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free, peaceful, and unified Korea: accurately understanding
and disseminating information about the realities of North
Korea as an initial phase of the unification process; continuing
efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea
and to induce positive change; and empowering North Korean
residents by endowing them with the hope potentially created
by the success of North Korean escapees. Many of these have
resettled resettled in South Korea, through local assistance in
adapting and integrating into the society of the Republic of
Korea.

How Do Human Rights Challenges and Concerns Relate to

Broader Security Questions?

Both U.S. and South Korean policy towards North Korea
have centered on issues other than human rights, including
vital areas such as North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile
program. Many of the human rights violations the North
Korean Kim family regime perpetrates amount to crimes
against humanity. Yet, paradoxically, three and a half decades
since the fall of the Berlin Wall, human rights have been
sacrificed on the altar of addressing political, military, and
security issues. To procure the hard currency needed to
develop its nuclear and missile programs, the North Korean
regime oppresses and exploits its people at home and abroad.
The very nature of a regime armed with nuclear weapons
that commits crimes against humanity is a threat to regional
and international peace and security. It is high time that the
United States, South Korea, Japan, and like-minded states
such as European Union members considered a paradigm

Chapter Nine : Addressing the North Korean Conundrum 141