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TITLE: KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC HUMAN RIGHTS, 1993
DATE: JANUARY 31, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA*
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a
dictatorship under the absolute rule of the Korean Workers'
Party (KWP). The KWP exercises power on behalf of its leader,
General Secretary Kim Il Sung, who is also President of the
DPRK. Kim Il Sung, in power for 56 years, has largely turned
over day-to-day control of the Government and the Korean
People's Army to his son, Kim Jong Il. The younger Kim ranks
second in the KWP and, with his father, is the object of a
personality cult.
The North Korean regime is repressive and subjects its citizens
to rigid controls. The regime establishes security ratings for
each individual which determine access to employment, schools,
medical facilities, and certain stores as well as admission to
the KWP, but this loyalty system appears to have been relaxed
somewhat in recent years. Individual rights is an alien
concept that the state leadership perceives as potentially
subversive to the goals of the State and party.
The State directs all significant economic activity, and only
government supervised labor activity is permitted. The North
Korean economy has contracted significantly due to the
elimination of Russian/Soviet concessional trade and aid.
Economic development continues to be hindered by distribution
bottlenecks, nonproductive allocation of resources, and a poor
international credit rating stemming from the DPRK's default on
much of its foreign debt, as well as by the diversion of as
much as a quarter of gross national product to military
expenditures. From time to time in 1993, there were reports of
sporadic, small scale civil disturbances in some cities,
apparently caused by food shortages. Significant amounts of
food grain were again imported in 1993. The rationing of food,
clothing, and energy appeared to continue in most parts of the
country. The KWP Plenum in December admitted serious economic
shortfalls, but claimed a bumper rice crop had been harvested.
*The 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 visitors the freedom of movement that would
enable them to assess human rights conditions there. Most of
this report, therefore, is based on information obtained over a
period of time extending from well before 1993. While limited
in detail, the information is nonetheless indicative of the
human rights situation in North Korea today.
North Korea continues to deny its citizens the most fundamental
human rights. Unlike in the previous 2 years, the number of
North Koreans allowed to visit the United States, other than to
attend U.N. affiliated functions, dropped to zero. Americans
continued to be admitted to North Korea, but this number was
also down significantly compared to the number in the previous
2 years.
Furthermore, the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression,
Cooperation, and Exchange Between North and South Korea, signed
in December 1991, calls for increased family exchanges and
established a joint committee to discuss implementation. After
some initial progress in 1992, the committee was unable to meet
in 1993, and no exchanges have taken place under the Agreement.
The North Korean Penal Code is draconian, stipulating capital
punishment and confiscation of all assets for a wide variety of
"crimes against the revolution," including defection, slander
of the party or State, and possessing "reactionary" printed
matter. The regime permits no independent press or
associations, and little outside information reaches the public
except that approved and disseminated by the Government.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
Political prisoners, opponents of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,
repatriated defectors, and others have been summarily
executed. The death penalty is mandatory under Article 52 of
the Criminal Law for activities "in collusion with
imperialists" aimed at "suppressing the national-liberation
struggle," and some prisoners are sentenced to death for
"ideological divergence" and other "counterrevolutionary
crimes."
b. Disappearance
There is no reliable information on disappearances within North
Korea. There were reports in the 1980's, however, of DPRK
involvement in the kidnaping abroad of South Koreans, Japanese,
and other foreign citizens. The Japanese press estimates as
many as 20 Japanese may have been kidnaped and are being
detained in North Korea. The DPRK denies these reports.
The 1993 Annual Report of Amnesty International (AI) details
the case of the Shibata family of Japan. Shibata Kozo and his
wife Shin Sung Suk, a Korean resident of Japan, in 1960 left
Japan and resettled in North Korea. Mr. Shibata in 1965 was
reportedly charged with spying and sent to a sanatorium. He
apparently is in poor health, according to former detainees,
and there has been no word about his wife and three children
since 1965. Mr. Kim Myong Sed, according to AI, has not
received any news about his wife, daughter, or other family
members still in North Korea since he applied for political
asylum in Russia in 1992.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
There is no information on recent practices, but credible
reports indicate that during the 1980's prisoners were
routinely tortured or ill-treated, and many prisoners died from
torture, disease, starvation, or exposure. In some cases
executions reportedly are carried out at public meetings
attended by workers, students, and school children. Executions
have also been carried out before assembled inmates at places
of detention.
