NORTH KOREA

World Food Program denied access to North Korean nuclear, missile sites and work camps

China arrests former North Korean defector and family

Third International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees

8 February 2002

World Food Program denied access to North Korean nuclear, missile sites and work camps

Chosun Ilbo (31.01.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (O8.02.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The World Food Program administers one of its largest humanitarian assistance programs in the world in North Korea. About 25% of the entire North Korean population benefited from the program's relief aid last year, according to the WFP. Operating from five branch offices it has established in the North, including one in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, a fruit of its "no access, no food" principle, WFP officials distribute food to North Koreans directly.

Twelve counties were added to the list of its accessible areas last year, a feat rated as a major achievement in WFP activities. Of the North's total of 211 cities (or special city districts) and counties, 168 are now accessible to the WFP, according to figures tabulated at the end of last year.

Among the 43 areas Pyongyang denies WFP of access for security reasons almost all are the focus of world attention as they involve nuclear, missile and human rights issues. The Yungbyun area in North Pyongan Province, home to a nuclear power plant and a nuclear research station, which have been inspected by international agencies from time to time, and Taegwan County encompassing Kumchang-ri, suspected of holding underground nuclear facilities through the satellite photographs made public in 1999, are off-limits. The adjacent Chonma and Changsong Counties, which are also inaccessible, are known to have many military facilities. The previous off limits Sakju County, North Pyongan Province, housing chemical weapons plants, became the latest addition to the accessible areas and its residents began receiving relief aid on November 20 last year.

Also off-limit are Musudan-ri, Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, from which a Daepodong missile was fired in 1998, and Kim Hyong-jik County, Yanggang Province, in which a large-scale missile base was learned to have been completed in the 1990s. So are nearly all parts of Jagang Province where the North's principal munitions plants are gathered. Kim Jung-suk County (formerly Sinpa county) of Jagang Province is excluded from WFP access not for military reasons, but for the prestige of the system in view of its unique significance in the country's "revolutionary history."

Ri In-bok, a North Korean defector in the South who had worked in that county as an agriculturist for six years, commented, "Though it is a poor farming area, the people there are proud of living in a county of historical significance."

Also inaccessible are nearly all concentration camp sites, targeted by international human rights organizations. Among them are a concentration camp in Yodok, South Hamgyong province, the situation of which have been revealed over a decade by former inmates who defected to the South - Kang Chol-hwan, An Hyok, Ri Yong-guk, and Ms. Kim Bok-hui (alias). Part of the Dukjang coal mining area of Bukchang County, South Pyongan Province, is also off-limits as it is adjacent to Kyaechon County, home of Kyaechon Concentration Camp. Yi Sun-ok and Kim Yong, both former inmates who have fled to the South, have disclosed the plight of the latter camp.

Hochon, Jangjin, Daehung and Bujon in South Pyongan Province, Yonsa in North Hamgyong, and Baekam in Yanggang are all mountainous areas, notorious for the banishment of political prisoners. Isolated from cities, as they are, their residents enjoy a relatively high self-sufficiency in food thanks to slash-and-burn farming and lucrative specialty products such as mushrooms. Rumors abound in Myongchon County, North Hamgyong Province, that the county is inaccessible to WFP food relief, because its chief party secretary reported to Kim Jong Il during the latter's guidance tour, "We have no food shortage," according to a native Jong Hyon-chol, who fled to the South in 2000.

Also inaccessible is the capital's Unjong District, dubbed the "Taedok Valley of North Korea," housing the Academy of Sciences and the College of Science, where a number of munitions plants operate. So is the capital's Chung (central) District, the hub of the North's bureaucracy incorporating the Workers' Party headquarters. In addition, the WFP is denied access to areas adjacent to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the east and west coasts, and the Kumho area of South Hamgyong Province, where a light water reactor is being constructed by KEDO.

Access to three counties in South Pyongan Province and the entire Jagang Province was interrupted for about two weeks late in November, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), though the reasons for this are still unknown.

