Human rights in North Korea

Human rights in North Korea (북한의 인권/北韓 人權) are concerned about across the world. It is reported that the widespread human rights violations such as torture, forced detention, political prison camps, guilt by association, limits on free speech, expression and thought, and human rights abuses against women and children regularly occur in North Korea.

North Korea's human rights record has been widely condemned by Amnesty International, the United States and the United Nations. The UN General Assembly has since 2003 annually adopted a resolution calling for the improvement the country's human rights status.

The full extent of human rights abuse in North Korea is unclear. The North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do. Aid workers are subject to considerable scrutiny and excluded from places and regions the government does not wish them to enter. Since citizens cannot freely leave the country, it is mainly from stories of refugees and defectors that the nation's human rights record has been constructed. The government's position, expressed through the Korean Central News Agency (조선중앙통신), is that North Korea has no human rights issues, because its socialist system was chosen by the people and serves them faithfully.

Key words
human rights, socialist way of life, defectors, record center of human rights violations in North Korea

Fundamental Rights in North Korea
There is no freedom of speech nor civil right in North Korea. Free flow of ideas and thoughts is impossible because all radio, television, and news organizations are operated by the government.

Citizens are required to follow a socialist way of life. So any criticism of the government and its leaders is strictly curtailed and making such statements can be cause for arrest and consignment to one of North Korea's "re-education" camps. It is estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners are detained in concentration camps, where they perform slave labour and risk summary beatings, torture and execution.

International Criticism
In the United Nations (UN) the non-binding resolution drafted by the European Union was adopted on November 27, 2012 by the 193-nation humanitarian committee through consensus without a formal vote.

It is slated to pass at the General Assembly after it is sent up for a vote late in November 2012. The resolution expresses concerns over torture, forced detention, political prison camps, guilt by association, limits on free speech, expression and thought, and human rights abuses against women and children in North Korea. It also urges Pyongyang to halt the forced repatriation of defectors and calls for the resumption of reunions of families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War.

The U.S. and Japan have passed laws and created envoys to focus attention to this issue. The U.S. initially passed the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 in October of that year, and reauthorized the law in 2008, and again in 2012. It created an office at the State Department focused on North Korean human rights, run originally by Special Envoy Jay Lefkowitz.

In its 2006 country report on North Korea, Freedom House described the country as a "totalitarian dictatorship" and categorized it as "Not Free."

North Korean Responses
The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) claims that the Constitution of DPRK guarantees the human rights of its people, and that these guarantees are fully elaborated in its laws and regulations. It claims that these human rights guarantees and laws are strictly enforced throughout the country and with respect to every individual.

Based on Marxist theory, Confucian tradition, and the Juche (주체/主體) idea, North Korean human rights theory holds that rights are conditional rather than universal, that collective rights take priority over individual rights, and that welfare and subsistence rights are important.
 * According to Kim Il-Sung, the concept of democracy cannot provide freedom and rights to hostile elements who oppose socialism or impure elements who act against the interests of the People."

North Korea has charged that those who make allegations about human rights in the country are interfering in the country's internal affairs and trying to force down their values. North Korea rejected the international criticism, saying it was politically motivated and based on fabrications.

South Korea's Dithering
In South Korea, five bills on the North Korean Human Rights are put on the agenda of the 19th National Assembly. But leftwing politicians, who regularly complain about human rights abuses under former president Park Chung-hee regime, either ignores or actively hinders any discussion of such abuses in North Korea.

Even though the U.S. and Japan have already passed laws condemning North Korea's human rights abuses, the South Korean National Assembly has not been able to come even close owing to fierce opposition from the opposition parties. It is said that South Korea is probably the only country in the free world where there has to be any debate about whether or not to condemn the North's human rights abuses.

In March 2013, the Ministry of Unification under the newly inaugurated President Park Geun-hye made it clear that it will transparently pursue humanitarian support, including help for North Korean children through international agencies, in spite of continued North Korea's belligerent rhetoric. According to the Rodong Sinmun of March 27, 2013, the Pyongyang regime ordered its missile and long-range artillery batteries into "top combat-ready" posture threatening to attack South Korea and the U.S. using nuclear weapons. On the same day, North Korea severed a military hotline with South Korea that was the last channel of communication that remained open.

On the Issue of Record Center of HR Violations
Going further to the North Korean Human Rights Act, some critics propose to set up the record center for human rights violations in North Korea (북한 중앙인권기록보존소) modelled after the West German organization. Faced with strong opposition not only from the West German left-wing party but also from the East German government, the Central Record Center in Salzgitter on Human Rights Violations in East Germany remained to keep records of forty thousand cases until reunification for the period from 1961 to 1989.

The West German center was believed to perform well the role to reduce the violations by warning the East German perpetrators. Such institution is not a tool of intervention in the domestic affairs of North Korea in view of the universal human rights. Most of all, we should not avoid the North Korean question, "What did you do when we were starved and persecuted?"

UN Commission of Inquiry
As an ultimate response to the continued denial of the North Korea, on March 21, 2013, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) finally passed a resolution to establish a commission of inquiry (COI, UN 조사위원회) on North Korean human rights.

Recognizing that some parts of the human rights violations in North Korea would constitute the crimes against humanity, UN HRC clarified that a purpose of the commission is to establish the foundation of individual responsibility relating to the possible perpetrations of the crimes against humanity in the North Korean territory.