During his election campaign earlier this year, Lee Jae Myung vowed to seek improvements in North Korean human rights as president, tacking toward the political center on DPRK issues as he looked to appeal to moderate voters.

But seven months into his presidency, North Korean defectors and human rights activists are expressing concern that the Lee administration has turned its back on its promise to uphold human rights issues, deprioritizing efforts to spread awareness about Pyongyang’s atrocities to pursue inter-Korean engagement.

While Seoul supported a U.N. resolution on DPRK human rights, activists pointed to measures like curtailing cross-border leafleting, disbanding