Making the Impossible Possible?: Gaps and Barriers to Achieve SDGs in N. Korea (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Human Rights Around the World

Abstract

Would the coexistence of human rights and development in North Korea possible? While there is another round of meeting between Trump and Kim Jung-un pending, there is an overused word of “economic prosperity” by both Moon and Trump since the spring of 2018 as compensation for North Korea’s denuclearisation. It raises concern as their political rhetoric sounds not much different from economic developmentalists who prioritized development over human rights. The case may be worse for North Korea due to its position as a human rights perpetrator for the last decades. While the discourse about the development of North Korea is blooming with this background, this paper explores the possibility of linking human rights and development in the context of North Korea based on many scholars including Peter Uvin, Beetham, and Anthony who explained the nexus between development and human rights. SDG indicators from the United Nations will be juxtaposed with the human rights records of North Korea from 1996 to 2018. For the human rights records, the White Paper on Human Rights in North Korean from the Korea Institute for National Unification, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, and the UN Commission of Inquiry report on North Korean human rights will be utilized as it is the best established human rights record on North Korea.

Author

• Jinah Kwon, Korea University