Human rights in North Korea
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The human rights record of North Korea is widely considered to be among the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the United Nations and groups such as Human Rights Watch all critical of it. Amnesty International considers North Korea to have no contemporary parallel[1] with respect to violations of liberty.[2][3][4][5]
The citizens have no right to
The
The
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
On May 6, 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council announced an appointment of Michael Kirby of Australia, Sonja Biserko of Serbia, and Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia as members of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[16]
[The] commission of inquiry will investigate the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ... including the violation of the right to food, the violations associated with prison camps, torture and inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention, discrimination, violations of freedom of expression, violations of the right to life, violations of freedom of movement, and enforced disappearances, including in the form of abductions of nationals of other States, with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.[17]
On August 20, 2013, the commission began five days of public hearings at
On February 17, 2014, the panel published its findings in a 400-page report.[15] The commission accused the North Korean government of being involved in systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations. The panel chairman Michael Kirby described some acts by stating that they resembled those committed by the Nazis.[21]
In many instances, the violations of human rights found by the commission constitute crimes against humanity. These are not mere excesses of the State; they are essential components of a political system that has moved far from the ideals on which it claims to be founded. The gravity, scale and nature of these violations revealed a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.
Roberta Cohen, joint chair of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said it was now up to the world community to take action to protect those persecuted and bring the perpetrators to justice. The DPRK rejected the findings. In a statement it said the commission was "a product of politicization of human rights on the part of the EU and Japan, in alliance with the US hostile policy".[22] On November 18, 2014, the UN voted in favor of a draft resolution to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.[23][24]
Position of the DPRK
Human-rights discourse in North Korea has a history that predates the establishment of the state in 1948. Based on
Kim Il Sung stated that the concept of democracy cannot "provide freedom and rights to hostile elements who oppose socialism or impure elements who act against the interests of the People".[26]
The government of North Korea claims that the Constitution of the DPRK guarantees the human rights of its people, and that these guarantees are fully elaborated in its laws and regulations. It claims that these human-rights guarantees and laws are strictly enforced throughout the country and with respect to every individual.[27]
Seven months after the release of the Commission of Inquiry report, North Korea released its own DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies report, which claims that North Koreans enjoy "genuine human rights".[28] North Korea also agreed to implement 113 of the 268 recommendations to improve its human rights performance made at the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review process.[29] Kirby cited North Korea's participation in the Universal Periodic Review, the country's publication of their own human rights report, and Hwang Pyong-so's visit to the 2014 Asian Games a "charm offensive" and expressed skepticism about whether the North Korean government has become genuinely concerned about human rights or is simply preparing for imminent criticism in the UN.[30] Kirby welcomed parts of the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies report as "fair comment" but noted that it fails to discuss the issues raised in the Commission of Inquiry report.[31]
Civil liberties
North Korea's founder
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has officially acknowledged the widespread human rights violations that regularly occur in North Korea.[33] United Nation's Human Rights Resolution 2005/11 referred to specific types of abuses within North Korea:
Torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatmentor punishment, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, the absence of due process and the rule of law, imposition of the death penalty for political reasons, the existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labour;Sanctions on citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad, such as treating their departure as treason leading to punishments of internment, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or the death penalty;
All-pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and on the access of everyone to information, and limitations imposed on every person who wishes to move freely within the country and travel abroad;
Continued violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, in particular the trafficking of women for prostitution or forced marriage, ethnically motivated forced abortions, including by labour-inducing injection or natural delivery, as well as infanticide of children of repatriated mothers, including in police detention centres and labour training camps.[34]
Labor rights
North Korea is one of the few nations in the world that does not belong to the
Children (some as young as 11[36]) are forced to work on farms and construction sites at the behest of the government, and may be demanded to gather scrap metals and other materials by schools to be sold.[37] The labor can be intensive and children living in the country's Kwalliso (detention camps) are also forced to engage in heavy work.[36]
The North Korean constitution has clauses guaranteeing the freedoms of speech and assembly.[38] In practice, other clauses take precedence, including the requirement that citizens follow a socialist way of life. Criticism of the government and its leaders is strictly curtailed and making such statements can be cause for arrest and consignment to one of North Korea's "re-education" camps.[32] The government distributes all radio and television sets; citizens are forbidden to alter them to make it possible to receive broadcasts from other nations; doing so carries severe penalties.[32]
There are numerous civic organizations, but all of them appear to be operated by the government. All routinely praise the government and perpetuate the personality cults of the Kim family. Defectors indicate that the promotion of the cult of personality is one of the primary functions of almost all films, plays, and books produced within the country.[39]
Freedom of religion
The North Korean constitution nominally protects religious freedom, as long as it is not used to harm the state or the social order.[41] However, in practice, there is no genuine religious freedom,[42] and the government severely restricts religious activity except if it is supervised by government organizations.[43]
Reports from refugee, defector, missionary, and nongovernmental organizations report that individuals engaging in
Refugees and defectors allege that they witnessed the arrests and execution of members of underground Christian churches by the regime.[45] Due to the country's inaccessibility and the inability to gain timely information, the continuation of this activity remains difficult to verify.[46]
Persecution of Christians and Buddhists
According to the Christian
From 1949 to the mid-1950s, under the rule of Kim Il Sung, all churches were closed.
