facilities and forcible sterilization. Also, they face restrictions on their choice of residence. In response to international concerns over its discrimination against the disabled, North Korea enacted the “Disabled Protection Law,” consisting of 54 articles providing an institutional arrangement for the protection of the rights of the disabled. North Korea has also made various moves to pro- tect the rights of the disabled by cooperating with South Korea and the international community and developing various legal arrangements, including the “Disabled Protection Law.” In reality, however, discrimination against the disabled has not been signif- icantly rectified. In its “concluding observations” on North Korea’s 3rd and 4th period combined report for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee expressed concern that the “principle of non-discrimination” articulated in Article 2 of the Convention was not being fully respected in reality as far as disabled children were concerned. (Section 19)
cation Minister, and the Defense Minister), three representatives from the abducted persons’ families, and six civilian members. In the next four years, the committee will accept applications from abducted persons’ families across the country and take charge of all activities concerning fact-finding and restoration of honor for the abduction victims and their families.
In 2010 the inter-Korean “separated family reunion” meet- ings were resumed, and the South Korean side requested confir- mation of the status of five persons abducted during the Korean War. However, the North Korean side replied it was impossible to ascertain the current status of any of them.
A total of 3,835 South Koreans were abducted to the North after the Korean War. Those persons whom North Korea deemed useful, based on health, education levels, etc, were detained regardless of their individual wishes. Some 3,310 (86.5%) of them returned home within 6 months to a year. Eight of them have recently defected and returned home, but a total of 517 South Korean citizens are still detained in North Korea. The
“Committee for Fact-Finding of Korean War Abduction Damages and Restoration of the Victims’ Honor” launched in November of 2007 has recently approved a total of 40 additional persons as abduction victims. These include 14 fishermen aboard the Gily- ong-ho (abducted on Jan. 22, 1966), six fishermen aboard the Nampoong-ho (Dec. 21, 1967), two soldiers gone missing in Vietnam, three individuals aboard a row boat (Aug. 5, 1967), four soldiers from the Army’s 4th Division (July 14, 1962), six fishermen aboard the Daehan-ho (Jan. 11, 1968), one person each aboard the Hanhung-ho (June 4, 1967), the Jinbok-ho (Aug. 27, 1992), the Duksung-ho (July 12, 1968), and the Odaeyang-ho (Dec. 28, 1972) and one soldier from the Army’s 42
3rd Ordnance Depot (Oct. 12, 1967). When the inter-Korean
“separated family reunion” meetings resumed in 2010, South Korea requested the status confirmation of 11 abducted persons in the post-Korean War period, but North Korea said it was impossible to confirm their status.
2. Human Rights Abuses on Korean War POWs
A total of 41,971 South Korean soldiers were reported missing-in-action (MIA) during the Korean War and were believed to be held in North Korea. Of those, 22,562 have been re-classified as “killed-in-action” (KIA) based on information from their families and other relevant data. Thus it is now believed that a total of 19,409 former Korean War POWs have been held in North Korea. In 1994 Lt. Cho Chang-ho successful- ly defected to South Korea. Since then, many former Korean War POWs have returned to South Korea. As of December 2010, a total of 80 former Korea War POWs and 211 family members have returned home to South Korea. Over the course of the 18 inter-Korean “separated family reunion” meetings held thus far, South Korea has requested status confirmations for a total of 118 former POWs. It was confirmed that 18 are still alive, 14 dead, and 84 unknown; 18 have met with their South Korean families.
In addition, 25 related families (78 persons) have participated in the reunion meetings.
3. Human Rights Abuses on Defectors
There has been no systematic survey of the number of North Korean defectors since 2006. But it is believed that the
43 Executive Summary
number of North Korean defectors living in Yanbian Province (China’s autonomous region for Korean-Chinese) has significantly decreased recently. However, their numbers are increasing in large cities and “Korean villages” in remote areas away from the border. Professor Courtland Robinson of John Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health has estimated the number of North Korean defectors in the three northeastern provinces of China as follows: 5,688 male (minimum 3,305-maximum 9,109); 4,737 female (minimum 2,741-maximum 7,599); 6,913 children of female defectors (minimum 3,606-maximum 11,063).
