The United States has designated Kim Jong Un as a sanctions
target for the first time. The sanctions are based on charges of human rights
violations committed against his fellow countrymen. This is significant because
it means that Kim Jong Un can no longer escape responsibility for the
abuses.
These sanctions are more effective than other forms of
pressure applied to North Korea. The head of an organization that commits human
rights violations has to take responsibility for said actions. Kim Jong Un has
been and remains at the helm of the ship that is actively engaged in the
suppression of North Korean residents.
Every action in North Korea is the result of policies or
orders handed down from the country’s ultimate authority, Kim Jong Un. This
means that horrendous human rights violations were carried out because they
first received approval from Kim Jong Un. In particular, specific war crimes,
such as the use of political prison camps and various detention facilities, did
not arise because individual cadres were carrying out their will. They were the
consequence of Kim Jong Un’s leadership and direction.
North Korea maintains a thoroughly monolithic regime. Now,
as when this author was in North Korea, cadres lived by the doctrine that when
the Party gives one an order, one follows that order to the letter–no
exceptions. The Suryeong’s [Great Leader or Supreme Leader] orders are
absolute. Period.
To phrase it in a different way, those around Kim Jong Un
are forced to behave as robots and pawns. This is why ultimate accountability
for any and all human rights violations perpetrated by officials against the
residents should fall on Kim Jong Un. The latest sanctions [detailed here in
the State Department’s
Report on Human Rights Abuses and Censorship in North Korea] do a
good job at distinguishing the human rights violators from the pawns.
The perpetrators – including Kim Jong Un and a minority of
high level officials – are explicitly named and clearly identified in the
report and sanctions, making it easy to separate the human rights violators
from the general public.
Some of the past sanctions enforced against North Korea have
threatened the livelihood of ordinary residents. The North Korean authorities
reacted by using America’s “anti-communist schemes” as an excuse to unite the
country around the regime.
But the flavor and context of these sanctions is much
different. Kim Jong Un and the high officials are named as the main culprits of
violations on their own countrymen. Now it is clear that the target of the
sanctions is not the ordinary residents. This thus serves as an opportunity for
the residents to view the political situation in a more objective fashion.
News of the sanctions has spread quickly through radio
broadcasts targeting the country. Upon hearing the news, one North Korean with
whom this author has personally spoken said, “The country’s leader is supposed
to protect the human rights of the people, but our leader has been branded as
an abuser.” Another said, “The Marshal [Kim Jong Un] is standing on the
execution grounds.”
As more and more residents learn about the nature of this
round of sanctions, they come to understand that Kim Jong Un is using human
rights violations to maintain the dictatorship.
This is where our hard work is needed. We need to explain
that these sanctions are not trying to choke off the entire country, including
ordinary residents, but are rather targeting the leader and the high officials
who endanger and repress the lives of the innocent.
