There are, however, indications that people with mental disabilities are quite prevalent in The People's Paradise.
Posted on 03/22/2006 5:02:46 AM PST by PittsburghAfterDark
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has no people with physical disabilities because they are killed almost as soon as they are born, a physician who defected from the communist state said on Wednesday.
Ri Kwang-chol, who fled to the South last year, told a forum of rights activists that the practice of killing newborns was widespread but denied he himself took part in it.
"There are no people with physical defects in North Korea," Ri told members of the New Right Union, which groups local activists and North Korean refugees.
He said babies born with physical disabilities were killed in infancy in hospitals or in homes and were quickly buried.
The practice is encouraged by the state, Ri said, as a way of purifying the masses and eliminating people who might be considered "different."
The group urged the South Korean government to change course away from "silent diplomacy" and immediately begin taking action to pressure the North to improve its human rights record.
The South Korean government has refused to join international condemnation of human rights abuses in the North out of concern that such a move could rattle ties with Pyongyang, which considers any criticism of its human rights as deeply offensive.
"The government should stop trying to avoid upsetting Kim Jong-il," said another defector, Kim Young-sun, 67, referring to the North Korean leader. "It should try to upset Kim Jong-il," she said, adding it would be the best way to change the North.
Kim Young-sun is a survivor of the North's Yodok prison camp, notorious for its forced labor and life-sentences for people charged with conspiring against the Kim Jong-il leadership.
Mun Hyon-ok said women from her hometown in the northern region of North Korea bordering China were taken by a ring of human traffickers and probably ended up in China.
"And there are women who are selling themselves for a handful of rice," she told the forum.
North Korea has called itself a people's paradise and said criticism of its human rights was motivated by a goal of toppling the leadership of Kim Jong-il.
South Korea has come under fire from human rights groups and some countries for abstaining in votes on U.N. measures to condemn the North's human rights record.
Seoul has also avoided the subject in bilateral talks with the North. South Korean officials have said the best way to improve the situation is through quiet diplomacy and encouraging the North to improve its food situation and open up to the international community.
As if anybody is surprised
Really? NOW endorses the same thing. What a surprise!
Isn't this a normal effect of communism?
There are, however, indications that people with mental disabilities are quite prevalent in The People's Paradise.
Not surprised...it is the aspiration of American Marxists...and is the equivalent of abortion in macrocosm.
Kinda like the Dutch??
No kidding. If you want to make yourself sick sometime, compare Amnesty International's country reports on the US and DPRK. North Korea's must be 1/10th the size. No reliable data, ya know.
Yet I rarely hear "human rights advocates" talk about this kind of thing. They only get incensed when American soldiers force prisoners to wear panties on their heads. Or when the poor prisoners at Gitmo don't get enough rice pilaf with their grilled salmon.
Of course some would say this genocide of the disabled is OK. Just label it as "choice."
I once read that the Gitmo prisoners' meals were flown in daily and were superior to the meals that our guys were getting. Does anyone have further details on this deplorable fact?
Hey, where is that UN Human Rights (Ms. Robinson) person who loves to mouth off? The one who was so quick to trash the US two days ago.
"Yet I rarely hear "human rights advocates" talk about this kind of thing."
Yeah, where is the infamous U.N. on reports such as these? Where is their condemnation? Where is Kofi Cup? Where is Amnesty International? Where is Greenpeace patrolling the waters of NK decrying the murders? Time for LELO (Launch early and Launch often). I'm sure this will be pushed the wayside by all media except the FR world. One good thing is that stories like this embolden our rhetorical repetoire during dinner parties when you hear a flake discuss giving peace and diplomacy a chance.
(I suspect) Peter Singer is deeply pleased with this real-life application
of his brand of "ethics":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer
(scroll down for "Abortion, euthanasia and infanticide" in the Wiki article)
"Yet I rarely hear "human rights advocates" talk about this kind of thing."
One of the Leftist Commandments: Never speak badly of fellow-travelers.
One group that does comment regularly on the North Korea mess is
Concerned Women For America.
And I was suprised about ABC Nightline with a truthful series on NK,
and CNN also did a 1 hour special last year.
Also, Bob Woodruff did a good report from NK last year (before his
injury in Iraq). He did a good job of reportage. He and his camera also
did a good job of letting "the camera speak for itself".
It was WEIRD to see a major city with EMPTY streets in the middle of a work day.
The NK guvmint handler admitted that most of the city population was
in the countryside harvesting food. (H-ll, probably scrounging for
weeds and occassionally killing a vulnerable "comrade" or two for meat.)
Same article also here: CLICK HERE
Freepmail me for info
I guess we have something in common with NK after all.
do I really have to say it???
Infanticide of Disabled Babies Commonplace of Communist North Korea
North Korea Defector Says Disabled Newborn Babies Are Routinely Killed
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