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Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Editor’s Note: This summer’s <Life & Human Rights in North Korea>
is a special edition of the 9

International Conference on North Korean

Human Rights and Refugees. In addition to the welcome address and
keynote speech which were not included in the conference book, it
compiles media reports and participants’ comments on the conference.

| C

ONTENTS

PEECHES

Address to the 9

International Conference on North Korean

Human Rights and Refugees

Stephen Smith

· 4

The Struggle for Human Rights in North Korea: The Road Ahead

Carl Gershman

· 9

EDIA

EPORTS

Land of Hidden Horrors

Greg Sheridan / The Australian

· 13

World Can’t Ignore N Korea Rights: Smith

The Sydney Morning Herald

· 18

Voices of North Korean Defectors Heard From Down Under

Kavi Chongkittavorn / The Nation

· 19

Atlantic Eye: Branded for Life by North Korea

Marc S. Ellenbogen / UPI

· 23

Human Rights in North Korea

ABC Radio National

· 26

OMMENTS

What To Do About North Korea?

Michael Danby

· 33

Toward a Greater Multilateral Cooperation on North Korea

Nakagawa Masaharu

· 36

International Concerns over North Korean Human Rights

Un-Chul Yang

· 39

This quarterly is published in Korean and English.

All expenses were paid for with voluntary contributions

from Korean citizens.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

SPEECHES _ _ _ ____ __

Address to the 9th International Conference on

North Korean Human Rights and Refugees

Hon. Stephen Smith MP

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia

Thank you, Michael, for your introduction.

I congratulate you on your work as Chair of the Australian Committee for
Human Rights in North Korea.

I acknowledge the support of the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human
Rights in organising this event and welcome our international participants to
Australia and to Melbourne.

The Australian Government is firmly committed to international efforts to
protect human rights.

The  human  rights  situation  above  the  38th  parallel  is  appalling. Famine,
torture,  disappearances,  arbitrary  detention,  repression  and  countless  other
indignities  have  been  visited  on  the  people  of  North  Korea  by  their  own
leaders.

It is over 60 years now since the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The
international structures and systems that have developed to support that
Declaration have faced and still face a severe test in dealing with North Korea.

Today I will outline the Australian Government’s action in support of the
international protection of human rights.

We seek to strengthen international action by working to bolster international
systems and promote international respect for human rights standards. We act
where we can to promote human rights in North Korea but, like many

This is the keynote speech of the 9

International Conference on North Korean

Human Rights and Refugees

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

members of the international community, we are under no illusion that our
actions alone will bring about change.

The Human Rights Situation in North Korea

There  are many  experts here today,  from  Korea  and  elsewhere,  who  will  be
able  to  give  you  first hand information  about human rights  abuses  in  North
Korea.

I particularly welcome the participation of the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Situation  of  Human  Rights  in  the  DRPK,  Professor  Muntabhorn. He  has
recently reported to the Human Rights Council and I am sure he will bring a
well-informed  and  current  perspective  to  discussions  later  today.  Professor
Muntabhorn’s  report  makes  for  troubling  reading  in  its  cataloguing  of  the
systematic violation of human rights in North Korea.

From denial of the simple right to food and basic necessities to State-
sanctioned torture and execution, millions of innocent people in North Korea
are suffering under a brutal regime. This situation is all the more galling given
the considerable expenditure of resources in North Korea on missile and
nuclear programs.

Much of the international community’s attention is understandably focused on
these  programs  and  Australia  has  long  held  grave  concerns  over
them. Australia  deplores  provocative  North  Korean  actions  like  its  current
planned missile launch, and urges that this not proceed. Australia also strongly
supports  Japan’s  call  for  a  full  accounting  of  the  fate  of  Japanese  citizens
abducted by North Korea.

Pyongyang’s  continuing  unpredictable  behaviour  is  a  stark  reminder  of  the
dangers  of  nuclear  proliferation.  We  are  using  our  strong  non-proliferation
credentials  to  support  international  efforts  towards  denuclearisation  of  the
Korean Peninsula, including the Six Party Talks. The Australian Government
does not, however, believe that these efforts should impede parallel action to
address the grave humanitarian situation in North Korea.

