Protecting the Unprotectable: Humanitarian Crisis and the International Community’s Kantian Responsibility to Protect in North Korea

Abstract: The famine in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has once again reached a point of emergency wherein the international community has a moral duty to protect the population from their government. Although the member states of the United Nations have affirmed a global Responsibility to Protect, the ways in which that responsibility are carried out are often contradictory and help to sustain the regime – which further threatens the North Korean people. Using a Kantian code of ethics, this thesis will argue that the international community has not only a responsibility to protect, but more importantly has a duty to protect. Taking as a starting point the historical and contemporary political environment of North Korea, the thesis will analyze the alternatives to the status quo in an attempt to understand how and to what extent the international aid community can best provide humanitarian assistance and uphold their Kantian Responsibility to Protect given the circumstance that the North Korean government is unwilling or unable to protect its people from a humanitarian crisis.