Page 141 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

particular women, girls, children, the elderly, and people in
detention. A human rights-human security-political-military
security nexus can benefit from structuring some of its
priorities along the 17 Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs)
to transform our world. This means regarding the oppressed
90 percent of the North Korean population as a marginalized
group subjected to multigenerational human insecurity. The
ultimate solution to the North Korean human rights-security-
human insecurity nexus is unification under a free, prosperous,
capitalist Republic of Korea.

A New Unification Vision

The North Korean conundrum has included seemingly
intractable issues: crimes against humanity, the development
and proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,
and the threat the Kim regime continues to pose to both
South and North Koreans through its emphasis on weapons of
mass destruction and other tools of death, to the detriment of
the human rights and human security of the people of North
Korea.

Any attempt to address the North Korean conundrum should
place front and center unification under a free, democratic,
prosperous, and peaceful Republic of Korea as the ultimate
and definitive solution. Such attempts should factor in
the recently unveiled South Korean strategic vision on
reunification. Under the administration of President Yoon
Suk-Yeol, The Ministry of Unification has recently announced
three key tasks aimed at establishing the foundation of a

140 Section II : Human Rights, Abductees, Forced Repatriation of Refugees and the Regional Implications