That  is  why  events  like  today’s  Conference  are  so  important. We  need  to
continue  to  raise  awareness,  exchange  information  and  explore  new
approaches  to  addressing  the  appalling  violation  of  human  rights  in  North
Korea. We  must  remember  that  behind  the  statistics  there  are  thousands  of
individual lives being lived and lost.

I was particularly struck by the recent story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only
person living in South Korea known to have escaped from a North Korean
prison camp. Shin was born in the camp, sentenced with his family to a life of

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

unimaginable  horror  and  misery  because  of  the  supposed  crimes  of  his
uncles. Shin  was  tortured  by  fire, had  a  finger amputated  and  witnessed  the
shooting of his brother and the hanging of his mother before escaping to the
South. To  read  of  these  almost  unfathomable  cruelties  is  to  glimpse  State-
sanctioned  behaviour  that  is  anathema  to  our  common  human  dignity. The
true magnitude of the situation comes with the realisation that Shin’s ordeal is
by no means an isolated case.

Australia’s response in an international context

How do we respond to the tragedy of a State’s blatant disregard for its own
people’s welfare?

Our priority must be to provide assistance in those areas where we can do so
with  immediate  effect. For  Australia,  this  means  providing  humanitarian
assistance  including  food,  water,  sanitation and medicines  and  ensuring  this
assistance  is  well-targeted  and  delivered  effectively  to  those  in  need.  Since
1994-95, Australia has contributed $75.7 million in humanitarian assistance to
the people of North Korea. Our commitments this financial  year are A$6.75
million to date.

Australia also consistently registers our deep human rights concern bilaterally
with the North Korean Government. Our Ambassador to South Korea visited
Pyongyang earlier this month to express our position.

We  are,  however,  keenly  aware  that  effective  pressure  on  human  rights
standards in North Korea will best come from concerted international action.
North Korea may be isolated, insular, and indeed sometimes impervious to the
outside  world  but  we  continue  to  believe  that  action  by  the  international
community  can  produce  positive  results.  Australia  is  therefore  active  in
international fora in encouraging human rights institutions to take coordinated
action.

Australia  co-sponsored  a  resolution  on  the  human  rights  situation  in  North
Korea at the most recent UN General Assembly late last year. That resolution
expressed serious concern over reports of systematic violation of human rights,
including torture and inhuman conditions of detention as well as violations of
economic, social and cultural rights which have led to severe malnutrition and
health  problems.  We  are  looking  to  co-sponsor  a  similar  resolution  in  the
Human  Rights  Council  over  coming  days  and  are  working  in  Geneva  to
ensure a robust text.

Australia also supports the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur,
Professor Muntabhorn, to ensure that a human rights expert appointed by the

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Human Rights Council continues to report specifically on the situation in
North Korea.

Supporting and strengthening multilateralism

Australia’s strong support for international action in response to the human
rights situation in North Korea reflects our longstanding commitment to
multilateralism and, in particular, the United Nations.

In  fact  one  of  my  distinguished  predecessors,  Foreign  Minister,  H  V  Evatt,
who led Australia's delegation to the UN’s founding meeting in San Francisco,
was  a  powerful  advocate  for  giving  the  new  body  a  human  rights  mandate.
Evatt’s vision of an international body that would protect human rights, and
advance global economic and social development, was a significant formative
influence  on  the  development  of  the  United  Nations.  The  member  states'
pledge to pursue these goals within the UN became known in San Francisco
as  “the  Australian  pledge”.  It  now  forms  article  56  of  the  United  Nations
Charter. Evatt's vision is more important today than it has ever been. The need
for  effective,  global  responses  to  the  challenges  such  as  the  human  rights
situation in North Korea is more urgent and necessary than ever before.

Australia is determined to play a constructive role in shaping those responses
and, in doing so, to consolidate our reputation as a good international citizen.
The assistance to North Korea I have mentioned is part of our commitment to
the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals. That commitment also
guided our pledge to increase our official development assistance from 0.3 to
0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015. We have also committed
$200  million  over  four  years  under  the  “UN  Partnership  for  the  MDGs”
budget  measure.  Through  this  initiative,  Australia  will  work  closely  in
partnership with key UN agencies leading international efforts to achieve the goals.

