The National Human Rights Commission of Korea(Chairperson, Hyun Byung-chul) expressed an opinion to the Speaker of the National Assembly that the North Korean Human Rights Act has to be enacted based on NHRCK's recommendation which says that main agencies in charge of North Korean affairs have to be divided; NHRCK in charge of legislation related to North Korean human rights and the Ministry of Unification in charge of legislations related to livelihoods of North Korean people.
On November 18, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on North Korean human rights which calls for submission of the COI report to the UN Security Council and referring North Korean human rights to the International Criminal Court in order to identify those who are responsible for human rights violation and to impose sanction. As such, the international community is putting more pressure on North Korea to improve its human rights conditions. Domestically, with increased demand for enactment of North Korean Human Rights Act, lawmaker Kim Yeong-woo of the Saenuri party proposed a North Korean Human Rights Bill, on 21 of November, which combined 5 North Korean human rights bills proposed to the 19th National Assembly.
However, under the bill, the Ministry of Unification is the main agency in charge of North Korean human rights related affairs: an advisory committee on North Korean human rights policy will be established in the Ministry of Unification, and establishment of basic and implementation plan, as well as conducting surveys on current status of North Korean human rights will be carried out by the Ministry of Unification. According to the bill, two different institutions, the NHRCK and the Ministry of Unification, will be dealing with South Korean human rights and North Korean human rights, respectively, which is against the spirit of Constitutions which prescribes that both South Korean and North Korean are Koreans and overlooks role of the NHRCK as an exclusive independent institution in charge of human rights.
In addition, administration being a major agency dealing with North Korean human rights makes it difficult to carry out North Korean human rights with consistency due to changes of government. In addition, it makes it hard to secure independence and impartiality in carrying out human rights activities.
For improvement of North Korean human rights conditions, along with calling for enhancement of human rights, we need to carry out exchange and cooperation between the two Koreas. However, it is practically difficult for the government agency to call for improvement of human rights and, at the same time, to pursue exchange and cooperation activities with the North Korean regime. Accordingly, it is desirable to separate the two works: the NHRCK, which is an independent institution with a role of monitoring human rights infringements by national institution, calls for improvement of human rights based on universal human rights standard and cooperation with international community, while, the Ministry of Unification carries out cooperation with North Korea.
Moreover, the bill proposed by Kim Yeong woo says that the North Korean human rights document archive be established under the Ministry of Justice, of which main purpose is to impose punishment on perpetrators of human rights infringements in North Korea. Accordingly, it would be difficult to collect documents on various types of human rights infringements which are not subject to punishment. In addition, it might be difficult for the documents to be utillized for improvement of North Korean human rights.
The NHRCK believes that the bill on North Korean human rights has to consider all these circumstances to be able to achieve the original purpose of its achievements. Accordingly, the NHRCK expressed an opinion that the NHRCK has to be a main agency in charge of North Korean human rights act.
