Every year, the United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling on North Korea to improve its human rights record. The Center has also periodically conducted systematic and expert in-depth personal interviews with North Korean defectors in South Korea to ascertain the reality of the human rights situation behind the walls of North Korea.
Human Rights and the Characteristics of the North Korean System
On August 23, 2010, North Korea launched another unprovoked attack on South Korea by firing a barrage of artillery shells at Yongpyong Island, killing at least two civilians and destroying numerous buildings on the island. By carrying out these unprovoked attacks on South Korea, North Korea was clearly trying to maintain a.
The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
One of the reasons why religion cannot thrive in North Korea is the campaign to worship Kim Il-sung. Rapid improvement in North Korea's economic situation and health infrastructure will be difficult to achieve.
The Reality of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Although the previous system remains in place on paper, the nature of welfare payments and the operating principles of the system have changed due to the 1 July Measures. Even the workers "assigned to the group" are not guaranteed grain ration due to shortage of grain and rampant corruption.
The Reality of Minority Human Rights
In its “Concluding Observations” on North Korea's Combined Report on the Third and Fourth Periods, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed serious concerns (section 61). In its “Concluding Observations” on North Korea's Combined Report for the Third and Fourth Periods for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee expressed concern that the “principle of non-discrimination” expressed in Article 2 of the Treaty, has not been fully respected. in reality respected as far as disabled children were concerned.
Human Rights in Major Issue Areas
However, their numbers are increasing in large cities and "Korean villages" in remote areas away from the border. In some cases, the brokers in China rape these North Korean women in the process of transferring them to "safer" regions.
Human Rights Abuses by the Totalitarian Dictatorship
Foreign Policy magazine selected Kim Jong-il, chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, as the "world's worst dictator" and ranked North Korea the 19th worst among the world's "failed states" . North Korea opted for a tough stance on the 'six party talks' on the North Korean nuclear issue, which caused the talks to stall.
Human Rights Violations under Economic Hardship
Under these circumstances, North Korea had to openly appeal for humanitarian aid from the international community. Thanks to the humanitarian assistance provided by South Korea and the UN organizations, North Korea's food shortage has been somewhat alleviated.
The Principle of Collectivism and the
Sovereignty-Centric Perception of Human Rights
The Concept of Human Rights under Juche Ideology and “Socialism in Our Own Style”
Juche emphasizes that all people are masters of their own destiny and of the world, and that they are self-reliant beings who do not want to be bound by anyone else. We must give everything in the struggle to unite the entire society with the revolutionary ideology of the Great Leader, Comrade Kim Il-sung.
Increasing Human Rights Pressure on North Korea
The resolution stated that serious and systematic human rights abuses are being committed on a large scale and persistently in North Korea. When the UN General Assembly adopted the North Korean resolution on human rights in November 2005, North Korea suspended dialogue with the EU. Since the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Act, the United States has led various efforts to improve human rights in North Korea.
It has provided grants to private, non-profit organizations to support programs that promote human rights in North Korea. International organizations and NGOs continue to monitor the human rights situation in North Korea and exert pressure on North Korea to improve the situation.
North Korea’s Reaction
On September 20, 2010, the North Korean Foreign Ministry reiterated its previous position that the North Korean Human Rights Resolution adopted by the UN was "the product of a political conspiracy by hostile forces". North Korea's response to UN human rights pressure appears to be defensive in nature, essentially an attempt to protect its position. But its positions towards the US and Japan are quite aggressive, pointing out the human rights problems of those countries.
North Korea has shown a sensitive response to the human rights diplomacy of the international community, which it sees as a threat to its regime. For this reason, South Korea did not participate in the process of adopting UN resolutions on North Korean human rights until 2007.
North Korean Laws on the Death Penalty
As in previous revisions to the Penal Code, the 2009 Revised Penal Code also lists various categories of crimes subject to the death penalty. Additionally, the 2009 Revised Penal Code provides for a 20-year statute of limitations for crimes subject to the death penalty (Article 56). On December 19, 2007, North Korea added a unique form of law called the "Annex" to its Criminal Code (which includes common crimes).