Our commitment to strengthen Australia’s engagement with the international
human rights system is reflected in the action the Australian Government has
taken since coming to office in 2007. We have extended a standing invitation
to  United  Nations  human  rights  experts  to  visit  Australia.  In  July  last  year,
Australia became one of the first Western countries to ratify the Convention
on  the  Rights  of  Persons  with  Disabilities.  The  Government  has  also
commenced  the  process  towards  becoming  a  party  to  the  Convention's
Optional Protocol.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) entered into force in Australia on
4 March 2009. Being a party to the Protocol enables Australian women to

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

bring complaints under CEDAW to the United Nations where domestic
remedies have been exhausted.

The Government has also begun consultations with State and Territory
counterparts and NGOs on Australia becoming a party to the Optional
Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. The Optional Protocol establishes
a system of United Nations visits to places of detention and requires states to
establish a domestic mechanism to monitor detention.

In last year’s budget the Government announced an additional $200 million
over four years in dedicated funding to key United Nations agencies such as
UNICEF and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.

This commitment enables Australia to contribute directly to work on issues as
diverse as increasing child literacy, improving maternal and child health and
the empowerment of women in countries beyond our own region.

Earlier this month, on International Women’s Day, Tanya Plibersek, Minister
for the Status of Women, and I committed over $17 million from this
additional funding to UNIFEM to address inequality between men and women.
This will support programs to reduce women’s poverty and exclusion, end
violence against women, reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS among women
and girls and support women’s leadership.

Conclusion

The  strength  of  the  Government’s  engagement  on human rights reflects  our
conviction  that  only  global  responses  will  be  effective  in addressing human
rights challenges.

Australia regards the situation in North Korea as one of the most critical
challenges in this context. It is not a situation the international community can
afford to ignore.

Australia will continue to do all it can to maintain international focus on ways
in which we can assist the people of North Korea.

Events such as today’s Conference contribute to that focus and provide
important perspectives on a complex and appalling situation.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

The Struggle for Human Rights in North Korea:

The Road Ahead

Carl Gershman

President, National Endowment for Democracy, USA

It's a special pleasure to be in Australia for the 9

International Conference on

Human Rights in North Korea. Each of our previous conferences - and here I
want to pay tribute to our leader, the Rev. Benjamin Yoon -- has taken us a
step forward in the struggle to free the North Korean people -- from ending
the  almost total  silence  that  existed  a  decade  ago about  this  dark,  famished,
and  inaccessible  corner  of  the  world;  to  creating  and  broadening  an
international coalition of activists from Asia, Europe, and North America; to
engaging  new  countries  in  this  struggle  -  first  South  Korea,  of  course,  and
then  Japan;  and  thereafter  the  Czech  Republic,  Poland,  Norway  and  the
United Kingdom.

And now we are in Australia, a country whose Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd,
visited  North  Korea as  an  opposition  backbencher a  full  decade  ago,  before
anyone was paying attention, and returned to speak about a situation that he
said was "as serious and as grave as anything that I have seen or previously
considered to be possible."   He described what he called "a strange place," a
country  with  a  political  system  so  repressive  as  to  be  "the  last  vestige  of
Stalinism  to  be  seen  anywhere  in  the  world,"  a  place  where  famine  had
already taken the lives of up to three million people and had created what he
called "the largest humanitarian crisis we have seen in this region" since the
terrible  famine  of  China's  Great  Leap  Forward  four  decades  earlier. And  the
future Prime Minister did not just decry this horror. He also called upon the
government of the Liberal Party, not his own, to provide humanitarian relief
in North Korea, which it did, in a spirit that transcended party differences.

And  so  it  is  indeed  a  special  pleasure  to  be  in  Australia  and  to  have  the
opportunity  to  thank  Prime  Minister  Rudd  for  his  commitment  and  his
concern. And it is also a special pleasure to be here in Melbourne, a city that
has  sent  to  the  federal  parliament  our  host  Michael  Danby,  who  is  not  just

This is the welcome address of the 9

International Conference on North Korean

Human Rights and Refugees

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Australia's most outspoken advocate for international human rights, but who
is for Australia what the late Congressman Tom Lantos was for the United
States - an eloquent voice, a moral leader, a source of solidarity for those
around the world who live in darkness and oppression - from China and Tibet
to Darfur and Burma, and now to North Korea.

