Former North Korean prison camp escapee and now human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk recently had an editorial published on the CNN website that provides this idea in regards to holding North Korea accountable for reported human rights violations:
Shin Dong-hyuk
The North Korean dictatorial regime should not just emptily deny that these political prison camps exist. If they are truly honorable and fair they should immediately allow an international inspection delegation, comprised of myself and organizations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, or the United Nations, to be able to conduct on-the-ground visitations to the political prison camps. These delegations must include political prison survivors like myself and other defectors.
Only recently did they concede that “labor detention centers” exist, but solely for the incarcerated to have their lives improved “through their mentality and to look on their wrongdoings.” [CNN]
You can read more at the link, but the concern I have about Shin’s idea is that the North Koreans would empty these camps through executions before allowing anyone to inspect them. So this idea is not viable. However, Shin also offers the idea of the international community preventing the free travel of Kim regime family members. This actually seems more viable though many countries like China and Russia will likely not enforce it. Does anyone else have any ideas on how to address North Korean human rights violations?
The balloon activists have appeared to have given into not North Korean threats, but rather South Korean governmental pressure for the vague hope that North Korea will agree to Inter-Korean talks:
South Korean activists pledged Monday to continue their anti-North Korea leaflet campaign in a low-key manner for the time being, despite a growing inter-Korean feud over the sensitive issue.
A number of activist groups, including the key player Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), have often launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets across the border to spread anti-Pyongyang messages targeting the North Korean leader and the country’s dictatorship.
The propaganda campaign, often preannounced and widely covered by local and overseas media, has recently been at the center of the inter-Korean row, with North Korea threatening not to hold dialogue with the South unless it is stopped.
“In the future, the spreading of anti-North leaflets by defector groups will be conducted behind the scenes, taking into consideration more effective methods (of campaigns) as well as the safety of residents (at the border area) and direction of the wind,” the activist groups said in a statement. [Yonhap]
Via One Free Korea comes the latest example of North Korea’s racist attitudes and lack of regard for human rights:
North Korean officials making a rare appearance at a United Nations human rights event on Wednesday laughed among themselves at the testimony of former labor camp detainees and referred to the ambassador of Botswana with derogatory racial language, according to Korean-speaking sources who overheard their conversations and spoke with VICE News.
The special session featured an awkward and testy exchange between Kim Ju Song, advisor for political affairs at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s mission to the UN, and Michael Kirby, the retired Australian judge who headed a recent UN commission of inquiry into North Korean human rights abuses. The commission released a report in March that cited forced labor, starvation, persecution of religious believers, and a massive network of political prisons holding up to 120,000 people among various violations and crimes against humanity committed by North Korea’s government.
Speaking along with Kirby were the ambassadors of Australia, Panama and Botswana — whose delegations co-sponsored the hearing — as well as two former North Korean detainees whose experiences were featured in the commission’s report.
At one point, members of the North Korean delegation were heard referring to Botswana’s UN Ambassador Charles Ntwaagae in Korean as “that black bastard,” sources who were nearby told VICE News. They also chuckled at the testimony of Kirby and the two prison escapees, Jung Gwang-il and Kim Hye Sook. Those in the room with the North Korean delegation who later spoke with VICE News insisted on anonymity due to fear of reprisal. [VICE News]
You can read more at the link, but people shouldn’t be surprised by the racist attitudes if they have read B.R. Myers book the Cleanest Race.
North Korea says it is willing to cooperate with the U.N. and other international organizations on human rights, but is bristling at what it views as politicization of the issue by its arch enemy, the United States.
In February, a U.N. commission of inquiry concluded there was evidence of crimes against humanity by North Korea’s authoritarian government. Washington this week called on Pyongyang to shut its “evil system” of prison camps.
Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong did not directly address the findings of the commission, which Pyongyang has refused to cooperate with.
Ri accused the U.S. of “abusing” the human rights issue for political purposes.
He told the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday that North Korea is willing to cooperate on the issue with countries that aren’t hostile to it. (Associated Press)
