Page 31 - NKHR Hawaii Conference 2023

excuses used like,

“Well, we don’t want to expose the North Korean refugees.”

Well, there are ways to protect them by blacking out their names, right? Or calling them
Refugee One, Refugee Two, or Refugee T ree. T ere are ways to do that so that, to me, is
an excuse. T ere’s also the excuse we don’t have enough evidence. I think that’s nonsense.
We have more than enough evidence to move forward “beyond reasonable doubt”
regarding the crimes that North Korea is committing against its own people.

Further, it’s been good to see that the South Korean government is seeking to implement
its own North Korean Human Rights Act. T e appointment of Ambassador Lee is one of
the ways that has happened. T e release of the Human Rights Report for North Korea is
another way and that was the f rst time that has happened.

Furthermore, there could be other mechanisms for prosecution and accountability. T ere
can be a hybrid tribunal that is part-international and part-domestic set up to try to
prosecute those most responsible for the worst atrocities. Concurrently, there could also be
a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up for those who are least culpable for these
mass atrocity crimes, and then domestic prosecution potentially could take in the middle
layer of people or it could take in part of the top as well. T is multi-layered approach can
help to bring about accountability and justice for the people of North Korea.

In the US, Representative Young Kim has been putting forward the reauthorization of
the North Korean Human Rights Act this year, but curiously, it has not been reauthorized
yet. Also, there has been limited implementation of what is in it so full implementation
of a renewed and reauthorized North Korean Human Rights Act in the United States
is needed—and, by the way, this is very much a bipartisan issue. So generally these sorts
of votes have little to no opposition from either party. And so, unlike in Korea, there is
a lot of unity in America politically around these issues; I want to point that out on the
positive side.

T ere are several times that North Korean human rights issues have been raised with the UN
Security Council. I believe that should continue. It’s been raised in the UN General Assembly. I
believe that should continue. It’s been talked about in the Human Rights Council. I think every
avenue to get the word out to let people know the better as far as I’m concerned. T ese are some
of the steps that could be taken to address North Korean human rights issues.

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