EVENTS

Date:	Thursday, March 30, 2006
Time:	2:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
Location:	Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

March 2006

Religious Freedom in North Korea: Update and Options

A recent report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), "Thank You Father Kim Il Sung," documents extreme oppression of religious freedom in North Korea and the elimination of all forms of independent worship. The officially proclaimed personality cult of the North Korean regime has been forced upon the public as a state religion. For most North Koreans, the only personal contact they will have with religion will be the denigration of Western religion in propaganda films at mandatory weekly sessions at Kim Il Sung Study Halls, or even the arrest of a friend or relative accused of illegal religious activity. What impact do conditions of religious freedom have on policies involving humanitarian relief and North Korean refugee issues? What can the United States and its partners do to improve religious freedom in North Korea? How do foreign aid and external pressure affect Pyongyang's human rights behavior? Have there been any changes in North Korea's record on religious freedom since the beginning of the "sunshine diplomacy" era? On March 30, AEI and USCIRF co-hosted a panel discussion on these and other questions about the future of religious freedom in North Korea.

Michael Cromartie
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Over the past decade, the international community has become all too accustomed to stories emanating from North Korea regarding government excesses. North Korea is a closed, totalitarian society that prohibits the basic rights to speech, religion, and assembly. Defector testimonies have served to provide some insight into the political and human rights abuses prevalent in North Korea.

These human rights violations specifically regarding religious freedom in North Korea should not be viewed in isolation of the other security concerns that have dominated international news on North Korea. The regime is driven by the same paranoia, whether it is in the development of nuclear weapons or the suppression of religious freedoms. Nuclear and human security are not mutually exclusive, and should be linked in the six-party talks.

Ambassador Jay Lefkowitz
U.S. Department of State

There is a direct link between the prevalence of freedom in the world and the prospects for security and peace. The mission of the United States is to help one of the world’s most oppressed people to secure their human rights, including the right to be governed by their own consent. The other concern the United States has is in regards to North Korea’s criminal activities and nuclear ambitions. The link between government oppression and challenges to international security is widely recognized.

The U.S. objective with respect to North Korea is not so much democracy, as it is creating an opportunity for the people of North Korea to live and thrive, much like their neighbors to the south. The impetus for the North Korean government to open up and respect the rights of its citizens will grow stronger in the time ahead, but only if there is concerted international pressure.

A key way to empower the North Korean people is to force a ray of light through the veil that Kim Jong Il has drawn over the country. Information about the outside world and information about what is actually going on inside North Korea can be disseminated through increased radio broadcasting and other means. Nearly one-third of North Koreans have modified their radio to receive more than the single state propaganda station it came fixed to receive. This creates an opportunity for the United States to increase informational broadcasting.

Another key objective is to make it clear that the United States needs to do more--and can and will do more--for the people of North Korea. The United States will make it clear that it wants to accept North Korean refugees. However, the United States will never be the solution for most North Korean refugees, and instead must press other countries, particularly China, to honor its international obligation to protect the North Korean refugees on its soil.

There are also a few policies that must be avoided. For example, unrestricted humanitarian aid is often well intentioned but poorly implemented, and it may actually help sustain the regime rather than assist the North Korean people. Another potentially unhelpful form of assistance is the number of joint economic ventures that are being conducted with North Korea. In these arrangements, the international community must insist on fair treatment of the workers who produce goods that will be sold internationally.

The United States must mobilize the Korean-American community to fight for freedom for North Koreans. The United States will work with other democracies toward the day when North Koreans are free. This is not a challenge the United States can overcome on its own, and thus, it needs the cooperation of countries around the world to bring about a peaceful and productive peninsula for all Koreans.

David Hawk
Author, “Thank You Father Kim Il-Sung”

In 2000, the DPRK formally reported to the UN Human Rights Committee that there was freedom of thought, religion, conscience, and belief in North Korea. But at the time, there was not enough information about the situation for the UN Human Rights Committee to make any definitive conclusions or recommendations. There are now some 7,000 North Koreans residing in South Korea, who are accessible to journalists and human rights investigators and are able to help fill in the gaps of information about conditions in North Korea.

