로버트 킹(Robert King) 전 미 국무부 북한인권특사는 북한의 생활환경에 대하여 평가하고, 어려운 북한 주민들을 돕기 위한 인도적 지원이 이루어 지지 못하고 있는 상황에 대하여 설명합니다. 킹 특사는 팬데믹과 국경통제로 인해 북한의 인권 실태 파악이 어려워진 상황이지만, 인공위성 이미지가 북한 실상을 이해함에 있어 매우 중요한 자료를 제공하고 있다고 강조합니다. 아울러 김정은 정권의 핵무기 개발에 대한 국제사회의 대북제재가 북한 주민의 인권에는 어떤 어려움을 주고 있는지 논의하고, 미국의 지속적인 시도에도 불구하고 북한이 대화를 거부함으로 인해 인권문제 개선을 위한 실질적인 노력을 기울이기 어려운 실정이라고 평가합니다.

I. Current Human Rights Situation in the DPRK Since COVID

ㆍCOVID pandemic has induced further restrictions of access to information, freedom to travel, and food imports into North Korea. So while not much new information is available, the DPRK’s human rights situation "is serious” and "does not look encouraging.”

ㆍGiven all these limits, satellite imagery "has been very helpful” for the United States to identify the current living conditions in the DPRK. As a former Special Envoy for the DPRK Human Rights Issues, Ambassador King has used this imagery to "show publicly to indicate what the North Koreans were doing.”

II. Sanctions against the DPRK and Humanitarian Assistance

ㆍThe international community, including the United States, has sanctioned "the kind of goods that will contribute to the nuclear program but no sanction humanitarian products that North Korea would like to import.” Yet the North Korean regime "is willing to take the humanitarian food supplies and sell them rather than provide them to their people so they can have additional resources to use for their missile and nuclear programs. This makes providing humanitarian aid to the DPRK extremely difficult.

ㆍWith regards to engaging the DPRK, U.S. has "had continuous efforts on human rights even though [the U.S.] has not had a special envoy for the last several years.” However, North Korea’s preoccupation with regime stability and its unwillingness to come out to the negotiating table is what complicates these efforts. ■

■Robert King_served as special envoy for North Korea human rights issues at the U.S. Department of State. He was nominated by President Barack Obama, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and served in that position from November 2009 to January 2017. Ambassador King led U.S. efforts to press North Korea for progress on its human rights, U.S. humanitarian work in North Korea, and the treatment of U.S. citizens being held in the North. He represented the United States in international organizations dealing with these issues. Earlier, Dr. King was staff director of the House Foreign Affairs Committee under Chairmen Tom Lantos and Howard Berman and prior to that was a senior professional staff member of the committee (1993–2009). He was concurrently chief of staff to Representative Tom Lantos (1983–2009). In the 1970s, as a White House fellow, he was a member of the National Security Council staff working with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Jimmy Carter administration. He was also assistant director of research and senior analyst at Radio Free Europe in Munich Germany (1970–1977). Dr. King holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in political science from Brigham Young University. An adjunct professor, he has taught courses in international relations and U.S. foreign policy in a number of graduate and undergraduate programs. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit by the president of the Republic of Hungary.

■ 담당 및 편집: 박지수, 연구보조원
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