La pesadilla de Corea del Norte

Seoul can show that it's serious about protecting human rights.

By SUZANNE SCHOLTE From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.

There are many horrible stories about the North Korean regime's disregard for human rights, but I recently heard one that's hard to forget: On a recent trip to Seoul, a North Korean mother told me she and her 14-year-old daughter fled North Korea but were separated in China. The mother waited in China to reunite with her daughter only to discover that Chinese security agents had forced the girl back to North Korea, where border guards beat her to death.

It is hard to conceive of human beings who are capable of killing a 14-year-old girl simply for fleeing with her mother in search of a better life. Yet these same monsters are continuing this brutality in detention centers and political prison camps all over North Korea. What can a civilized society do to stop the atrocities being committed right now against the North Korean people by the Kim Jong Il regime?

South Korea has a tool it can use: It should establish and convene a tribunal of South Korean judges and legal experts to collect evidence and take defectors' testimonies with the hope that, eventually, those guilty of these heinous crimes face prosecution. Under the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, North Koreans are citizens of South Korea and thus have standing in South Korean courts. There are a number of reasons why this action is critically important.

First, the only hope civilized society has in stopping North Korea's human-rights violations today is to start this tribunal now. Decades of negotiations with Pyongyang have done nothing to stop human-rights violations, nor curbed Kim Jong Il's nuclear ambitions. In recent years, North Koreans -- including former officials, former political prison camp guards and average citizens -- have defected to the South, underscoring the fact that despite living under the Kim regime, human dignity can survive. Convening a tribunal and reporting regularly on its findings would send a powerful message that one day the North's criminals will be held accountable for their actions.

This is especially important now because North Korea is no longer isolated from the rest of the world. Surveys commissioned by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and National Endowment for Democracy suggest a rapidly growing number of North Koreans are listening to other sources of information besides the regime's propaganda. Much of this information is transmitted by word of mouth, radio and television broadcasting. Even Pyongyang now has the Internet.

Second, the evidence to begin such proceedings exists. Over 16,500 defectors have fled North Korea -- and most have been victimized in some way -- by traffickers, corrupt government officials, prison guards or border security agents. While the South Korean government and nongovernmental organizations have worked to collect evidence of atrocities, it is time to focus attention specifically on the human-rights violators as well. Just as the testimonies of Holocaust survivors were and continue to be used to hunt down those responsible for the Nazi death camps, the North Korean gulag survivors' testimonies must be utilized to hold accountable those who are committing today's Korean holocaust.

Third, North Korea has been falling apart internally for some time, but free nations must give Kim Jong Il loyalists a reason to oppose him. With millions of people starving to death, thousands trying to flee, half a million imprisoned and growing discontent, Kim Jong Il's grip on power has never wavered because anyone who dares to rise against him is crushed. The elites, who represent about 20% of the population, owe everything they have to Kim Jong Il's success. However, reform-minded potential leaders who would oppose Mr. Kim number among those elites; their existence is confirmed by elites who regularly defect along with the general population.

Finally, a tribunal would contribute to the healing process for those who have been victimized and lead to the reconciliation process that must accompany the two Koreas' reunification. It is redemptive for victims to know that their testimony is being recorded with the hope that perpetrators will be prosecuted.

The world has already learned horrible things about Kim Jong Il's dictatorship despite the regime's aggressive attempts to hide its atrocities and limit contact with the outside world. Imagine what the world will learn once the political prison camps are liberated and the captives are set free. North Koreans, once they are free, will inevitably ask South Koreans who ignored their suffering: "Why were you silent? Why didn't you help us?"

The tribunal is a way to begin this healing process now and show that South Korea recognizes the atrocities being committed against the Korean people by the Kim Jong Il regime, cares for their suffering and is willing to take action.

Ms. Scholte, the 2008 Seoul Peace Prize Laureate, is president of the Defense Forum Foundation.