Security experts, United Nations officials, and congressional leaders have for years insisted that in dealing with North Korea, its government’s systemic human rights abuses need to be addressed alongside nuclear proliferation. North Korea pays for its weapons programs with totalitarian repression, endemic forced labor, and unsurpassed cyber theft.

Congress recognized that when it adopted the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004, specifying that promoting human rights for North Korea should be “a key element in future negotiations between the United States, North Korea, and other concerned parties.” It authorized funding to broadcast independent media into North Korea and gather information about conditions inside the country, necessary for the United States to formulate policy, and to craft sanctions and other........

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