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A Study of the Roles of NGOs for NorthKorean Refugees’ Human RightsJungin Kim aa Department of Public Administration and Policy , University ofGeorgia , Athens, Georgia, USAPublished online: 10 Mar 2010.

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Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 8:76–90, 2010Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1556-2948 print / 1556-2956 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15562940903575046

A Study of the Roles of NGOs for North KoreanRefugees’ Human Rights

JUNGIN KIMDepartment of Public Administration and Policy, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

Even though the U.S. government passed a bill supporting NorthKorean refugees’ human rights, security and other issues createsome difficulties in implementing this support. To overcome in-formation and basic knowledge limitations, the U.S. governmentshould cooperate with nonprofit organizations or nongovernmen-tal organizations (NGOs) and other governments in the world. Thisresearch is composed of four case studies based on media coverageand literature reviews, as well as semistructured interviews withNGOs’ officials, seeking to provide feasible and useful suggestionswhy NGOs are important for improving refugee policies and whythe U.S. and other countries’ governments need to cooperate withsuch NGOs.

KEYWORDS North Korean refugees, NGOs, human rights

INTRODUCTION

North Korea is one of the few remaining communist countries and is alsoone of the most repressive countries.1 Some say that North Korea stands instark contrast to the march of freedom elsewhere in the region,2 and callNorth Korea “an axis of evil” (Gordon, 2003), although it was removed fromthe axis of evil list created by the United States in 2008 (Page & Parry, 2008).Suppressed freedom of North Koreans for democracy and a market economyhas encouraged North Koreans to escape their own country. Extremely un-stable economic conditions caused by severe deluges and energy shortagesin the late 1990s led many North Koreans to seek asylum and shelter forfood and freedom in different countries such as China, South Korea,3 and

Jungin Kim is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in the Department of PublicAdministration and Policy at the University of Georgia. The author would like to thank allinterviewees and reviewers for their insightful comments.

Address correspondence to jungink@uga.edu

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several other countries,4 despite the well-known deadly punishments by theNorth Korean government when their escape was revealed (U.S. Departmentof State, 2005; Natsios, 2001).

Since the 1950s, over 6,000 North Koreans have resettled in South Ko-rea (North Korean Coalition, 2008). This number, however, is not evenlydistributed over the given time period. According to the U.S. Departmentof State (2005), most of these North Koreans moved into South Korea af-ter the late 1990s (e.g., 1,141 in 2002, 1,281 in 2003, and 1,894 in 2004).South Korea is not their only destination; the estimates of the number ofNorth Korean refugees in China vary from the tens of thousands to 300,000(U.S. Department of State, 2005). North Korean refugees in other countrieshave also been steadily increasing, but few refugees or asylum seekers havemoved to the U.S. With increases in the numbers of North Korean refugeesevery year, some destination countries (e.g., China) have had to take painsto deal with such North Korean refugees.5 In addition, international mediahave aired brutal scenes of oppression of North Korean refugees,6 whichhas raised people’s awareness of the increasing number of North Koreanrefugees and of those refugees’ need for human rights protection.

However, a lack of legal and political protection for North Koreanrefugees forces North Koreans into great danger. For instance, the Chinesegovernment, which hosts the largest number of North Korean refugees, doesnot define those who escape North Korea as refugees, and the Chinesegovernment deals with them as illegal immigrants or criminals, and returnsrefugees to North Korea where they may face death or starvation. Manyindividual human rights activists and nonprofit organizations (e.g., HumanRights First in the U.S.), or nongovernmental organizations (e.g., Life Fundsfor North Korean Refugees in Japan),7 journalists, and government officialshave promoted changes of the legal framework and policies regarding NorthKoreans’ human rights (Kwak, 2005). Recently, the role of NGOs in pro-tecting refugees’ human rights has been more significant because of NGOs’collective actions to help change international juridical and other politicalvisions of the refugees’ human rights. Additionally, NGOs provide significantinformation with regard to the status of North Korean refugees and asylumseekers to certain governments in order to promote North Korean refugees’and asylum seekers’ human rights.

