Human Rights Without Frontiers, Int.

Information and Press Service

NORTH KOREA

This issue outlines strategies and recommendations

for promoting human rights of North Koreans

18 JULY 2001

NED President speaks on North Korea human rights

Digital Chosunilbo(02.07. 2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.07.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -The improvement of human rights in North Korea has been a major concern of the National Endowment for Democracy(NED), that has advocated democratization in a number of countries since 1983. The NED financially sponsored two Seoul international conferences on North Korea human rights in 1999 and 2000. Here are some excerpts from the interview with NED President, Carl Gershman, taken by Chosunilbo.

Question: In a speech opening the 1st International Conference on Human Rights in North Korea held in Seoul in 1999, you lamented the international community's reticence on human rights in the North. Do you think some change has taken place in the international community on the issue since then?

Carl Gershman: Though not necessarily because of the international conferences, the international community has evidently begun to turn its eyes to the issue of North Korean human rights, and the trend is expected to be strengthened in the future. But this doesn't mean that the human rights have improved in North Korea.

Question: As far as the North Korean human rights issue is concerned, Europe appears to be taking the lead. What's the position of the United States?

Carl Gershman: The United States too is greatly concerned about the human rights of the North Koreans. But I think there's a difference between the role of Europe and that of the United States, as America has to deal with the disarmaments issue including the missile program. It may be said that they are engaged in a game of "good cop bad cop". Whether Pyongyang wants to open itself or not will be the test case of the European efforts. Accordingly, Europe will have to reinforce the monitoring of its humanitarian aid activities in the North and heighten its voice to the North Korean and Chinese governments on behalf of human rights on the part of North Korean escapees.

Question: What you do think about the increasing international interest on North Korean escapees?

Carl Gershman: I think we should start from security issues involving nuclear weapons and missiles rather than from human rights. Increased interest in human rights alone can hardly be regarded as a good sign. Above anything else, the North's prolonged totalitarianism has completely retrogressed its history. Take the example of Poland whose democratization movement we supported in the 1980s. Poland was not so ruined and isolated as North Korea was. In addition it was not as repressive as North Korea has been and had strong church and underground movement. Poland had as many as 800 illicit publications. It could be described as a member of the European society. The situation in North Korea is entirely different. And the path looks too far off. The international community's emerging interest and concern about human rights in North Korea, I think, are just in the incipient stage.

Question: What is your personal view about the process of democratization in North Korea?

Carl Gershman: I think it is a long and painful path. Though we have to help the improvement of society and institutions in the North, which is extremely difficult. it's necessary for us to prepare for the process.

Recommendations and strategies

By Carl Gershman, President of National Endowment for Democracy

The 2nd international conference on North Korea Human Rights & Refugees (08.12.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat(19.07.2001)-Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The challenge before us today is to place human rights on the agenda of the new diplomacy, and to shape a detailed plan that will take advantage of the new opening to reach out to the people of North Korea with a message of hope and solidarity. Inevitably, this will involve many different kinds of initiatives:

* Breaking the information blockade so that the true picture of conditions in North Korea can be revealed to the world;

* Pressuring North Korea to allow independent organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontires to provide famine relief directly to the people most in need;

* Pressuring the Pyongyang regime to recognize the right of North Koreans to leave their country freely, and also pressuring China and Russia to recognize the escapees as political refugees who must not be forcibly repatriated;

*Finding new ways to provide information to the people of North Korea, thus ending their enforced isolation;

*Developing multiple channels of exchange and contact with the North Korean people; and

*Demanding that economic assistance to North Korea be conditioned on meaningful improvements in addressing the three critical problems of human rights, famine relief, and refugee protection.

Recommendations and strategies

By Jack Rendler, Executive Director, Aurora Foundation

The 2nd international conference on North Korea Human Rights & Refugees (08.12.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat(19.07.2001)-Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net

The open countries of the world, especially Japan, the United States, and South Korea, should seize this opening to extend their ties with the DPRK. Such contact, over the long term, offers the best chance of bringing change to the government and to the people of North Korea. At the same time, there must be a greater sense of urgency for improving the human rights of the people of North Korea.

The basic message of any negotiations should be: We can do business with you, but it will be a good deal easier if you would undertake the reforms necessary to assure respect for human rights. In negotiating with the DPRK on human rights issues, maintain the forward position: economic favor should follow political reform; the rights of the North Korean people should not be held hostage to an endless series of economic demands.

Offers of international humanitarian aid should be made, but should be contingent upon independent monitoring of its distribution. Such aid should be given in-kind rather than in currency.

The UN should take primary responsibility for long-term monitoring of the human rights situation in North Korea, and in areas of China adjacent to the North Korean border. Priority should be given to arranging a meaningful fact-finding mission by an independent, international human rights organization.

The Secretary General of the United Nations should make it clear that since the DPRK has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adherence to its principles is not a casual consideration.

The World Trade Organization and other international trade and labor groups should make it clear that forced labor of any kind is unacceptable. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund should make future loans contingent upon measurable improvement in the protection of human rights.

At a minimum, the government of North Korea should:

make a meaningful commitment to implementing the rights and procedures guaranteed in the North Korean Penal Code;
amend Article 47 of the Criminal Code to bring it into conformity with international standards;
ensure that no form of torture occurs anywhere;
provide the information about individuals, groups and prisons requested by human rights groups;
discontinue the harassment, imprisonment and ostracism of North Korean refugees abroad, and returned refugees at home.

The PRC is the key on the status of refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should press the PRC to fulfill its obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, accord displaced North Koreans in China refugee status, and press the PRC to protect and provide for North Korean refugees in China. The government of the People's Republic of China should alter its policy of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, and adopt guidelines consistent with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Chinese government should provide special protection and support to North Korean refugee women and children, and act to prevent the sexual slave trade on the border.

Russian authorities should bring an immediate end to North Korean PSS operations in Russian territory. No North Korean workers who are at risk in the DPRK should be forcibly returned by Russia. Russian authorities should take responsibility for preventing ill-treatment of North Koreans at all work sites.