It is worth noting that North Korea has not officially recognized the various categories of capital punishment contained in the Common Crimes Annex of its Revised Penal Code. The North Korean Penal Code states: "Criminal liability is limited to those crimes specified in the Penal Code."
Public Executions
In January 2005, he saw him executed by firing squad in Hweryong City, North Hamkyung Province.8 - Defector XXX testified that he witnessed in April 2007. Many defectors testified that public executions are still carried out for the crime of murder. Many defectors have testified that public executions are still being carried out across North Korea, even in the years after 2005.
Orders came down from on high and now people hardly see any public executions.67 – Apostate XXX testified that he/she has not seen any public executions.
Liberty Rights and North Korea’s Criminal Law System
In the 1999 version of North Korea's Criminal Procedure Law, "investigation" and "preliminary examination" were combined into one chapter (Chapter 4), but the 2004 revision separated them again into two separate chapters, "investigation" (Chapter 6). chapter). and. In the Criminal Procedure Act of 2004, arrest and detention procedures are set out in separate articles of the Act. Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Act also states: "He may not be released from liberty or detained in a manner that is not specified in the law, or according to the procedure specified by the law (Article 177)."
North Korea's Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Law have been amended several times since 2004, but these provisions still remain in current laws, including the Criminal Procedure Law as revised in 2006 and the Criminal Code as revised in 2009 Despite these revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act, the possibility of human rights violations still remains.
Detention and Correctional Facilities
Under the revised Penal Code of 2004, North Korea established "labor training" as a new type of punishment. However, detention in labor training camps without trial continues as a common and routine practice. Sometimes one day of service at a correctional center is counted as two days of job training.
However, more than half of the crimes involving national defense will result in labor training sentences. He was held in the provincial collection center for a month and then held in a labor training camp for six months.99.
Human Rights Abuses inside Detention and Correctional Facilities
Most defectors testified that the intensity of labor in training camps is much higher than in prisons, although the term of service in the former is shorter. The prisoner was bleeding profusely, but he was not treated at all.132 – Defector XXX testified that while he was being held in the . A defector testified that when he was held at the City Security Department Detention Center in Hyesan City in March 2008, he saw a guard, XXX, order a prisoner to put both his hands on the door rail and then kick them because the prisoner was statement changed during the incident. interrogation.138 – Defector XXX testified that while he was being held in the.
Many defectors testified that serious incidents of human rights violations occurred within the Onsung County Security Agency. The regulations called for 599 grams per day, but he thought the meals amounted to about 300 grams.148 – Defector XXX testified that Kim XX died in April 2005.
Human Rights and Corruption
Another type of human rights violation occurs during the pretrial process at Security Agency detention centers. For example, a defector who fled North Korea in October 2008 testified that the size of bribes required to avoid being held in a security agency was increasing. This was because agents at every level of the security agency must have a share of the bribe money.168.
After the preliminary trial, the applicants then meet with the presiding judge of the court.169 But to get a divorce trial, hundreds of thousands of North Korean profits must be given in bribes. Even then, deserters testify that most women will not be allowed a divorce trial.170 Deserter XXX said she had to bribe the court judge to grant the divorce.
Human Rights Violations Inside Political Concentration Camps
From 1967 to 1970 the entire population of North Korea was categorized into three classes (i.e., the main, wavering, and hostile classes) and fifty-one subclasses (see Table II-8 in this chapter). The detention camps are divided into "total control districts" and "revolutionary districts". The former are exclusively for those who have been granted life terms. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said it had a "revolutionary sector" down to no.
The "work unit" in the management center is the most basic unit for performing work tasks. At the "people's school" (primary school) camp, the daily routine is much the same as other primary schools across North Korea, except for work details that keep the children mobile.
Human Rights and the North Korean Penal Code
North Korea's Criminal Code defines anti-state and anti-people crimes in the early part of the Code, immediately after the general provisions (Chapter 3). Court decisions will be determined by a majority vote of the participating judge(s) and the people's juries (Art. 17). In terms of organizational hierarchy, North Korean courts operate under the direction of the Supreme People's Assembly.
One of the institutional arrangements prone to human rights abuses is North Korea's system of conducting "open on-site trials". The jurisdiction of the investigation and preliminary examination is strictly defined in the Criminal Procedure Act.