The fact that this meeting is being held in Melbourne and will be addressed by
Foreign  Minister  Stephen  Smith  is  already  a  significant  contribution  by
Australia to the cause of human rights in North Korea. And there is more that
Australia can do, much more. In addition to providing humanitarian relief, as
it  has  done  so  generously,  Australia  could  sponsor  educational  and  cultural
exchanges  with  North  Korea,  sending  teachers  to  give  courses  in  North
Korean  schools  and  universities  and  bringing  young  North  Koreans  to
Australia to see an entirely different kind of world. I know it will not be easy
to  arrange  such  exchanges  given  North  Korea's  continuing  belligerent
behavior, though Australia is better able to do it than, for example, the United
States, since it is a step removed from the negotiations over the nuclear and
other contentious issues.

There is also the concern, which I fully understand, that such exchanges might
seem to confer legitimacy on a government that oppresses its own people. But
offsetting  this  concern  is the likelihood  that  such  exchanges  will help  break
down  the  isolation  that  insulates  and  buttresses  North  Korean
totalitarianism. As  Andrei  Lankov  has noted  - referring to the  experience  of
his  own  country  the  Soviet  Union  --  a  regime  built  upon  lies  is  profoundly
vulnerable  to  anything  that  introduces  truth  into  political  and  everyday
life. This is true of all totalitarianism regimes, but North Korea is especially
vulnerable  since  it  has  a  successful  Korean  society  right  next  door,
highlighting without any cultural or nationalist filters the Orwellian inversion
of the truth that Pyongyang tries to impose on its still isolated population.

That  isolation  is  already  breaking  down. With  some  15,000  North  Korean
defectors now living in the South, and as the number of North Koreans who
have  access  to  China  has  increased,  many  new  channels  of  communication
have begun to develop. Let me mention four of them:

· First, there are now numerous independent radio stations

broadcasting into North Korea, many of them run by defectors, that
provide  people  inside  North  Korea  with  news  about  what  is
happening in their own country and a window on the outside world.
Interviews  have  been  conducted  with  some  200  North  Korean
refugees  and  travelers  in  China  confirming  that  North  Koreans

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

regularly listen to these radios and that information is increasingly
being circulated among informal social networks.

· Second, there are now other sources of information, such as the

quarterly  magazine  Imjingang  which  is  distributed  throughout  the
Korean  peninsula  and  receives  information  from  reporters  its  staff
has  trained  from  within  North  Korea.  The  magazine  contains
commentaries on daily life, news on major incidents, information on
popular trends in North Korean society, and even the opinions people
have of government policies.

· Third, groups of defectors from particular sectors - intellectuals, for

example,  and  former  military  officials  -  are  beginning  to reconnect
with their former colleagues still inside the country and provide them
with  information  and  advice  that  can  help  them  try  to  reform  the
country in incremental but important ways.

· And fourth, informal channels and contacts are expanding, from

traders going back and forth to China, to defectors in South Korea
calling their family members in the North and describing their new
lives, to South Korean soap operas that are increasingly watched in
the North and show life in an open an affluent society.

These are some of the ways that the information blockade built by the North
Korean regime is beginning to break down.

One of the issues this conference will highlight is artistic expression, which is
one  of  the  most  important  ways  that  people  living  under  dictatorship
communicate  their  experience  to  the  outside  world  and  liberate  their
consciousness from the strangle-hold of the state. One just has to think of the
Soviet  writer  Alexander  Solzhenitsyn  or  the  Ukrainian  poet  Vasyl
Stus. During the past year I saw three powerful films about North Korea, each
of  which  portrays  life  in  North  Korea  in  an  unforgettable  way. There's
"Crossing," the heart-breaking story of a family broken apart and destroyed by
the  North  Korean  system;  "Yodok  Stories,"  which  we  shall  see  later  today,
where  we hear  from  the  former  prisoners  in the  North Korean  Gulag  whose
harrowing  experiences  were  the  basis  for  the  famous  stage  play  "Yodok
Story;"  and  "Kimjongilia,"  the  documentary  on  North  Korea  that  was
produced by our own Nancy Heikin, who participated in some of our earlier
conferences.

