The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
F. Human Rights Violations Inside Detention Points
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II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
arrived the brother was dead.214 A defector testified that his fellow worker XXX at Rahung Railroad Factory died from severe beating in 2005 during a pretrial at the Hamhung Railroad Security Agency Detention Center. He was being tried for the crime of stealing copper cables.215
Even at the security agency jails, beatings and tortures appear to be routine means of punishment.
- A defector XXX testified that in January 2000 An XX died in the middle of harsh interrogations. He was being interrogated because of his possible contact with religious people while he was in China.216
- A defector also testified that he had heard that in early 2006 XXX, who was undergoing interrogation at Musan County Security Agency on charges of crossing the border illegally, was violently beaten for no reason at all. His ribs were fractured and his back was badly hurt.217
- Defector XXX testified that when he was detained in the security agency jail in Musan County in February 2007 the agent, named Kwon XX, struck his head and shoulder blades with a wooden two-by-four. He was also told to stick out his hands through the cell bars and the agent struck his hands with police batons. Furthermore, when the agent ordered the inmates to carefully guide a new inmate, 13 inmates jump on him and severely beat him up as part of an initiation rite. One night, the center’s second agent in command ordered two female inmates to stand in the center of the center at 1 a.m. in the morning
214_ NKHR2009000011 2009-03-03.
215_ NKHR2009000045 2009-07-14.
216_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Jan. 20, 2006.
217_ Ibid.
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and severely beat them up.218
- A defector testified that as soon as he entered the Security Agency Detention Center, the agents intimidated him by ordering, “Kneel down, head down on the ground, your butt up high with both your hands behind your back!”219
Even at security agency detention centers, forced abortions are carried out.
- A defector testified that at a military security agency detention center a pregnant woman was ordered to do 50 sit-ups with two 10-kg pails of water on both sides to induce an abortion because she was pregnant with a
“Chinese baby.” She ultimately fainted, bleeding profusely.
After the abortion she was given about 10 days of treatment at a military hospital. Then she was publicly tried in front of a military cultural center, and was sentenced to serve at a correctional center.220
Many defectors have testified that serious incidents of human rights violations have occurred inside the Onsung County Security Agency. It appears that strict and tight controls were enforced in the detention points of the Security Agencies along the border regions as the number of defectors had increased. Maintaining order was said to have become became difficult but imperative.
The inmates’ human rights are being abused due to the appalling lack of medical service at various detention facilities.
Defector XXX testified that he experienced diarrhea at a security
218_ NKHR2008000022 2008-11-05.
219_ NKHR2009000024 2009-04-20.
220_ NKHR2009000033 2009-05-26.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
agency detention center in 2007. He had to suffer this situation for 23 days because they would not give him any medicine. On Dec.
7th he weighed 61 kg, but by the end of December his weight had dropped to only 37kg.221 Furthermore, beatings and torture are widespread in North Korea.
- A defector testified that on December 9, 2002, Kim XX was beaten and tortured by a guard of the Onsung County Security Agency because he had practiced Christianity and made his daughter study the Bible.222
- He also testified that a security agency officer from Onsung County tied the hands of a man of about 30 years of age to the a cell’s iron bars and repeatedly struck his hands and rammed his head against the bars.223
- In May of 2003, a guard struck the defector’s head with a wooden two-by-four so hard that his head was almost split open. The reason given was that the defector had moved a trifle while sitting up straight in his cell.224 - Another defector said he was deported to Onsung County
Security Agency in August 2003. He was not struck or beaten, but he saw many inmates severely beaten, including people who tried to go to South Korea. Some had dyed hair and wore blue jeans.225
- Another defector who was deported in August 2005 testi- fied that a guard at the Onsung Security Agency struck him because he talked with the person next to him.226
221_ NKHR2009000027 2009-04-27.
222_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 17, 2007.
223_ Ibid.
224_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 10, 2007.
225_ Ibid.
226_ Ibid.
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- Another defector said the agents frequently beat him up during the 15 days he was detained in Onsung Security Agency after his arrest and deportation in October 2003.227 - Another defector said he had been severely beaten with
a club because he had tried to go to South Korea. He was detained in Onsung Security Agency from May 26 to June 14, 2006 after deportation from China.228
- XXX (33 at the time) was a younger sister of defector XXX. While she was held at the Onsung Security Agency in May 2003 she was severely beaten, resulting in two broken ribs and head injuries. Due to these injuries, she was unable to work after her release.229
- Defector XXX testified that she lost contact with her husband since he had left for China. She was taken to the Hweryong Security Agency for questioning about her missing husband. During the interviews she was struck in the head many times.230
- Defector XXX testified that she was deported from China to Shinuiju Security Agency in August 2005. At the detention center, she saw a little boy from Hweryong who was severely beaten and profusely bleeding. She had heard that he denied to the agent that he was attempting to go to South Korea. His head was bleeding and it was obvious that he had been kicked with boots.231
- Another defector testified that he was arrested for going AWOL while serving at the General Bureau of the Protective
227_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 17, 2007.
