The United States shouldn’t shy away from addressing human rights abuses when dealing with North Korea, Ambassador Robert R. King argues in his new book, “Patterns of Impunity: Human Rights in North Korea and the Role of the U.S. Special Envoy.”

King, who served as Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues from Nov. 2009 to Jan. 2017, intertwines his experiences under the Obama administration with an overview of U.S. efforts to improve the lives of North Koreans since the country’s devastating famine in the 1990s.

The former special envoy’s account is timely: It comes after what King