39 detention facilities. The reason for such violence is predominantly for the perpetrator’s sexual satisfaction, or transactional in nature for conveniences within the detention facility. The gravity of domestic violence is no less than before, with about half of respondents in 2011 responding that domestic violence is common. With the lives of North Koreans taking a turn for the worse since the currency reform of November 2009, prostitution for livelihood has increased.
There are increasing reports of parents coercing daughters into prostitution for economic reasons. While organized prostitution is prevalent, the front line brokers for such transactions usually have protection in a collaborating security officer, making it rare for them to face criminal charges.
Women’s health issues surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, and child care have also not improved. According to the report of the relevant international organizations, the maternal mortality rate (number of deceased mothers per 100,000 normal births) and infant mortality rate (number of deceased infants under one year of age per 1,000 infants) remain high. There are more than a few cases where female detainees suffer health consequences as a result of forced abortion. The North Korean government subjects pregnant women deported from China to forced abortion, and employ means such as striking the abdomen, severe forced labor, and surgery for that end.
On December 22, 2010, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly adopted and promulgated the Guarantee of Women’s Rights Act. There is a possibility that the move is a deliberate act to improve North Korea’s international image after the consistent censure of its human rights record and calls for improvement from the international society. Therefore, the Act calls for constant attention and provides an opportunity for advocating improved implementation.
Executive Summary
2. The Rights of the Child
The majority of North Korean children are suffering from chronic starvation and malnourishment. For the most part, facilities for the protection and education of children such as daycare, kindergartens, and schools are not operating within normal parameters. Recently, narcotics abuse has emerged as a new danger to the health of North Korean children. The use and trade of narcotics, which is spreading among North Koreans, is said to be common among secondary school students.
The number of children who subsist on begging and theft, colloquially called Kkot-je-bi, are known to have increased rapidly since the currency reform of November 2009. The authorities send Kkot-je-bi they have caught to accommodation facilities for the stated purpose of protecting and administering to these children.
However, children not only have trouble adjusting to the controls and scheduled life of these facilities but they also have very little to eat and often escape the facilities to wander the streets again. As the food crisis worsens, prostitution of underage girls is known to be increasingly common, as are cases where children are detained in detention facilities for adults in which they often suffer from beatings and forced labor.
The most important education in North Korean schools is political ideology, with comparatively less emphasis on universal human values, knowledge, and character building. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Common Education Act, enacted and proclaimed on January 19, 2011, provided in Article 40 that
“common education institutions” shall “place a priority on the education of political ideology” while integrating education of other subjects. Furthermore, due to routine and mandatory enrollment
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41 in such groups as the ‘North Korean Children’s League’ and ‘Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League,’ the children of North Korea are hindered in the completion of their universal moral character through education; they are not accorded the right to choose the content of their education due to collective and uniform education activities and the enforcement of a curriculum that centers around ideology. North Korean children are also required to work at various sites in addition to yearly support of farms. Once they are in their fifth year of secondary school, they are obligated to train for the
‘Red Young Guard.’
On December 22, 2010, North Korea passed and promulgated the Children’s Rights Guarantee Act (hereinafter Children’s Rights Act). This Act does reflect a number of the obligations of parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, many provisions are merely exhortative and there are expected to be limitations in the implementation due to North Korea’s economic difficulties.
Furthermore, North Korea still shows legislative reluctance toward politically sensitive civil rights and freedoms, making it necessary for the international community to continually urge change in North Korea’s attitude toward human rights.
3. Care for the Disabled
According to the testimony of North Korean defectors, there are two main ways in which the government manifests its discrim- inatory policy toward the disabled. One is the performance of forced sterilization of young people, and the other is the existence of isolation facilities. In a 2011 survey, 40% of respondents answered that people with disabilities were confined and 18% responded that they were forcibly sterilized, but there is a limit to the completeness
Executive Summary
of the information because this survey does not show how and when such measures were witnessed or heard of. Another discriminatory measure against the disabled is the limitation of residence. It is said the North Korean authorities strongly restrict such people from residing in the special district of Pyeongyang and areas frequented by foreigners such as Nampo, Gaeseong, and Cheongjin.
On the other hand, there are also testimonies that the people with disabilities have been freed from isolation and the detention facilities have been dissolved. Furthermore, recent visitors to Pyeongyang and some defectors have witnessed disabled individuals living freely in Pyeongyang and other areas. According to a 2011 survey, the witnessed disabilities included, in order, physical handicaps (61%), visual impairment (14%), speech impediments (13%), and mental/hearing/intellectual disabilities (4%). Physical handicaps as a term used by North Korean defectors refer to such disabilities as polio, dwarfism, kyphosis (hunchback), and loss of parts of the body.
The North Korean authorities are known to be seeking to protect the rights and interests of disabled individuals through the reform and operation of laws and institutions such as the Disabled Persons Protection Act and through cooperation with South Korea and the international community. However, according to defectors, the discrimination against disabled individuals in North Korea has not changed to a significant degree. About half of respondents in a 2011 survey replied that there was severe discrimination against disabled individuals. Polio sufferers, the blind (visually impaired), mutes (speech-impaired), humpbacks, paraplegics, dwarfs or little people, and amputees are rarely seen in North Korea, and the social perception of the disabled is said to be negative rather than positive.
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43 According to North Korean defectors there are special schools and rehabilitation centers for the hearing and speech impaired and the visually impaired, and factories for the disabled have been established and operated including factories for honorably discharged soldiers and the general disabled population such as the visually or speech impaired. Humpbacks and polio sufferers engage in light labor at the local convenience service facilities (convenience and service centers) including making seals or repairing watches, bicycles, shoes, and televisions. Some visually impaired individuals earn money by playing the guitar.