Transitional Justice on the Korean Peninsula: Lessons from Cambodia

Abstract

Thinking about the prospects for “transitional justice” on the Korean Peninsula necessarily involves dealing with a high degree of uncertainty. To bound that uncertainty, we must at the outset take stock of certain facts and then make some assumptions. The most compelling facts are those documented in excruciating detail by the United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The commission found after extensive investigation that “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, its institutions and officials. In many instances, the violations of human rights found by the commission constitute crimes against humanity … The gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”¹

President and CEO, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.