International Human Rights Laws - North Korea.

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Introduction

In the eyes of many, North Korea has various human rights problems.  The largest issue that the North Korean people face is the shortage of food.  Many North Koreans starve each year due to this shortage.  This issue causes many people to flee to other countries in search of food or better living conditions.  This is the second human rights problem area in North Korea: the problem of refugees and human trafficking.  Finally, and inextricably related to the first two problems, are the prison camps in North Korea.  Initially, this paper will address the relevant international human rights laws.  Next, the social and political background of North Korea, including the government regime and political leader, General Secretary Kim Jong Il will be discussed.  The most relevant North Korean laws will be evaluated throughout the paper where most relevant, rather than in one section, to show for what reasons citizens may be imprisoned and the punishment they face for fleeing, or even attempting to flee, North Korea.  Next, the problems of food shortages, refugees and human trafficking will be discussed.  A detailed description of the prison camps and inhumane treatment and torture of the prisoners will follow.  These camps and the plight of North Korean citizens is, to a certain extent, an issue of worldwide concern.  Finally, possible remedies that North Korea itself should implement, as well as suggestions that other countries, including the Untied States, could take to help the human rights situation in this regime, where there are little to no human rights whatsoever, are suggested.

International Human Rights Laws

        There are many relevant legal materials that deal with the issue of international human rights laws.   The information includes many from the following categories: U.N. documents, treaties, conventions, custom, “general principles of law recognized by civilized nations, and, as subsidiary sources, judicial decisions and teachings of qualified publicists and academics.”  This essay will pay primary attention to U.N. Documents, Conventions and Customary Law.

        The International Bill of Human Rights has been described by one scholar in the field, David Trubek, as the “core of th[e] body of Human Rights.”  He continues “[t]he U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights are the fundamental sources of international” human rights law.  These are the main documents that will be evaluated in this essay.  Article 55 of the U.N. Charter states that the United Nations shall promote:

higher standards of living, employment, and development; solutions to international economic, social, and health problems; international cultural and educational cooperation; and respect for human rights.

        As will be discussed throughout this essay, there are many issues in North Korea where this article would be applicable.  Some of the main issues in North Korea that would be in direct conflict with the goals of this article include: starvation, imprisonment and the extrajudicial killings, religious persecutions, and torture.  All of these relate to the standards of living, health problems and respect (or lack thereof) of human rights.

        Also relevant is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The Universal Declaration was approved without dissent on December 10, 1948.    Among many things, the Declaration states that everyone has rights to social security, to work and join trade unions, to rest, to an adequate standard of living (including medical care), to education,and to participate freely in cultural life.  One source summarizes the Declaration stating:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a remarkable synthesis of political-civil and economic-social rights, with equality and freedom from discrimination as principal themes. It declared the rights to life, liberty, and security of person, to fair criminal process, to freedom of conscience, thought, expression, association, and privacy, the right to seek and enjoy asylum, to leave one’s country and return to it, rights to marriage and family, and rights of property . . . and called for universal suffrage and bona fide elections.

        Finally, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1966 and was effective in 1976.  The Covenant is relevant to those states that have ratified it, by stating the international social welfare obligations, as well as those that have not since “it has value as a detailed interpretation of the Charter’s obligations.  The Economic Covenant provides normative guidance for all states and provides and explicit system of international monitoring of progress toward its goals for those states which are parties to it.”

        The “International Bill of Rights” consists of the three abovementioned documents: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. 

        There are a number of International Conventions that have addressed the human rights issues.  These conventions are usually established to create

international obligations on a particular subject, for states that may not be prepared to assume all the obligations provided in the principal covenants; or to elaborate and enhance obligations on the particular subject beyond those in the covenants; or to establish procedures and provide remedies that states might be willing to assume in respect of a particular subject though not for all the subjects included in the principal covenants.

        The major conventions include the Genocide Convention, the Convention on Racial Discrimination, the Convention on Discrimination Against Women, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The Genocide Convention was the first Post-World War II human rights agreement, a memorial to the Holocaust.  The Convention recognizes the right of group identity and the need to protect that right.  All parties to it are obligated to try and punish genocide, as well as conspiracy, incitement or attempt to commit genocide.  The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination has been ratified by over 150 states.  It establishes one focal point of human rights – equality and non-discrimination.  The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women is similar to the Race Convention, but the effort to eliminate the discrimination against women is not as universally accepted.  

        Customary Law of Human Rights has been defined as the “[g]eneral practice of states which is accepted and observed as law.”  The Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, § 702 Customary International Law of Human Rights states:

A state violates international law if, as a matter of state policy, it practices, encourages or condones

  1. genocide,
  2. slavery or slave trade,
  3. the murder or causing the disappearance of individuals,
  4. torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,
  5. prolonged arbitrary detention,
  6. systematic racial discrimination, or
  7. a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

Under this definition, North Korea is in gross violation of human rights protections.  There are alleged extrajudicial killings and disappearance of countless individuals, torture incidents, prolonged arbitrary detention and a consistent pattern of violations of internationally recognized human rights.  

