Abstract
No one knows when unification between the two Koreas will occur. But when it happens, undertaking a fair and transparent process of transitional justice will be a crucial part of determining the success of peace-building and reconciliation efforts in post-unification Korea. This chapter argues that achieving justice and facilitating reconciliation between the peoples of South Korea (ROK) and North Korea (DPRK) during this period is not only important for the long-term peace and stability of the two Koreas, but also of major regional and international significance.
Assistant Professor at Kyung-Hee University, Korea; bsbaek@khu.ac.kr
Program Officer at Asan Institute for Policy Studies; lisadalem@gmail.com
Program Officer at Asan Institute for Policy Studies and PhD candidate in Law at Korea University; yurik@korea.ac.kr
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Notes
Oskar N. T. Thoms, James Ron, and Ronald Paris, “State-Level Effects of Transitional Justice: What Do We Know,” International Journal of Transitional Justice 4 (2010): 329–354.
For example, Paul Stares and Joel Wit, “Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea,” Council Special Report, No. 42, Council on Foreign Relations, (January 2009): 10–15;
and Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Lind, “The Collapse of North Korea: Military Missions and Requirements,” International Security 36, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 84–119.
For example, Charles Wolf, Jr. and Kamil Akramov, North Korean Paradoxes: Circumstances, Costs, and Consequences of Korean Unification (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2005).
For example, Victor Cha and David Kang, Challenges for Korean Unification Planning: Justice, Markets, Health, Refugees, and Civil-Military Transitions (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2011), 7.
Kathryn Sikkink and Carrie Booth Walling, “Argentina’s Contribution to Global Trends in Transitional Justice,” in Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice, eds. Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Javier Marriezcurrena (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 301;
See generally Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions (London: Routledge, 2010).
Paige Arthur, How Transitions’ Reshaped Human Rights: A Conceptual History of Transitional Justice, 31 Hum. Rts. Q. 321, 367 (2009).
See generally The World Bank, World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development (Washington, DC, 2011).
See Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010).
There is a vigorous debate regarding the effectiveness of transitional justice mechanisms. Although the discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter, there have been efforts to quantifiably measure and study their impact on peace, reconciliation, and democratic development processes. See generally Hugo van der Merwe, Victoria Baxter, and Audrey R. Chapman, eds., Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 2009);
and Tricia D. Olsen, Leigh A. Payne, and Andrew G. Reiter, Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 2010).
For a review of how the concept and boundaries of transitional justice have evolved, see Rosemary Nagy, “Transitional Justice as a Global Project: Critical Reflections,” Third World Quarterly 29, no. 2 (2008): 277–278.
Oskar N. T. Thoms, James Ron, and Ronald Paris, The Effects of Transitional Justice Mechanisms: A Summary of Empirical Research Findings and Implications for Analysts and Practitioners (Ottawa: Centre for International Policy Studies, 2008), 18–20; and Fatou Bensouda, “International Justice and Diplomacy,” New York Times, March 19, 2013.
See Robert I. Rotberg and Dennis Thompson, Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000);
and Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Javier Mariezcurrena, eds., Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth versus Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Dustin N. Sharp, Beyond the Post-Conflict Checklist: Linking Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice Through the Lens of Critique, 14 Chicago J. Int’l L. 165, 170 (2013).
United Nations, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: United Nations Approach to Transitional Justice (Geneva, March 2010), 3.
Rule of Law and Transitional Justice, para. 923. See also, Steven R. Ratner, Jason S. Abrams, and James L. Bischoff, Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 6–22, 167–176.
Paolo Cammarota et al., Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea (Washington, DC: Skadden LLP and The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; 2007), 15;
and Grace M. Kang, A Case for the Prosecution of Kim Jong Il for Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, and War Crimes, 38 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 51, 56 (Fall 2006).
Robert Collins, Marked for Life: Songbun North Korea’s Social Classification System (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012), 15;
and Korean Bar Association, 2012 White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea (Seoul: Korean Bar Association, 2012).
The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, Asan Public Opinion Report: South Korean Attitudes toward North Korea and Unification (Seoul, 2015).
Woo Taek Jeon et al., “Survey of the North Korean People’s Social Consciousness: Study on North Korean Defectors in South Korea,” Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 42(5) (September, 2003), 631–632.
NKVISION, “Increased number of Anti-regime Defectors Compared to Defectors for Subsistence,” March 29, 2012, http://www.nkvision.com/read.php?num=280.