China arrests former North Korean defector and family

AP Network News (05.02.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (08.02.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.netA North Korean defector, who came to South Korea in 1997, was arrested by Chinese authorities while trying to get his daughter and granddaughter on a flight to South Korea from Harbin Airport in China, it was learned Tuesday. Kim Jae-won aged 64, a former doctor, has been held in custody for ten days, along with his daughter aged 36 and granddaughter aged 8. Chinese authorities will reportedly hand them over to North Korea.

Kim flew to China in September of last year in an effort to get his daughter and her child, who have hidden in China since 1999 when they escaped from the North into South Korea. He was arrested at Harbin airport in Heilongjiang Province, because his daughter and granddaughter were carrying forged passports; Kim's passport is South Korean, but his offspring had passports from North Korea.

An official said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had contacted the Chinese authorities, but has yet to be notified of the results of an investigation into the three. China has recently exerted strong controls on North Korean defectors and chances are high that they will be handed over to the North, unless the South Korean government acts aggressively.

A graduate from a medical college in China, Kim served as a physician in the North before escaping to South Korea, where he worked for an educational institute resettling defectors as a government employee.

Third International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees

Tokyo, 9 C 10 February 2002

Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR) will hold the third international conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees at the Korean YMCA in Japan on 9-10 February 2002.

Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR) is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan organization working to improve the human rights situation of the people in North Korea as well as of those North Koreans who have fled their country for various reasons. By protecting the human rights of North Koreans, NKHR hopes to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to contribute to the peaceful reunification and integration of North and South Koreas. NKHR was founded by a group of human rights activists, intellectuals and North Korean defectors in May 1996. Rev. Benjamin H. Yoon, Representative of NKHR and Chairman of the Organizing Committee, was a founding member of Amnesty International in South Korea and has devoted his life to international human rights movement. Secretary-General Young-ja Kim and enthusiastic young people working as program officers and volunteers are leading NKHR. Also, many human rights advocates and organizations overseas are making collaborative efforts with NKHR to advance human rights protection in North Korea.

The 1st International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees held in Seoul in 1999 triggered worldwide attention on human rights conditions in North Korea. The conference was a great success, overflowing with more than 500 people including 30 diplomats in South Korea, domestic experts on North Korea, citizens and university students. Seoul Statement and Course of Action, emphasizing the urgent need for North Korean government to shut down the prison camps for political prisoners and to guarantee basic human rights of the North Korean people, were adopted by the participants who resolved to concentrate their strength to bring an end to the tyranny which threatens regional stability and world peace.

The 3rd International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees is held in Tokyo, inheriting the spirit of Seoul Statement, which will focus on strengthening the international network for a more effective campaign for enhancing human rights protection in North Korea. Especially this Conference is held outside South Korea for the first time, which is expected to lay a concrete groundwork for the future campaign plans to hold this kind of conferences annually in major cities of different countries. The 3rd Conference, co-organized with the Japanese Working Committee and sponsored by National Endowment for Democracy and the Chosun Ilbo, will provide a forum to rally international human rights experts, representatives of refugee-related NGOs and other organizations form 8 different countries, such as Good Friends(Korea), International Society for Human Rights German section, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Defense Forum Foundation(USA), Human Rights Without Frontiers(Belgium), Christian Solidarity Worldwide(UK), Rescue! The North Korean People! Urgent Action Network(RENK, Japan), the Society to Help Returnees to North Korea(Japan), Life Fund for North Korean Refugees(Japan), the French Committee to Help the Population in North Korea, etc. The 3rd International Conference will focus on scheming out more effective methods for future action and strengthening international cooperation for efficient campaigning through identifying the overall and more detailed specific situation of extremely infringed human rights of the North Korean people, on the basis of initial networking to arouse international awareness and share growing concern on the human rights situation in North Korea.

