Excerpt: Human Rights Norms Are "Alien Concepts" in North Korea
(State Department's 2002 Human Rights Report cites abuses) (3620)
The dictatorship that rules the People's Democratic Republic of Korea
(DPRK) views international human rights norms, particularly individual
rights, as "illegitimate, alien, and subversive to the goals of the
State and Party," according to the State Department's 2002 Human
Rights Report on North Korea.
The annual report harshly criticizes the Kim Jong Il regime for gross
violations of basic human rights in 2002. The State Department
document recounts reports of extrajudicial killings and disappearances
along with arbitrary detainment of citizens.
An estimated 200,000 political prisoners are detained under harsh
conditions in North Korea's prisons. "Female prisoners underwent
forced abortion, and in other cases babies reportedly were killed upon
birth in prisons," the report says.
Execution is a common punishment for petty crimes. According to the
report: "Capital punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide
variety of 'crimes against the revolution,' including defection,
attempted defection, slander of the policies of the Party or State,
and listening to foreign broadcasts."
Civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and
association, are all under the tight control of Party.
The complete Department of State report on North Korea can be found
online at:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18249pf.htm
Following are excerpts from the Country Report on Human Rights
Practices 2002 for North Korea:
(begin excerpt)
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2002
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 31, 2003
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is a
dictatorship under the absolute rule of Kim Jong Il, who has exercised
unchallenged authority since his father Kim Il Sung died in 1994. He
was named General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party (KWP) in
October 1997. In September 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly
reconfirmed Kim Jong Il as Chairman of the National Defense Commission
and declared that position the "highest office of state." The
presidency was abolished, leaving the late Kim Il Sung as the DPRK's
"eternal president." The Korean People's Army continued to displace
the KWP as Kim Jong Il's chief instrument for making and implementing
policy. The titular head of state is Kim Yong Nam, the President of
the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Both Kim Il Sung and
Kim Jong Il continue to be the objects of intense personality cults.
The regime continues to emphasize "juche," a national ideology of
self-reliance. The judiciary is not independent.
The Korean People's Army is the primary organization responsible for
external security. It is assisted by a large military reserve force
and several quasi-military organizations, including the Worker-Peasant
Red Guards and the People's Security Force. These organizations also
assisted the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and the KWP in
maintaining internal security. Members of the security forces
committed serious human rights abuses.
The State directed all significant economic activity, and only
government-controlled labor unions were permitted in this country of
22 million persons. Industry continued to operate at significantly
reduced capacity, reflecting antiquated plant and equipment and severe
shortages of inputs, due in part to the sharp decline in trade and aid
that followed the collapse of the former Soviet Union and East
European Communist governments. Efforts at recovery have been hampered
by heavy military spending, which amounted to approximately one
quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) before the economy went into
decline and was probably an even larger share of national output
during the year. The economy was also hampered by a lack of access to
commercial lending stemming from the country's default on its foreign
debt and its inability to obtain loans from international financial
institutions. Rarely food self-sufficient, the country relied on
international aid and trade to supplement domestic production, which
has been hobbled by disastrous agricultural policies. From 1995 to
1997, famine caused internal dislocation and widespread malnutrition,
and an estimated 1 to 2 million persons, or possibly as much as 10
percent of the population, died from starvation and related diseases.
Economic and political conditions have caused at least tens of
thousands of persons to flee their homes. The Government continued to
seek international food aid, produce "alternative foods," and take
other steps to boost production. It permitted the spread of farmers'
markets to compensate for the contraction of food supplied through the
public distribution system. Food, clothing, and energy were rationed
throughout the country. The U.N.'s World Food Program provided
assistance to children and mothers, and the elderly. According to
South Korean figures, North Korea's GDP began to grow slightly in
2000, but this was due largely to international aid and South Korean
investment and followed years of steady decline during which GDP was
estimated to have shrunk by half since 1993. In mid-year, North Korea
raised wages and prices drastically and announced a shift in
management methods towards granting managers more responsibility.
However, these changes failed to have the desired impact on the
country's economy, as inflation rose dramatically in the later months
of the year. The creation of a Special Administrative Region (SAR) in
Sinuiju was announced but encountered immediate difficulties; the
Sinuiju SAR is planned as an autonomous region with its own
legislative, administrative, and judicial systems, intended to
specialize in light industries in line with the July economic reform
measures.