The North Korean government estimated the number of religious believers in 2002 to be 12,000 Protestants,[66] 10,000 Buddhists and 800 Catholics, while estimates by South Korean and international church-related groups were considerably higher. In addition, the Chondoist Chongu Party, a government-approved traditional religious movement, had approximately 15,000 practitioners.[67]
Since 1988, four church buildings have been erected in Pyongyang with foreign donations:[68] one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox. However, they are only open to foreigners, and North Korean citizens cannot attend the services. The services are used to bring in foreign currency from foreign visitors, including South Koreans. It is therefore clear that the churches are there solely for propaganda purposes.[69]
Freedom of movement
North Korean citizens usually cannot freely travel around the country,
North Korean refugees who flee to China are often later forcibly repatriated back to North Korea by authorities, and are routinely beaten and sent to prison camps after repatriation.[72] This is because the North Korean government treats emigrants from the country as defectors.[72] This treatment is more severe in cases where North Korean refugees have come into contact with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are associated with South Korea or with religions, especially Christianity.[72] In cases where the North Korean government discovers that contact has occurred between refugees and these NGOs, the punishments for these refugees are torture and execution upon their repatriation back to North Korea.[72]
In May 2016 Kim Jong Un temporarily banned all weddings and funerals across the country, and freedom of movement into and out of the capital, in preparation for a meeting, on 6 May, of the Workers' Party of Korea, the first gathering of its kind in 36 years.[73]
On 28 July 2020, UN human rights reported that women detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are being subjected to multiple, serious human rights violations at the hands of security and police officials. The women have been given inadequate quantity and poor quality of food, leading to extreme malnutrition.[74]
Freedom of the press
As of 2017[update], North Korea occupies the last place on the
Reporters Without Borders claims that radio or television sets that can be bought in North Korea are preset to receive only the government frequencies and sealed with a label to prevent tampering with the equipment. It is a serious criminal offense to manipulate the sets and receive radio or television broadcasts from outside North Korea. In a party campaign in 2003, the head of each party cell in neighborhoods and villages received instructions to verify the seals on all radio sets.[77]
As North and South Korea use different television systems (PAL and NTSC, respectively), it is not possible to view broadcasts across the border between the two countries; however, in areas bordering China, it has reportedly been possible to receive television from that country. A United Nations envoy reported that any North Korean citizen caught watching a South Korean film may result in that person being sent to a labor camp.[78]
Minority rights
North Korea's population is one of the world's most ethnically homogeneous, and immigration is almost non-existent. Among the few immigrants that have willingly gone to North Korea are Japanese spouses (generally wives) of Koreans who returned from Japan from 1955 to the early 1980s. These Japanese have been forced to assimilate, and for the most part, the returnees overall are reported to have not been fully accepted into North Korean society (with a few exceptions, such as those who became part of the government), and instead ended up on the fringes. Foreigners who visit the country are generally strictly monitored by government minders[79] and are forbidden to enter certain locations.[80]
In 2014, after the United Nations Human Rights Council published a report on human rights in North Korea advising a referral to the International Criminal Court, the official Korean Central News Agency responded with an article that included homophobic insults against report author Michael Kirby, who is openly gay. The KCNA's article went on to state that gay marriage "can never be found in the DPRK boasting of the sound mentality and good morals, and homosexuality has become a target of public criticism even in Western countries, too. In fact, it is ridiculous for such gay [sic] to sponsor dealing with others' human rights issue."[81][82]
Disability rights
As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), North Korea has international obligations to refrain from discriminating against its people based on disability (among other criteria). Under Article 2 of the CRC, "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 their parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status" (emphasis added).
