In line with the criticisms of Nobel Prize winning economist Sen, the North Korean nuclear development is worrisome but the bigger problem has to do with the absence of democracy. Human rights is a core value of democracy. The purpose of this book is to conduct diverse academic analysis on North Korea's human rights violations. In order to establish a correct direction for policies on North Korea's human rights record and implement strategies for improvement, we must look into the reality and historic background of human rights abuse in North Korea. The primary task for the study of human rights is the utilization of an accurate human rights index. The ultimate purpose of this research is to develop North Korea's human rights index. Specifically the research objective has two branches. The first, conduct comprehensive and systematic research on domestic and foreign human rights situation. The existing research on human rights has been conducted by international human rights organizations. These organizations target specific areas or countries and compares the human rights record with international standards. This research aims to contribute to the vitalization of North Korea's human rights research by utilizing the international progress on human rights research. The next goal is to develop an objective index that will allow for detailed analysis on the truth about North Korea's human rights oppression and violation.
Development of the human rights index is not only essential for contribution towards human rights research but it is a requirement for implementing the right policy. This research exposes the seriousness of North Korea's human rights by comparing it to international standards. The relative result that sheds light on North Korea's human rights is what makes the research an important task. However, as with any index based on a preliminary study, it is essential to inspect both the criteria applied by the preliminary study and the content. A human rights index based on weak preliminary research will lack accuracy and may provide false information on the direction of human rights improvements. Both weight value and specific category selection in comparison study has its limits in comprehending the human rights situation of a specific country. The human rights index presented by international organizations are useful in conveying the basic state of affairs but may neglect places with especially serious human rights issues. In the case of North Korea, without actual observation, it would be false to report that improvement of human rights has occurred because of North Korea's acceptance of UN's recommendation. The North Korean hierarchy argue that "there are no human rights issues in the DPRK" and deny all external criticisms on North Korea's human rights violations.
We will attempt to approach the North Korean human rights issue from numerous angles. We will attempt to analyze the human rights situation in North Korea in three-dimensions of political science, jurisprudence, and economics. Human rights research has been conducted actively abroad. However, despite infinite research on the North Korea issue, the reality of the situation is that there is insufficient overall research on the human rights issue. Since the enactment of human rights regulations, relatively numberous material has been published on human rights journals. The research method is mainly composed of comparative analysis of numerous case studies worldwide and different ideologies. However, the domestic research is much backward compared to researched conducted abroad. Despite the efforts of the Korean Institute for National Unification to gather information and publish it like it had done so in 1996 through the White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea, it is difficult to say that active academic analysis is conducted on the matter.
No : 2011-6
Publishing Company : Sejong Institute
Date of Publication : 2011.09.05.
Number Of Pages : 268 Page
Price : 20,000 Won
