South Korea’s North Korean Image Problem: Human Rights under the Spotlight

Abstract

The 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea (UN COI) had a decisive impact on South Korea's approach to North Korea's human rights abuses in the several years following its release. This article interprets moves within South Korea to support the UN COI's recommendations as taken in the interests of ontological security, or a stable sense of identity, which has also driven the state's broader initiatives on image management and nation branding. It extends the boundaries of nation-branding research by considering why and how a state may adopt policies that enhance its moral visibility and reputation in world affairs. It considers how a positive reputation is enhanced by demonstrating good international citizenship, promoting the visibility of state identity parameters beyond its culture and core industries. This article interprets the South Korean government's efforts to act on North Korean human rights following the UN COI, as well as the significance of being seen to be doing so at home and abroad as security-giving behaviour asserting its moral authority in relation to North Korea. It explores how a longstanding policy of relative silence on North Korea's human rights record acceded to identity-driven pressures * CONTACT

K-drama Narrates the National: Korean Identities in Crash Landing on You

“…Backed by industry-wide initiative, Hallyu [the Korean Wave] was rapidly embraced throughout the region by the mid-2000s (Chua and Iwabuchi 2008, 4-6) and in the 2010s, its popularity expanded globally. The success of South Korean pop culture has also benefitted from South Korea's ambitious nation branding efforts, launched in the late 2010s to improve its image as a leading world economy (Schwak 2018), while differentiating the South from its troublesome northern neighbor (Son 2018).…”

Chasing Justice: Victim Engagement with Accountability for Human Rights Abuses in North Korea

“…Yet neither side has ever acted in a way that takes a strong stance on North Korean human rights. As I have discussed elsewhere (Son, 2018), reasons for this include a desire to keep inter-Korean unification aspirations alive as an important national goal, self-awareness of South Korea's own struggles with human rights over much of its history, and the need to keep dialogue and cooperation with North Korea open at certain times. As South Korean government caution on North Korean human rights is likely connected to limited public knowledge of the problem, the lack of public interest-driven donations forces NGOs in this field to rely on limited-term, project-based funding, primarily from abroad.…”

All the World’s a Stage: Promotional Politics and Branded Identities in Asia

“…Sarah Son (2018) explores how the concept of responsibility structures South Korea's legislation with regards to the North Korean human rights issue. She looks at the evolution of this legislation, notably the South's recent upsurge in critical policy discourse regarding North Korea's human rights problem, and interprets it through the prism of South Korea's own promotional imperatives as an internationally and regionally responsible nation.…”