On March 22, 2006, the Associated Press reported from South Korea that a North Korean doctor who defected, Ri Kwang-chol, has claimed that babies born with physical defects are rapidly put to death and buried.[83] A report by the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea highlighted reports from defectors describing how disabled people are allegedly "rounded up" and sent to "special camps".[84]
However, the charity
Still, the special rapporteur for human rights in the DPRK, Marzuki Darusman, stated the following in his report before the United Nations Human Rights Council's twenty-second session:
As early as 2003 the Commission on Human Rights expressed deep concern at the "mistreatment of and discrimination of disabled children". Since 2006 the General Assembly has consistently decried "continuing reports of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, especially on the use of collective camps and coercive measures that target the rights of persons with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children." Whereas in 2006 the Special Rapporteur noted "to date, those with disabilities are sent away from the capital city, and particularly those with mental disabilities are detained in areas or camps known as 'Ward 49' with harsh and subhuman conditions."[88]
According to Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System, North Korea adopted a law in 2003 to promote equal access to public services for disabled people and it claimed in its second report on compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that its handicapped citizens are protected. North Korea acceded to this covenant on September 14, 1981. However, its law has not been implemented, and North Korean refugees in the South testify that the handicapped are severely discriminated against unless they are wounded soldiers who say their wounds were the result of U.S. aggression during the Korean War.[89]
Right to food
A January 2004 report by Amnesty International noted that "North Korea remains dependent on food aid to feed its people, yet government policy still prevents the swift and equitable distribution of this aid, while the population is denied the right to freedom of movement, which would enable people to go and search for food."[90] The report found that the North Korean government had "failed in its duty to uphold and protect" the right to food and that the regime's actions "have exacerbated the effects of the famine and food crisis".[90]
Shortly thereafter, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea published Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea (by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, 2005), which discussed the probability that North Korean food shortages in the 1990s were a man-made (regime) phenomenon and that with plausible policy adjustments – such as maintaining food imports on commercial terms or aggressively seeking multilateral assistance – the North Korean government could have avoided famine and food shortages. Instead, in a desperate attempt to conserve resources for the Korean government, the regime blocked humanitarian aid and diverted resources to the military.[91]
In 2016, British scholar Hazel Smith reported that health and nutrition of the population had improved greatly and was comparable to other developing countries. She disputed the view that government policies were creating a human rights crisis that was unique to North Korea.[92]
Discrimination and unequal access to food
Economic reform abolished the old coupon system in North Korea, which had favored non-productive citizens regarding access to food. After the coupon system disappeared, an average urban family spent between 75 and 85 percent of their income on food, while state farmers were spending only a third of their income on food. These disparities show that North Korea does not have safety net mechanisms to protect the vulnerable people in society, such as housewives and the elderly.[90]
When the food crisis began, access to food came through a public distribution system (PDS) controlled by the regime, and entitlements were partly a function of political status. As the planned economy crumbled and markets developed in response to the state's inability to fulfill its obligations under the old social compact, the character of the crisis changed. Current shortages bear a closer resemblance to food emergencies in market and transition economies, where access to food is determined by one's capacity to command resources in the marketplace. This type of emergency is no less severe, but poses different challenges to outside donors.[93]
Food is distributed to the civilian population of North Korea through two channels. Workers on state and cooperative farms account for roughly 30 percent of the population, and most of these farmers are granted an annual allotment of grain at the time of the harvest. However, the country is highly urbanized, and the bulk of the population is fed through the PDS. The PDS distributes food as a monthly or biweekly ration. Rations, in turn, vary according to occupational status and age. For example, high-ranking party, government, and military officials are fed through separate distribution channels and receive higher rations, as do certain classes of workers.[93]