The Government's human rights record remained poor, and it continued
to commit numerous serious abuses. Citizens did not have the right
peacefully to change their government, and the leadership viewed most
international human rights norms, particularly individual rights, as
illegitimate, alien, and subversive to the goals of the State and
Party. There continued to be reports of extrajudicial killings and
disappearances. Citizens were detained arbitrarily, and many were held
as political prisoners. Prison conditions were harsh, and torture was
reportedly common. Female prisoners underwent forced abortions, and in
other cases babies reportedly were killed upon birth in prisons. The
constitutional provisions for an independent judiciary and fair trials
were not implemented in practice. The regime subjected its citizens to
rigid controls over many aspects of their lives. A human rights
dialogue initiated by the European Union in 2001 led to another
exchange of views in June 2002 in Pyongyang, but the Government did
not acknowledge that international standards of human rights apply to
North Korea. The Penal Code is Draconian, stipulating capital
punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide variety of "crimes
against the revolution," including defection, attempted defection,
slander of the policies of the Party or State, listening to foreign
broadcasts, writing "reactionary" letters, and possessing reactionary
printed matter. Citizens were denied freedom of speech, the press,
assembly, and association, and all forms of cultural and media
activities were under the tight control of the Party. Little outside
information reached the public except that which was approved and
disseminated by the Government. The Government restricted freedom of
religion, citizens' movement, and worker rights. There were reports of
trafficking in women and young girls among refugees and workers
crossing the border into China.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Defectors and refugees have reported that the regime executed
political prisoners, opponents of the regime, some repatriated
defectors, and others, reportedly including military officers
suspected of espionage or of plotting against Kim Jong Il. Criminal
law makes the death penalty mandatory for activities "in collusion
with imperialists" aimed at "suppressing the national liberation
struggle." Some prisoners were sentenced to death for such ill-defined
"crimes" as "ideological divergence," "opposing socialism," and other
"counterrevolutionary crimes." In some cases, executions reportedly
were carried out at public meetings attended by workers, students, and
school children. Executions also were carried out before assembled
inmates at places of detention. Border guards reportedly had orders to
shoot to kill potential defectors. Similarly, prison guards were under
orders to shoot to kill those attempting escape in political
concentration camps, according to defectors.
Defectors have reported that government officials prohibited live
births in prison. Forced abortion and the killing of newborn babies
reportedly were standard prison practices (see Section 1.c.).
Religious and human rights groups outside the country reported that
some members of underground churches were killed because of their
religious beliefs and suspected contacts with overseas evangelical
groups operating across the Chinese border (see Section 2.c.).
Many prisoners reportedly have died from disease, starvation, or
exposure (see Section 1.c.).
According to some humanitarian organizations, the Government has
channeled international food and medical aid to the party elite,
military personnel, and other persons viewed as loyal to the regime.
The Government reportedly was responsible for cases of disappearance.
According to recent defector reports, individuals suspected of
political crimes often were taken from their homes by state security
officials late at night and sent directly, without trial, to camps for
political prisoners. There are no restrictions on the ability of the
Government to detain and imprison persons at will and to hold them
incommunicado, without notifying detainees' relatives.
There also were long-standing reports of past government involvement
in the kidnapping abroad of South Koreans, Japanese, and other foreign
nationals. On September 17, Kim Jong Il admitted to Japanese Prime
Minister Koizumi that the Government had abducted 13 Japanese citizens
during the 1970s. According to Japanese government officials, these
abductions took place between 1977 and 1983. Government spies used the
identities of some of the victims, and some of the victims were forced
to provide training in Japanese language and customs. The Government
allowed five surviving victims to visit Japan in October for 1 week,
but the victims have remained in Japan since that time. The Government
alleged that the remaining 8 are deceased. There was speculation, not
officially confirmed by the Japanese Government or the DPRK
Government, that the DPRK Government has abducted many more Japanese
residents over the years....
Torture is not prohibited by law. Methods of torture reportedly
routinely used on political prisoners included severe beatings,
electric shock, prolonged periods of exposure, humiliations such as
public nakedness, and confinement to small "punishment cells," in
which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down, where they
could be held for several weeks. According to defector reports, many
prisoners died from torture, disease, starvation, exposure, or a
combination of these causes. The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in
North Korea claimed that approximately 400,000 persons died in prison
since 1972.
Recent crackdowns in China on prostitution and forced marriages
resulted in the deportation of thousands of North Korean women, some
of whom were pregnant, and many were imprisoned upon their return to
the country. There were reports that North Korean officials prohibited
live births in prison and that a policy of forced abortion was
regularly implemented, particularly in those detention centers holding
women repatriated from China. In those cases where live births did
occur, the babies reportedly were immediately killed. In addition,
guards sexually abused female prisoners.
