Basic Report on Human Rights Conditions in North Korea
On Feb. 16, Hiroshi Kato, Executive Director of LFNKR lectured on the abuse of human rights in North Korea in response to an invitation by the Working Team for Enhancing Human Rights Diplomacy and International Contribution of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Based on the UN human rights report on North Korea 2014, Mr. Kato’s talk covered the specific human rights abuses still going on in North Korea according to actual experiences of North Korean defectors interviewed by LFNKR. So far, LFNKR has helped over 200 North Korean defectors to reach the destinations where they wished to resettle, including in Japan.
The following is an outline of major human rights abuses.
Violation of freedom of thought, expression and religion
Guided by the one national ideology and the 10 main principles as set forth by the Leader and the Labor Party, the propagandizing of citizens begins in infancy.
Worship and idolization of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un employs badges, posters, paintings and portraits. A large portion of math, science, music, and other textbooks include the achievements and teachings of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
Students with poor grades in Kim Il Sung ideology and revolutionary history are punished even if they have good grades in other subjects.
Mass Games and Other Mass Propaganda Events
North Korean children and students are obligated to regularly participate in parades, mass rallies, and other performances and dances held for political purposes, including mass games and annual mass gymnastics competitions.
More time is spent practicing for the event than in studying. According to reports by former defectors who have gone through these experiences, they were forced to practice 6 to 12 hours a day, and many of the schoolchildren fainted during practice. Practice often lasts all year round. For 4-6 months of the year, schoolchildren had to practice all day at the expense of their schoolwork. This was more like torture than training. Children who do not perform perfectly receive corporal punishment and are subjected to night training.
During practice, they are not allowed to go to the bathroom, and there is unbearable incontinence, with some students breaking into tears. It is common practice to prepare buckets for urination.
Mass games are a major source of foreign currency income for North Korea, because the games attract large numbers of foreign tourists. Rarely are tourists aware of the human rights violations suffered by the children who are forced to participate.
Such severe practices are seen as a violation of Articles 31 and 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which deals with endangerment of the health and well-being of children; Articles 31 and 32 of the CRC provide for the right of children to rest and to be protected from work that interferes with their education or is harmful to their health.
Meeting of the General Council of Life
This weekly meeting is a means of monitoring the shortcomings of citizens in the eyes of the state. These weekly meetings are held throughout North Korea’s civilian life.
In schools, if there is some failure by a student in the previous week, or if they missed a class or did not contribute as much as expected, they are required to express their remorse. They must also pledge to make improvements.
Everyone must also point out the errors of at least one other person in the same group. You are not allowed to sit down until you have criticized someone.
All state organs, from the Party’s central headquarters to the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Safety, prisons, labor training units, youth assault teams, etc., are all subject to this rule.
A former defector who was a member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party testified:
“The ‘Meeting of the General Council of Life’ is to be carried out from elementary school until death, regardless of position, and Kim Jong-il allegedly did it too. It is intended to give the impression that it is so important that even great leaders participate in it, and that it is an indispensable means of governance for monitoring and governing the people. I am happiest now without this meeting.”
(This former defector used to work at the central headquarters of the Workers’ Party of Japan, and settled in Japan in 2008)
Obligation to join mass organizations
Every citizen is required to become a member of a mass organization under the supervision of the Workers’ Party of Korea or is required to participate in its activities.
Juvenile group: Children between the ages of 7 and 13 years old
Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League North Korean citizens aged 14-30, monitoring youth groups
General Federation of Labor Unions of Korea
Korean Democratic Women’s Union
Agricultural Workers Union
Business offices of all levels, People’s Groups
Most are eager to become members of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Party members are obliged to become members of one of the organizations. It is a privilege granted to only 15 percent of the people in North Korea.
Control of Information by Controlled Media and Prohibition of Access to Outside Information
North Korea is a walled-in country not open to the outside world.
There are four television broadcasters in North Korea
(1) Korean Central Television for the general public and residents outside of Pyongyang
(2) Educational and Cultural Broadcasting Channel for Pyongyang residents
(3) Kaesong TV Broadcasting to South Korea
4) Wansudae TV: Weekend TV for foreigners, broadcast in Chinese and Russian with Korean subtitles for Pyongyang residents
Educational and cultural broadcasting and Mansudai TV can be seen in Pyongyang, Nampo and other areas close to Pyongyang.
The basic message of the programing is to be loyal to the nation. Even when depicting a romantic relationship between a man and a woman, the program includes a pledge of loyalty to the government by the two. It serves to mobilize people for the revolutionary phase of the struggle.”
The broadcast is generally from 17:00 to 20:00, but may be shortened or canceled due to power conditions, and may be interrupted at irregular intervals.
Purchase of TV receivers is registered with the Ministry of National Security and the radio detection bureau 27, and sets are altered to receive only channels approved by bureau 27 in order to prevent the reception of television broadcasts from South Korea, China, and Russia.
Mobilization of Anti-Telecommunications Detection Team (Squad)
North Korea uses sophisticated jamming equipment to block foreign broadcasts. It has also organized task forces to crack down on smuggling and other illegal activities in the North Korean border region of China.
North Korean civilians are prohibited from owning Chinese-made cell phones. The crackdown on calls between China and North Korea made via Chinese cell phones has recently become even more stringent.
