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 factors that contribute to these food shortages. Since 1994 North Korea has faced a series of natural disasters, as well as “state-run economic mismanagement” that have caused severe food shortages. One source reports that nearly three million people died from 1994 to 1999 due to these problems. This plight causes many citizens to flee to surrounding countries, mostly China, where they face severe punishment if caught and returned. The United States is a leading donor of food to North Korea. The problem the international communities that donate this humanitarian aid face is the question of who actually receives this food. There have been numerous reports that food is distributed in North Korea in a way that “discriminates against some of the most vulnerable groups of society such as the unemployed, the elderly, homeless, children in orphanages and prisoners.” Jack Rendler, the vice-chairman of the American division of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea explains that North Korea’s government has “stratified society into 51 different loyalty classifications, with foreign food and medical aid going to the most loyal. ‘The people who are dying are considered less loyal to the regime’.” Due to this disparity in the distribution of food, the uncooperativeness of North Korean officials to tell where the food is going and to allow travel within the country to monitor the relief distribution, many donating sources worldwide have ceased their contributions.
Refugees and Human Trafficking
Among the reasons for refugees to flee North Korea is the food shortages and also the economic needs. One source even believes that the economic needs are the “primary motivation.” According to CIA estimates, the average North Korean lives on approximately $1,000 a year, while their Douth Korean counterparts have roughly $18,000 annually. Some people may flee to try to meet up with other family members that fled previously. Regardless of the motivation, thousands of the starving North Koreans attempt to flee to China, usually through the 1,300 km-long land borders North Korea shares with China. One source reports that “some two to three million ethnic Koreans known as ‘Chosun Jok’ are believed to live around the Chinese towns of Tumen, Ji’am, Yanji, Dandong, and others in Jilin and Liaoning provinces.” The vast majority of refugees reportedly cross the Tumen river which is in many places narrow enough to wade or swim across. Other refugees attempt to flee by way of an underground railroad, similar to the ones used in the American Civil War where slaves attempted to escape from the South to freedom in the Northern states. The New York Times reports that to escape famine and a totalitarian government, 200,000 North Koreans, or 1 percent of the population, have fled to Northern China in recent years.
Refugees may face difficult situations even after fleeing to China, supposing they escape safely and are not returned. Some find shelter in villages and farms where China’s ethnic Korean community support and help them. But others are forced into stealing and begging and there are reports of others who eat roots and grass for survival. On the issue of human trafficking situations triggered mainly at women, Amnesty reports:
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable as a number of reports received by Amnesty International have noted a trend in using women as ‘sex slaves’ sold by their parents or placing themselves in the hands of professional bride traffickers. Once married to a Chinese man and registered as a resident of China, a North Korean woman’s chances of being apprehended and forcibly returned to her country are believed to decrease considerably. Information received by [AI] also states the growing trend of women forced to turn to prostitution to feed themselves and their hungry families.
Amnesty also has received an increasing number of reports where North Korean women are being sold to Chinese bride traffickers who in turn sell these women to ethnic Korean farmers established in China. These farmers supposedly have difficulty in finding wives because more and more young local women go to the cities to find work. Regardless of the circumstances the refugees come upon when the flee, they always face the grim reality of being pursued and apprehended by Chinese security officials and the North Korean Public Security Services (PSS) who reportedly sometimes pose as Christian missionaries.
China has been cracking down on the refugees fleeing to their country. One individual who runs a refugee organization stated that China is “conducting an operation like a war against refugees. They are cracking down so they won’t find any place to hide in China.” Some refuge workers claim the crackdown on both sides of the border began around December 5, when two pastors, the Revered Choi Bong Il and the Reverend John Daniel Choi, from North Carolina, were tried on charges of human trafficking. One way that China is attempting to strangle the influx of refugees is by increasing the fine tenfold that is imposed upon people harboring or helping North Koreans.
It is significant to note the fact that China is a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees. Under this agreement, China has “an obligation not to return forcibly tot heir country people who may be at risk of persecution.” China is not meeting its international obligation to protect these fleeing North Koreans, if the Chinese are in fact forcibly returning refugees to North Korea, since the evidence seems to show that the North Koreans face prison sentences or persecution upon return.
South Korea is much harder to escape to directly, but is often the ultimate point where refugees would like to end up. If you try to escape to South Korea, this is viewed as “a most serious offense of defection from fatherland to enemy as described in Article 47 of the 1987 North Korean Criminal Code.” That article states:
A citizen of the Republic who defects to a foreign country or to the enemy [] in betrayal of the country and the people . . . shall be committed to a reform institution for not less than seven years. In cases where the person commits an extremely grave concern, he or she shall be given the death penalty.