I also had the pleasure some months ago of welcoming the pianist Kim Cheol-
woong to New York and also to Washington, where he played at the State
Department and the Polish Embassy. One piece he played was "Amazing

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Grace," which he learned on a piano in a Korean-Chinese church when he was
a refugee in China following his escape from North Korea in 2001. "Amazing
Grace"  was  the  anthem,  along  with  "We  Shall  Overcome,"  of  the  American
civil right movement in the 1960s, as it had been a century before in the anti-
slavery movement in England and the United States. It conveyed the spirit of
those  struggles,  each  of  which  ultimately  triumphed. Cheol-woong,  through
his  music,  conveys  the  spirit  of  the  struggle  today  for  the  liberation  of  the
North Korean people.   Judging by how far we have come since we first met
almost  ten  years  ago,  and  by  the  changes  that  are  only  beginning  to  unfold
inside  North  Korea,  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  struggle,  too,  shall  ultimately
triumph. May our work today take us another step in that direction.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

MEDIA REPORTS _ _ _ ____ __

Land of hidden horrors

Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor

The Australian

IF you ask Shin Dong-hyuk where he was born, he'll tell you: "I was born
in Political Prisoners' Camp No 14."

That's in Kaecheon City, South Pyeong-An province, North Korea. Shin is the
only man known to have escaped from North Korea's labour camp gulag,
which is said to house up to 200,000 people.

Shin was born there because his uncles were said to have given some
assistance to South Korea during the Korean War. So Shin's father inherited
his brothers' guilt. And Shin inherited his father's guilt.

Shin lives now in South Korea and was this week in Melbourne attending the
9th  International  Conference  on  North  Korean  Human  Rights.  This
conference  was  organised  by  Michael  Danby,  the  Labor  member  for
Melbourne Ports and consistently the parliament's most fearless and important
advocate for human rights.

Not many people care about North Korean human rights. They should. Shin
escaped in 2005. Listen to his story: "In the prison camp there is a system of
rewards, by allowing marriage between workers. If you're a good prisoner and
meet all your work quotas the man is allowed to marry and live for five days
or so in the same room as his wife. Then the man goes back to the factory or
the mine and lives in a dormitory. If the man meets all his work quotas he's
allowed to get together with his wife for one day a month."

But don't think this glimmer of humanity reflected any normality in this North
Korean Stalinist labour camp. Says Shin: "In the political prisoner camp you

This article was published in the Australian on March 21, 2009.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

cannot fall in love. You cannot meet anyone and have a proper relationship.
The guards arrange the marriage as a reward for exemplary workers. And
really it's only one-night meetings after that."

Shin's  father  was  an  exemplary  worker,  and  so  young  Shin  saw  him  once
almost every month. But, he says: "I couldn't feel any affection between my
father  and  my  mother.  I  also  couldn't  feel  any  affection  from  my  father  for
me." Shin was allowed to stay in the room with his mother until he was 11.
Schooling  was  rudimentary.  There  were  separate  schools  for  the  inmates'
children  and  the  guards'  children. The  inmates'  children  learned  to read and
write, add and subtract. That was about all.

From  the  age  of  12,  children  went  to  live  in  dormitories,  with  minimal
continued schooling and full-time work, 12 hours a day, one day off a month.
So  dehumanised  was  their  situation  that  the  teachers  did not  even  bother to
teach Shin and the others about North Korea's first leader, Kim Il-sung, or his
son, Kim Jong-il. In its way, this is the most bizarre twist of all. North Korean
society is organised around a cult of quasi-religious personality worship of the
two  Kims,  the  deceased  father  and  the  ruling  son.  Yet  Shin  said  he'd  never
heard of Kim Jong-il in the camp.

That means that even in the debased currency of humanity in North Korea, the
40,000 prisoners in Camp 14 were less than human in the government's view.

In 1996, when he was all of 14, Shin was sent to a prison cell within the camp.
He was told that his family was plotting to escape and repeatedly interrogated
about this, although he says at that stage he knew of no such plans. After three
months of solitary confinement he was sent to another cell with another
prisoner. After seven months' incarceration altogether, Shin was brought to a
kind of public square within the camp: "I didn't know who it was, but I knew
someone was going to be executed. I thought it might be me. I found it was
my brother and my mother."

Right there, in front of Shin, his mother was hanged and his older brother was
shot.

