Sarah Son

This article considers the question of accountability for human rights abuses alleged to have been committed in North Korea, via a possible future process of transitional justice. It focusses on the efforts of South Korean nongovernmental organisations that have worked for more than two decades to document reported abuses and, more recently, to consider how perpetrators of those abuses may be held accountable. While noting the significance of this work, the article draws on research focussed on the efficacy of transitional justice from the victim perspective, to learn more about how those who may identify as victims of the North Korean regime perceive the possible methods for redress and both individual and collective recovery from abuses. The article engages with some preliminary research done with self-identifying victims of the North Korean regime and assesses some of the weaknesses in current South Korean civil society practice involving North Korean escapees. It highlights challenges to pursuing an alternative approach that places victims at the centre and provides some recommendations for how NGOs might develop and pilot new approaches to planning for and implementing a transitional justice process in North Korea if the opportunity arises.

This article investigates the capacity and willingness of women from English-speaking countries, married to Korean men, to integrate into South Korean society, via examination of the expression of national identity in everyday life and the negotiation of relationships across socio-cultural boundaries.

The 2014 report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea marked a watershed moment in international awareness and action on North Korea's human rights problem. It sparked widespread international condemnation, and prompted anxiety and insecurity on the part of North Korea, evident in the North's immediate response. This included a verbal counter‐offensive, some surprising willingness to engage with UN mechanisms, and a range of diplomatic engagement. I argue that contrary to the popular perception of North Korea as impervious to external criticism, when viewed through the conceptual lens of ontological security, the North's response to the UN COI revealed a desire to defend and secure its image in the eyes of the international community. While acknowledging continuing obstacles to a genuine normative transition in its approach to human rights, the article supports a deeper understanding of North Korea's self‐identity to guide measures to bring about change.

The 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights
in North Korea (UN COI) had a decisive impact on South Korea’s
approach to North Korea’s human rights abuses in the several
years following its release. This article interprets moves within
South Korea to support the UN COI’s recommendations as taken
in the interests of ontological security, or a stable sense of identity,
which has also driven the state’s broader initiatives on image
management and nation branding. It extends the boundaries of
nation-branding research by considering why and how a state may
adopt policies that enhance its moral visibility and reputation in
world affairs. It considers how a positive reputation is enhanced by
demonstrating good international citizenship, promoting the visibility
of state identity parameters beyond its culture and core
industries. This article interprets the South Korean government’s
efforts to act on North Korean human rights following the UN COI,
as well as the significance of being seen to be doing so at home
and abroad as security-giving behaviour asserting its moral
authority in relation to North Korea. It explores how a longstanding
policy of relative silence on North Korea’s human rights record
acceded to identity-driven pressures arising from the UN COI and
influencing South Korea’s international image-management strategy
between 2014 and 2017.

From the Cold War era of the ‘veteran heroes’ to the present view of escaped North Koreans in terms more akin to ‘refugees’ and sometimes even just ‘migrants’, perceptions of North Korean defectors in South Korea have changed as swiftly as the number and origins of Northerners entering the South have expanded. At the same time, government policy for these ethnic ‘brethren’ has evolved considerably, particularly as South Korea has seen fundamental shifts in its independent identity, with important repercussions for the way its citizens view themselves as a collective. This article explores some of the key influences behind changes to policy and perceptions regarding North Korean people in South Korea over the period from 1997 to 2012, by applying international relations theory on national identity and its role in policy formation and change through the need to secure different parameters within that identity.