The sudden decrease in the number of North Korean defec- tors in China is believed to be due to a combination of several factors: First, the tightening controls along the border; second, the continuing forcible deportations; third, the decreasing num- ber of defections due to the increasing costs; fourth, the growing number of legal visitors to China due to the relaxation of travel permit restrictions; and fifth, the increasing number of defectors relocating to South Korea (from China). Since 2009, the National Safety Protection Agency has tightened various control measures to prevent defections, including tighter surveillance on defector families and relatives; reinforcement of ideological education;
tighter enforcement of “bed checks” along the border areas; and more frequent and strict inspections on “border-guard command posts.” Measures to control and watch over defector families have also been tightened since the currency reform at the end of 2009 due to fears of increased defections. In addition, the North Korean authorities have dispatched a large number of “search and arrest squads” to the Shandong and Yunnan Provinces of China, which are known as major jump-off points for defection to South Korea. On June 4, 2010, three civilians were killed and 44
one wounded during attacks by North Korean border guards on the residents of Dandong, China for engaging in illegal trade transactions along the Apnok (Yalu) River. In the wake of this incident, surveillance and control over defections and related crimes along the border have been further tightened. Also, the Chinese Deputy Minister of Public Security visited North Korea and signed a “Police Equipment Donation Agreement” on Aug.
12, 2010 with North Korea’s People’s Security Ministry. In June 2010 a North Korean woman was forcibly deported after failing to disguise her defection as suicide. Subsequently, similar inci- dents were reported elsewhere. In the wake of these incidents, the border guard units began to dispatch “missing persons search squads” to areas suspected of high defection activity. In some cases, “defection brokers,” including soldiers, would take money from defectors and then turn around and report them to the authorities. Therefore some defectors opted to collect all the information necessary for defection, including guard check- points, etc., from the brokers and then defect alone without their help. As the risk factors in the process of defection have increased, the cases of casual defection to China simply to make money have significantly decreased.
Some North Korean women voluntarily choose to accept
“live-in” arrangements with men in China through the aid of intermediaries (brokers). But in most cases women are sold off or forced into a “marriage” without knowing the details. Defector women forced into such “marriages” are often subjected to hunger and inhumane treatment, and eventually they flee to other regions as soon as they get the chance. But many others endure the harsh reality out of fear of forcible deportation to North Korea. In exceptional cases, some female defectors obtain
45 Executive Summary
“resident permits” after prolonged stay in China as their lives grow more settled. In some cases, children born to defector women and Chinese men are granted Chinese nationality.
Some defectors develop their own know-how about living in China and engage in vending (peddling) with the money they have saved during their stay in China. Sometimes a defecting North Korean woman marries a Chinese Korean man who then finds some way to come to South Korea; subsequently, the hus- band encourages his wife to join him in South Korea in order to receive the settlement benefit grant offered by the South Korean government. In some cases defectors use the services of “South Korea entry brokers” who arrange a safe route to South Korea via a third country. Some defector couples who come to South Korea on forged Chinese passports voluntarily confess their crime to the authorities in order to receive settlement benefit grants from the South Korean government. Some North Korean defectors who have stayed for a long period in China enter into South Korea accompanied by their Chinese-born children.
Due to the demand for women in China, North Korean women crossing the border into China are often “sold off” to Chinese men. Either because of lack of money or out of a desire to save on expenses, some North Korean women ask for help in river-crossing even though they are aware that they could become the subject of “transactions” once they enter China. In some cases the brokers in China rape these North Korean women in the process of transferring them to “safer” regions.
Some North Korean women “introduced” to Chinese
“masters” are forced into prostitution at “sing-along joints” or other “entertainment” establishments. To prevent them from flee- ing, some Chinese owners withhold wages from these women on 46
a regular basis. They are told that their wages are in safe-keeping, but in fact the owner never pays them. Some Chinese groups are known to operate pornographic “chat sites” featuring North Korean defector women; such organizations have apparently increased in recent years. In other cases, defector women are used in “voice phishing” scams targeting customers in South Korea.
Some forcibly deported defectors use the money they earned in China to reduce the penalties imposed on them during the interrogation process or to survive during their internment in the labor-training camps. In a rare case, a defector woman was able to persuade the security agent to accompany her to the bor- der, where she telephoned her husband (actually her “live-in”
companion) in China for financial help. Other defectors bribe law enforcement agents to fabricate their case documents to avoid penalties.
Article 106 of North Korea’s Criminal Procedure Law stipu- lates that pregnant women must not be detained during the period 3 months before or 7 months after delivery. According to defector testimonies, however, border region security agencies have often detained and interrogated such women, and in many cases various measures are taken to force abortions. Public executions of human traffickers persisted in 2010, and many defector families were forcibly banished on human trafficking charges.
47 Executive Summary