19 • Means of improvement by phase − South Korean government should conceive a plan as to when it must publicly announce its position on North Korean human rights issues − ‘Strategic thinking’ to solve North Korean human rights problems at their roots: build an environment for reform and opening up of North Korea, alleviate economic difficulties, pursue democratisation Good Friends, in the report on their fact-finding study on the “North Korean Famines and Human Rights in North Korea” published in 2004, suggested measures to resolve human rights problems classified by actors. Proposals to the North Korean government included, inter alia, ►to publicise the conditions of food shortages and guarantee the transparency of distributions, ► to safeguard the economic and social rights of its residents, ► to advance civil and political rights, ►and to strive for the improvement of human rights on the humanitarian level. The policies that Good Friends proposed to the South Korean government entailed ► an expression of will to promote human rights in North Korea, ► the expansion of humanitarian aid provision of food and medicines, ► increasing economic cooperation between South and North Korea, ► the holding of disarmament talks between North and South Korea, ► the exchange of information with groups and organizations working in the fields of aid and human rights in North Korea, as well as a adopting an approach that moves beyond politics, etc. Proposals addressing the UN and the international community involved ►removing North Korea from the US state sponsors of terrorism list (this suggestion was fulfilled in August 2008), ► providing large-scale humanitarian aid and lifting economic sanctions against North Korea, ► establishing diplomatic relations between the USA and North Korea, ► easing military tensions on the Korean peninsula, etc. The Korean Bar Association (2008) suggested means of improving the North Korean human rights situation by differentiating between the right to food and the right to liberty. With regard to the right to food, the report proposed ► collaboration between North Korea and the international community to rebuild a basis for agricultural