Responsibility to protect and ‘peacetime atrocities’: the case of North Korea

Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has become part of the world’s diplomatic language. The Security Council of the United Nations has mentioned the concept numerous times in the last decade and several non-governmental organizations have been established since 2005 with the purpose of advocating for R2P. This article focuses on the so-called ‘peacetime’ atrocities, defined as long-term situations that systematically destroy lives, communities and cultures without ‘exploding’ into armed conflicts. In particular, the author will use North Korea and the alleged genocide against Christians in the country, as a test case to analyse the effectiveness of R2P when dealing with ‘peacetime’ atrocities.