“Thank You Father Kim Il Sung” was prepared on the basis of interviews with forty North Korean defectors. In many cases, interviewees clearly indicated that there was no religious freedom in North Korea. Similarly, results showed that very few North Koreans had ever seen a religious observance taking place in their country. The interviews revealed a system of anti-religious propaganda in the schools and media. Interviewees also described the system juche, often referred to by the North Koreans as “Kim Il Sung-ism.”

The report also attempted to piece together the current situation by talking to South Koreans and other religionists. Shortly after the Korean War, the Kim Il Sung regime abolished all religions entirely. Additionally, in 1988, the North Korean government set up three churches--one each of Protestant, Catholic, and Buddhist--in an attempt to cover up the country’s lack of religiosity, but only a handful of North Korean citizens were allowed to participate in public worship services. It is on this basis that the regime contends that it has religious freedom. However, this extremely controlled and circumscribed activity in no way meets the international standard for religious freedom.

For the moment, it is not possible to directly affect the situation in North Korea. Although no official action has been taken against North Korea as of yet, it will happen soon. The most important element is linking foreign aid to North Korean human rights policy and practice. If North Korea wants to joint the international political economy of the twenty-first century, then the international community can insist upon North Korea’s meeting modern international standards of human rights.

Sung-Yoon Lee
Harvard University

The greatest national challenge for Koreans is the North Korean human rights problem. Americans have no moral or legal duty to address this problem; Koreans do. Nonetheless, there is something that Americans can do: continue to take the leadership role in enhancing the world public opinion on the North Korean human rights problem. The United States should also open its borders in a limited way to North Korean refugees. In doing so, it will send a powerful statement to the world and put pressure on North Korea’s neighbors to do more to address this problem.

The U.S. government should issue a major declaration of its commitment to addressing the North Korean human rights problem; providing North Korean citizens with the freedom of conscience, thought, religion, and belief; and allowing North Korea to have a free and democratic government. Economic rights and political rights in North Korea are both in dire straits; they are one and the same. Addressing the issue of attempting to bring economic, political, religious, and civil freedom to one of the most systematically repressed peoples in world history should be the greatest priority for the South Korean government.

An historical analogy is telling. During Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, the conditions of life in North Korea were much better than they currently are today. There was far greater freedom of movement, habitation, worship, religion, and other basic freedoms. For sixty years under the Kim regime, North Korean citizens have been systematically deprived of basic human rights.

The Korean people are proud; they have made great achievements in culture, technology, and literature. Democracy is now natural to South Koreans, not Western-derived. In South Korea today, it would be unimaginable to have to give up basic political or economic rights. This reality is what South Koreans pray for their brothers and sisters in the North.

Tom Malinowski
Human Rights Watch
 
Only recently has it been possible to begin to paint a picture of what life is like in North Korea. But what is still impossible is for organizations such as Human Rights Watch to go into North Korea and do onsite research and interviews. It is also difficult to do this work because the issue remains politically polarized, particularly in South Korea. Whatever position an organization takes on the issue, it runs the risk of being characterized in the South as either from one political faction or the other. This minefield must be navigated very carefully and with great sensitivity.
 
In devising a strategy for addressing the issue, it is important to take into account the unique nature of the North Korean regime. This is a regime that has isolated its people, not just from the outside world, but from all knowledge of the outside world. This dictatorship has tried to deny its people the ability to even imagine an alternative way of life. Probably no totalitarian government in history has succeeded in doing this to the extent that the North Korean government has.

North Korea has been likened to a steel box with a few holes through which light can shine. The strategy must be to punch more holes into the box and let more light through. Until there is more awareness inside North Korea, there is very little the outside world can do in the ways that dictatorships are traditionally pressured to change. Again, South Korea is in the best position to do this, because of the proximity and economic engagement.

Any dialogue with North Korea needs to have some human rights content. Talks with North Korea about nuclear issues should not preclude other security issues or human rights issues and reform. Human rights issues should not hold up a nuclear deal, but an agreement that transforms North Korea’s relationship with the world will have to address a wider set of issues. With time, every government in the world can be shamed into changing its policies into ways that make a difference, even the North Korean regime. The more the international community puts North Korea on the defensive on these issues, the greater incentive they will have to reform some of its qualities.

AEI intern Karla Herdzik prepared this summary.