Article 117 is also pertinent. That article provides “[a] person who crosses a frontier of the Republic without permission shall be committed to a reform institution for up to three years.” These two provisions seem to suggest that North Koreans attempting to flee their country face three years up to the death penalty for doing so. However, Lim Young Sun, a former North Korean army officer who fled from North Korea 10 years ago stated that if it is found that the refugees were trying to get to South Korea, “they get anywhere from 10 years to execution after they are sent back to North Korea. The mastermind of the operation will surely be executed.” The problem of refugees fleeing and being sent back has been an area of concern for many years, and is still important today as shown by a report from MSNBC. In mid-January, 2003, NBC reported that “China captured 78 North Korean refugees as they plotted to board boats bound for Japan and South Korea. Amid major crackdowns by both Beijing and Pyongyang, the unhappy fate of those arrested is clear.”
Many refugees never speak out or tell their story about their experiences in the North Korean prison camps. Many fear being returned. Others fear for the lives of their family who are still in North Korea. Many people who tell their accounts will only do so under a pseudonym and with their identities unknown. North Korea denies that the reports provided by refugees are true. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency told the New York Times that the refugees’ statements are “a whopping lie.”
The Prison Camps
Very little data is known about the prison camps in North Korea. They are often referred to as political prison camps, reform institutions (as referred to in the Criminal Code of North Korea), re-educational and correctional institutions, detention camps, gulags, and are often compared to the German concentration camps from World War II and the Soviet Gulag. What is known about the camps, their conditions, the torture that is suffered there and the approximate number of prisoners is told from former prisoners that have managed to live through the camp one way or another and escape, or from former workers or guards who have also escaped. Kim Il Sung established the camps in 1972. There are ten camps containing an approximated 200,000 citizens combined “where conditions are so harsh that an estimated 400,000 have died over the last 30 years”. According to Human Rights Without Frontiers, there are a total of ten concentration camps. In the North Province of Hamkyung-Life Imprisonment Zone, there are six: Onsong Changpyong Family Camp No. 12, Chonsong Family Camp No. 13, Hoeryong Family Camp No. 22, Chongjin Singles’ Prison No. 25, Kyongsong Family Camp No. 11, and Hwangsong Family Camp No. 16. The Yodok Offenders and Family Camp No. 13 is located in the South Province of Hamkyong. These are the sectors for reeducation and life imprisonment. In the North Province of Pyong’an is the Chonma Family Camp No. 27 and finally there are two camps in the South Province of Pyong’an: Kaechon Family Camp No. 14 and Pyongyang Senugho Area Hwachon Dong Offender’s Camp.
There are many actions that may lead to imprisonment in North Korea. Also, under a directive issued by Kim Jong Il’s father, Jim Il Sung (founder of the North Korean regime), “three generations of a dissident’s family can be jailed simply on the basis of a denunciation.” Therefore, entire families, even grandchildren may be imprisoned on the basis of a political statement. “This is in order to eradicate the seed of revolt.” For example, Kang Chol Hwan was imprisoned at the age of 10 because his grandfather made complimentary statements about Japanese capitalism. His grandfather was never seen again and the conditions inside the prison took his father’s life. Tell bout his article. Likewise, when Sun-ok Lee, a woman political prisoner, was imprisoned her son (a graduate of Kim Il Sing University) and her husband were also imprisoned for her alleged wrongs. Her husband died in the prison. This is a collectivist philosophy and this is the reason that many North Korean defectors will not speak out and tell their stories: they are afraid that their families will be imprisoned. When some do reveal their stories, they do not reveal their true identities to avoid this possibility.
One of the comprehensive accounts of the experience in the North Korean prison camps is that of Sun-ok Lee, a former female prisoner of Kaechon political prison. She gave testified before the U.S. Congress regarding her experiences. Sun-ok Lee was imprisoned on a false charge of embezzlement in 1984. She said that until this time, she “was a normal gullible North Korean citizen, loyal to the Leader and Party, and believed that North Korea was the people’s paradise.” She received a term of 13 years, but only served seven when released in 1992 under a surprise amnesty. While at the camp, Sun-ok Lee served as an accountant. In general, “prisoner[s] have no right to talk, laugh, sing or look in a mirror. Prisoners must kneel down on the found and keep their heads down deeply whenever called by a guard.”
Work Conditions
Prisoners have to work as slaves for 18 hours a day.” Sun-ok reports that about 1,000 prisoners die each year, but a fresh supply of new prisoners was obtained yearly in order to meet the production quotas the prison had in the factories. During her term, she cannot recall anyone else being released, other than herself. Sleeping conditions are treacherous in these prisons.
