Citation

Soo LS. J. Peace Stud. 2012; 13(2): 99-118.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Korean Association of Peace Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper argues that North Korea needs an outside "Two-track engagement" to enhance Human Rights for its people because the regime has a systemic limit. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) takes advantage of repression and violence as an instrument to secure the regime's stability. Major North Korea's Human Rights issues which are reflected in the UN Human Rights Resolutions are related to the Neoliberals' way of exhortation over the matters of reunion of separated family members, abduction, food control, freedom of speech, arbitrary detention, and human trafficking etc. In North Korea, domestic societal opposition is too weak and/or too oppressed to present a significant challenge to the wayward regime. Human Rights issues can be addressed by the international community in three phases. First, establish an atmosphere through a process of adaptation and strategic bargaining, establishing a transnational Human Rights network in order to enhance North Korean Human Rights. Second, promote cooperation through a process of moral consciousness-raising, "shaming," argumentation, dialogue, and persuasion thereby offering Human Rights education and training in order to revise 'Our Style'' Human Rights of North Korea. Third, develop full-scale cooperation through a process of institutionalization and habitualization, providing incentives for institutionalization of international norms for Human Rights by spreading shared values for Human Rights and mobilizing all-out support for Human Rights from member states of the international community. Political and economic incentives to North Korea can be offered if the regime tries to solve major Human Rights issues including public executions, repatriation of POWs, and elimination of torture and inhuman treatment without due process of law in correctional centers.