Roberta Cohen on 38 North presents a negotiation analysis with North Korea by analogy with Cold War negotiations with the Soviet Union. This caught my eye:
During the Cold War, the United States did not limit its discussions with the USSR to one subject—arms reduction. Instead, it insisted upon an expanded information flow between the communist bloc and the West and a more open society; and advocated for core human rights concerns—Soviet Jewish emigration, the protection of Pentecostals and other Christians, the release of political dissidents, the unification of families and the formation of human rights organizations to monitor the Helsinki Final Act. It raised these concerns in bilateral discussions and in the multilateral Helsinki process.
Non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, a doctrine espoused by the Soviet Union to shield itself from criticism was not accepted by the US in its negotiations with Moscow. Neither should it be in the case of North Korea, as increasing numbers of policy experts now point out.[3] A recent Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Task Force report suggests that nuclear negotiations could expand into broader talks and that a peace agreement and normalization of relations will have to depend on both “nuclear disarmament” and “progress on human rights.”[4] Even more cautious strategists also acknowledge that human rights must be part of any future negotiation.[5]
Of course, the Soviet Jews, the Pentecostals, perhaps it could even by argued the smaller nations, all represent homogenuous groups which presented problems for the Soviets, because they had their own power structures, their own customs, and therefore presented a danger – however limited – to the ruling authorities. I must confess that in my limited reading I haven’t really seen anything analogous in North Korea, with the exception of the families torn apart by the partitioning of Korea, and the concomitant closing of the border. I know occasionally there are attempts to evangelize North Koreans by Christians, but whether that has any impact on North Korean citizens is not in the least clear.