In confronting the fundamentally non-cooperative stance of the North Korean government, the humanitarian community has pursued two basic strategies to guarantee the integrity of its assistance: the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the monitoring of food deliveries to assure that these targeted populations are being reached. At virtually every point, the North Korean government has placed roadblocks in the way of the donor community in North Korea, which succeeded to the extent that it did only through extraordinary perspicacity and flexibility. Yet, even by its own admission, this monitoring effort is a leaky sieve, and it is estimated that between 10 and 30 percent of food aid is diverted. Most concerns with diversion center on the appropriation of food by the military. Military and party elites have other sources of food; an equal if not greater problem is the diversion of food to the market or to less deserving groups.[93]
Also, the remote regions that suffered from the most severe famine conditions were the first regions to stop receiving shipments of food supplies, and at the same time, as local industry collapsed, residents' purchasing power decreased.[94]
Restrictions on the freedom to move caused the so-called 'hostile class' ‒ whose members were relocated to remote mountain areas ‒ to suffer from the limited access to food.[90]
A UN human rights office report released in May 2019 highlighted the "appalling" levels of hunger that have been affecting around 10.9 million people particularly in north-eastern and rural provinces of North Korea.[95] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said, "The rights to food, health, shelter, work, freedom of movement and liberty are universal and inalienable, but in North Korea they depend primarily on the ability of individuals to bribe State officials."[96]
Food shortage and malnutrition in detention
According to detainee testimonies, detention was most often severely overcrowded and there existed a serious lack of food. "[It] made life in Yodok very difficult. We were given corn-rice in small quantities; at times we got only salt soup with cabbage leaves. No meat was served. We were always hungry; and resorted to eating grass in spring. Three or four people died of malnutrition. When someone died, fellow prisoners delayed reporting his death to the authorities so that they could eat his allocated breakfast."[97]
Women and forced prostitution
A group called "A Woman's Voice International" alleged that the state forcibly drafts girls as young as 14 years old to work in the so-called
Forced abortion
The
Criminal justice
The death penalty, often without judicial due process, is administered for a wide variety of political and common crimes. Attempts to escape from the country or from a prison camp within the country may result in execution on the spot.[32] Personnel in the criminal justice system have wide discretion and are allegedly authorized to operate without regard to the formal legal rights of Koreans.[32]
A number of members of the regime itself have disappeared or been executed after falling out of favor. The most prominent example is
Trials
The constitution states that courts are independent and that judicial proceedings are to take place in strict accordance to the law; however, an independent judiciary does not exist. Little information is available on formal criminal-justice procedures and practices, with outside access to the legal system limited to trials for traffic violations and other minor offenses.[102]
The Ministry of Social Security (North Korea) (MSS) dispenses with trials in political cases and refers prisoners to the State Security Department (SSD) for punishment. According to Hidden Gulag, most inmates in prison camps arrive there without trial, without knowing the charges against them, and without having legal counsel.[102] Witness to Transformation[103] reported that only 13 percent of the 102 respondents who had been incarcerated in the country received a trial.[104]
Public executions
According to the US State Department, North Korea resumed public executions in October 2007 - such executions had declined in number in the years following 2000 amidst international criticism. Prominent executed criminals include officials convicted of drug trafficking and embezzlement. Reports also tell of the executions - mostly by
In October 2007 a firing-squad executed a South Pyongan province factory-chief (convicted of making international phone calls from 13 phones he installed in his factory basement) in front of a crowd of 150,000 people in a stadium.[106] In another instance, 15 people were publicly executed in 2008 for crossing the border into China.[107]
In 2007 a
