Seoul’s North Korea human rights bill passed the National Assembly on March 2, after an 11-year of the campaign. The conservative Saenuri Party and civil activists welcomed the bill, saying it was shameful to have waited so long to pass it. Observers have long spoken of an apparent disinterest among South Korea’s progressive politicians, activists and scholars toward North Korean human rights, rooted in their political interests.

But one scholar, speaking on this issue from a progressive perspective, denies this.

Speaking with NK Newsa week after the bill’s passage, Research Professor Suh Bo-hyuk of Seoul National University’s Institute for