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November 3, 2005

Note: The following text is an exact quote:
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Jeremy Reynalds
P O Box 27693
Alb., NM 87125-7693
Tel: (505) 400-7145
www.joyjunction.org

NORTH KOREA BEING PRESSURED ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Three out of four North Korea defectors living in Seoul say they witnessed public executions in their communist homeland, according to a recent survey by South Korea's government-run human rights body.

According to analysis by a United Press International (UPI) correspondent writing in the Nov. 1 edition of the "World Peace Herald" (www.wpherald.com), human rights activists say the survey shows how rampant public executions were in North Korea, despite the country's denial of human rights abuses. They are asking for the world's attention to be focused on humanitarian conditions in North Korea.

UPI reported that according to the survey conducted by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, 75 of 100 North Korean defectors polled said they witnessed public executions while staying in the North. Most of those surveyed left the North in the late 1990's or later.

An additional 17 defectors, UPI stated, said they heard of public executions in the North, the survey showed.

"This survey shows that almost all North Korean defectors witnessed public executions or were aware of such punishment being carried out in the North," UPI reported the human rights watchdog said in the report.

Ninety-four North Koreans polled said they were aware of the existence a Soviet-style gulag, which officials in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang ) have vigorously denied, according to the survey. Many public executions were conducted in the concentration camps that are said to house some 200,000 political prisoners.

Kim Tae-jin, a defector who was detained in a concentration camp in North Korea's Yodok region before fleeing to South Korea, said anyone caught escaping from the gulag was publicly executed.

"There is no exception," UPI reported he said. "Everyone in the facility is called out to watch the execution and the prisoners see it at a close distance. I saw about four to five executions while I was in the camp."

Kang Chol-hwan, another North Korean gulag escapee now living in Seoul, said he witnessed 15 public executions. In his book, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag," UPI reported Kang describes condemned prisoners' mouths being stuffed with rocks to muffle their cries as they were shot by a firing squad.

UPI reported the survey also showed that 64 North Korean defectors witnessed their neighbors dying of starvation. Most of the defectors left their communist homeland due to poverty and repression.

They crossed the rivers on the borders with China and Russia, hoping eventually to go to South Korea, the survey showed. According to UPI, Seoul-based human right groups say up to 300,000 North Korean asylum-seekers are believed to be hiding in China and Russia in hopes of reaching South Korea for resettlement.

More than 90 percent of the defectors polled said there were widespread discriminatory practices in distributing material benefits and opportunities on the basis of people's class background. Corruption by the ruling elite was rampant in the North, UPI reported the survey showed.

More than 80 percent of the defectors said they witnessed or heard about human trafficking in the North, and 60 percent were aware that pregnant women who had poor class backgrounds were forced to have abortions.

"Human rights conditions in North Korea seem to have slightly improved in recent years, compared with in the crisis period on the late 1990's, but still remain poor," UPI reported the human rights report stated.

The report comes as the human rights record of North Korea is receiving fresh attention, UPI commented, particularly after U.S. President George W. Bush met author and defector Kang Chol-hwan at the White House in June.

UPI reported that Bush's concern over human rights violations in North Korea was said to have been fueled by Kang's testimony. Kang, 37, who was born in Pyongyang, was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp when he was only nine years old and spent 10 years there.

Bush has signed the North Korean Human Rights Act into law, allowing the U.S. president to provide up to $24 million a year for the 2005-08 period to North Korean defectors and to efforts promoting democracy in North Korea. Bush also appointed former senior domestic policy aide Jay Lefkowitz as a special envoy for human rights in North Korea.

The European Union (EU) is gearing up to submit a resolution demanding North Korea address its human rights record at the U.N. General Assembly session early this month, UPI reported.

The EU's draft resolution reportedly expresses "serious concern" over violations of human rights in North Korea, the cruel treatment of political prisoners and the punishment of refugee-seekers, among others.

The resolution was based on a report by Vitit Muntarbhorn (www0.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/hr4786.doc.htm), a U.N. investigator of human rights in North Korea. He is in South Korea for a closed-door symposium this week on human rights in North Korea.

UPI reported that South Korea's human rights groups are scheduled to hold an international human rights forum in Seoul in Dec., backed by the U.S.-based Freedom House.

In related news, "The Korea Times" (http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200511/kt2005110119454344430.htm ) reported that North Korean defectors are preparing to stage a musical in Seoul showing human rights abuses in concentration camps for political offenders in North Korea.

Jung Sung-san, who was once imprisoned at a camp in Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province, wrote the script for the coming musical, "Yodok Story," a story about the 15th detention center in Yodok, South Hamkyong Province.

"I am making the musical at the risk of my life,'' Jung, who will also direct the show, told "The Korea Times" in a telephone interview. "I will be satisfied if even a few people would begin to be a bit interested in the reality of human rights abuses in the North with the musical."

Of the approximately 30 performers in the show, seven are North Korean defectors. One of them was imprisoned at the Yodok. The musical will be staged next March at the Arko Arts Theater in Taehangno, Seoul.

"I have been receiving threatening messages on my mobile phone, such as `you will be beaten to death like your parents were if you stage the show,'' "The Korea Times" reported Jung said.

Jung's father, who used to be a high-ranking official at the Labor Party of the North, died after being hit on the head by stones thrown at him at a camp in Yanggang Province in 2002, The Korea Times reported.