Prison conditions were harsh; starvation and executions were common.
Entire families, including children, were imprisoned when one member
of the family was accused of a crime. "Reeducation through labor" was
a common punishment, consisting of forced labor, such as logging and
tending crops, under harsh conditions. Visitors to the country
observed prisoners being marched in leg irons, metal collars, or
shackles. In some places of detention, prisoners were given little or
no food and, when they contracted illnesses, were denied medical care.
In one prison, clothing reportedly was issued only once in 3 years.
In June Lee Soon-ok, a woman who spent several years in a prison camps
before fleeing first to China in 1994 and then to South Korea,
testified before the U.S. Senate that the approximately 1,800 inmates
in this particular camp in those years typically worked 16 to 17 hours
a day. Lee Soon-ok witnessed severe beatings and torture involving
water forced into a victim's stomach with a rubber hose and pumped out
by guards jumping on a board placed across the victim's abdomen, and
reported that chemical and biological warfare experiments were
conducted on inmates by the army. Other defectors reported similar
experiences. At Camp 22 in Haengyong, approximately 50,000 prisoners
worked under conditions that reportedly resulted in the death of 20 to
25 percent of the prison population annually in the 1990s....
There are no restrictions on the ability of the Government to detain
and imprison persons at will and to hold them incommunicado....
During the year, an estimated 200,000 persons were in detention for
political reasons in camps in remote areas. The Government denied the
existence of prison camps for political prisoners, which are marked as
military areas to prevent access by the local population. In recent
years, the Government reportedly reduced the total number of prison
camps from approximately 20 to less than 10, but the prison population
was consolidated rather than reduced. In addition to these camps for
political prisoners, there reportedly were approximately 30 forced
labor and labor education camps in the country for ordinary criminals
serving shorter terms. The Government did admit that there were
"education centers" for persons who "committed crimes by mistake." A
defector who had been a ranking official in the Ministry of Public
Security stated that conditions in the camps for political prisoners
were extremely harsh and prisoners never emerged. In these camps,
prisoners received little food and no medical provisions. In the labor
camps, however, prisoners could be "rehabilitated." . . .
Numerous reports suggested that political offenses have in the past
included such behavior as sitting on newspapers bearing Kim Il Sung's
picture, or, in the case of a professor reportedly sentenced to work
as a laborer, noting in class that Kim Il Sung had received little
formal education. The KWP has a special regulation protecting the
images of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. All citizens are required by
this regulation to protect from damage any likeness of the two Kims.
Beginning in the 1970s, the Ten Great Principles of Unique Ideology
directed that anyone who tore or otherwise defaced a newspaper photo
of either of the two Kims was a political criminal and should be
punished as such. Defectors have reported families being punished
because children had accidentally defaced photographs of one of the
two Kims. Families were required to display pictures of the two
leaders in their homes, and if local party officials found that the
family had neglected its photos, the family could be forced to write
self-criticisms throughout an entire year....
The authorities subjected citizens of all age groups and occupations
to intensive political and ideological indoctrination. After Kim Il
Sung's death, his cult of personality and the glorification of his
family and the official juche ideology remained omnipresent,
approaching the level of a state religion. The indoctrination was
intended to ensure loyalty to the system and leadership, as well as
conformity to the State's ideology and authority. The necessity for
the intensification of such indoctrination repeatedly was stressed in
the writings of Kim Jong Il, who attributed the collapse of the Soviet
Union largely to insufficient ideological indoctrination, compounded
by the entry of foreign influences.
Indoctrination was carried out systematically, not only through the
mass media, but also in schools and through worker and neighborhood
associations. Kim Jong Il has stated that ideological education must
take precedence over academic education in the nation's schools, and
he also called for the intensification of mandatory ideological study
and discussion sessions for adult workers....
RESPECT FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press;
however, the Government prohibited the exercise of these rights in
practice. Articles of the Constitution that require citizens to follow
"socialist norms of life" and to obey a "collective spirit" take
precedence over individual political and civil liberties. The regime
only permitted activities that supported its objectives.
The Constitution provides for freedom of assembly: however, the
Government did not respect this provision in practice. The Government
prohibited any public meetings without authorization.
The Constitution provides for freedom of association; however, the
Government did not respect this provision in practice. There were no
known organizations other than those created by the Government.
