Son, S.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3045-7939, Zadeh-Cummings, N. and Chubb, D. (2025) Participatory transitional justice as anticipatory project: North Korea, diasporas and uncertain futures. International Journal of Transitional Justice. ijaf006. ISSN 1752-7716
Abstract
This article examines how insights from the transitional justice literature can be applied to North Korea, where the political system prevents grassroots, participatory approaches to accountability, truth-telling, commemoration and reconciliation. The North Korean diaspora, while a potential grassroots community, largely consists of escapees with tenuous or secretive ties to their home country. We argue that the participatory elements of the anticipatory transitional justice efforts are necessarily transnational and must be focused on enabling conditions for a future transition scenario. Political opportunity structures, particularly those shaped by the South Korean state, are critical in facilitating victim engagement. Our findings contextualize the purpose of anticipatory efforts and highlight ways to better address challenges faced by victim constituencies. Additionally, we provide insight into how broader political and structural environments can enable or restrain meaningful action, offering strategies for advancing transitional justice in anticipation of change in North Korea.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press. T his is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Accountability; diaspora; North Korea; participation; South Korea; transitional justice |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of East Asian Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 25 Mar 2025 10:22 |
Last Modified: | 25 Mar 2025 10:22 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/ijtj/ijaf006 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224799 |
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