Women, men and children are often given different jobs based on their sex or age. For example, the Kaechon Women’s Prison has eleven work units: miscellaneous factory, export factory, shoe-making factory, leather-rubber factory, clothing factory, fabric-cutting factory, work preparation unit, maintenance unit, drop-out punishment unit, farm unit and kitchen unit. The entire unit is held responsible for the mistakes of any one prisoner, and as a result, newcomers are not usually welcome.
Prison guards sit in glass boxes at the factory while overseeing the prisoner’s work. These boxes allow the guards to observe the prisoners while avoiding the stench of the factory. Sun-ok Lee states that the “prison guards always wear masks and keep some distance from the prisoners because of the bad smell.” There are a few reasons why the smell is so unbearable. For one, the prisoners are only allowed to take showers twice a year. Sun-ok Lee reports that the entire prison is full of the awful smell of sweat. In addition, the prisoners often urinate and defecate while working because they cannot wait.
When a prisoner is called, the prisoner is to run to the guard and sit on her knees with her head down. The prisoner can only answer the questions asked and say nothing else. Prisoners are oftentimes kicked in the face or chest for slow answers or movement. Also, prisoners are severely punished for raising their heads or stretching their bodies.
Sleeping Conditions
Sun-ok Lee reports that about “ninety prisoners sleep in a flea-infested chamber six meters long by five meters wide (about 16 feet by 19 feet).” The chambers are so congested that sleeping there itself is a torture.
Meals
Prisoners receive limited food including: salt soup and 100 grams of broken corn. If you were receiving punishment, the rations could be reduced to 80 or even 60 grams of broken corn. It is hard to imagine being forced to work as long and as hard as these prisoners do on such small rations. Sun-ok Lee told NBC News that the prisoners experienced “third degree malnutrition” and when they drank water or ate bread, it came out through the anus immediately.
Torture
There are many forms of torture that the prisoners endure at the camps. A few of the examples of torture are described below including: water torture, freezing torture, punishment cells, public executions in prison, beatings and tearing off body parts.
1. Water Torture
One form of torture Sun-ok Lee accounts is the water torture. She actually experienced this torture. She was strapped onto a wooden table and a kettle spout was forced into her mouth. The spout was made so that it forced the throat wide open and she “could not control the water running into [her] body.” In order to avoid suffocating, she was forced to breathe through her nose as her mouth was full of water and it overflowed from her nose. She began to faint from the pain and suffocation. She could not recall for how long the torture lasted because she passed out, but when she awoke, tow interrogators were jumping on a board which was laid across her swollen stomach to force the water back out of her body. This caused her to vomit with terrible pain. Water was running out her body through her mouth, nose, anus and vagina. After she had returned to cell, she passed out again and said that when she came to that her body was so swollen that she could not open her eyes. She was only able to urinate a few drops of milk-like liquid and blood and felt severe pain in her bladder. It took her about two weeks to be able to get up and walk again.
2. Beatings
A common form of torture was of course beatings. Often, a prisoner would be tied against iron bars in a spread eagle fashion and then the guards would beat him all over with a rubber or cow skin whip. The pain from your body weight is unbearable. Sun-ok Lee also states that “the skin becomes torn all over, blood splashes and the prisoners begin to feel that their skin isn’t human anymore.” After a prisoner is released, their body is so swollen that he cannot bend his back or knew. The prisoner is forced to evacuate and urinate standing. Sun-ok Lee actually resisted being undressed by guards once. She awoke in a pool of blood and her face was so swollen that she was almost unable to open her eyes. She had to hold up her lips with her fingers in order to spit out her broken teeth. One 60-year old man had his ears ripped off by investigators. Also, guards often would use prisoners as their targets for martial arts practice. People often die from the beatings, from hard work and poor treatment. The bodies are buried under the fruit trees in the prison orchid. The fruits from this prison’s orchid have earned a reputation for their large size and sweet taste. They are usually reserved from senior party and police officials. Sun-ok Lee testifies that her most painful experience occurred when she was captured in her office and the guards told her that she was responsible for the non-supply of food to the people. She was tortured for days into saying “yes,” it was her responsibility to supply food for the people. During this torture, she would lose consciousness and when she would awake, saw “a wound on [her] back and the large flies defecated in the bloody part and sometimes maggots.” One time she was trampled on so strongly that her teeth were broken and her eyeball came out. She had to put it back in the socket and massaged it by hand for a couple of days.
