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But if the president is serious about North Korea's economic development, North Korea expert and Georgetown professor Victor Cha said North Korea's human rights abuses must also be addressed for reasons beyond the morality.

\"The reality is that there is no international financial institution or no U.S. or western company that will go into North Korea if there are human rights violations somewhere along the supply chain because then they would be in violation of U.S. law,\" said Cha, who serves as a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said during a recent briefing for reporters. \"So it actually really matters for the negotiations.\"

Despite the realpolitik importance of the issue, Cha predicts the issue will garner little attention.

\"It's not just a throwaway to talk about human rights,\" Cha said, \"but I'm not confident that that's going to be one of the headlines coming out of this meeting.\"

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