Human Rights

It’s always been assumed that [North Korean leaders] are impervious to human rights criticism, but I believe that we’ve now seen that that’s not the case.

The [Myanmar] government has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit [of democratic reform] and difficult structural reforms remain.

[Regarding refugee policy] the tendency [in Asia] is to look inward, preserve domestic stability and improve domestic welfare, especially given that many Asian nations, including South Korea, still have weak welfare systems compared to the West - even though they are wealthy and highly developed.

This would be financially and logistically impossible to manage should there be a migration crisis across the 38th parallel and/or unification.

[Refugee] groups are largely isolated from Korean society and associated with the migrant worker class. But the migrant workers have their own issues and problems and they have separate legal standing and labor policies that govern their stay [in South Korea].

[While UN cooperation with North Korea on human rights should be pursued] it cannot be used to barter away and gut the text of a U.N. resolution based on the COI findings and recommendations for accountability.