This article investigates how NGOs have defended the basic humanrights of refugees and how their efforts have changed the political geomor-phology surrounding international refugees. By employing media coverageand literature reviews, as well as interviews with some NGO officials, threeaspects of NGOs’ efforts for North Korean refugees will be overviewed bythis study. First, major efforts of NGOs, which have focused on promotingpolitical freedom in North Korea and helping North Korean refugees, will beanalyzed. Second, the article will address how these efforts have contributedto changes within U.S. immigration policy for North Koreans, as well as the

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establishment of the North Korean Human Rights Act. Finally, both positiveand negative impacts of the efforts by NGOs to promote the freedom ofNorth Korea will be discussed.

U.S. Policies for North Korean Refugees

According to the U.S. Department of State (2005), five North Koreans weregranted asylum in FY 2002, three in FY 2003 and one in FY 2004 by immigra-tion courts during the removal process in the U.S. As the statistics indicate,the U.S. government had little concern about North Korean refugees until2002. However, following the May 2002 Shenyang case in China,8 whichignited much interest in the dire situations that North Korean refugees hadfaced, as well as possible nuclear threats by the North Korean government,North Korean human rights became one of the main issues for refugee pol-icy in the U.S. For example, after visiting Beijing to discuss the issue ofthe growing numbers of North Korean refugees in China, Arthur Dewey,an Assistant State Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, held apress briefing in Washington, DC in late 2003. In response to a question ofwhether the United States was ready to accept North Korean refugees andasylum seekers, Dewey said the refugees would be taken into the U.S. onan individual or group basis, after being examined, in order to avoid thepossibility of infiltration by espionage agents (Ser & Lee, 2004). He also clar-ified that Washington would prefer North Koreans to first consider asylumin South Korea (Ser & Lee, 2004). As a fruit of these efforts, President Bushsigned the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (NKHRA) on October18, 2004.9 The Act mandates the appointment of a Special Envoy on HumanRights in North Korea and requires six different reports on human rights inNorth Korea (North Korea Freedom Coalition, 2004).10 On February 22, 2005,the Department of State submitted the first of these six reports, “The Statusof North Korean Asylum Seekers and the U.S. Policy Towards Them” (U.S.Department of State, 2005).

Despite the efforts by the U.S. government for improvement, NorthKorean refugees’ human rights do not seem to be improving quickly. Reasonsfor this delay include a lack of information about the situation of NorthKorean refugees and the intentions of NKHRA. One of the biggest challengeswhich the United States faces in resettling North Korean asylum seekers isobtaining sufficient information and the identification of reliable resources,so U.S. agencies can complete the required security background checks onNorth Korean applicants. Since the nature of the North Korean regime deniesthe U.S. government convenient access to information on individual NorthKoreans, the State Department and Department of Homeland Security needto develop mechanisms for screening under which the U.S. governmentcould consider North Korean refugees for resettlement in the United States(U.S. Department of State, 2005; Paik, 2005).

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The other challenge is criticism of the implicit purpose of passingNKHRA. Some criticized the NKHRA by stating that the real reason the U.S.passed this Act was to put more political pressure on the North Koreangovernment with regard to North Korea’s nuclear weapon developmentproblmes.11 This kind of skepticism might be an obstacle to winning thepositive attention of people throughout the world because political agen-das embedded in human rights policies may not be thorough enough tohelp refugees’ human rights improvement in humanitarian and egalitarianperspectives.

One of the approaches to overcoming these challenges could be theU.S. government’s building of international coalitions with NGOs and gov-ernments of other countries, in terms of obtaining reliable and sufficientinformation on the human rights status of North Korea and North Ko-rean people (including refugees). The cooperation of NGOs is necessaryfor the improvement of North Korean human rights. In light of the build-ing of these coalitions, the U.S. government has already announced thatthey will regularly discuss their concerns about North Korean human rightswith China and other governments, the United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees (UNHCR), concerned NGOs, and private groups. Also, the U.S.government has stated that it would consult with NGOs that have specificallyattempted to address human rights in North Korea (U.S. Department of State,2005).12

THE STUDY DESIGN

Most NGO activities for North Korean refugees are focused on providinghumanitarian aid and protecting North Korean refugees’ human rights inother countries, especially in China (J.-W. Ahn, personal communication,March 23, 2006). Media coverage and research report that a number ofNGOs in South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. have actively worked for suchpurposes (Hawk, 2003), and therefore, case studies on NGOs in these threecountries and one international NGO were conducted with a focus on theirroles in protecting human rights in this research.