According to Radio Free Asia, in 2011 two people were executed in front of 500 spectators for handling propaganda leaflets that had floated across the border from South Korea, apparently as part of a campaign by former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to tighten ideological control as he groomed his youngest son Kim Jong Un as the eventual successor.[109]
In June 2019 a Seoul-based human rights group, the Transitional Justice Working Group, claimed to have identified at least 323 sites in North Korea, where public executions took place.[110] The group said the most common charges for execution ranged from "stealing copper and livestock" to "anti-state" activities and illegally crossing into China.[111]
Prisons
According to many organizations, the conditions in North Korean prisons are harsh and life-threatening.[112] Additionally, prisoners are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment by North Korean authorities.[32][113][114] Public and secret executions of prisoners, including children, especially in cases of escape attempts,[115] and infanticides (forced abortions and baby killings upon birth[32][116]) often occur. The mortality rate is very high, because many prisoners die of starvation,[117] illnesses,[118] work accidents, or torture.[citation needed]
The North Korean government flatly denies all allegations of human rights violations in prison camps, claiming that it is prohibited by criminal procedure law,[119] but former prisoners testify that there are completely different rules in the prison camps.[120] The North Korean government has failed to provide any information on prisoners or prison camps or even to allow access to any human rights organization.[121]
According to the testimony of former camp guard Ahn Myong Chol of Camp 22, the guards are trained to treat the detainees as sub-human or slaves. He gave an account of children in one of the camps fighting over who got to eat a kernel of corn retrieved from cow dung.[123]
The North Korean prison camp facilities can be divided into large internment camps for political prisoners (Kwan-li-so in Korean) and reeducation prison camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean).[124]
On October 19, 2020, Human Rights Watch released an 88-page report "'Worth Less Than an Animal': Abuses and Due Process Violations in Pretrial Detention in North Korea", detailing the torture, abuse and unhygienic conditions of detainees in North Korea pretrial detention centers. Revealing the opaque criminal justice system, the report highlighted the "arbitrary, violent, cruel and degrading" investigation system of North Korea.[125]
Internment camps for political prisoners
Political prison camps in North Korea
The internment camps for people accused of political offenses or denounced as politically unreliable are run by the state security department. Political prisoners were historically subjected to the family responsibility principle, which meant that the immediate family members of a convicted political criminal were also regarded as political criminals and interned. However, since 1994 there has been a near-abandonment of this family responsibility principle.[126][127]
The internment camps are located in central and northeastern North Korea. They comprise many prison labor colonies in secluded mountain valleys, completely isolated from the outside world.
The prisoners are forced to perform hard and dangerous slave labor with primitive means in mining and agriculture. The food rations are very small, so the prisoners are constantly on the brink of starvation. In combination with the hard work, this leads to huge numbers of prisoners dying. An estimated 40% of prisoners die from malnutrition.[129] Moreover, many prisoners are crippled from work accidents, frostbite or torture. There is a rigid punishment system in the camp. Prisoners who work too slowly or do not obey an order are beaten or tortured.[116] In cases of stealing food or attempting to escape, the prisoners are publicly executed.
Initially, there were around twelve political prison camps, but some were merged or closed (e.g. Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12 was closed down following an unsuccessful riot in 1987 where around 5,000 prisoners were killed[130]). Today there are six political prison camps in North Korea (see below). Most of the camps are documented in testimonies of alleged former prisoners, and coordinates and satellite images of all are available.[citation needed]
| English name | Official name | Size[131] | Prisoners[132] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaechon Political Prison Camp | Kwan-li-so No. 14 | 155 km² (60 mi²) | 15,000 |
| Yodok Political Prison Camp | Kwan-li-so No. 15 | 378 km² (146 mi²) | 46,500 |
| Hwasong Political Prison Camp | Kwan-li-so No. 16 | 549 km² (212 mi²) | 10,000 |
Bukchang Political Prison Camp |
Kwan-li-so No. 18 | 73 km² (28 mi²) | 50,000 |
Hoeryong Political Prison Camp |
Kwan-li-so No. 22 | 225 km² (87 mi²) | 50,000 |
| Chongjin Political Prison Camp | Kwan-li-so No. 25 | 0,25 km² (0,1 mi²) | 3,000+ |
The South Korean journalist
Re-education camps
(10 out of around 15–20)
