NORTH KOREA

Human rights abuses in North Korea in the spotlight

On 10 April, the European Union submitted a resolution to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights denouncing North Korea's human rights abuses. This is the first resolution in the history of the commission to accuse North Korea of its serious human rights violations. The vote is on April 16.

Resolution on human rights in North Korea is tabled for the first time at the United Nations

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (11.04.2003)/HRWF Int. (14.04.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - A resolution on the use of torture, prison camps and forced labour in North Korea has been tabled for the first time at the United Nations.

The resolution, tabled by the European Union, also addresses freedoms of thought, expression, religion, assembly and association. It calls upon the government to refrain from punishing North Koreans for leaving the country, including by imprisonment and with the death penalty.

It calls upon the North Korean authorities to cooperate with the Commission on Human Rights and requests the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to engage in a dialogue with the North Korean authorities and to submit his findings and recommendations back to the next session of the Commission.

The European Union tabled the resolution at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on April 10 and will be adopted or rejected at a vote on April 16. The resolution is the first of its kind to be presented to the Commission, which has until now failed to address the gravity of the human rights abuses in North Korea.

The tabled resolution is welcomed by human rights groups concerned about the widespread and systematic human rights violations against North Koreans. Amongst the many violations are the systematic use of torture and the use or arbitrary and brutal imprisonment, characterised by violence, extreme deprivation, starvation food rations, intense forced labour, frequent accidents and disfigurement and high death tolls and the use of arbitrary detention. Further grave sources of injustice are the lack of due process, the regular use of arbitrary and public execution and the punishment of whole families for the crime of one family member.

The severity of the repercussions against individuals and their families mean that North Korea has largely succeeded in silencing reports of the atrocities committed within its borders. Alongside this, the extreme isolation and secrecy of the state has prevented the flow of information out of the country, while restricting freedom for external monitors to enter and assess the country.

A further issue of grave concern is the mistreatment of those North Koreans who have left to go to China and are subsequently repatriated. Cruel treatment awaits many such returnees and those who are deemed to have been in contact with South Koreans and missionaries are subject to especially harsh penalties, such as long term imprisonment or execution. A number of eyewitness accounts report that women who are found to be pregnant by Chinese men are subject to forced abortion where this is possible or, where the pregnancy is more advanced, are kept in detention until they give birth, when their baby is them smothered to death in front of them.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has been lobbying for the Commission to aopt a resolution that does justice to the victims of the grave human rights violations in North Korea. Earlier in the session, CSW UK's President Baroness Cox chaired a briefing in which former North Korean prisoners, one of whom was imprisoned as a child for an act of his grandfather, gave evidence of their experiences in detention, describing immense inhumanity, and called for the international community to urgently respond to the grave violations currently being perpetrated in North Korea.

Stuart Windsor, CSW's National Director, said: "The people of North Korea are without a voice, subjected to indoctrination and wholesale repression across all human rights. Even the slightest suggestion of disloyalty to the state is punished by unimaginable cruelty. Prisoners are kept in the most barbaric of conditions, forced to labour long hours every day in almost impossible conditions, often in very dangerous surroundings. "We consider the tabling of this resolution a victory for human rights, an encouraging sign for the credibility of the Commission and hopefully an important step in encouraging freedom for the oppressed people of North Korea."

North Korea accused over rights

North Korea will be accused of serious human rights violations in a resolution to be presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

BBC (11.04.2003)/HRWF Int. (14.04.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - The resolution, which was drafted by the European Union and the United States, includes condemnations of torture, public executions, detention camps and the abuse of prisoners' rights.

It also expresses concern about severe restrictions on freedom of expression and the precarious humanitarian situation within the country.

The strongly-worded resolution is likely to anger the North Koreans at a time of great diplomatic tension.

Kim Song Chol, a North Korean official in Geneva said he rejected the allegations in the resolution.

"In my personal view, it could aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula," he told the Reuters news agency.

But the move is likely to please US envoy to the UNCHR, Jean Kirkpatrick, who recently branded North Korea a "hell on earth".

"It is hard to imagine the possibility of a country whose citizens endure a worse or more pervasive abuse of every human right," she said.

North Korea sparked a diplomatic storm in October 2002 when the US said it had admitted to a secret nuclear programme. It then pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement condemning Pyongyang for pulling out of the NPT, after Russia and China blocked it.

On Thursday, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said that a security guarantee for North Korea would help resolve the nuclear crisis.

China and Russia, North Korea's only allies, appeared to be concerned that UN involvement would only send Pyongyang deeper into isolation.

Correspondents say that in tabling such a critical human rights resolution, the European Union and the US do not appear to share that concern.

UN rights body reminded about North Korea

by Park Hae-hyun

Chosun Journal (11.04.2003)/HRWF Int. (14.04.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - The European Union on Thursday submitted a resolution to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights denouncing North Korea's human rights abuses. The commission is in session in Geneva. The resolution is the first in the history of the commission to accuse North Korea of human rights infringements.

In the three-page-long resolution, the EU expressed concerns about reports of systematic, comprehensive and serious human rights abuses, and said the violations included torture, public executions, political killings, forced labor and cruel, inhumane and dirty treatments and punishments.

The EU pointed out that many North Korean refugees left the country for humanitarian reasons but were often sent back and imprisoned, treated inhumanely or killed for treason. The resolution called for such punishments to stop.

nternational human rights groups in Geneva welcomed the EU resolution. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that it was time for the UN Human Rights Commission to handle the serious case of North Korea.