Literature and media coverage reviews (e.g., Tolley, 1989; Park, 1999),as well as semistructured telephone and e-mail interviews with several NGOofficials from April 2005 to March 2006, revealed that the roles of NGOswith regard to North Korean refugees’ human rights can be defined throughfour major efforts: (a) seeking to influence the international human rightsstandards; (b) helping North Korean refugees’ resettlement and provid-ing humanitarian assistance to North Korean refugees (e.g., food, clothing,and shelter); (c) educating and training North Korean refugees; (d) build-ing networks among NGOs, the private sector, and governments, such asChina, South Korea, and the U.S. With respect to such efforts, the present

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study has conducted qualitative case studies of NGOs that actively work forNorth Korean refugees’ human rights in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, andinternationally.

The NGOs selected for this study (e.g., Human Rights First in the U.S.,Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights [NKHR] in South Korea,Life Funds for North Korean Refugees [LFNKR] in Japan, and World VisionInternational) have actively worked for North Korean Refugees’ human rightsimprovement for over 10 years, and they have created domestic and inter-national NGO networks to share information and assist with the rescue ofrefugees. Additionally, the selected NGOs have published annual reports,and they have tried to make refugees’ human rights issues important policyagendas.13

Case Studies of Four Main Roles of NGOs for North Korean Refugees’Human Rights

CASE 1: SEEKING TO INFLUENCE THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS:HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST IN THE U.S.

NGOs seek to influence the international human rights standards throughlobbying, announcing their position, and organizing public opinion. NGOs,such as Human Rights First, the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in NorthKorea, and North Korea Freedom Coalition in the U.S.; Helping Hands Ko-rea, NKHR, and Durihana Mission in South Korea; and LFNKR in Japan haveworked towards setting reasonable and feasible international human rightsstandards. For instance, Human Rights First strongly supported bills that at-tempted to remove barriers to refugee and asylum eligibility for refugeesfrom North Korea in the U.S. and other countries. The U.S. Committee forHuman Rights in North Korea published a report, “Legal Strategies for Pro-tecting Human Rights in North Korea,” as a handbook for groups that intendto use the international legal system to advance human rights in North Korea(Cammarota, Crace, Worly, & Zaltzman, 2007). Also, some of these NGOs,such as LFNKR, have tried to change China’s positions and laws that affectNorth Korean refugees.

Human Rights First is a nonprofit organization14 that work to promoteinternational human rights standards, and was founded in 1978. HumanRights First has historically consisted primarily of professional lawyers. Thegoals of Human Rights First15 are to create a secure and humane world byadvancing justice, human dignity, and respect for the law.16

Human Rights First supports human rights activities that fight for basicfreedoms and peaceful change at the local level: protect refugees in flightfrom persecution and repression; help build a strong international system ofjustice and accountability; and ensure human rights laws and principles areenforced in the U.S. and abroad (Human Rights First, 2010).

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In light of such missions, Human Rights First has attempted to improvestandards for North Korean human rights, especially through the U.S. NorthKorean Refugee Act. For example, when U.S. Senator Sam Brownback intro-duced an earlier form of NKHRA, North Korean Refugee Relief Act of 2002(S.3122), in October 2002, Human Rights First sent letters to Senators PatrickLeahy and Orin Hatch, who were influential in passing this bill. In the letters,Human Rights First asked for the support of the North Korean Refugee ReliefAct of 2002 (S.3122).

