>To be fair though, those are all Western-aligned countries dependent on US force.
They're not, but whatever ...
There is also the matter of nine United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for sanctions, of twenty one total resolutions relating to non-proliferation; and a UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights that found, amongst other things that:
"systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In many instances, the violations found entailed crimes against humanity based on State policies"
"there is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association"
"police and security forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea systematically employ violence and punishments that amount to gross human rights violations in order to create a climate of fear that pre-empts any challenge to the current system of government and to the ideology underpinning it. The institutions and officials involved are not held accountable. Impunity reigns"
Of all the hills to die on, the one that involves takes a moral relativist position on the badness of the North Korean regime is one of the oddest ones.
They're not, but whatever ...
There is also the matter of nine United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for sanctions, of twenty one total resolutions relating to non-proliferation; and a UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights that found, amongst other things that:
"systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In many instances, the violations found entailed crimes against humanity based on State policies"
"there is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association"
"police and security forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea systematically employ violence and punishments that amount to gross human rights violations in order to create a climate of fear that pre-empts any challenge to the current system of government and to the ideology underpinning it. The institutions and officials involved are not held accountable. Impunity reigns"
Of all the hills to die on, the one that involves takes a moral relativist position on the badness of the North Korean regime is one of the oddest ones.
(the report being quoted is https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/HRC/25/63 for those that want to take a fuller read)