According to AI, whole families, including children, are
imprisoned together. "Reeducation through labor" is common
punishment, consisting of forced labor (logging, tending crops)
under harsh conditions. A small number of people who claim to
have escaped from North Korean detention camps report that
starvation and executions are common. In one prison, clothing
was issued only once in a 3-year period. Former inmates have
produced photographs of an inmate wearing specially designed
leg irons which permit walking but make running impossible. AI
also reports the existence of "punishment cells," too low to
permit standing upright and too small for lying down flat,
where prisoners are kept for up to several weeks for breaking
prison rules.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Little information is available on North Korea's criminal
justice procedures and practices, and outside observation of
its legal system has not been permitted.
Under North Korean law, prisoners may be held for interrogation
for a maximum of 2 months, but this period may be extended
indefinitely. Family members or other concerned persons find
it virtually impossible to obtain information on charges
against detained persons. Judicial review of detentions does
not exist in law or in practice.
Defectors claim that North Korea detains about 150,000
political prisoners and family members in maximum security
camps in remote areas. An October 1992 report by two former
inmates made reference to the severe living conditions in what
they called "concentration camps." The severe conditions were
filmed in the summer of 1992 by a Japan NHK television crew
when it visited, escorted by local Russian authorities, a North
Korean-controlled logging camp located in Russia's Maritime
Province. North Korean officials deny the existence of such
gulags or prisons but admit the existence of "education
centers" for people who "commit crimes by mistake."
One credible report lists 12 such prison camps believed to
exist in the DPRK. It is believed that some former high
officials are imprisoned in the camps. Visitors to, and any
form of communication with, detainees, although once allowed,
are now said to be prohibited.
In July 1991, Cho Kap Chae, a North Korean defector who had
been a ranking official in the DPRK Ministry of Public
Security, said that there were two types of detention areas.
One consists of closed camps from which prisoners never emerge,
and where conditions are extremely harsh. In the other,
prisoners can be "rehabilitated," and Cho reported that a
prisoner he knew was released after a 3-year detention.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Constitution states that courts are independent and that
judicial proceedings are to be carried out in strict accordance
with the law, which contains elaborate procedural guarantees.
Article 138 of the Constitution states that "cases are heard in
public, and the accused is guaranteed the right to defense;
hearings may be closed to the public as stipulated by law."
However, the concepts of an independent judiciary and
individual rights, as understood in Western democracies, are
alien to the DPRK. Also, the Public Security Ministry
dispenses with trials in political cases and refers them to the
Ministry of State Security for imposition of punishment.
When trials are held, lawyers are apparently assigned by the
Government, and reports indicate that defense lawyers are not
considered representatives of the accused, but rather are
independent parties who are expected to help the court by
persuading the accused to confess guilt. Some reports note a
distinction between political and common criminals and state
that the Government affords trials only to the latter. North
Korea equates "political criminals" with those who criticize
the regime. Numerous other reports suggest that in the past
political offenses included such forms of lese majesty as
sitting on newspapers bearing Kim Il Sung's picture.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
Citizens in all age groups and occupations are subject to
indoctrination designed to shape and control individual
consciousness. This effort is aimed at ensuring reverence for
Kim Il Sung and his family, as well as conformity to the
State's ideology and authority. Multiple security
organizations ensure the indoctrination is evident in the mass
media and is carried out systematically by schools and worker
and neighborhood associations. Koreans with relatives who fled
to the south at the time of the Korean War appear to be still
classified as part of the "hostile class" in the DPRK's
elaborate loyalty system. Because approximately 10 million
families were separated by the end of the Korean War, this
category encompasses a significant percentage of the North
Korean population.
The defector Cho Kap Chae estimated that the "impure" class may
comprise 25 to 30 percent of the population. Members of this
class may still be subject to some discrimination, although Cho
claimed that their treatment has improved greatly in recent
years.
The Constitutional stipulation that "citizens are guaranteed
the inviolability of person and residence and the privacy of
correspondence" does not reflect reality. The Government
relies upon an extensive system of informers to identify
critics and potential trouble makers.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
Although the Constitution states that "citizens have freedoms
of speech, press, assembly, association, and demonstration,"
the regime permits such activities only in support of
government objectives. Other articles of the Constitution that
require citizens to follow the "Socialist norms of life" and to
obey a "collective spirit" take precedence over individual
political or civil liberties.
The Government strictly curtails the rights of freedom of
expression and association guaranteed under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which North Korea
became a party in 1981. Persons criticizing the President or
his policies are liable to punishment by imprisonment or
"corrective labor." One defector reported in 1986 that a
scientist, whose home was bugged through his radio set, was
arrested and executed for statements made at home critical of
Kim Il Sung. In another case, AI reports that a family,
formerly resident in Japan, was sent into internal exile
because one of them was accused of having made remarks
disparaging of the Government. They were last reported to be
in a "reeducation through labor" center in 1992.