I meet Shin for two long interviews. He is a small-framed man, slightly built,
wiry and seems both shy and nervous, hyper vigilant, his eyes darting here
and there, a look of apprehension never far away.

His hands sometimes tense and clench as he tells this story. He has told it
many times. But it is never easy in the telling.

Surely I ask him, there were some friendships in the camp, maybe when he
was a child. His reply is unfathomably bleak: "There's no system to build

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

friendship  in  that  prison.  We  can't  trust  each  other.  Today  we  might  be
working  in  a  team,  but  tomorrow  we  might  be  enemies,  informing  on  each
other  or  stealing  each  other's  food."  Yet,  in  the  end,  it  was  friendship  that
saved Shin.

Along  the  way  he  experienced  some  bouts  of  what  he  describes  as  good
fortune. One day he dropped a sewing machine as he was carrying it upstairs.
The normal  penalty  for  breaking  equipment  was  death  by  shooting.  But the
guards  decided  as  punishment  merely  to  chop  the middle  finger  of  his right
hand off at the top knuckle.

But when Shin was 23, in 2005, a new prisoner came into the camp, an older
man  who  had  lived  in  Pyongyang.  Shin  was  assigned  to  teach  him  how  to
work  on  sewing  machines.  It  meant  that  the  two  men  spent  a  lot  of  time
together  and  actually  had  the  chance  to  talk.  They  became  friends,  an  epic
development in Shin's life. It was the first time Shin really learned anything
substantial about the world outside the prison camp.

Often they talked of food. Officially the prisoners were not allowed to eat
meat, although sometimes they caught a rat, or found a dead bird. But the new
prisoner had eaten real food in Pyongyang. They shared their meagre rations
and talked of feasts they might one day share.

They decided to escape together. Shin would get them through the electrified
barbed wire fence, his new friend would navigate their way out through China.
Shin's friend died in the escape attempt, but Shin got out.

Surviving on the outside was very tough: "It's shameful to admit, but I stole
food from houses." He traded some of that food and stolen cigarettes to bribe
border guards to let him through to China.

I've interviewed a number of North Korean defectors living in South Korea.
They are all grateful to have escaped, but I've never met one who feels their
life is happy. The past is an awesome burden to them. Says Shin: "The reason
I wanted to escape is that I was so hungry all the time. My only dream was not
to be hungry, so I suppose I achieved that.

"I  don't  know  that  I  have  a  lot  happiness  or  joy.  I  still  have  nightmares  of
being  there.  And  there  are  a  lot  of  burdens  about  it.  Maybe  the  thought  of
Camp 14 haunts me, and the memory of it. I ask what can I do for the people
who are still there. Sometimes I feel I am representing all the people who live
in Camp 14. I would like to see my father again."

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

For Kim Cheol Weoong, it was the French romantic composer, Richard
Clayderman, who got him into trouble. Kim is another defector in Melbourne
for the North Korean conference.

Kim's background and life in North Korea could not have been more different
from Shin's. Kim's father was a high official and his mother a professor. Kim
was a gifted pianist and allowed the rare privilege of studying for four years in
Russia, at the Tchaikovsky Academy. But he saw the madness of the society
he lived in. Once he was touring the provinces with the symphony orchestra
and at one railway station saw dead bodies, people who had apparently
starved to death and not been moved from where they had died.

On another occasion a brilliant young pianist had played superbly at a Chopin
festival. The supreme dictator, Kim Jong-il, had been impressed and told the
young pianist he should also play in the Tchaikovsky competition. The young
man answered modestly that he thought he would need more practice for that.
Insanely, this was construed as the grievous crime of disagreeing with the
"Dear Leader" and the young pianist was sent to work in a mine for 10 years.

For  Kim,  the  moment  of  truth  came  in  private.  North  Korean  Stalinism
decrees  that  neither  modern  classical  nor  popular  music  can  be  played.
Privately, Kim was practising a Clayderman melody that he wanted to play to
his girlfriend. Someone heard it and reported him. He was summonsed to the
Security  Bureau  office  and  forced  to  write 10  self-criticisms  apologising  for
his action.

