Page 17 - NKHR Hawaii Conference 2023

Separating or prioritizing human rights and nuclear issues will not effectively resolve
either. Both should be simultaneously and comprehensively addressed as a threat to peace
and as a crime against humanity.

We did however have a game changer. T at was the COI report in 2014. Unfortunately,
we lost momentum in 2018 as denuclearization talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un
and the South Korean government’s reconciliation policy with the North silenced the
problem of humanity, as I mentioned earlier.

So, now it’s time for us to revitalize this attention altogether. Implementing targeted
sanctions modeled after the Magnitsky Act can strategically address these abuses and
corruption. South Korea’s implementation and regular updates about the independent
sanctions list against North Korea are critical steps forward. Such measures would not
only hold the North Korean leader accountable for human rights violations and nuclear
threats but also signal a robust and unif ed international stance against such crimes.

In this process, empowering and encountering the youth, who are our hope and future,
should be a very important and concrete step towards approaching North Korean human
rights. It is crucial to listen to the fresh and diverse ideas and approaches of younger
South Koreans, younger members of international society and NGOs, younger defectors,
and children of defectors who are working on North Korean human rights. We also must
remember the young people within North Korea. They are not just victims of human
rights abuses perpetrated by the Kim Jong Un regime but our key agents of change,
striving to transform North Korea and revise their own future. It is the responsibility of
all of us, both South Koreans and members of the international community, to protect
and empower them. I think it is our responsibility to act together.

In closing, it is with great pleasure and gratitude that I participate in this International
Conference on an important issue, which is North Korean human rights, here in
Honolulu, a historically significant place where the first official Korean immigration
began 120 years ago on January 13th, 1903.

I am aware of the important effort made by two North Korean escapees a few years
ago, here to launch a farm project on Big Island, Hawaii aimed at assisting their fellow
escapees settling and adapting to new lives. Tragically, their untimely death in a car
accident led to a decline in such ef orts. However, I f rmly believe that the spirit of their
ef orts must not be forgotten and should be continued.

NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS HAWAII CONFERENCE 2023 17