While the human rights problem in North Korea is rather well-documented and well-studied, in this episode I wanted to provide you with a quick introduction on the topic; suggest some follow-up readings; and, most importantly, reflect on how the situation became so bad in the first place. After all, the human rights situation in that country is a good reminder for all of us about why North Korea is not something funny.
Please consider donating to support ad-free, independent coverage of the DPRK:
Make a donation to my Revolut account
The distribution of this podcast is made possible by Anchor.
Episode 50 – Why does this podcast have to come to an end? (at least, for now) – Ask me about North Korea
- Episode 50 – Why does this podcast have to come to an end? (at least, for now)
- Episode 49 – What is the role of military in North Korea?
- Episode 48 – Why are the North Korean-Japanese relations as bad as it can get?
- Episode 47 – How to release North Korean music covers? (Interview with Justin Martell)
- Episode 46 – What does North Korea export to the outside world?
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
While the human rights problem in North Korea is rather well-documented and well-studied, in this episode I wanted to provide you with a quick introduction on the topic; suggest some follow-up readings; and, most importantly, reflect on how the situation became so bad in the first place. After all, the human rights situation in that country is a good reminder for all of us about why North Korea is not something funny. Unfortunately, far too many people associate the DPRK with nuclear missiles, weird political statements, and Kim Jong-un – despite the fact that there are 25 million people living in the DPRK.
You can often hear that North Korea’s human rights record is not just abysmal, but also one of the worst in the world – and, perhaps, for good reason. There have been many attempts to systemically assess it – ranging from renowned NGOs to major international organizations. An independent commission established by the United Nations to investigate the human rights situation in the DPRK issued a statement in 2014, comparing the human rights violations happening there to those committed by Nazi Germany. That notoriety would often get the country’s government into trouble with the United Nations, the European Union, United States, as well as most international human rights organizations. While the DPRK rejects all these accusations as politically biased, hardly anyone believes the government at this point.
Before going into details, let us look at the context of the situation. Because the country is so isolated, it is very hard to systemize all those various human rights violations, even though the United Nations tried to do so through the aforementioned investigation, which also published a comprehensive report in 2014. The report’s findings were based on the review of documental evidence that was available outside of North Korea as well as on the detailed interviews with North Korean refugees. Even though Pyongyang was invited to contribute to the report and asked on multiple occasions to let the investigation team into the country, North Koreans simply refused to cooperate. Now, let me briefly summarize some of the main findings of the report and add a couple of other important points to follow-up on the more recent developments in this field. By the way, if you are curious about the details of that report, I will attach a link to this episode’s blogpost.
Now, what did the report say? With regard to political rights, the findings will probably not surprise you. After all, we are talking about a very authoritarian country. The report concludes that there is no right to free speech since the only media providers that are deemed legal are those operated by the government in North Korea. Freedom of assembly of association are virtually non-existent either. Any public displays of opposition to the ruling Party or to the government is harshly punished by sending dissenters to labor or prison camps. An estimated 200,000 prisoners were incarcerated in camps that are dedicated to political crimes, where they are subjected to forced labor, physical abuse, and execution. The government has banned any form of independent media or civil society organizations; all of these institutions have to be affiliated with the Workers’ Party of Korea, if they are to be allowed to operate.
The circulation of unapproved information is perilous for the very foundations of the North Korean political regime, which results in a variety of other restrictions. For example, freedom of religion is also very limited, as you might remember from episode 16. North Korea is a self-proclaimed atheist state and trying to preach there as a missionary will most likely cause you a lot of trouble. The government does not want to see any competing ideologies that could rival its cherished idea of kimilsungism-kimjongilism. All electronic communications systems ranging from radios to smartphones are strictly controlled by the government. To ensure that the unnecessary contacts with the outside world or with each other do not happen, citizens are not allowed to travel within and outside of the country without special permits.
Despite the fact that the North Korean government is said to be communist (which is a wrong assumption), it fails to provide basic necessities for its populace as well protect the rights of at-risk groups such women, children, and people with disabilities. The report findings, most importantly, accuse the DPRK of crimes against humanity both in political prison camps and in the ordinary prison system.
Some of these allegations relate to foreign citizens as well. The North Korean government strictly monitors the activities of foreign visitors and bans any spontaneous contacts between foreigners and locals. That does not mean that the DPRK does not want any foreigners in the country. In fact, Pyongyang was also known for abducting Japanese citizens in the 1970s-1980s. However, there have been many cases of trialing and imprisoning foreigners, who do not abide by the local rules and become bargaining chips in Pyongyang’s diplomatic games. You probably have heard or read about the most recent notorious case of this kind – that of Otto Warmbier in 2017. Even diplomats and humanitarian aid workers are subject to considerable scrutiny and they are also excluded from places and regions which the government does not want them to enter.