3. Killings
In addition to being beaten or worked to death, prisoners are also killed through public executions, chemical weapons testing, for eating pig slops, or just for guards’ enjoyment and fun. Public executions are a standard practice in and outside prisons in North Korea. The victims are always gagged, usually with a stone, so that they are unable to protest. They are then tied to a pole at their chest, sides and knew. Six guards fire three bullets in the chest for a total of 18 bullets. Families of the condemned are often required to attend the public executions and are forced to charge their relatives with “crimes.” Some people actually go insane from observing these executions. The public execution ground is so crowded that women in the front often get blood splashed on them. Other women vomit, faint or develop mental illnesses, displayed by sudden singing or laughing. “North Korean authorities use public executions as a means of ruling for the purpose of planting fear among the populace and spur awareness about specific social problems.” Prisoners will be killed also for eating pig slops. The kitchen prisoners always give the left overs to the pigs so that they will be fat and well fed for the officers. The prisoners “envy the pigs for the good food and leisure.” The ding carrying team also cleans out the pigsties and they will often risk their lives to steal some of the pig slops. If caught, they are shot and killed. Sun-ok Lee witnessed 150 prisoners killed by testing chemical poison on them. During one experiment, the prison officials poisoned cabbage with biological chemicals. The prisoners who ate the cabbage were later committing, bleeding from their mouths and moaning on the floor. They died from the poison. Beatings and killings were not only allowed, but guards were encouraged to do such things. A former guard, Ahn Myong Chol worked at the Hoeryong Prison No. 22. The former guard recalls:
They trained me not to treat the prisoners as human beings. If someone is against socialism, if someone tries to escape, then kill him. If there’s a record of killing any escapee, then the guard will be entitled to study in the college. Because of that, some guards kill innocent people. Beating and killing is an everyday affair.
One guard even convinced a prisoner to try to escape by climbing over a barbed wire fence. Then the guard shot him and got to go to college.
4. Christians Treated Differently
Christians are especially prejudiced against as they are killed at the camp if they refuse to convert. Sun-ok Lee reported to NBC News that since the Korean War the number one enemy is God, “Kim Il Sung hated God most.” Sun-ok Lee recounts that on one occasion the security officers poured molten iron on five or six elderly Christians that refused conversion, which killed them. The Christians were treated more strictly. They had a separate working place. Two guards kicked 30 of these prisoners to death. And Sun-ok Lee reports that when those people cried out to the Lord, “My Lord, my Lord,” then they had boiling water poured on them. “And they became carbons.”
5. Punishment Cells and Chambers of Death
Another form of torture is the punishment cells and chambers of death. Sun-ok Lee explains that the punishment cell is one of the most dreaded of all the tortures. The cells are about 60 cm wide and 110 cm high so that prisoners may not stand, lie down or stretch their legs out. There are 20 cells like this for women and 58 for men at the Kaechon concentration camp. One may be put into one of the cells for offenses such as leaving an oily mark on clothes, failing to memorize the president’s New Year’s message or repeated failure to meet work quotas. A prisoner usually stays in the cell from seven to ten days. Many people are permanently crippled from the lack of exercise and sometimes even die because they are required to resume work immediately after release. Prisoners call the punishment cell “Chilsong Chamber,” which means a black angel’s chamber of death. Summers and winters in the punishment cells bring about different obstacles. During the winter, the “freezing cold wind from the toilet hole ma[kes] the experience extremely painful.” Then in the summer time, prisoners have to struggle to brush thousands of maggots back into the toilet hole. What a prisoner will be forced to do because of the hunger in the punishment cells is most astonishing. Sun-ok Lee recalls:
They say it is a day of great fortune is a prisoner finds a rat creeping up from the bottom of the toilet hole. The prisoners catch it with their bare hands and devour it raw, as rats are the only source of meat in the prison. They say the wonderful taste of raw rat is unforgettable. If they are caught eating a rat, however, the punishment is extended. So they have to be very careful when catching and easting a rat.
6. Hygiene
Prisoners are allowed to use communal toilets only twice a day. There is one toilet there, one meter side and two meters long, for every 300 prisoners. There will be five or six prisoners using the toilet simultaneously. There is one prisoner that has “toilet duty” and this is her job. She is usually a prisoner too old and crippled that is not able to labor anymore. They stay inside the toilet for 17-18 hours a day. There faces are swollen and yellow from the stench. Sun-ok Lee explains that some prisoners actually prefer this job because it guarantees a full ration meal, but they usually die within a year. Additionally, women prisoners who are old, slow at work, or are caught looking at themselves in a window glass are sent to the “drop-out team.” They may have t stay there anywhere from three months to a year. This team is responsible for collecting the dung from the prison toilet tanks and dumping it into a large dung pool everyday for supply to the farming teams. Sun-ok Lee explains: “Two women wade knee-deep at the bottom of the toilet [and fill a 20-liter bucket] with dung using their bare hands. Three women pull up the rubber bucket.” She also remembers one woman who fell into the pool of dung and was left there to die.
