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approach to North Korean human rights focused on such
issues as abductees, prisoners of war, unjustly held detainees,
and refugee protection and rescue, along with information
campaigns aimed at empowering North Koreans by awakening
them to their own human rights situation, the corruption
of their leadership, and the truth about the outside world.
The nexus should also include humanitarian and human
security concerns, while emphasizing the critical importance
of transparency, access, monitoring and evaluation, and
prioritizing the most vulnerable groups, in particular women,
girls, children, the elderly, and people in detention.
The final section, on deterring Pyongyang and dissuading
Beijing, begins with a discussion by Dr. Han-Kwon Kim,
Head of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Korea National
Diplomatic Academy, on The Stability and Sustainability of
Korea-U.S.-Japan Cooperation (Chapter Ten). He believes
that a “three versus three” structure has emerged in Northeast
Asia pitting South Korea, Japan, and the United States
against North Korea, China, and Russia, a situation that has
been described by Kim Jong-Un as the beginning of a new
Cold War era. Against this backdrop, his paper examines
the prospects for a North Korea-China-Russia partnership
based on the outcome of the September 13, 2023 Kim-
Putin summit and China’s response, within the context of
U.S.-China strategic competition. He analyzes the global
implications of recent U.S.-China re-engagement, despite
intensifying strategic competition, further arguing (unlike
Newsham and Michishita) that the development of the North
Korean-China-Russia partnership has a substantive limitation
because of Beijing’s different strategic calculation from that of
22 Section I : North Korea-China Relations: How and Why Does Beijing Protect and Empower Pyongyang?