The list of violations and all sorts of ridiculous restrictions can go on and on. It is hard to systemize or categorize all these cases. Nevertheless, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights has attempted to do that through interviewing the North Korean defectors. The results of its research have shown that the most violated type of rights fall into the category “Personal integrity and right to liberty” followed by the “Right to movement and residence” and “Right to life”. If you are interested in the details of their research, I will be attaching their diagram together with a link reference to the episode’s blogpost.
Source: NK. Database Center for North Korean Human Rights http://www.nkdb.org/en/database/findings.php
The government of the DPRK, however, reckons that all the international criticisms of the human rights situation in the country are based on ungrounded allegations and political discrimination. Pyongyang rejects all UN resolutions on its human rights situation, calling them a “political plot”. The government maintains that the human rights situation in the country is absolutely normal and that other countries are attempting to meddle into North Korean internal affairs. Specifically, Pyongyang claims that such investigations in general, are a part of the American “hostile policy” against North Korea, which is based on the “aggression of the United States”. Interestingly, North Korean officials openly admit that people are sent to labor and prison camps as a form of punishment, even though they refer to those as “education places” rather than concentration camps.
Despite Pyongyang’s loud protests, in 2014, the UN General Assembly recommended the UN Security Council to look into the situation and put the North Korean leadership to justice by referring North Korean human rights issue to the International Criminal Court. For the first time in history, the North Korean human rights situation was examined at a real UN Security Council meeting. Unfortunately, due to the fact that North Korea has relatively good political relations with two members of the Security Council – specifically, China and Russia – the resolution aimed at solving the issue did not get through as both of these nations have veto power in the Council.
When the claim was brought to the International Criminal Court (or the ICC) by independent human rights NGOs, the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the alleged crimes referred to the ICC were neither committed on the territory of an ICC member state nor by a national of a member state, nor has the United Nations Security Council referred the situation in question. Hence, as you see, the situation with enforcement is unlikely to progress further any time soon.
One might feel sorry for average North Koreans, yet there is a question that we need to seriously think about – how did the situation become so bad in the first place? Surely, there are many authoritarian regimes across the world that violate human rights of their citizens, especially when it comes to political and civil rights, but why is the North Korean case so bad? I see that there are four factors at play here, even though the first three are somewhat linked to the key goal of the North Korean elites – ensuring the survival of the ruling Kim dynasty. Let us look at these factors separately.
First, when we are talking about North Korea, we are not talking about just some authoritarian regime. For what it’s worth, on the scale of authoritarianism the DPRK probably would end up at the harshest end. In international rankings of democracy or freedom, Pyongyang regularly lands at the very bottom. As many academic researchers and human rights organizations point out, similar to many former communist regimes, the DPRK’s government has never held a free and fair election or guaranteed the separation of powers since it claims to be “a dictatorship of people’s democracy”. The reason for such a harsh approach can be explained by the fact that the North Korean elites always feel unsafe due to the immense degree of external pressure coming from South Korea and, especially, the United States. Pyongyang believes and, not without legitimate reasons, that Washington would have used a regime change strategy against it, had it been given a chance. Hence, the North Korean elites are extremely paranoid about the possibility of potential dissent, which is why they attempt to repress any form of opposition at home.
Second, since the main goal of the North Korean regime is the preservation of the Kim dynasty’s rule and prevention of reunification with the South on Seoul’s conditions, its main tool for ensuring the status-quo is the complete informational isolation of the North Korean people. Naturally, this concept already violates their freedom for information. Nevertheless, the practical side of implementing this isolation implies many more additional restrictions to ensure the system’s integrity. Specifically, freedom of movement is restricted so as to prevent North Koreans from travelling outside and bringing politically sensitive information about South Korea and its wealth, for example. That is also why communication with foreigners is banned as well as possession of any foreign or unauthorized media. On the other hand, punishments for circulating and distributing such information are extremely harsh – for example, illegally crossing the border automatically qualifies you as a national traitor and would earn you at least several years in a re-education camp in the best-case scenario.
