decide efficiency are receptivity of assistance by North Korean authority and a scope of support by the domestic and international community. If the receptivity is higher, concerning human rights activities tend to be more successful. And if the support is bigger, concerning activities tend to be more successful. Further it should be kept in mind that in the case of the Korean actors the strength of support also depends on the existence of political tension between the South and the North of Korea.

   In addition to the above findings, we could find that the actors' acting patterns could characterize the formation of partnership among actors. Especially the partnership between "rapid" type and "gradual" type is rarely witnessed while the cases of partnership within "rapid" type actors are increasing. 

Key words : human rights, North Korea, human rights in North Korea, human rights ngo, human rights regime, refugees from North Korea, U.S. policy toward North Korea, South Korea's policy toward North Korea, EU policy toward North Korea, human rights movement, human rights actors, civic and political rights, economic and social rights, humanitarian aid