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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes questions from reporters during the annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” release at the State Department in Washington on March 30. (AP/Yonhap News)

The US government has been underlining human rights issues as an essential element in its North Korea policy.

“Human rights will remain an indispensable component of our overall policy towards the North Korean government,” declared Lisa Peterson, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, when the State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices were released on March 30.

“We will continue to hold the North Korean government accountable for its egregious human rights violations,” she added.

The North Korea-related content in this year’s human rights report is not much different from past years. It states that security forces are committing numerous human rights violations and that people are illegally or arbitrarily killed or disappeared by authorities.

But it carries different weight this time: unlike the Donald Trump administration, which was uninterested in matters of human rights and democracy, the Joe Biden administration has made it clear that it plans to assign human rights a central place in its diplomacy.

If we consider how sensitively North Korea responds to mention of human rights issues, this development is very likely to raise the barrier to resuming denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

It’s certain to weigh heavily on the South Korean government, which has so far adhered to a position of pursuing natural improvements to North Korean human rights through denuclearization and inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, rather than addressing the issue head on.

On April 2, the directors of the South Korea, US and Japan national security councils were scheduled to meet in Washington for a final coordination of North Korea policy. Seoul needs to have a clear position and principles established on North Korean human rights before the direction of Seoul and Washington’s North Korean policy and diplomatic efforts can emerge.

South Korean conservatives have routinely pointed to human rights issues to oppose dialogue and cooperation with Pyongyang. Progressives, for their part, have prioritized denuclearization talks and inter-Korean reconciliation while consigning human rights issues to lower-priority status.

In response to the Biden administration’s emphasis on human rights, some have commented that North Korean human rights issues can’t be resolved through external pressure alone. The US has also faced accusations of hypocrisy for hoisting the banner of “human rights” while also invading Iraq and supporting dictatorial regimes in South America and elsewhere.

Still, the change in Washington’s stance is a reality. It’s time for Seoul to undertake its own concrete review of its principles for responding to North Korean human rights concerns.

Public sympathies on the issue of North Korean human rights need to be established not just in coordinating policies with the US but also within South Korean society in general.

We need to think more proactively about how we can contribute in a substantive way to improving North Korean human rights — and how we can be more inclusive of the defectors who have settled in South Korea since they represent a glimpse of the reunified Korea to come.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]