7. Emergency Execution Chamber
Sun-ok Lee spoke of an underground emergency execution chamber. She said this chamber (underground tunnels) is located near the prison gate. Guards often remind the prisoners that their lives are disposable and cab be collectively annihilated at any time in these tunnels. The tunnels can be blasted at any time and leaves no traces of a massacre. It is reported that the tunnels are so large that they can accommodate several thousand people.
8. Freezing Torture
Freezing torture was experienced first hand by Sun-ok Lee. On a winter night in 1987, she was forced to sit outside wearing only her underclothes. She was then showered with a bucket of cold water and left on her knees for and hour. She said this torture was performed every night throughout the winter. She knew of six prisoners who died from this torture. For the first 20 or 30 minutes it was painful on her ears, hands and legs, but after that she could not feel anything. After an hour they were told to get up, but she was literally frozen and could not rise. She said all the prisoners fell several times before they were able to stand and return back into their cold cells. The sitting in the cold was only the beginning of this form of torture. Soon, her ears were swollen and her feet were so swollen that she could not put her shoes on. She explained that “[w]ater was running from the sores in my swollen legs.” She was told to apply some pine resin from the shoe-making factory. The resin melted her flesh away and she could see some of her bones in her feet. But because of the resin, new flesh began to grow over the bones and after six months she had normal feet again.
Abortions and Baby Killings
In my opinion, the most inhumane punishment carried out at the North Korean prisons is the forced abortions and baby killings. Sun-ok Lee testified in depth on the topic, and many other organizations such as Human Rights Without Frontiers have conducted extensive interviews documenting these occurrences.
Prison guards will often kick the stomachs of pregnant women whose gestation was less than five months to try to effect an abortion. One report even states that some officers bragged that they were “obstetricians.” “As the women [would] scream out of severe pain, [the guards] ordered them to run around the campground to induce a quick abortion.” In other instances, the pregnant women are sent to do very hard work to induce a miscarriage. The officers and guards often administer miscarriage shots, and the women are forced back to work. The women know of these practices, the kicking stomachs and overworking, so they try very hard to abort early in one way or another if they become pregnant. If the women do abort, they are allowed no time for recuperation, they are forced back to work immediately.
If the woman does not abort the child before birth, and delivers the child, the child will be murdered almost immediately either by the guards, or the guards will force the prisoners to kill them. The guards are quite creative in ways to kill the child. In one instance, a young female prisoner was raped by an officer and became impregnated with his child. When she went into labor, the woman was tortured during labor and when the baby was born, the “security officers threw the newly-born infant to a dog during the course of the torture.” On another occasion, a woman prisoner had her belly cut open and the baby was removed and killed by stomping on it. Then she had electric pole pushed in her vagina and she was killed by electrocution. This was all because she was pregnant with a senior officers’ child. Other accounts of killing infants show how the prisoners themselves were forced to kill the infants. In many cases wet vinyl is used to smother the child. Doctors will use medical scissors to pierce the baby’s skulls or will step on the newborns neck. Infants are often just left to die. After the babies are murdered, their bodies are thrown to the animals to be gorged.
North Korea was a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women. Article 12.2 of that document declares: “States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period….” North Korea was also a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whereby
Article 2
1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measure to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.
Article 3
1. In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests if the child shall be a primary consideration.
2. States Parties shall undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures.
3. States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and suitability of staff, as well as competent supervision.
North Korea is in obvious violation of these articles and sections for multiple reasons. First of all, the numerous examples and reports of baby killings violate several of the abovementioned sections. For example, killing children violates Article 2, section on, which ensures “that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status.” The child is murdered because it is born to a prisoner, and murder is probably considered a form of discrimination. Secondly, one former child prisoner, Kang Chol Hwan, witnessed executions and other times when large numbers of children were killed. This violates Article 3, section 2 because the prison was the institution responsible for the care or protection of the child, and allowing the child to witness executions, work in environments were danger and death are high and forcing the children to work on little food (corn and salt) do not conform with standards established by “competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety [and] health”. The majority of people in the world would probably agree that these conditions are inappropriate for the safety and health of children.
Possible Remedies
Many sources offer suggestions and recommendations for countries and people alike to take. One article in a popular American magazine suggests three remedies that individuals could take to help the human rights situation in North Korea. First is a suggestion to protest at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., demanding that China accept the North Koreans as political refugees rather than sending them back to North Korea. Secondly the article suggests sending food and medicine to North Korean orphans through the Helping Hands/Ton a Moth Club, a Christian famine-relief program in Seoul, South Korea. Finally the article suggests making a donation to HRWF.