According to the testimony of Elisa Massimino, Director of the Wash-ington office of Human Rights First in the U.S., she tried to push the U.S.legislature to understand why the U.S. government needed to build laws forthe North Korean refugees (Massimino, 2002). Even though the North KoreanRefugee Relief Act of 2002 was not passed, Human Rights First continued towork actively towards providing reasonable guidelines to build a law relatedto human rights protection.

CASE 2: HELPING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES’ RESETTLEMENT AND PROVIDING

HUMANITARIAN HELP TO NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES: LFNKR IN JAPAN

Some NGOs focus mainly on helping North Korean refugees resettle andprovide humanitarian aid to refugees. LFNKR in Japan shows how NGOsplay an important role in helping North Korean refugees’ resettle. LFNKR isan NGO formally founded in 1997 and dedicated to the rescue of North Ko-rean refugees.17 In an interview, Kato Hiroshi, Secretary General of LFNKR,said that major activities of LFNKR fall within the three main goals of:(a) providing food, clothing, and shelter to North Korean refugees; (b) orga-nizing a foster parent plan to provide care for refugee orphans; (c) establish-ing and maintaining secret routes outside of the North Korean governmentfor delivering food directly to starving people. Hiroshi also said their organi-zation sometimes opens the underground railroads for defectors who havesuffered greatly (K. Hiroshi, personal communication, April 15, 2005).

Hiroshi explains that LFNKR sometimes works together with other NGOsworldwide such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide (U.K.), Human Rightswithout Frontiers (Belgium), the U.S. Defense Forum (U.S.), and DurihanaMission (South Korea). LFNKR builds networks with other countries’ NGOsand governments in a variety of ways. First, LFNKR has tried to build net-works with other countries’ NGOs and governments through organizing aninternational conference for protecting human rights and pursuing refugeestatus for North Korean asylum seekers. Also, through providing an EnglishWebsite, LFNKR has received international attention from journalists andNGOs as a reliable source of information on the condition and plight ofNorth Korean refugees. Through using the PayPal online payment system,LFNKR has received donations from overseas. Finally, through providing its

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staff with language skills and other cultural background knowledge, LFNKRhas helped its staff build personal networks with other countries’ NGOs’ andgovernments’ officials (LFNKR, 2004).

CASE 3: EDUCATING AND TRAINING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES: CITIZENS’ ALLIANCE

FOR NKHR IN SOUTH KOREA

Many North Korean refugees seek shelter in South Korea, but the processesinvolved with coming into South Korea are not easy because of strong mil-itary confrontation on the border between South Korea and North Korea(Glosserman & Snyder, 2002). Consequently, many North Korean refugeesfled to other countries such as China, Vietnam, and Japan before they en-tered South Korea (Kim, 2003).18 Citizens’ Alliance for NKHR in South Koreawas founded in 1996 by a number of human rights advocates to help NorthKorean refugees, who suffered great difficulties in their immigration to SouthKorea. This NGO has provided five major programs, including resettlementassistance for North Korean refugees, education and training programs forboth volunteers who help North Korean refugees and North Korean refugeesin South Korea, publication and academic activities, international campaigns,and refugee relief activities.19 Among these activities, NKHR’s resettlementprogram through education and training for North Korean refugees has ob-tained good results (J.-W. Ahn, personal communication, March 23, 2006).

According to Kim (2003), the South Korean government provides NorthKorean refugees with adjustment support programs,20 especially throughvarious training and education programs (e.g., education programs to helprefugees’ understandings of cultural, political, and economic system differ-ences between North Korea and South Korea). However, such programs lastonly two months due to program funding issues, and this increases the needfor other organizations’ support to help North Korean refugees’ adjustmentin South Korea (Kim, 2003).

