Helsinki Process for North Korea Human Rights

An international conference on North Korean human rights, to look for solution through the Helsinki Process, will be held on September 26 in Washington D.C. by Freedom House, a U.S. based human rights organization.

In 1975, the United States, along with the Western European countries, and the Soviet bloc signed on an agreement in Helsinki Finland, and the western world urged the communist countries to improve democracy according to the agreement. Helsinki Process means such multilateral pressure toward democracy and human rights.

In the conference, 23 scholars from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and China will join to discuss various solutions, especially through security, economy and human rights that are the core of Helsinki Process, of the North Korean issue. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), who led legislation of North Korean Human Rights Acts, is scheduled to have an opening speech. Sen. Brownback has been arguing for the change of course in American policy on North Korean toward Helsinki Process.

Jae H. Ku, director of the Human Rights in North Korea Project in the Freedom House, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that there was an increase of opinion in the U.S., particularly on Capitol Hill, to apply the Helsinki Process-type solution in North Korea.

[The Daily NK]