HRWF has provided an extensive list of recommendations to various groups. HRWF recommends to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to send an investigative team to various labor camps to check the allegations of baby killings that many former prisoners and guards have made. Amnesty International also offers an extensive list of recommendations. Among the recommendations, it calls on North Korean authorities to amend their Criminal Code concerning “defection” to bring them in line “with International obligations under Article 12(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which stipulates that ‘Everyone shall be free to leave nay country, including his own’ and allow North Korean citizens to exit and entry to North Korea;” to provide information to the public regarding North Koreans that were forcibly returned; allow independent access to international human rights monitors; abolish death penalty and commute all death sentences; and ensure that no one is subjected to human rights violations, such as arbitrary deaths and torture. Amnesty International urges China to follow five recommendations. Amnesty International also makes recommendations to UNCHR and the international community as a whole.
Finally, the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea has listed seven objectives that would guide its work. Those objectives include:
[1] Demanding that the famine relief that is being donated to North Korea can be monitored by independent assistance organizations to verify that this relief is reaching those whom it is intended to help;
[2] Demanding that other economic assistance to North Korea be conditioned on meaningful improvements in addressing the three critical problems of human rights, refugee protection, and famine relief;
[3] Pressuring the government in Pyongyang to cease criminalizing the act of leaving the country without permission and severely punishing those who are forcibly repatriated; and also insisting that China recognize the escapees as political refugees who must not be forcibly returned;
[4] Finding new ways to provide information to the people of North Korea, thus ending their enforced isolation;
[5] Developing multiple channels of exchange and contact with the North Korean people;
[6] Insisting that human rights organizations and independent media be given access to North Korea, thereby ending the information blockade that has prevented the true picture of conditions in North Korea to be revealed to the outside world; and
[7] Encouraging companies investing in North Korea to develop a code of conduct, similar to the Sullivan principles that were applied in South Africa to protect workers and other citizens.
Conclusion
The human rights situation in North Korea seems to be one of the worst in the world. U.S. Senator Sam Brownback is quoted saying that North Kore is “one of the worst, if not the worst situation – human rights abuse situation – in the world today. There are very few places that could compete with the level of depravity, the harshness of this regime in North Korea towards its own people.” Presently, the United States is fighting to liberate the Iraqi people from their leader, but it seems like the situation in North Korea is just as appalling, if not worse. One must understand, however that the U.S.’s choice of action has many factors, including human rights, but also weapons of mass destruction and the like. And although that North Korea openly produces nuclear weapons as well, many commentators suggest that Iraq was more threatening that North Korea with their weapons.
And although people, countries, and important political leaders are beginning to take notice of what is going on in North Korea, I would urge that something should be done sooner. If the accounts mentioned in this essay are true, people are losing their lives daily and people are being treated inhumanely every single day. I would urge political leaders to press the issue in order to help the North Korean citizens under the Kim Jong Il regime.
Essay – David M. Trubek, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in the Third World: Human Right Law and Human Needs Programs, page 207, n.4 in Human Rights in International Law: Legal and Policy Issues, edited by Theodor Meron. Volume 1 (1984).
Note that this essay addresses only the relevant international human rights laws and documents themselves and enforcement of such material is a related, but distinct topic beyond the discussion of this paper.
Human Rights Textbook, page 323.
Trubek, page 210. Trubek provides a more detailed description on the International Covenant describing the three interrelated features of the Economic Covenant: (1) the form of the rights which are specifically guaranteed by this convention; (2) the principle of progressive realization; and (3) the system of generic implementation. Id. at 210 – 23.
Casebook: Human Rights. Louis Henkin, Gerald L. Neuman, Diane F. Orentlicher and David W. Leebron, 320.
Meron, Theodor. Human Rights and Humanitarian as Customary Norms, 3 (1989).
In Korean, this is choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk. The North Koreans generally use the term “Chosun” to refer to their country. http://www.countries.com/countries/north_korea/
For comparison purposes, this is slightly smaller than the state of Mississippi.
Also referred to as KIM Chong-il.
Also referred to as Premier HONG Song-nam
USA TODAY, January 15, 2003 Final Edition.
CNBC News Transcripts January 15, 2003 – the News with Brian Williams (7:00 PM ET)
Many resources are spent on maintaining an army of nearly one million.
http://www.countries.com/countries/north_korea/
http://www.countries.com/countries/north_korea/
Amnesty International website. “North Korea: General Secretary Kim Jong Il should consider human rights reforms.” October 8, 1997.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000.
The Great North Korean Famine, Andrew Natsios. United States Institute of Peace, January 1, 2002.
