Human Rights

The Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), with the generous support of the Korea Foundation, organized six “Vision Group” roundtable conversations with leading American scholars and commentators to discuss the…

KEI’s 2020 Report on American Attitudes Toward the Korean Peninsula focuses on U.S. views on relations with South Korea, U.S. awareness of South Korean brands and cultural products, and views…

The states of Southeast Asia are on the front lines of competition not only in regard to the balance of military and political power, as analyzed in Section I, but…

Although coercion is a key element in the governing strategy of the North Korean party-state, the authorities in Pyongyang do not hold political power at the barrel of a gun…

The US House of Representatives adopted the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act on November 20. The original act was first adopted by Congress in 2004, but such legislation is valid for only four or five years. Congress must “reauthorize” or adopt new legislation if the provisions are still needed. The original North Korean Human…

North Korea’s human rights violations have been a priority of UN organizations since 2004, when the UN Human Rights Council first appointed a UN Special Rapporteur to report annually on the issue to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. This focus on North Korea’s human rights violations has been in addition to…

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) discussed serious human rights abuses carried out in North Korea on June 12, with South Korea’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Joon-kook Hwang serving as UNSC president. The roles of North Korea and South Korea at the UNSC meeting highlight the stark differences between the two Korean states…

The blatant abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea around 40 years ago continues to be a sensitive and controversial issue for the Japanese government and the Japanese people, as well as a serious obstacle to improved relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo. From about 1977 to 1983, North Korean military and intelligence operatives kidnapped at…