북한 ‘아동권리보장법’ 분석: 교육, 보건, 가정 관련 조항을 중심으로

Abstract

The aim of this study is to parse the welfare provisions of the North Korea's Child Rights Protection Act and trace the institutional level and variances of the North's 'child welfare' based on these provisions. Thus, the study approached the welfare provisions of North Korean children, focusing on the ① education rights, ② health rights, ③ family rights. By and large, the Act showed a similar tendency to the Women's Rights Protection Act enacted on the same day. Accordingly, the North Korea's Child Rights Protection Act has a strong color of symbolic and independent legislation, but it has not surmounted existing limitations in substance. This arises from ① hierarchical relationship, ② associations in substance, ③ the ripple effects of changes, ④ inherent traits between the Act and other comparative statutes. Specifically, first, hierarchical relationships between the North Korea's Child Rights Protection Act and other statutes are subject to redundancy in contents as they are either vertical or horizontal depending upon the object and content of comparison. Second, the contents of the Act are intimately related to other laws, as it is somewhat burdensome for the nation to present fresh things. Third, for North Korea's position, serial amendments to the related laws due to one statute are not an easy matter to embrace at all. Fourth, the country has newly enacted the legislation, but there is little need to present something new without gains by expanding it. Notwithstanding, we can’t discount the symbolism and contents of the Act. This is because it is the only independent law that has so far presented child welfare comprehensively in North Korea.