See infra ____, the next section on refugees and human trafficking for more information.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000. The head of Mission of Action contre la faim (Action against Hunger) stated in March 2000 that “several North Korean officials have told her clearly that ‘there is one “useful” population and one “useless” population.’” Id. See The Moscow Times, May 23, 2000. “La Coree communiste est devenue l’enfer de la faim,” Medecins Sans Frontieres, September 30, 1998; Liberation, March 10, 2000.
NY Times, February 11, 2002 A-10.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000.
“Refugees shed light on North Korea: Pyongyang works closely with Beijing to stem the flow.” . Don Kirk.
The NY Times, February 11, 2002. Section A, Page 10: Bush Urged to Press China on Providing Relief for Refugees Secretly Fleeing North Korea.
One source offers an illustrative, and interesting, comparison:
The North Koreans in China stick out the way Mexican peasants do in Phoenix. Their dress if often a giveaway, and so are their physical features – many have dark or blotchy skin from vitamin deficiencies. Few of them speak Chinese and they must rely on the many Korean-speakers on the Chinese side of the border. (Northeast China is full of ethnic Koreans, and many people have relatives in both countries). During another famine sparked by the failures of Communism – “Mao’s Great Leap Forward,” 1958-61 – many Chinese actually fled to North Korea, seeking assistance. With migrants flowing the other war, there’s a latent sympathy for their plight. There’s also plenty of exploitation. Employers know that refugees will work for about half the wages of Chinese nationals. The North Koreans may also be held for ransom, if they have family able to pay for their release. The women are often forced into prostitution, or sold as wives . . .
National Review, January 27, 2003. “Escape from Hell: To be a Refugee from North Korea. The North Koreans are also comparable to the migrant labor workers from Mexico that come to the United States in that they are often paid significantly lower wages because many employers know that since the migrants are not “legal” they can use the workers for less cost.
Refugees Shed Light on North Korea: Pyonyang works closely with Beijing to stem the flow. www.msnbc.com. Don Kirk. January 24.
Refugees Shed Light on North Korea: Pyonyang works closely with Beijing to stem the flow. www.msnbc.com. Don Kirk. The latter of the two preachers mentioned, John Daniel Choi, was charged with statutory rape of refugee girls under the age of 18. Id.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000. In 1999, the fine was increased from 500 to 5,000 yuan, or from about $60 US dollars to $600 US dollars. Id. Also note that 5,000 yuan is approximately equivalent to a year’s income. Id. In 2000, “those suspected of helping North Koreans are . . . believed to be fined up to 30,000 yuan” or about $3,600 US dollars. Id. Also, some sources state that substantial awards are given to Chineses citizens who turn in these “illegal immigrants.” Id.
Id. “China has the obligation to respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulment as outlined in Article 33 of the Convention. China has also indicated it s commitment to international refugee law and human rights standards through its membership of the UNCHR Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme (EXCOM)” Id. Amnesty adds regarding EXCOM that it’s conclusions on refugee protection, adopted by consensus, are not legally binding treaties, but are representative of the views of the international community and therefore have persuasive authority. Id. at n.25.
“North Korean woman defector arrested” BBC 4 Woman’s Hour Program on cases of infanticide. September 17, 2002. HRWF International Secretariat. . In addition, South Korea has their own laws which may be invoked in situations where refugees flee to South Korea. Article 7 of the National Security Law “provides for up to seven years’ imprisonment on vaguely-defined charges of ‘praising’ and ‘benefiting’ North Korea. The National Security Law provides for long prison sentences and even the death penalty for ‘anti-state’ and ‘espionage activities’ which refer to activities by South Koreans who support or help North Korea.” Amnesty International website. “Amnesty International urges Korean Leaders to respect human rights.” June 26, 2000. Amnesty argues that these terms are not clearly defined and have often been used to unfairly imprison people. Id. Amnesty continues, “[m]oreover the majority of people arrested under the National Security Law are held for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.” Id. Another relevant clause is Article 10 which addresses those who fail to inform the investigating authorities of espionage agents sent by North Korea. These articles may come into play when South Koreans harbor what they think to be refugees, by who are really espionage agents or the like.
HRWF suggests this to mean South Korea. “North Korean woman defector arrested” BBC 4 Woman’s Hour Program on cases of infanticide. September 17, 2002. HRWF International Secretariat. . HRWF is independent of all political, ideological or religious movements. Its object is to promote democracy, the rule of law and the rights of the individual – man, woman and child – everywhere in the world, by every appropriate means. Nobody carrying a political mandate (including representing a political party in exile) or being a cleric can be a member of the board of directors.
Article 47 of the 1987 North Korean Criminal Code. See Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000.
