Committee for Human Rights in North Korea | 061118
By Abraham Cooper and Greg Scarlatoiu*
For almost three decades, US administrations have tiptoed around the egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the Kim regimes in North Korea. But US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has already changed the equation, by succeeding in securing the release of American detainees Kim Dong-chul, Kim (Tony) Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song. A reminder to us and the world that the US still has the clout to move the needle on human rights.
On the eve of the Singapore Summit we urge President Trump to put the release of Japanese, other foreign and South Korean abductees, the reunion of separated Korean families, and the complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of the North Korean political prison camps, as the bill the DPRK must foot to become a normal and responsible member of the international community.
Three generations of the Kim family regime have continued to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at the expense of the human security of North Koreans, and to egregiously violate the human rights of their citizens. In order to tackle North Korean threats, the Trump Administration has applied three of the four fundamental elements of national power (diplomatic, information, military, economic power, DIME): economic power through the strengthening of the international sanctions regime; military power through the deployment of assets to the region and the reaffirming of US commitment to our Korean and Japanese allies; and diplomatic power, employing for the first time summit diplomacy, made possible by the maximum economic and military pressure and the resuscitation of inter-Korean dialogue, starting with the Pyongchang Winter Olympics.