See Buhm-Suk Baek, “The Medium Foreseeing the Future,” Socio-Legal Review 36, no. 8 (2012): 36–112.
David Hawk, The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of Those Who are Sent to the Mountains, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012);
See also David Hawk, North Korea’s Hidden Gulag: Interpreting Reports of Changes in the Prison Camps (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2013).
Hogan Lovells LLP, An Independent Legal Opinion on the Findings of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Washington, DC: Human Liberty, 2014), http://humanliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014-Crimes-Against-Humanity-report.pdf.
UN Human Rights Council, The situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, UN Doc. A/HRC/22/L.19, March 18, 2013.
Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010).
See Christine Bell, “Transitional Justice, Interdisciplinarity and the State of the ‘Field’ or ‘Non-Field’,” International Journal of Transitional Justice 3, no. 1 (2009): 5–27; and United Nations, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: United Nations Approach to Transitional Justice (March 2010), 7–10.
Robert I. Rotberg and Dennis Thompson, eds., Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); and Roht-Arriaza and Mariezcurrena, Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century.
External Actors and Transitional Justice in a Reunified Korea
Ellen Lutz and Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America, 2 Chic. J. Int’l L. 1 (2001);
and Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (New York: Norton, 2011).
Chandra Lekha Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities: A Revolution in Accountability (New York: Routledge, 2005).
Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, eds., The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999);
and Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks, How to Influence States: Socialization and International Human Rights, 54 Duke L. J. 621 (2004).
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).
Diane F. Orentlicher, Settling Accounts: The Duty to Prosecute Human Rights Violations of a Prior Regime, 100 Yale L. J. 2537 (1991);
and Naomi Roht-Arriaza, ed., Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Lisa J. Laplante, Outlawing Amnesty: The Return of Criminal Justice in Transitional Justice Schemes, 49 Va. J. Int’l L. 915 (2009).
Ann Florini, “The Evolution of International Norms,” International Studies Quarterly 40, no. 3 (1996): 363–389.;
and Harvey Starr, “Democratic Dominoes: Diffusion Approaches to the Spread of Democracy in the International System,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 35, no. 2 (1991): 356–381.
Tricia D. Olsen, Leigh A. Payne, and Andrew G. Reiter, Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010).
Emilie Hafner-Burton and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: Paradox of Empty Promises,” American Journal of Sociology 110, no. 5 (2005): 1373–1411.
Jelena Subotic, Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009).
See Gary J. Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000);
Philippe Sands, ed., From Nuremberg to The Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003);
and Laura A. Dickinson, “The Promise of Hybrid Courts,” American Journal of International Law 97, no. 2 (2003): 295–310.
See Cynthia J. Arnson, El Salvador, Accountability and Human Rights: The Report of the UN Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (New York: America’s Watch, 1993);
and Thomas Buergenthal, The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador, 27 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 497 (1994).
Caitlin Reiger and Marieke Wierda, The Serious Crimes Process in Timor-Leste: In Retrospect (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2006), http://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-TimorLeste-Criminal-Process-2006-English.pdf.
Matthew Reichstein, The Extradition of General Manuel Noriega: An Application of International Humanitarian Law to Answer the Question, If So, Where Should He Go? 22 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 857 (2008).
Significant Japanese participation, however, is unlikely, given its past military aggression in the region and problematic record of coming to terms with its own past. See Jennifer Lind, Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008);
and Alexis Dudden, Troubled Apologies among Japan, Korea, and the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).
Daniel L. Byman and Jennifer Lind, “Pyongyang’s Survival Strategy: Tools of Authoritarian Control in North Korea,” International Security 35, no. 1 (2010): 44–74.
Victor D. Cha and Nicholas D. Anderson, “A North Korean Spring?” The Washington Quarterly 35, no. 1 (2012): 7–24.
Bruce W. Bennett and Jennifer Lind, “The Collapse of North Korea: Military Missions and Requirements,” International Security 36, no. 2 (2011): 84–119.
David Hawk, The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2003).
Blaine Harden, Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).
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© 2015 Baek Buhm-Suk and Ruti G. Teitel
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Buhm-Suk, B., Collins, L., Yuri, K. (2015). Transitional Justice in Post-Unification Korea: Challenges and Prospects. In: Buhm-Suk, B., Teitel, R.G. (eds) Transitional Justice in Unified Korea. Asan-Palgrave Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-53454-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-53454-5_2
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