North Korea’s threat to moral norms

President Trump’s reduction of military pressure and overtures to reopen direct diplomacy with Kim Jong Un downplay and legitimize North Korea’s assault on human rights standards all governments are morally obligated to respect. North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal, ballistic missiles and massive army threaten South Korea, Japan and world peace. But the regime’s horrific treatment of its people challenges fundamental principles of decency shared by civilized societies.

Trump is not the only one to ignore the Kim regime’s totalitarian abuses. Media coverage and political commentary surrounding Trump’s latest overtures to the North Korean dictator have not even mentioned crimes against humanity and violations of human rights and freedoms, which are arguably worse than in any other country on Earth. Human Rights in North Korea, an independent nongovernmental organization, said around 160,000 individuals were being detained there for “political crimes,” highlighting an increase from previous estimates. According to a 2014 United Nations commission report, detainees are subjected to “murder, enslavement, torture, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence,” atrocities that the organization says are ongoing. Twenty-seven of these camps have been documented by satellite imagery and witness testimonies. 

A “political crime,” thanks to North Korea’s ascriptive Songbun classification system, can mean coming from a family deemed insufficiently loyal to the Kim dynasty by virtue of actions........

© The Hill