28 February 2005
Human Rights Report Cites Continued Abuses in North Korea
Extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, restrictions on liberty detailed
By Susan Krause
Washington File Staff Writer
One of the congressionally mandated “2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” released by the Department of State on February 28, paints a grim picture of conditions in North Korea.
North Korea’s centralized and tightly controlled economy, buckling under the weight of a huge military and internal-security apparatus, has “broken down under the stress of chronic shortages of food and fuel,” the report says.
The ruling Kim family remains “the object of an intense personality cult” and clings to an autarkic ideology of extreme self-reliance, even as the population has become dependent on international aid.
Against this background, the report says, “The [government of North Korea's] human rights record remained extremely poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses.” The report cites accounts of arbitrary and extra-judicial killings, disappearances of North Korean citizens and abductions of foreign nationals, instances of forced abortion and infanticide in prisons and detention centers, and routine use of severe methods of torture.
According to the report, an estimated 150,000-200,000 persons are believed to be held in detention camps in remote areas for political reasons. Defectors claim that the camps contain mass graves along with work sites and other prison facilities, the report says. Descriptions of starvation, forced labor and other harsh conditions are common.
Even though the North Korean constitution provides for the inviolability of person and residence and the privacy of correspondence, the report says the government routinely violates individual privacy, monitoring correspondence and telephone conversations and punishing individuals for possessing “anti-state” materials or listening to foreign broadcasts.
In addition, the report notes that the government engages in “collective punishments” of family members of people accused of political or ideological crimes. “Entire families, including children, have been imprisoned when one member of the family was accused of a crime,” the report says.
Basic civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, press, assembly and association, are prohibited in practice, according to the report. The government exerts strict control of information and narrowly limits academic freedom. Religious freedom is also restricted, unless supervised by government-sanctioned groups.
North Korea continues to strictly control internal travel, to use forced resettlement and to prohibit emigration, the report says.
“The Penal Code criminalizes defection and attempted defection, including the attempt to gain entry to a foreign embassy for the purpose of seeking political asylum,” the report says, noting that would-be defectors and asylum seekers face indefinite terms of imprisonment and forced labor, confiscation of property and even execution.
In response to such brutal violations, the report says, the U.S. Congress enacted the North Korea Human Rights Act in October 2004. The act seeks to address human rights violations in North Korea, promote solutions for North Korean refugees, increase transparency in the provision of humanitarian assistance, improve the free flow of information and encourage a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
The full narrative of the Country Report for North Korea can be found at the following URL: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41646.htm
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=February&x=20050228152219ASesuarK0.4897272&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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