The Government attempts to control all news that enters and
leaves the DPRK. The visits of Western journalists are
carefully managed. Russian publications that have written
critically of North Korea have had access restricted, and
during 1991 several had their offices closed. Domestic media
censorship is strictly enforced, and no deviation from the
official government line is tolerated. The regime prohibits
listening to foreign media broadcasts except by the political
elite, and violators are subject to severe punishment. Radios
and television sets are built to receive only domestic
programming. The Government controls artistic and academic
works, and visitors report that the primary function of plays,
movies, operas, and books is to contribute to the cult of
personality surrounding "the Great Leader," Kim Il Sung, and
"the Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
No public meetings may be held without government
authorization. There are no known organizations other than
those created by the Government. The State even prohibits
apolitical groups such as neighborhood or alumni
organizations. Professional associations exist solely as
another means of government control over the members of these
organizations.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides that "citizens have religious liberty
and the freedom of antireligious propaganda." In reality, the
regime firmly discourages all organized religious activity
except that which serves the interests of the State. In recent
years, the regime has facilitated the formation of
government-sponsored religious organizations to advance its
foreign policy goals. The DPRK claims there are 10,000
Christians who worship in 500 home churches, and the Chondogyo
Young Friends Party, a government sponsored group based on a
native Korean religious movement, is still in existence. There
are a few Buddhist temples where religious activity is
permitted, and two Christian churches--one Protestant and one
Catholic--were built in late 1988. Some visitors attest to the
authenticity of the church services and to the faith of the
several dozen worshipers observed; others say the church
activity appears staged.
Kim Il Sung, his family, and his juche (self-reliance) ideology
are revered, and the cult of the Kim family approaches that of
a state religion. The regime seems to be seeking a theological
basis for melding "Kim Ilsungism" (as it is called by North
Korean media) and Christianity.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The DPRK regime strictly controls internal travel, requiring a
travel pass for any movement outside one's home village; these
passes are granted only for official travel or attendance at a
relative's wedding or funeral. Long delays in obtaining the
necessary permit often result in denial of the right to travel
even for these limited purposes. Only a very small elite are
allowed to have vehicles for personal use. The regime tightly
controls access to civilian aircraft, trains and buses, food
and fuel. In Pyongyang, there are no taxi cabs, and there are
only a few buses and street cars. Most citizens either walk
or, when it is operating, ride the subway. Most workers are
required to live outside Pyongyang and commute to and from work
on foot, unless mobilized for special government projects when
they are transported in open trucks.
Reports, primarily from defectors, indicate that forced
resettlement, particularly for those deemed politically
unreliable, is common. Permission to reside in, or even enter
Pyongyang, the capital, is strictly controlled.
Foreign travel is limited to officials and trusted artists,
athletes, and academics. The regime does not allow emigration,
and only 1,000 or so defectors have succeeded in fleeing the
country since 1953. The regime retaliates against the
relatives of those few persons who manage to escape.
Involuntarily repatriated defectors have been jailed or, in
some cases, executed. AI reports that Shin Sook Ja and her two
daughters were detained in 1986 after her husband, Oh Kil Nam,
requested political asylum in Denmark. Oh Kil Nam has not been
able to contact his family since 1986. In 1991, for the first
time, a single North Korean citizen was allowed to travel to
the United States to visit relatives. He was accompanied by a
government official and returned after 2 weeks. The regime
does not allow students to study outside of Communist or
friendly Third World countries. It tightened controls over
DPRK students studying abroad when six defected from Eastern
Europe in 1989, and in 1990 called back its students from
Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R.
From 1959 to 1982, 93,000 Korean residents of Japan, including
6,637 Japanese wives, voluntarily repatriated to North Korea.
Despite DPRK assurances that the wives, 1,828 of whom still had
Japanese citizenship, would be allowed to go home to Japan
every 2 or 3 years, none is known to have returned to Japan and
most have never been heard of again. Most of the returnees and
their families were placed in the "wavering class" and
generally treated with contempt. As this became known abroad,
voluntary repatriation ceased. In recent years, the treatment
of Japanese spouses appears to have improved, possibly because
visiting relatives from Japan bring in hard currency, which is
in short supply in the DPRK, estimated to be about $600 million
annually.
