North Korea has long proven unable and unwilling to protect its citizens. Currently, North Korea faces a deteriorating situation marked by chronic humanitarian disasters and human rights violations within the state’s political detention camp system. The inhumane treatment of citizens inside these camps, as well as violations during the sentencing and deportation process, has become a symbol of North Korea’s crimes against humanity. The international community should address North Korea’s human rights abuses within the context of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P). The R2P doctrine affirms that each state has the responsibility to protect its population from four mass atrocity crimes including ‘crimes against humanity’. As such, this article focuses on North Korea’s fundamental responsibility to protect its citizens from crimes against humanity, and the international community’s commitment to assist North Korea in fulfilling this obligation. In considering a policy option to improve North Korea’s human rights conditions within the context of R2P, the international community needs to assist the North Korean government to bring an end to further instances of crimes against humanity.