http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27775.htm
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 25, 2004
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1 (DPRK or North Korea) is a dictatorship under the absolute rule of Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party (KWP) since October 1997. In 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly reconfirmed Kim Jong Il as Chairman of the National Defense Commission and declared that position the "highest office of state." The presidency was abolished, leaving Kim Jong Il's father, the late Kim Il Sung, as the DPRK's "eternal president." During the year, the Korean People's Army (KPA) continued to displace the KWP as Kim Jong Il's chief instrument for making and implementing policy. The titular head of state is Kim Yong Nam, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Elections for the 687-member Assembly were held in August. Only the KWP and two small satellite parties participated. The elections were not free. Kim Jong Il and his father were the objects of an intense personality cult and the regime continued to cling to "juche," a national ideology of self-reliance, even though the population was dependent on international aid for its survival. The judiciary is not independent.
The DPRK is one of the world's most militarized states. The KPA is the primary organization responsible for external security. A large military reserve force and several quasi-military organizations, including the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the People's Security Force, assist it. These organizations also assisted the large internal security apparatus, which includes the Ministry of Public Security [MPS], the State Security Department, the National Security Agency, the National Security Police, and the KWP. Members of the security forces have committed serious human rights abuses
The Government's human rights record remained extremely poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses. Citizens do not have the right to change their government, and the leadership views most international human rights norms, particularly individual rights, as illegitimate, alien, and subversive to the goals of the State and Party. There continued to be reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and arbitrary detention including many who were held as political prisoners. Prison conditions were harsh, and torture reportedly was common. Credible eyewitness reports note that pregnant female prisoners underwent forced abortions, and in other cases babies reportedly were killed upon birth in prisons.
Defectors and refugee reports over several years indicate that the regime executed political prisoners, opponents of the regime, some repatriated defectors, and others, including military officers suspected of espionage or of plotting against Kim Jong Il. Criminal law makes the death penalty mandatory for activities "in collusion with imperialists" aimed at "suppressing the national liberation struggle." Prisoners have been sentenced to death for such ill-defined "crimes" as "ideological divergence," "opposing socialism," and "counterrevolutionary crimes." In its 2001 report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the Government claimed that it had reduced the number of criminal offences carrying the death penalty from 33 to 5; the Committee, while welcoming this reduction, noted that 4 of the 5 offences were essentially political and "couched in terms so broad that the imposition of the death penalty may be subject to essentially subjective criteria, and not confined to the 'most serious crimes' only…." In some cases, executions reportedly were carried out at public meetings attended by workers, students, school children, and before assembled inmates at places of detention. Border guards reportedly have orders to shoot to kill potential defectors. Similarly, prison guards are under orders to shoot to kill those attempting escape from political concentration camps, according to defectors.
Defectors have reported that government officials prohibit live births in prison. Forced abortion and the killing of newborn babies reportedly were standard prison practices (see Section 1.c.).
Religious and human rights groups outside the country reported that members of underground churches have been killed because of their religious beliefs and suspected contacts with overseas evangelical groups operating across the Chinese border (see Section 2.c.).
Many prisoners reportedly have died from beatings, disease, starvation, or exposure (see Section 1.c.).
b. Disappearance
The Government reportedly was responsible for cases of disappearance. Defectors in recent years have claimed that individuals suspected of political crimes often were taken from their homes by state security officials and sent directly, without trial, to camps for political prisoners. There are no practical restrictions on the ability of the Government to detain and imprison persons at will and to hold them incommunicado.
There also were long-standing reports of past government involvement in the kidnapping abroad of South Koreans, Japanese, and other foreign nationals. In September 2002, Kim Jong Il acknowledged to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi the involvement of DPRK "special institutions" in the kidnapping of Japanese citizens and said that those responsible had been punished
In addition, other reported cases of kidnapping, hostage-taking, and other acts of violence took place, apparently intended to intimidate ethnic Koreans living in China and Russia. Despite the admission to Prime Minister Koizumi, the Government continued to deny that it had been involved in kidnappings of other foreign nationals.
In its 2001 submission to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the Government claimed that torture is prohibited by law; however, a number of sources confirm its practice. According to a report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (USCHRNK), torture "is routine and severe." Methods of torture reportedly routinely used included severe beatings; electric shock; prolonged periods of exposure; humiliations such as public nakedness; confinement to small "punishment cells," in which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down, where they could be held for several weeks; being forced to kneel or sit immobilized for long periods; being hung by one's wrists; being forced to stand-up and sit-down to the point of collapse; and, forcing mothers recently repatriated from China, to watch the infanticide of their newly born infants. Defectors reported that many prisoners have died from torture, disease, starvation, exposure, or a combination of these causes. There were allegations of lethal gas experiments on prisoners.
Since 2002, China has deported thousands of North Korean women, some of whom were pregnant, and many of whom were imprisoned upon their return. Reportedly, North Korean officials prohibited live births in prison and forced abortions were regularly performed, particularly in detention centers holding women repatriated from China. Those sources further indicate that, in cases of live birth, the child was immediately killed. According to reports, the reason given for this policy was to prevent the birth of half-Chinese children. In addition, guards sexually abused female prisoners.