Ahead of the Conference, James Lilley, the former American ambassador to Korea, and David Weissbrodt, a member of UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, sent a congratulatory message honoring and encouraging the commitment and efforts of Benjamin H. Yoon, Representative of NKHR, made for improving human rights situation in North Korea. They emphasized the significance of each session of the Conference, reminding the importance of obtaining reliable and updated sources and pursuing persistent policy implementation. And on behalf of Ms. Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geographic Team Leader of UNHCHR sent a message saying that the initiative to discuss the human rights of North Koreans is very timely and crucial for supporting and promoting the values and principles of human rights at the international level.

On Feb 9, 2002,the first day of the Conference, Marcus Noland, Senior Fellow of Institute for International Economics and Associate of the International Food Policy Research Institute, USA, will deliver a keynote address on the subject of "A Self-interested Case for Human Rights in North Korea" expressing his strong opinion that since the 9.11 terrorist attack on America, protection of human rights should be taken as the preliminary condition for ones own safety and well-being, not any longer seen as sheer altruism, and that until full protection of human rights is universally realized, anybody in the world is not really secure. His remark implies that the extremely infringed human rights of North Koreans will not be leniently dealt in the international community in the future.

The first session with the theme of "The North Koreas Second Periodic Report versus the Truth," will assess the 2nd Periodic Report of North Korea on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee. One of the presenters, Il-Chul Shin(Emeritus Professor, Korea University) will scrutinize North Koreas fabricated report which is far from the reality of North Korea from the perspective of law, political philosophy, and historical truth. However, North Koreas having ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights itself could be positively interpreted in that North Korea could not evade monitoring of democratic countries and human rights organizations any longer. Moreover, former North Korean refugees and defectors will give testimonies after video presentation dealing with the story of the repatriated North Korean refugees under the title of "The 7 North Korean Refugees Incident and Afterwards".

The Second Sessions theme is "Situation of North Korean Refugees in China," in which various hardships faced by North Korean refugees in China such as arrest and forceful repatriation by Chinese government as well as punishment by North Korean government will be intensively covered in order to identify problems and find out the best solution. And the issue of giving refugees status to North Koreans who have fled to neighboring countries, a sensitive political issue, will be carefully mentioned. Based on the reliable sources and on-site investigation, the reality of North Korean women victimized by human trafficking and children at risk will be also reported. In the evening of the first day of the Conference, a meeting will arranged for the main participants of the Conference and young and enthusiastic volunteers to the Conference from both South Korea and Japan to have group discussions and exchange their thoughts and ideas.

The Third Session on February 10, 2002 will discuss "Human Rights situation of Kidnapees, Detainees, and Returnees from Japan," introducing the cases of South Korean and Japanese people abducted to North Korea, with victims and their familys vivid testimony. For the Korean case, unreturned Korean army captives at the time of exchanging prisoners after Korean War and abducted fishermen will be introduced. Co-hosted by Japanese Working Committee and held in Japan, the 3rd International Conference is expected to draw great deal of attention and participation from the foreign diplomats and officials in Japan as well as from the Japanese public.

During the last Fourth Session with a theme of "Planning Future Actions," participants will discuss appropriate future measures and adopt a declaration on human rights in North Korea. Especially, Jack Rendler, Vice Chairman of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea which was established in last September, will give a presentation prior to the open discussion. Establishment of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea indicates that the issue of infringed human rights in North Korea could become an important issue when negotiating with North Korea.

After getting through above diverse reporting and presentations, the 3rd Conference will be completed with Summary of Conference by Hong, Seong-phil, Professor of Ewha Womans University(Korea) and Invitation to next conference in Paris, France by Pierre Rigoulot, President of the French Committee to Help the Population in North Korea.

Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights is enthusiastically expecting the 3rd Conference to provoke worldwide attention and launch more powerful and realistic international campaign for reforming North Korean Human Rights which has been so long time isolated due to international indifference and silence.