Resettlement assistance for North Korean refugees is often performed bythe volunteers’ enthusiastic involvement. To help the resettlement of NorthKorean refugees in South Korea, NKHR volunteers make regular visits to thetemporary readjustment facility for North Koreans following the refugees’departure from the facility. Potential volunteers who want to participatein the NKHR resettlement program are educated about the lives of NorthKorean refugees in South Korea. These volunteers tend to be undergraduateand graduate college students, and they are prepared for the resettlementprogram with assistance from dozens of experts.21

Volunteers also help young North Koreans adjust to their school life byassisting them in academic subjects, including writing and conversation inboth Korean and English, mathematics, and computers, among other sub-jects (B. Yoon, 2006). The NKHR staff establishes the initial contact betweenthe North Korean refugees and the volunteers and assists both parties to

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benefit mutually from this experience. Once every two months, volunteersand young North Koreans go on a field trip to build friendships and gain newexperiences (J.-W. Ahn, personal communication, March 23, 2006). Theseactivities usually provide North Korean refugees in South Korea with infor-mation about the new place in which they live. According to Ahn, about 50North Korean refugee families in South Korea were using this program in2006.

CASE 4: BUILDING NETWORKS AMONG NGOS, THE PRIVATE SECTOR,AND GOVERNMENTS: WORLD VISION INTERNATIONAL

Most NGOs try to build networks among other NGOs, the private sector,and governments in other countries. As Park (1999) mentioned in his article,there are three main reasons why NGOs need to build a network internation-ally. First, the internationalization of the North Korean human rights issues isnecessary in light of the seriousness of human rights issues. Second, interna-tionalization through cooperation at private as well as governmental levelswill increase the possibility of improvement of the North Korean humanrights situation. Finally, the internationalization of the North Korean humanrights issues will also increase the interest and support of the North Koreanpeople and the government in the issue. Recently, the trend of the NGOs’main activities is moving towards building networks among NGOs, the pri-vate sector, and governments worldwide. In most cases, NGOs, includingHuman Rights First in the U.S., LFNKR in Japan, and NKHR in South Korea,seek to build networks for helping North Korean refugees through holdingconferences, organizing public opinion campaigns, and issuing publications.

With a humanitarian view toward the North Korean people, many NGOshelp North Koreans to get food and clothes through networked refugeesupporting systems.22 World Vision, established in 1950, is an internationalChristian relief and development organization that works to promote thewell-being of all people, especially children. In 2004, World Vision offeredhumanitarian aid, including material, emotional, social, and spiritual supportto 100 million people in 96 countries through other NGO networks.23 Forinstance, one of the World Vision international offices, World Vision Korea,signed an agreement with Korea National Economic Cooperation Agency inBeijing to receive donations, and World Vision Korea assumed responsibilityfor the distribution and monitoring of the suppor.24 In addition, World VisionKorea sent 2,000 relief kits, worth $200,000, to help with the immediateneeds of flood victims based on humanitarian responses in 2007 (WorldVision International, 2007).

Limitations of NGOs’ Role

NGOs’ efforts to improve North Korean refugees’ human rights have influ-enced policies related to the human rights issues in North Korea. Through

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these efforts, NGOs, which work for North Korean refugees or North Koreanhuman rights, have proven their strength by acting as information sourcesand establishing coalitions among other NGOs, the private sector, and gov-ernments. Also, NGOs can play a positive role in dealing with politically sen-sitive issues through people-to-people diplomacy for dealing with refugees’human rights issues in international society (Park, 1999). However, a numberof issues need to be considered before the NGOs’ activities for protectingNorth Korean human rights can be justified.

In the theoretical context, Park (1999) and Tolley (1989) argued that onepossible problem with NGOs is the fact that many NGOs frequently competefor limited resources and recognition. Most NGOs have fundraising activitiesor apply for grants from governments to operate their program to supportNorth Korean human rights. For instance, in the case of NKHR, educationprogram vice-director Ahn said their main funding resource is governmentgrants (J.-W. Ahn, personal communication, March 23, 2006). Since there aremany NGOs, small and large, which claim to work for North Korean humanrights, they sometimes compete for limited resources, especially financialand technical resources.

In light of the problem of limited resources, one of the most importantquestions that concerns NGOs is that of their independence. That is, whetherNGOs can maintain their independence as a third sector and resist becom-ing either agents of government or fee-charging private consultancy firmsremains unclear (Streeten, 1997). As NKHR’s Ahn mentioned, some NGOsare operated by government grants, as well as private sector donations.25

Such dependence on governmental and private sector resources might in-hibit NGOs’ abilities to play a truly independent role as a third sector inpromoting North Korean human rights.

