Page 140 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

Introduction

For over three decades since the end of the Cold War, those
involved in North Korea policy and negotiations have
disregarded and sidelined human rights as a nuisance and
an obstruction. This approach has been counterproductive,
allowing North Korea to develop its nuclear and missile
arsenal, together with other weapons of mass destruction.
The only way forward is a paradigm shift centered on a
human rights approach. Such an approach must highlight
the Kim regime’s policy of human rights denial as the key
factor enabling the development of tools of death constituting
threats to regional and international peace and security.

The Camp David Summit 2023 emphasized shared values,
friendship and partnership as the bedrock of the U.S.-South
Korea-Japan trilateral alliance. There are reasonable grounds
to envision a coordinated approach to North Korean human
rights, focused on issues including abductees, POWs, unjustly
held detainees, refugee protection, and rescue. This would also
include information campaigns aimed at empowering North
Koreans through awakening them to their own human rights
situation, the corruption of their leadership, and the truth
about the outside world—in particular the free, democratic,
prosperous economic powerhouse of South Korea.

The “North Korean nexus” should include humanitarian
and human security concerns, while emphasizing the
critical importance of transparency, access, monitoring and
evaluation, and prioritizing the most vulnerable groups, in

Chapter Nine : Addressing the North Korean Conundrum 139