유엔인권레짐과 북한인권 : ‘전략’과 ‘관계’를 중심으로

Abstract

North Korea is a member country of the United Nations and has promised to commit itself to keep international conventions on human rights. And that puts understanding the relations between North Korea and the UN human rights regime ahead of figuring out how to solve North Korea human rights problems. This paper analyzes the relations between North Korea and the UN human rights regime from the viewpoint of ‘relations’ which is far beyond unilateral responses. It particularly deals with strategic countermeasures of North Korea to external pressure and the consequences of it reflected on the bilateral relations between North Korea and the UN human rights regime. Firstly, the manner and position of North Korea towards UN human rights organizations, including UN Charter-based bodies and UN treaty-based bodies, is one of the most critical elements to the relations. Secondly, North Korea has built up its relations with UN human rights organizations questioning whether it would be a threat to North Korean system, especially its ‘our style socialism’. Given that, it was possible to prove out that North Korea has established UN-DPRK relationship not only based on rejection and selective cooperation but also on the basis of the retention of North Korean system. It is noticeable that North Korea tries to maintain cooperative and amicable relations with international conventions as well as UN treaty-based bodies but at the same time it turns extremely hostile when it comes to its profits and losses.