Second, NGOs also have limitations on the protection of their activi-ties. Several NGO activists have been in danger while working for NorthKoreans’ human rights since neither the UN nor any other government orgovernment agency can protect their status in some countries, especiallyin China. Most NGOs which have been involved in helping North Koreanrefugees have experienced threats arrest and prosecution under Chinese in-ternal law. Many NGO humanitarian aid workers, including LFNKR’s Hiroshi,have been arrested and required to spend time in Chinese jails (K. Hiroshi,personal communication, April 15, 2005). Although in the post-Cold Warera an emerging trend exists under which human rights may have priorityover national sovereignty, China still claims that human rights are a matterbelonging to the domestic jurisdiction of a society (Park, 1999). This kind ofconflict can create a dangerous situation for NGO workers.

Some research has argued that most NGOs should be careful about theiractivities with regard to North Koreans’ human rights due to hostile politicalattitudes in North Korea toward other countries. That means if the outsideworld focuses on its human rights issues, such a narrow focus may only

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provoke the North Korean regime without necessarily improving the humanrights conditions there (Park, 1999). The international community, includingNGOs, must recognize that the sanctions on North Korea, the reduction ofhumanitarian aid, and the escalation of aggressive tensions in and aroundthe Korean peninsula will only threaten the North Korean people’s rights topeace and life (Paik, 2005). These kinds of notions can limit NGOs’ activities.

Third, cultural conflicts caused by overemphasizing a westernized pointof view toward human rights might be a limitation on the NGOs’ activitiesfor supporting North Korean refugees. Since North Korea is a closed soci-ety, North Korean refugees are not familiar with westernized programs orwith the aid provided by some NGOs. More often than not, they tend tohave a strong dislike of western values and do not want to be “defectors” or“refugees.” Rather, they want to maintain self-respect by considering them-selves “immigrants for economic motives” (Kim, 2003, p. 12). It is importantto consider the potential cultural conflicts between the refugees and theirhost countries (especially the U.S.) when making related policies.

As advocates for North Korean refugees and asylum seekers, manyNGOs have both strengths and limitations in assisting policy making andimplementation. As NGOs show their strengths and seek to overcome theirlimitations, they will play increasingly important roles in the arena of U.S.refugee policies in the future.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Through the Refugee Act of 1980, the U.S. has tried to play a role as aleader in human rights with UNHCR. Even before enactment of the RefugeeAct of 1980, the U.S. was the main country protecting human rights. Forinstance, in the 1960s, when Hong Kong appealed for international help,former President John F. Kennedy enacted an emergency executive orderthat allowed the immediate immigration of 5,000 people from Hong Kong tothe U.S. (Lee, 2002).26 Although the U.S. Presidential Determination, whichsets a ceiling for the numbers of refugees to be resettled in the U.S. in thecoming year, released a statement setting the ceiling for FY 2009 at 80,000refugees, there is no specific number or statement for North Korean refugeeresettlement in the U.S. (Bush, 2008).27

North Korean refugees’ human rights issues can be classified into threemain areas: economic, political, and humanitarian. First, there are concernsabout economic issues when the U.S. government provides material assis-tance, such as food, clothing, or monitorial aid to North Korean refugees andasylum seekers. The U.S. government has provided about 1.9 million tonsof food aid to North Korea (C. Ahn, 2004), and the U.S. announced a planto provide about $20 million worth of aid to North Korean refugees in theNKHRA of 2004. Even though there were no explicit opponents to the plan

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for providing economic assistance to North Korean refugees, there are stillsome issues regarding the amount of aid.28

Second, some NGO members argue that the NKHRA of 2004 was es-tablished with political aims such as collapsing the North Korean regimeand pressuring the North Korean government to stop developing nuclearweapons (C. Ahn, 2004). According to C. Ahn (2004), when the Bush admin-istration took office, food aid to that country dropped from 500,000 to about100,000 tons per year, clearly the result of a political agenda.29

