Written by Sarah E. Mendelson, the Senior Adviser and Co-Director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Read the full article on Foreign Affairs.

“Most experts that focus on North Korea’s nuclear program pay little attention to its human rights abuses. And those who do focus on Pyongyang’s treatment of its subjects generally know little about human trafficking. On the other side of the divide, researchers and activists studying human trafficking rarely target North Korea, given how difficult the nation is to access, let alone influence. Anti-trafficking experts need to work with experts on North Korea to assess what other countries and campaigns might be important targets to end this exploitation: Russia and China are believed to have the largest numbers of North Koreans, as many as 19,000 each, with significant populations also in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, and Qatar. Here, they can look to the Freedom Fund’s success combatting child labor in India as an example, or the International Justice Mission’s campaign targeting Thailand’s fishing industry, which was found to be rife with forced labor.”

Read the full article on Foreign Affairs.