This paper deals with the U.S. policy on North Korean defectors and the status of their human rights. President George Bush signed in 2004 and practiced "North Korean Human Rights Act" in order to pressure the North Korean regime, one of the poorest and most isolated regimes on the planet, to end human rights abuses and provide assistance to those who were victims of the harsh policies. However, the effectiveness of NKHRA is minimal and the number of defectors that have entered the United States is less than that of Western European countries such as UK and Germany. Because North Koreans are automatically granted S. Korean citizenship in the Republic of Korea, once North Korean defectors arrive in South Korea, they lose the opportunity to settle in the United States without even realizing it. They are not able to choose the U.S. as their settlement due to this subtle discrepancy of immigration law between two countries. Chapter II discusses that the reasons for the small number of North Korean defectors in U.S. are; i)U.S. immigration laws which strictly apply to refugees, ii)immigration process which is too long for one year or longer and iii)U.S. view that North Koreans share ethnic homogeneity with South Koreans. Chapter III mentions the U.S. conventional views on North Korean human rights. Then, Chapter IV points out the shortcomings of NKHRA that has not been effective, not oppressing North Korean regime enough and suggests that U.S. and Korean governments should discuss OPLAN 5029 again as an alternative.
I. Introduction
II. North Korean Defectors in the U.S.
III. U.S. Conventional Views on Human Rights
IV. North Korean Human Rights Act (NKHRA)
V. Conclusion
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