Finally, two different perspectives can be embraced with regard to NorthKorean refugees, including the humanitarian and human rights aspects. Bydefinition, humanitarians indicate behavior for parties during war in relationto people at mercy of the conflict, and human rights are the rights of individ-uals to treatment by or protection from government abuses (Peters, 2002).According to Park (1999), conflicts with priorities continue between humanrights and humanitarian assistance with regard to the North Korean humanrights issues. However, recently, concerns about North Korean refugees’ hu-man rights seem to be increasing with the collection of specific cases ofhuman rights violations (Y.-S. Yoon et al., 2008).30

These kinds of considerations might not be limited only to North Koreanrefugees’ human rights protection issues since some other countries stillremain closed societies that include many people who have tried to escape.Recently, the U.S. has decided to help refugees and migrants from Gaza, andPresident Barack Obama signed a memorandum (Obama, 2009) that directsmore than $20 million for “urgent refugee and migration needs” on Gaza inFebruary 2, 2009.31 With regard to North Korean refugee issues, even thoughthe NKRHA of 2004 is not fully implemented and the U.S. government needsto supplement the law, some lessons from the process of enactment of theNKRHA of 2004 remain to be applied to other U.S. refugee policies.

To create a better environment for refugees’ human rights, the U.S.government should try to establish laws and international norms to protectrefugees’ human rights in a timely manner. Human rights abuses, as haveoccurred in North Korea, should concern the entire international community(Park, 1999). In some cases, North Koreans apply for refugee status in theU.S. after they obtain citizenship in South Korea. In such cases, confusionbetween the South Korean Constitution and U.S. immigration policies exist,and there were instances that Immigration Judges denied each respondent’sapplication for asylum (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007).32 Therefore, theU.S. should help to develop more articulate legal and normative logic andtheories, which will become the fundamental basis of legitimate human rightsregardless of geographical, legal, political, and cultural differences.

Through campaigns and conferences, building coalitions with NGOs andother governments, such as South Korea and Japan, seems to be essentialto improving the U.S. and international refugee policies. These coalitionscan also place more pressure on China and other countries to abide by

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their obligations under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol (Massimino,2002). In other words, coalitions with NGOs worldwide, as well as with othergovernments such as South Korea and Japan, can shape the direction of U.S.refugee policy. Additionally, the U.S. government should provide appropriatelegal protection for NGO activists domestically and internationally.

NOTES

1. Currently, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam are the remaining communist countriesin the world (Source: http://www.aneki.com/communist.html)

2. As a result of the Korean War (between 1950 and 1953), Korea was separated into twocountries. After the partition of the Korean peninsula, North Korea and South Korea followed differentpaths. North Korea took communism as its principle, and South Korea chose to employ a market economy.Such different paths have resulted in drastically different political, cultural, social, and economic conditionsrespectively. While South Korea has grown to become the 10th largest economy in the world, North Koreastill remains one of the poorest countries in the world. North Koreans have suffered from famine andstarvation due to inefficient political and economic systems of the past several decades.

3. Some North Korean refugees who went to South Korea testified about their human rightsabuses in North Korea (Park, 1999).

4. According to the U.S. Department of State, credible estimates of the number of North Koreansin China ranged between 75,000 and 125,000 in 2000.

5. The United States government has become more concerned with the North Korean refugees’status and human rights throughout the world. Specifically, the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004and the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008 were signed into law to help bringabout peaceful changes for and by the people of North Korea. North Koreans currently suffer under oneof the most repressive regimes in the world.

6. For several years, international media have captured and aired brutal scenes of North Koreansbeing forcibly apprehended by Chinese armed police.

7. In this article, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations are used interchangeably becausethese two types of organizations are not operated by government and governmental funds. Henceforth,this article focuses on the roles of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

8. On May 8, 2002, international news media captured the brutal scene of five North Koreans whowere forcibly removed by Chinese armed police from the Japanese consulate in Shenyang, the People’sRepublic of China. The two men, who were already inside the consulate building, were forcibly arrestedby the Chinese guards. The image of the two screaming women and a baby being harshly dragged byChinese officials was particularly disturbing (Kwak, 2005).