228_ Ibid.
229_ NKHR2008000007 2008-07-30.
230_ NKHR2008000010 2008-08-08.
231_ NKHR2008000011 2008-08-12.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
Force. While undergoing preliminary examination for four months at the detention point of State Security Agency, he tried to flee again, but he was shot and struck by a bullet in his leg. He was caught and subsequently tortured.232 - A defector testified that in May 2005, while he was being
interrogated at the Security Agency Detention Center, they deprived him of food and sleep for three days.233
- A defector testified that a guard so severely beat up his father at the Provincial Security Agency detention center in Hyesan City that he lost many of his toes.234
- A defector testified that agents beat him for about two and a half hours at the Security Agency Detention Center in 2007. They struck him with fists and kicked him.235 - A defector testified that in October 2003 an agent at
Onsung Security Agency Detention Center struck him with his palm and fist. He later had severe headaches and dizzy spells. During the same period, they also beat up a 21-year-old woman; she had black marks all over and appeared mentally deranged.236
- A defector testified that on March 25, 2003, agents at the Onsung Security Agency forced him to kneel down, inserted 5-cm triangular rulers behind his knees, and told him to confess.237
- A defector testified that he was tortured by electric shocks as he was being interrogated at Onsung Security Agency
232_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 10, 2007.
233_ NKHR2009000020 2009-04-07.
234_ NKHR2009000033 2009-05-26.
235_ NKHR2009000027 2009-04-27.
236_ NKHR2009000050 2009-08-11.
237_ NKHR2009000059 2009-09-29.
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in Hweryong as to whether he had any contact with South Koreans. At the end of the interrogation, they pointed a gun barrel at him as he was transferred to the People’s Security Agency.238
- A defector testified that agents undressed a female inmate at the Security Agency Detention Center and forced her to jump up and down to see if she was hiding any cash inside her body.239
Human rights, including the right to life, are routinely violated at various security agency detention centers, including Onsung Detention Center. A defector testified that in October 2003 a 30-year- old woman died at the Onsung Security Agency Detention Center of an intestinal infection without receiving any treatment.240 In March 2003, a 21-year-old young man at Onsung Detention Center was suffering from intestinal infections. He later died from starvation.241
In addition to beatings and torture, sexual assaults on female inmates were also reported to have taken place at the detention points.
In addition, many defectors have testified that serious human rights abuses, for example forced abortions, have taken and do take place in the detention points.242 Dr. Willy Porter, the representative of Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Brussels, reported that “Interviews were conducted with 35 defectors who had escaped from various detention facilities in the preceding 18-month period, and 31 of them testified to having witnessed
238_ NKHR2009000051 2009-08-14.
239_ NKHR2009000023 2009-04-16.
240_ NKHR2009000050 2009-08-11.
241_ NKHR2009000059 2009-09-29.
242_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2004.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
the killing of newborns.” He said this was organized behavior of wardens and correctional officials. These officials would seek out pregnant inmates and torture them or put them to hard labor to induce forced abortions and get rid of the babies. Most defectors have testified that they have never seen female inmates leaving detention facilities with any children.
- A woman called Hong Young-sim was a close friend of defector XXX. Hong was deported from China and was being held in a security agency detention center. She told her that a pregnant woman was released from the center in January 2007 as the delivery of a baby was near. She said detention of pregnant women in such centers was illegal in North Korea.243
- Defector XXX was detained in the Muan County Security Agency in February 2007. She said a 6-month pregnant woman was released from the center, and she returned to the center after the delivery.244
- A defector said she heard the following from XXX, who was the wife of his friend and a doctor at the People’s Hospital in Hweryong City: In January 2003 a total of 10 pregnant women came in to the Hweryong City Security Agency within a period of one month. The agents took all the women to the hospital and forcibly administered abortion shots to them.245
- On September 2002, a 24-year-old woman was forced to abort a child at the Musan County Security Agency Detention Center because she was pregnant with a Chinese
243_ NKHR2008000012 2008-08-14.
244_ NKHR2008000022 2008-11-05.
245_ NKHR2009000015 2009-03-17.
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baby.246
- A defector testified that XXX, a 50-year-old woman living in Musan, was forced to abort a child at the hospital because she had a Chinese baby.247
However, there is conflicting testimony. A defector has testified that the Security Agency detention centers are mentally painful, but the treatment there is less harsh than at the People’s Safety Agency detention centers. “The Security Agency detention centers are painful mentally. But they beat you up more severely at the People’s Safety Agencies. They scream, ‘You SOB, confess now, or else!’ They kick you and force you to do all kinds of dirty jobs.
On the other hand, at the Security Agencies they only force you to kneel on the hard floor of a small room and tell you to write confessions, etc.”248