Prison conditions were harsh; starvation and executions were common. "Reeducation through labor" is a common punishment, consisting of forced labor, such as logging, mining, or tending crops under harsh conditions, and reeducation consisting of memorizing speeches by Kim Jong Il and being forced to participate in self-criticism sessions after labor. Visitors to the country have observed prisoners being marched in leg irons, metal collars, or shackles. In some places of detention, prisoners were given little or no food and, when they contract illnesses, were denied medical care. Sanitation was poor, and prisoners reported rarely being able to bathe, or wash their clothing, and having no change of clothing during months of incarceration.
In June 2002, Lee Soon-ok, a woman who spent several years in a prison camp before fleeing to China in 1994 and then to the Republic of Korea (South Korea), testified before the U.S. Senate that the approximately 1,800 inmates in her camp typically worked 16 to 17 hours a day. Lee witnessed severe beatings and incidents of torture involving forcing water into a victim's stomach with a rubber hose followed by guards jumping on a board placed across the victim's abdomen. Lee also testified that chemical and biological warfare experiments were conducted on inmates by the army. Other defectors reported similar experiences. At Camp 22 in Haengyong, approximately 50,000 prisoners worked under conditions that reportedly resulted in the death of 20 to 25 percent of the prison population per year in the 1990s.
Other witnesses who testified before the U.S. Congress in 2002 stated that prisoners held on the basis of their religious beliefs generally were treated worse than other inmates (see Section 2.c.).
In Washington in October, Kim Yong, a former police Lieutenant Colonel, told USCHRNK that, as an inmate in a political prison camp, he had been forced to kneel for long periods with a steel bar placed between his knees and calves, been suspended by his handcuffed wrists, and submerged in waist-deep cold water for extended periods.
The Government did not permit inspection of prisons by human rights monitors.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
There are no restrictions on the ability of the Government to detain and imprison persons at will and to hold them incommunicado. Family members and other concerned persons reportedly find it virtually impossible to obtain information on charges against or the length of sentences of detained persons. Judicial review of detentions does not exist in law or in practice.
Collective punishment is practiced. Entire families, including children, have been imprisoned when one member of the family was accused of a crime. In November, an investigator for a human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) said that punishment could be extended to imprison three generations of a family for life at hard labor.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Government has not permitted any independent domestic organizations to monitor human rights conditions or to comment on violations of such rights. A North Korean Human Rights Committee, established by the Government in 1992, has denied the existence of any human rights violations in the country.
In July 2001, a North Korean delegate reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Committee dismissed reports of human rights violations in the country as the propaganda of "egoistic" and "hostile forces" seeking to undermine the sovereignty of the country.
The Government has ignored requests for visits by international human rights organizations, and none were known to have visited since a 1996 Amnesty International visit. In 2002, the Government submitted a report on human rights to the U.N. Human Rights Committee.
Women
The Constitution states "women hold equal social status and rights with men"; however, although women were represented proportionally in the labor force, few women had reached high levels of the Party or the Government. Women reportedly made up 20 percent of the membership of the SPA, but only approximately 4 percent of the membership of the Central Committee of the KWP.
There was no information available on domestic and general societal violence against women; women prisoners reportedly were subject to rape and forced abortions (see Section 1.c.).
Working-age women, like men, are required to work. They were thus required to leave pre-school aged children in the care of elderly relatives or in state nurseries. According to the Constitution, women with large families are to work shorter hours. There were reports of trafficking in women and young girls among North Koreans crossing the border into China (see Section 6.f.).
Children
The State provides compulsory education for all children until the age of 15. However, some children were denied educational opportunities and subjected to other punishments and disadvantages as a result of the loyalty classification system and the principle of "collective retribution" for the transgressions of family members (see Section 1.f.).
Like others in society, children were the objects of intense political indoctrination; even mathematics textbooks propound party dogma
Persons with Disabilities
Traditional social norms condone discrimination against persons with physical disabilities. Apart from veterans with disabilities, persons with disabilities were almost never seen within the city limits of Pyongyang, and several defectors and other former residents reported that persons with disabilities were routinely relocated to rural areas
There are no legally mandated provisions for accessibility to buildings or government services for persons with disabilities.
. Trafficking in Persons
There were no known laws specifically addressing the problem of trafficking in persons, and trafficking was a growing problem. There were widespread reports of trafficking in women and young girls into China. Some were sold by their families or by kidnappers as wives or concubines to men in China; others have fled on their own volition to escape starvation and deprivation in North Korea. A network of smugglers reportedly facilitated this trafficking. Many such women, unable to speak Chinese, were held as virtual prisoners, and some were forced to work as prostitutes.
1The United States does not have diplomatic relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea does not allow representatives of foreign governments, journalists, or other invited guests the freedom of movement that would enable them to assess fully human rights conditions there. This report is based on information obtained over more than a decade, updated where possible by information drawn from recent interviews, reports, and other documentation. While limited in detail, this information is nonetheless indicative of the human rights situation in North Korea today.