The third factor is the prioritization of the North Korean nuclear weapons program by the government in its allocation of national budget. Understanding the importance of the nuclear program explains the poor socio-economic conditions in the country and the government’s inability to provide the population even with the most basic of services. Yes, there are many examples of authoritarian regimes violating human rights, whose population is still quite well off – ranging from the Persian Gulf monarchies to the People’s Republic of China. However, North Korea is an unfortunate example of a complete economic failure. The results of Kim Jong-il’s economic incompetence were even further exacerbated by the economic sanctions that were imposed on North Korea by the United Nations as well as by many countries bilaterally throughout the 2000s and 2010s. All of those sanctions were naturally imposed on North Korea for breaching the provisions of international law forbidding nuclear non-proliferation and were intended as a way to encourage denuclearization. The sanctions largely targeted the elites with bans of luxury goods as well as targeted sanctions and travel bans. However, some of the sectoral sanctions genuinely aimed at harming the country’s economic potential to bolster up political pressure coming from the inside. The problem is that the elites in Pyongyang are ready to starve their people to death but not give up on the nuclear weapons that they have. In their eyes, nuclear warheads are much more loyal than an average North Korean citizen. Prioritization of funding for the military, therefore, becomes a political must, while the North Korean population ends up paying a large share of the socio-economic costs of the nuclear program.
Finally, there is a relatively low level of interest for the issue of North Korean human rights in most of the nations that can exert some level of pressure on Pyongyang. China and Russia have always turned their blind eye on the issue since they are often criticized for human rights abuses by the West themselves. Japan is interested exclusively in that one segment of the issue, which relates to its own citizens. As for the United States and South Korea (as well as for the EU, to a lesser extent) – the human rights questions are always used by them as a political card; and the approach changes from administration to administration. In short, there is no consistent approach to the issue at international level.
Before wrapping up, I would like to say again that it is very hard to assess the human rights situation in the DPRK, especially, in just one small podcast episode. After all, it can be a topic of an entire PhD dissertation as well as that of a series of long criminal investigations and court hearings. If you are particularly interested in this topic, I would recommend you read the UN investigation on this topic as well as some of the testimonies and memoirs published by the North Korean refugees. A good idea would be to read “In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom” by Park Yeon-mi, for example, a review which you can check out on the podcast’s website.
That said, we do have to understand that some of these testimonies can be quite biased as cases like that of Shin Dong-hyuk show us. Shin Dong-hyuk is a famous North Korean refugee, who published a book called “Escape from Camp 14”, where he apparently exaggerated his experiences in prison just to attract more media attention in South Korea and in the United States. Thus, if you are reading some of the “bestseller memoirs”, you should always take some of the statements made there with a grain of salt. One of the key problems in that respect is that it is practically impossible to verity such statements due to the reclusiveness of the North Korean regime. For other sources of information, you could also visit the websites of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, OHCHR in Seoul, or PSCORE.
To end on a less negative note, I would like to tell you that some small improvements in this area have been happening in the DPRK until 2020. Specifically, the income and living standards of an average North Korean have been steadily growing in that period – even though with occasional bumps as evidenced by the research results of Andrei Lankov as well as data provided by the Bank of Korea. People received a lot of new economic rights to run businesses. After his rise to power, Kim Jong-un also significantly reduced the number of political prison camps for rank-and-file citizens (partially, because he refocused his repression efforts on the North Korean elites). After a lot of “naming-and-shaming” in the UN Universal Periodic Review of 2014 and 2019, Pyongyang has been grudgingly undertaking half-hearted efforts to implement some of the recommendations it received – such as, for example, creating more favorable conditions and better infrastructure for the disabled people in the urbanized areas. Alas, this small progress is certainly dwarfed by the graveness of the overall human rights situation in the country. It is also unclear how this progress was impacted by the socially and economically debilitating coronavirus pandemic under the conditions of the North Korean quarantine. Like with many things North Korean, the situation will become clearer only in the distant future when the country becomes less isolated and opens the doors of its archives for all historians and social scientists.
What do you think though? Will the human rights situation ever improve under the ruling Kim dynasty? Or will it only come with political change? Leave your opinion in the comments below or in the review section. If you like this episode, please leave a positive review on the podcast platform or make a donation on the podcast’s website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com. Also feel free to provide your feedback on this episode’s quality and ask any questions about North Korea that you might have. Thank you for listening! Stay healthy and stay tuned.
References and follow-up reading:
- Fahy, S. (2019). Dying for rights: Putting North Korea’s human rights abuses on the record. Columbia University Press.
- UN HRC (2021). Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/ReportoftheCommissionofInquiryDPRK.aspx
- Amnesty International (2021). North Korea, 2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/north-korea/report-korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of/
- Ministry of Unification (2021). North Korean Human Rights, https://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/whatwedo/NorthKoreanHumanRights/humanrights/
- PSCORE Website – https://pscore.org
- UNHCR Seoul – https://seoul.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/HOME.aspx
- Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Website – https://www.hrnk.org
- HRW (2020). North Korea: Events of 2019, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/north-korea#
- My notes old notes on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea, https://www.academia.edu/19750218/SITUATION_OF_HUMAN_RIGHTS_IN_DPRK
Ask Me About North Korea 
One thought on “Episode 34 – How bad is the human rights situation in the DPRK and how did it get there?”