(The history of Park Rahn's Human Rights) Why the Pope must visit North Korea

One of the achievements of President Mun Jae-in during his trip to Europe last month was to attract the visit of the Franciscans to North Korea. During his visit to North Korea, the Pope praised the idea that this would contribute to the opening of North Korea and to peace on the Korean peninsula.

In the United States, however, he was more concerned than to be able to welcome the pope's visit to North Korea. "North Korea is the largest country of religious oppression" and the Pope's visit is a sign that the dictatorship of North Korea will be legalized. In an interview with the press, the secretary general of Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group that went on Wednesday, said: "(The pope) does not want to see it. is not right to simply bless the dictatorship.At the present time, North Korea does not have religious freedom and should not go there. "

Would it be better for the Franciscan pope to go to North Korea? Or should we object? In our society, the past is sad, but the movement for human rights is very embarrbading. Until now, the human rights movement has been developed to raise issues of individual violations of human rights and to intensively address this problem. However, he did not pay much attention to the structural political and economic problems that caused human rights violations. This process has also been a dominant position of human rights groups in Western Europe and the United States since the 1970s. Western Europe has been criticized for leading the transformation of the East European society by exposing the situation in which the freedom of Eastern Europe is heavily repressed.

However, East European society was quickly integrated into the capitalist system and gained freedom, while socio-economic conditions worsened further. Human rights are not only about the space of freedom, but also of equality. In this perspective, it is necessary to improve human rights in the field of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights). In the human rights society of Eastern Europe,. International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, renowned international human rights organizations, are considered indifferent to the social and economic conditions of their citizens.

It is also necessary to discuss the preliminary task of improving the fundamental rights of citizens living in the south or north of the Korean peninsula in order to avoid such an badessment in the future. In our society, there is no or enough consensus on how to tackle human rights issues in North Korea in a long-term perspective. However, in order to enhance the human rights of North Korea in the division system that maintains different systems in the South and North for 70 years, approaching the only point of view of South Korea is not effective and arouses unnecessary controversy. As efforts to establish a peace regime on the Korean peninsula continue, it is necessary to create the political and economic conditions of North Korea to comply with international human rights standards.

Professor Cho Hyo-jae recently said in a human rights magazine: "In the traditional speech on human rights, the tendency to treat specific cases of individual violation more deeply than We must also consider how to create conditions conducive to the realization of human rights. "His argument is not to" abstain from the implementation approach of the norms. but to highlight the question of how to optimize and integrate the implementation approach standards and conditions training approach.

Every year, the United Nations adopts resolutions on human rights in North Korea. However, it is true that the United Nations resolution on human rights does not fully demonstrate its effectiveness in improving human rights in North Korea. Should North Korea not open the door to participation as a member of the international community and support the creation of conditions conducive to the acceptance of international human rights standards? In this sense, it is very opportune for the pope to visit North Korea. It is time to think of a way to ensure that the North Korean society accepts human rights beyond just the human rights issue in North Korea.

Park Ryeong-gun Tomate Editorial Board