Clandestine calls from the North Korean side of the Tumen River to the Chinese side are now being made from a mountaintop due to the tighter crackdown. When authorities detect such a radio signal, the anti-radio detection team waits at the foot of the mountain trail to capture the caller when they come back down.
An LFNKR rescue team used to carry Chinese-made cell phones for fixed-point observation of domestic price trends in North Korea, but in 2018, when their North Korean collaborator came back down from the mountain after completing his communication, he was arrested and sent to the Yodok prison camp (Kanrisho No. 15, South Hamgyeong Province). Following that incident, LFNKR managed to re-establish contact with his family, but he has not been heard from since.
Cellular Phone Service in North Korea
Cell phone service was begun in 2008.
Number of 3G cell phone provider subscribers…2 million (announced in 2013 by ORASCOM) Approximately 10 percent of the total population.
Number of subscribers to cell phone service in 2017: over 3 million
Koryolink can be used in all major cities and along major roads throughout the country.
However, international calls and Internet access are prohibited, although SMS texting is available. Foreigners and tourists are allowed to use the Internet.
Citizens can use only the intranet system to access information that has been filtered and approved by the government.
Access to the Internet is regulated and only a small percentage of the university and elite class persons are granted such access. PCs must be registered with the authorities (Bureau 27), even at official institutions.
Restrictions on official and unofficial mutual friendship visits between DPRK officials and Japanese government agencies, Diet members, local legislators, and private citizens
All contacts for talks between Japan and North Korea raised by the Japanese side will be centralized in Room 38 of the Workers’ Party. The one to be selected is determined by the (name not known) Department of the Secretary’s Office.
All souvenirs from friendly visits, exchanges of views, etc., must be reported in North Korea for the entire contact period.
As souvenirs to the families of parties in North Korea, radios, televisions, cell phones, digital devices, and contents such as smart phones, gaming devices, USB memory sticks may not be brought into the country without official permission. In extreme case, persons bringing such souvenirs will be charged with espionage and sent to a camp or indoctrination center.
Recently, the eldest son of a family member of a trade delegation official sent to China was given a gaming device as a gift when the official was recalled to his home country. But he was subjected to three months of isolation and training in a camp of the State Security Department on the principle that the gift was “poisoned by corrupt capitalism.”
Fortunately, the official at the trade representative office had a strong relationship with Jang Sung-taek at the time, and there were extenuating circumstances.
(Eventually, in 2019, the entire family was ordered to be recalled and all family members have since disappeared and remain missing. Originally, plans were for them to be invited to the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021.
Discrimination based on state-designated status, gender, and disability
Official start of the component system
On the Party’s All-Party, All-People Struggle Against Counterrevolutionary Elements was decided on May 30, 1957.
The adoption of this decision was linked to Kim Il Sung’s purge of political rivals in the process of seizing power.
Core class: Family members of anti-Japanese partisans, close to the Kim family. Tendency not to mingle with people from lower strata is great. Workers Party members, elite military units.
Ruling elite class: Family members of Politburo members, Labor Party secretaries, Central People’s Committee, Cabinet, Central Military Commission, and National Defense Commission
Wavering class: Migrants from abroad, returnees in return projects, and
Hostile class: South Labor Party officials, families of South Koreans, including
formerly wealthy businessmen, suspected spies, Catholics, Buddhists. They are assigned to work in mining and agriculture, and descendants are excluded from higher education.
However, acts judged to be politically disloyal can easily destroy the favorable components of any individual and family.
Discrimination against people with disabilities
Disabled persons are expelled from urban areas and segregated from sight and put in special facilities.
Violation of freedom of movement and choice of residence: Disabled persons and street children are expelled from Pyongyang, and prohibited from leaving the country (prohibition of travel).
Discrimination against women
Interrogation, torture and inhumane treatment: Concentration camps, indoctrination camps, and political prison camps
Sexual assaults on women, insulting behavior, and nude body searches
Conditions in concentration camps: repatriated mothers subjected to forced abortions, and infanticide
Pregnant women who have been repatriated after unsuccessful attempts to escape from North Korea are forced to have abortions and miscarriages. Experience of having an infant disposed of in a common grave (testified by J. S., a female defector)
Other reports on human rights violations
Access to food and right to life
2 million people died of starvation, with 500,000 members of the Labor Party also starving (testimony of Hwang Jang-Yop, Secretary for International Affairs of the Labor Party)
No freedom from hunger, starvation, malnutrition, and disease: impact on children, impact on women, impact on low-ranking soldiers, looting of food, extortion, misuse of resources (experience of Hiroko Saito, wife of a North Korean defector)
Arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances (abductions), political prison camps testified by Kang Cheol-hwan
Torture, Execution
Cattle raised for food production at business establishments are state property and cannot be disposed of without permission. There is a case of a cadre disposing of cattle without permission and framing the lower level workers for the loss or misplacement of cattle. It is customary to be sentenced to death by firing squad for illegally disposing of national property.
There are cases where people escaped to China to flee this kind of problem.
Prisoner’s family, for three generations, are to be killed (testimony by Ahn Myong-chol)
Criminals have no human rights (no right to be buried in a grave, no return of remains)
Suicides are considered traitors to the state. To rule the cause of death as suicide is detrimental to the entire family.
There are no cemeteries, and burials are held in communal burial pits set up in the mountains. It is impossible to identify individual bodies afterwards. (Testified by a former defector, Lieutenant Colonel Kang Sheng Experience, exiled in Moscow in 2000)