Professional associations existed primarily to facilitate government
monitoring and control over the organizations' members.
The Constitution provides for "freedom of religious belief"; however,
in practice the Government discouraged organized religious activity
except that which was supervised by officially recognized groups. In
1992 a constitutional change authorized religious gatherings, provided
for "the right to build buildings for religious use," and deleted a
clause about freedom of antireligious propaganda. The Constitution
also stipulates that religion "should not be used for purposes of
dragging in foreign powers or endangering public security." Genuine
religious freedom did not exist....
The number of religious believers was unknown but has been estimated
by the media and religious groups at 10,000 Protestants, 10,000
Buddhists, and 4,000 Catholics, in addition to an undetermined number
of persons belonging to underground Christian churches. Some sources
estimated that as many as 500 informal Christian congregations were
active during the year. In its July 30 report to the U.N. Human Rights
Committee, the Government reported the existence of 500 "family
worship centers," an apparent reference to these congregations. Some
reports indicated that such "house churches" have been increasingly
tolerated so long as they do not openly proselytize or have contact
with foreign missionaries. The Chondogyo Young Friends Party, a
government-sponsored group based on a traditional Korean religious
movement, also remained in existence....
The Constitution provides for the "freedom to reside in or travel to
any place"; however, the Government did not respect these rights in
practice. In the past, the regime has controlled strictly internal
travel, requiring a travel pass for any movement outside one's home
village. These passes were granted only for official travel or
attendance at a relative's wedding or funeral. Long delays in
obtaining the necessary permit often resulted in denial of the right
to travel even for these limited purposes. In recent years, it
appeared that the internal controls on travel have eased
significantly. Due to the worsening food conditions in the country,
the Government at times took a benign approach to those who violated
internal travel rules, allowing citizens to leave their villages to
search for food, and there were reports of large-scale movement of
persons across the country in search of food. Only members of a very
small elite had vehicles for personal use. The regime tightly
controlled access to civilian aircraft, trains, buses, food, and fuel.
The Government strictly controlled permission to reside in, or even to
enter, Pyongyang, where food supplies, housing, health, and general
living conditions were much better than in the rest of the country....
RESPECT FOR POLITICAL RIGHTS
Citizens have no right or mechanisms to change their leadership or
government peacefully. The political system was dominated by the
Korean Workers' Party and Korean People's Army, with Kim Il Sung's
heir, Kim Jong Il, in control. Very little reliable information was
available on intraregime politics following Kim Il Sung's death. The
legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), which meets only a
few days per year, served only to rubber-stamp resolutions presented
to it by the party leadership. In 1997 Kim Jong Il acceded to the
position of General Secretary of the KWP. In 1998 the SPA reconfirmed
Kim as the Chairman of the National Defense Commission and declared
that position to be the "highest office of State." The Government
adopted a "military first" policy that formalized and legitimated the
growing power and influence of the military. The presidency was
abolished, leaving the late Kim Il Sung as the country's only
President. The titular head of state is Kim Yong Nam, the President of
the Presidium of the SPA.
The regime justified its dictatorship with arguments derived from
concepts of collective consciousness and the superiority of the
collective over the individual, appeals to nationalism, and citations
of "the juche idea." The authorities emphasized that the core concept
of juche is "the ability to act independently without regard to
outside interference." Originally described as "a creative application
of Marxism-Leninism" in the national context, juche is a malleable
philosophy reinterpreted from time to time by the regime as its
ideological needs change. It was used by the regime as a "spiritual"
underpinning for its rule.
DISCRIMINATION
The Constitution grants equal rights to all citizens. However, the
Government denied its citizens most fundamental human rights in
practice, and there was pervasive discrimination on the basis of
social status....
The WFP reported feeding 4 million North Korean children during the
year. In some remote provinces, many persons reportedly appeared to be
suffering from long-term malnutrition. A nutrition survey carried out
in 2000 by UNICEF and the WFP in the aftermath of flood disasters
found that 16 percent of children under 7 years of age suffered from
acute malnutrition and that 62 percent suffered from stunted growth.
In 1997 a senior UNICEF official said that approximately 80,000
children in the country were in immediate danger of dying from hunger
and disease; 800,000 more were suffering from malnutrition to a
serious but lesser degree.
In practice children did not enjoy any more civil liberties than
adults. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has
repeatedly expressed concern over de facto discrimination against
children with disabilities and the insufficient measures taken by the
state party to ensure that these children have effective access to
health, education, and social services, and to facilitate their full
integration into society....
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
