Official Name: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Government: Centralized Communist state. One-man, one-party dictatorship of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il and the Korean Workers’ Party
Population: 23.5 million (2008 estimate)
HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS
A Cult of Personality: Indoctrination programs to worship Kim Jong Il start in nursery school, every citizen has a Kim pin on his/her lapel, there are Kim portraits in every household, and there is no tolerance for criticizing or “subverting” the Kim regime in any way.
Lack of Fundamental Freedoms: The North Korean government prohibits freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association. Not only wrong-doers, but “wrong-thinkers” are punished, the press is centrally controlled, and there is virtually no access to outside information. North Korea consistently ranks last among the countries with the lowest level of press freedom. Freedom of religion, physical movement, and workers’ rights are also severely restricted.
Famine: Over one million people perished in the devastating famine in the mid-1990s, many due to gross government neglect and mismanagement.
Malnourished Children: 37% stunted, 23% underweight, and 7% wasted (World Food Programme, 2004).
The Repercussions of Hunger: More than five years of severe food shortages and a near-total breakdown in the public health system have led to devastating malnutrition in North Korea and probably left an entire generation of children physically and mentally impaired (joint report by the WFP, UNICEF, and the European Union).
Political Concentration Camps: There are an estimated 200,000 North Koreans who are in a vast network of political concentration camps. Entire families are imprisoned, including children, up to three generations, because a relative is suspected of being disloyal to the government. Virtually all sentences are for life, and execution and torture are a common method of punishment.
Crimes Against Humanity: Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines 11 categories of acts that constitute crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation/forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, rape/sexual slavery/enforced prostitution, persecution, and enforced disappearance of persons, apartheid, and other inhumane acts. With the exception of apartheid, every single one of these crimes against humanity is being committed on a systematic basis in North Korean political prisons.
Contracted Labor: North Korea maintains labor contracts with countries through government entities and foreign firms. North Korean laborers who work under such arrangements are denied freedom of movement and a large portion of their salaries are deposited into government accounts. There are about 10,000 to 15,000 North Korean laborers worldwide and many are subjected to harsh conditions in jobs involving construction and logging.
Countries with labor arrangements include: Russia, Romania, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Angola, Mongolia, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq, and China.
Estimates of 50,000 up to 400,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries, risking torture and execution if captured and repatriated to North Korea. As a matter of policy, China repatriates all North Koreans that have illegally crossed the border, in blatant disregard and violation of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol..
Third Countries: A fraction of North Korean refugees in China escape to third countries with the intention of seeking asylum. Third countries include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and Mongolia. With the exception of Cambodia, these countries are not state parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention. The preferred escape routes are through Mongolia and Thailand with their relatively friendly policies toward North Korean refugees, meaning that these countries are willing to contribute resources to aid in resettlement.
Women and Children: It is estimated that 70% of North Korean women and children who escape into China face serious exploitation and sex trafficking. Within North Korea, children are routinely forced into child labor, and sexual servitude within the prison camps is widespread.
Resettlement: There are over 18,000 defectors resettled throughout the world, with over 15,000 having resettled in South Korea. The United States, Japan, and Member States of the European Union have also resettled a small number of North Korean refugees.
Severe Food Shortage: North Korea relies heavily on international food aid, especially as that it is experiencing a severe food shortage that may very likely reach the crisis level of the mid-1990s famine. Less than 23% of its land is arable, as farmers removed trees for food, resulting in deforestation, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and increased susceptibility to flooding. Recent flooding and heavy rains have increased North Korea’s grain shortfall to 1.5 million tons, and the WFP has estimated that 6.5 million North Koreans are short of food.
South Korean Political Stance: The South Korean Constitution recognizes all North Korean defectors as South Korean citizens. The South Korean government previously promoted a policy of rapprochement with the North, during the course of which human rights were severely neglected. Inter-Korean relations have sharply deteriorated under President Lee Myung-bak’s administration. At the outset of his term, Lee advocated a policy of increased reciprocity and improvements of human rights. The North subsequently cut off official dialogue and demanded that Lee implement agreements reached in the 2000 and 2007 Summits. However, when Lee expressed a willingness to engage, tensions increased after a South Korean citizen was shot and killed at the North Korean Mount Geumgang resort on July 11, 2008.
DPRK Weapons Programs and Food Aid: State-sponsored ballistic missile programs, nuclear activity, political tensions have caused many international food aid shipments to be suspended.
North Korean Official Stance: The North Korean government categorically denies any human rights violations within the DPRK and maintains that the “people-centered socialist system” champions the rights of its people. North Korean officials have claimed that “the customary allegations [of human rights violations] based on unsubstantiated information are a part of a [sic] parcel of the US policy of isolating and stifling the DPRK.”(http://www.linkglobal.org/learn/nk101.html)