Social and Political Background

After World War II Korea was divided into two regions: a northern, communist half and a southern, Western-oriented half.  This paper focuses on the country known as North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It has an estimated population of 22 million people.  The total area of North Korea is 120,540 sq km. Three countries border North Korea, including China, South Korea and Russia. The capital is located in P’yongyang.  

The North Korean government is authoritarian socialist.  It is a one-man dictatorship under the leadership of the head of state is Kim Jong Il.  The head of government is Hung Song Nam.  There is very little detailed information known about the North Korean government and their legal system.  “Run on an ideology of ‘self-reliance’ or Juche, hence independence from the rest of the world, North Korea’s political system does not allow any opposition, imposes sharp restrictions on travel in and out of the country and has total control over the dissemination of information.”   Kim Jong Il has ruled North Korea since his father and the country's founder, president Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. Kim Jong Il, 60, was born in Khabarovsk, Russia in 1942.  He received a political-economy degree in 1964 from Kim Il Sung University.  Kim Jong Il lives a life of comfort and pleasure while his people are starving and malnourished if free, and the imprisoned people suffer this in addition to overworking and torture.  The USA TODAY reports:

As unquestioned leader, Kim has lived a life of comfort and excess as his people boiled grass for food. More than 2 million North Koreans are believed to have died of famine from 1994 to 1997. Even now, 70% of the country's children are malnourished, says the Korean Welfare Foundation, a private aid group in Seoul. Kim is reported to be among the world's biggest consumers of Hennessy cognac. But he prefers Paekdu Mountain Eternal Youth rice liquor and can down half a bottle in one gulp. His regime reportedly spent $ 20 million on 200 Mercedes S-class sedans in 1998. That's equivalent to a fifth of the aid the U.N. had pledged to North Korea that year. Kim is said to have stashed the earnings from a private gold mine in Swiss bank accounts and bought villas across Europe.

Wendy Sherman, former Clinton advisor for North Korea discussed the North Korean prison camps on CNBC’s “The News with Brian Williams.”  In this interview, Williams described Kim Jong Il as “a ruler who is incomplete control . . .  He is intelligent, but at the same time he is insulated from the rest of the world.  He cares about one thing, and that is the survival of his regime, and he will do whatever he thinks he needs to make that continue.”

Economically, North Korea faces serious difficulty.  The North relies heavily on international food aid to feed its population.  Information from countries.com provides a general overview of the economic situation:

North Korea, one of the world's most centrally planned and isolated economies, faces desperate economic conditions. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment and spare parts shortages. The nation faces its seventh year of food shortages because of weather-related problems, including major drought in 2000, and chronic shortages of fertilizer and fuel. Massive international food aid deliveries have allowed the regime to escape the major consequence of spreading economic failure, such as mass starvation, but the population remains vulnerable to prolonged malnutrition and deteriorating living conditions. Large-scale military spending eats up resources needed for expanding investment and consumption goods.[] In 2000, the regime placed emphasis on expanding foreign trade links, embracing modern technology, and attracting foreign investment, but in no way at the expense of relinquishing central control over key national assets or undergoing market-oriented reforms.

One source states that North Korea has isolated itself from the rest of the world since the end of the1950-53 Korean War, but began to open communications toward the end of 1999.   Today however, with the threat of war and other issues such as nuclear powers, there does not seem to be much movement toward making diplomatic and open relations with other countries.  “North Korea's long-range missile development and research into nuclear and chemical weapons are of major concern to the international community.”  North Korea does not participate with any human rights research within their borders.  Amnesty International claims that North Korea has been continuously unresponsive to international calls for human rights dialogue.  Amnesty reports that “[i]n 1997, [North Korea] took the unprecedented decision to withdraw from the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, following international criticism of North Korea’s failure to report to the UN on its implementation of the Covenant.”  In July 2001, Amnesty reported that the UN committee would be considering North Korea’s second periodic report, submitted after 16 years (North Korea submitted its first report in 1984).  Also in July, Amnesty and other human rights organizations briefed the committee on a number of issues regarding North Korea’s use of the death penalty, forced labor, freedom of movement, unfair trials, political prisoners, torture and trafficking.

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The main focus of countries looking in on North Korea is not regarding their human rights practices; rather most countries are concerned with North Korea’s open production of weapons of mass destruction.  Therefore, it is hard to get lawmakers and policy leaders to notice and take action regarding the human rights issues in North Korea, not to mention the difficulty of getting the North Korean regime to participate in any sort of human rights reform.

The People of North Korea Face Issues of Starvation

The main problem the North Korean people face is hunger and starvation. There are multiple ...

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