9. This act seeks to address the serious human rights situation in North Korea, as well as promotedurable solutions for refugees: transparency in the provision of humanitarian assistance; a free flow ofinformation; and progress towards the peaceful reunification on the Korean peninsula.

10. According to the the U.S. Department of State (2005), North Korean Human Rights Act providespeople with useful new tools to address the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea by focusingpeople’s efforts to help both those who flee regime and those who are trapped inside the country. Also,the U.S. government expects the lives of the average North Korean to be improved through this act.

11. Some NGOs, such as Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea, have concerns about the U.S.government’s purpose behind the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, and they have argued thatthe U.S. government should be careful to apply the bill.

12. While this approach can help the U.S. government do a better job of screening North Koreanrefugees who want to settle in the U.S., it also has a number of issues that need to be addressed in orderto improve human rights in North Korea (as well as those of North Korean refugees).

13. In the case of the Human Rights First, the organization sent letters to Hillary Clinton, U.S.Secretary of State, to encourage her to focus on human rights issues during her visit to Asia in February,2009. The letters are provided on the website, http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/pdf/090217-HRD-1st-Ltr-sec-state-clinton.pdf

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14. Organizational status of the Human Rights First as a nonprofit organization can be read athttp://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about us/about us status.aspx

15. Human Rights First was founded in 1978, and had about $6,827,568 revenue source suchas foundations, individuals, law firms, corporations, and other income in FY2002–2003. More specificinformation about the organization can be found at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/index.aspx

16. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about us/about us.htm17. http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/speech20020903.html18. Kim (2003) surveyed 113 North Korean refugees in South Korea in 2002, and the study found

that 72% of respondents had experiences in staying at other countries, such as China, before they enteredSouth Korea.

19. http://www.nkhumanrights.or.kr/NKHR new/index eng new.htm20. North Korean refugees who entered South Korea, by law must take a two month adjustment

program, and, then, they can settle in any places they wish with a government subsidy (Kim, 2003).21. http://www.nkhumanrights.or.kr/NKHR new/index eng new.htm22. Since there have been negative or skeptical views about providing food and clothing through

the North Korean government, mainly because of the doubts about whether the North Korean governmentwould allocate that aid fairly to its people, some NGOs seek to develop North Korean refugees supportingsystems to provide direct humanitarian aid to North Korean refugees (J.-W. Ahn, personal communication,March 23, 2006).

23. More specific information can be found at http://www.wvi.org/wvi/home.htm24. http://www.wvi.org25. LFNKR’s Hiroshi said the organization’s financial base depends on individual donations, and

they do not get any assistance from any governments or the UN. However, the possibility exists issuesregarding NGOs’ independence as a third sector as their tasks generally cost much (K. Hiroshi, personalcommunication, April 15, 2005).

26. China suffered a massive famine after Mao instituted the Great Leap Forward in 1952. A totalof 250,000 Chinese escaped to Hong Kong during 1960s (Lee, 2002).

27. Memorandum for the Secretary of State regarding Presidential Determination No. 2008–1: FY2008 refugee admissions numbers can be read at http://www.rcusa.org/index.php?page=presidential-determination-fy-2008.

28. Generally, if the refugees want to settle in the U.S., usually U.S. citizens (taxpayers) have topay for refugees’ resettlement costs and social welfare costs.

29. Undersecretary of State John Bolton characterized the Bush administration’s focus on NorthKorea as “the end of North Korea” (C. Ahn, 2004).

30. According to Y.-S. Yoon et al. (2008), most incidents of North Korean refugees’ human rightsviolations are associated with personal integrity and right to liberty (59.3%) and right to life (16.0%).

31. Original memorandum can be seen at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog post/relief for gaza/32. The immigration judge also denied withholding of removal under sections 208(a) and 241(b)(3)

of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(a) and 1231(b)(3) (2000) (U.S. Department ofJustice, 2007).

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