North Korean political prison camps currently hold 150,000 to 200,000 detainees and inflict all kinds of human rights infringements. Therefore, this paper investigates a policy orientation for the North Korean human rights situation based on the Chine...
North Korean political prison camps currently hold 150,000 to 200,000 detainees and inflict all kinds of human rights infringements. Therefore, this paper investigates a policy orientation for the North Korean human rights situation based on the Chinese and Vietnamese cases, where different decisions were taken on the closure of political prison camps after adopting an 'open and reform policy.'
Applying the Five-Phase "Spiral Model" reveals the necessity of engagement from the international community in order to improve North Korean civil and political rights, including the closure of their political prison camps. Thus, assuming that oppressive governments implement human rights policy changes in response to "boomerang effects" produced by international pressure and relentless exposure of cases contravening international norms, the human rights infringements in North Korean political prison camps need to be persistently exposed.
Based on the Five-Phase "Spiral Model", the international community needs to apply bilateral and multilateral pressure on the North Korean government to avoid a phase regression from "Tactical Concessions" to "Repression" or "Denial". At same time, mobilizing and strengthening groups promoting human rights issue is needed in anticipation of the expansion of a new political space in North Korea, and the emergence of new domestic actors and sustained links to transnational networks. Accordingly, multi-dimensional and sequential approaches are needed for inter-Korean relations to facilitate the development of organizations that are not directly connected to oppressive power. Furthermore, in anticipation of "boomerang effects", these organizations must also be encouraged to contact Global Human Rights Polities i.e. human rights regimes.