“Refugees shed light on North Korea: Pyongyang works closely with Beijing to stem the flow.” . Don Kirk.
NY Times, 6-10, A-1. June 10, 2002.
The majority of information used in this paper comes from first hand accounts of former North Korean prisoners.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
The NY Times, February 11, 2002, A-10.
. NBC’s investigation claims that “North Korea’s State Security maintains a dozen political prisons and about 30 forced labor and labor education camps, mainly in remote areas. Some of the m are gargantuan: At least two of these camps, Haengyong and Huaong, are larger than the District of Columbia, with Huaong being three times the size of the U.S. capital district.”
For more information on this camp see transcript from The News with Brian Williams (Transcript #011500cb.480) January 15, 2003.
Id. For a map of the location of these camps, see www.hrwf.net/newhrwf/html/north_korea___maps_of_concentr.html
“Death, terror in N. Korean Gulag.” January 15
“Child Prisoner: Kang Chol Hwan. North Korean Imprisoned at Age 10 for Grandparent’s Dissent.” January 15, 2002.
For more information on the experience of Kang Chol Hwan read “The Aquariums of Pyongyang.” It is the first memoir of a North Korean political prisoner. Today he is a journalist with Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s most important newspaper. “Death, terror in N. Korean gulag” January 15, 2003.
National Review. January 27, 2003. “Escape from Hell: To be a Refugee from North Korea.”
National Review. January 27, 2003. “Escape from Hell: To be a Refugee from North Korea.”
Testimony of Sun-ok Lee. . See also Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman. Soon Ok Li. Living Sacrifice Book Co. October 1999.
“A survivor: Soon Ok Lee, 7 Years of torture in North Korean prison camp.”
. “A survivor: Soon Ok Lee, 7 Years of torture in North Korean prison camp.
“Public Executions Witnessed Personally” , The Chosun Ilbo, 3/25/2001. . This site offers first hand accounts of prisoners who witnessed executions.
“Public Executions Witnessed Personally” , The Chosun Ilbo, 3/25/2001. http://www.hrwf.net/newhrwf/html/north_korea___public_execution.html.
“Public Executions Witnessed Personally” , The Chosun Ilbo, 3/25/2001. http://www.hrwf.net/newhrwf/html/north_korea___public_execution.html.
“Former Guard: Ahn Myong Chol. North Korean Prison Guard Remembers Atrocities” January 15, 2002.
In Korea this is called the June 25 War. . “A survivor: Soon Ok Lee, 7 Years of torture in North Korean prison camp.
Human Rights Without Frontiers has collected the testimonies of some 20 eye witnesses giving accounts of a long-standing practice spanning decades. HRWF has checked and cross-checked their accounts with the view of outlining some repetitive patterns with regard to location and methods. “Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
. “Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
. “Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
. “Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002, case 8.
NY Times, North Koreans Talk of Baby Killings, A-1. June 10, 2002.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002, Case 8.
NY Times, “North Koreans Talk of Baby Killings.” June 10, 2002. A-1; Chicago Tribune “North Korea Killing Prison Babies, Defectors Say: China Deportees Sent to Jail Camps.” June 12, 2002. Page 6, Zone N.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002, case 6.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002, case 7.
NY Times, North Koreans Talk of Baby Killings. June 10, 2002. A-1.
NY Times, North Koreans Talk of Baby Killings, June 10, 2002. A-1.
NY Times, North Koreans Talk of Baby Killings, June 10, 2002. A-1.
“Long-standing Practices of Baby-Killing in the Camps of North Korea.” January 8, 2002.
Fact finding mission by the Human Rights Without Frontiers. February 28, 2002, . The Human Rights Without Frontiers conducted a number of interviews with North Korean refugees in South Korea and China. They collected documented baby killings that were committed in the following detention places, including North Pyongan Provincial Police Detention Camp in Shinuiju, North Hamkyong Provincial Police Detention Camp in Chogjin, Musan District Labor Camp and Onsong District Labor Camp. Id.
Id. For more information visit The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea at .
Id. See www.familycare.org/projects/asia/p01/p01/htm.
. February 28, 2002. Fact Finding Mission By Human Rights Without Frontiers: Baby Killings.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China.” 12/15/2000.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China.” 12/15/2000.
Amnesty International website, “Democratic People Republic of Korea Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Korean’s Fleeing to China. 12/15/2000.
“Death, terror in North Korean Gulag.” January 15, 2003
FDCH Political Transcripts. February 13, 2003. House Committee on International Relations: Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific Holds a Hearing on North Korea’s Nuclear Program.
Id. (hearings) North Korea’s highly enriched uranium program dates back at least to 1998.