Over the past decade, the DPRK has gradually permitted an
increasing number of overseas Korean residents of Japan, China,
North America, and other countries to visit their relatives in
North Korea. Entry by all foreigners was suspended temporarily
for brief periods in 1993 because of military alerts or for
unexplained reasons. Visitors are closely monitored and
itineraries are usually fixed, although some visitors are able
to walk freely in the vicinity of their hotels or guest
quarters. Prior arrangements are necessary for access to
apartment buildings, public buildings, stores, and similar
facilities.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Citizens have no right or mechanisms by which they can effect
transitions in leadership or changes in government. The
political system is completely dominated by Kim Il Sung and
heir-designate Kim Jong Il. The legislature, the Supreme
People's Assembly, which meets only a few days a year, serves
only to rubber-stamp resolutions presented to it by the
leadership.
In an effort to create an appearance of democracy, the DPRK has
created several "minority parties." Lacking grass roots
organizations, they exist only as rosters of officials with
token representation in the Supreme People's Assembly. Their
primary purpose appears to be that of promoting government
objectives abroad as touring parliamentarians. Free elections
do not exist in North Korea. Although elections to the Supreme
People's Assembly and provincial, city, and county assemblies
are held regularly, in all cases the Government approves only
one candidate in each electoral district. According to the
government-controlled media, over 99 percent of the voters
turned out to elect 100 percent of the candidates approved by
the regime's Korean Workers Party or KWP. The vast majority of
the KWP's estimated 3 million members (in a population of 22
million) work to implement decrees formulated by the party's
small elite.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
No organizations within the DPRK are permitted to monitor human
rights conditions or to observe violations of such rights.
North Korea does not belong to any international human rights
organizations, but it has for some years sent observers to
meetings of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Amnesty International representatives visited the DPRK in 1991
and met officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and
Public Security, as well as with judges, lawyers, and legal
scholars. Subsequently, the DPRK has ignored visit requests by
the AI, Asia Watch, and other human rights organizations.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
Women
The Constitution states that "women hold equal social status
and rights with men." However, few women have reached high
levels of the party or the Government. Women are represented
proportionally in the labor force, with the exception of small
factories where the work force is predominantly female.
Neither government policy or traditional social norms condone
violence against women. The AI has reported that women are
detained with their families for political offenses committed
by their spouses.
Children
Social norms reflect traditional, family-centered values in
which children are cherished. All children have access to
state-provided education. Visitors to Pyongyang report that
children are well dressed and at least as well fed as the
general population. There are no reports of children begging
or of child labor in factories. Pyongyang has at least two
amusement parks and one department store for use primarily by
children. The children of KWP members, disabled veterans, and
"revolutionary heroes" seem to receive preferential treatment.
Children may be detained with parents deemed guilty of
political offenses, according to AI.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
North Korea has a largely homogeneous population, except for a
small Chinese community and the Japanese spouses of former
Korean residents in Japan. There are no reports of
discrimination against the Chinese community. Systematic
discrimination is unlikely since China is North Korea's primary
ally and trading partner.
People with Disabilities
Traditional social norms condone discrimination against the
physically handicapped. Handicapped persons, other than war
veterans, are reportedly not allowed within the city limits of
Pyongyang. According to one credible report, authorities check
every 2 to 3 years in the capital for persons with deformities,
including dwarfs, and relocate them to special facilities in
the countryside. There are no legally mandated provisions for
accessibility for the disabled.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Nongovernmental labor unions do not exist in North Korea. The
Korean Workers' Party purports to represent the interests of
all labor. There is a single labor organization, called the
General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, which is
affiliated with the formerly Soviet-controlled World Federation
of Trade Unions. Operating under this umbrella, unions
function on the classical Soviet model, with responsibility for
mobilizing workers behind productivity goals and state targets
and for providing health, education, cultural, and welfare
facilities. They do not have the right to strike. North Korea
is not a member of, but has observer status with, the
International Labor Organization.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Workers have no right to organize or to bargain collectively.
Wages are set by government ministries. The State assigns all
jobs. Ideological purity is as important as professional
competence in deciding who receives a particular job. Factory
and farm workers are organized into councils which do have an
impact upon management decisions.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
There is no prohibition on the use of forced or compulsory
labor, and the Government routinely uses military conscripts
for construction projects. "Reformatory labor" and
"reeducation through labor" are common sentences for political
offenses. Amnesty International reports that forced labor,
such as logging and tending crops, is common among prisoners.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
No data are available on the minimum age for employment of
children. However, education is universal and mandatory until
age 15, and it is believed that this regulation is enforced.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
No data are available on minimum wages. They appear to be
adequate to support a worker and his family at a basic
subsistence level. But wages are not the primary form of
compensation since the State provides all educational and
medical needs free and only token rent is charged.
The Constitution stipulates an 8-hour workday, but several
sources report that, during production campaigns, most laborers
work 12 to 16 hours daily.
[end of document]
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