He  later  escaped  across  the  Tumen  River  into  China  and  was  helped,  as  so
many defectors have been, by a Christian community there. But at one point
he  was  arrested  in  China  and  put  on  a  train  back  to  North  Korea.  It  was  a
death train. Kim was sure he would be shot as a traitor back in North Korea.
He managed to climb out of the train's bathroom window and cling on for dear
life  to  the  roof  of  the  train  until  it  made  a  stop.  Then  he  slipped  away  and
found more Christians, who helped him get to South Korea eventually.

The artist who goes only by the nom de guerre, Sun Mu, was annoyed as an
art student that he was not allowed to paint portraits of Kim Jong-il. This was
a privilege allowed only to a tiny handful of artists. He too escaped through
China and now paints parodies of North Korean propaganda.

It is astonishing that the stories of these defectors, and others like them, are so
little known. It is as if because of the security threat that North Korea poses
we cannot afford to spend time worrying about its unbelievable barbarity to its
own people.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Shin has written a book, Escape to the Outside World. It has sold only a few
hundred copies in South Korea and has not been translated into English. Yet
surely nowhere in the world today are there greater human rights abuses than
in North Korea.

Danby has done a good thing in holding this conference in Australia. There
are no votes in it for him. There are no North Koreans in Melbourne Ports.
But if there is nothing much practical that we can do for the people suffering
the logical consequences of communism in North Korea, at the very least we
can bear some witness to what is going on there.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

World can't ignore N Korea rights: Smith

The Sydney Morning Herald

North Korea's appalling human rights record cannot be ignored by the
international community, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

Addressing an international conference on North Korean human rights and
refugees, Mr Smith said that those working to uphold human rights faced a
severe test in dealing with North Korea.

"The human rights situation above the 38th parallel is appalling," he told the
conference in Melbourne on Friday.

While Australia seeks to strengthen international action to promote respect in
North Korea, the challenges are enormous, he added.

"Like many members of the international community, unfortunately we are
under no illusions that our actions alone will bring about change," Mr Smith
said.

"From denial of the simple right to food and basic necessities, state sanctioned
torture and execution, millions of innocent people in North Korea are
suffering under a very brutal regime."

The precarious situation is compounded by the North Korean government's
commitment of resources to spending on missile and nuclear programs.

"North Korea's continuing unpredictable behaviour is a stark reminder of the
dangers of nuclear proliferation," the foreign minister warned.

Since 1994, Australian governments have given $75 million in humanitarian
assistance to the people of North Korea, with $7 million committed in the
2008-09 financial year.

This article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on March 20, 2009.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Voices of North Korean defectors

heard from Down Under

Kavi Chongkittavorn

The Nation, Thailand

PAINTER Sun Mu appeared on the stage with a huge sticker of a North
Korean flag across his chest. Then, he slowly took it off, piece by piece,
until the flag with a star in the centre disappeared and the audience saw
his  white  T-shirt  underneath.  Then  he  declared,  "I  am  free,"  before
joining  Cheol-woong  Kim  and  former  members  of  the  Pyongyang
Philharmonic Orchestra in a panel discussion.

After  a  few  words  of  introduction  about  his  life  and  how  he  crossed  the
Turman  River and  escaped  from  North  Korea,  Kim  walked  towards  a  piano
and played two musical pieces he composed for human rights activists. One of
the songs was a newly arranged version of the popular "Arirang".

"Whenever you feel sad, please remember this song. It is for you," Kim said.

Listening attentively to his music was Dong-hyuk Shin, a survivor of Prison
Camp  No.  6.  He  wrote  about  his  life  in  the  gulag  where  he  was  a  political
prisoner  from  birth.  He  witnessed  the  execution  of  his  mother  in  1996  and
then  his  brother.  "I  hope  I  meet  my  father  again  because  I  escaped  without
telling him first," he said.

Last weekend, Australian officials, activists and campaigners heard firsthand
accounts  of  the  human  rights  situation  inside  the  world's  most  reclusive
regime.  The  speakers  included  North  Korean  artists,  musicians  and  writers
who had all defected. All of them have now settled in South Korea. More than
15,000 of their compatriots have defected from the Hermit Kingdom since the
end of the Korean War in 1953.

Now, with a sizeable North Korean community overseas, activists can, and
want to, do something useful for their country.

This article was published in the Nation on March 25, 2009.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

"They can serve as a bridge between North Korea and the outside world," said
Carl Gershman of the National Endowment for Democracy.

At last week's international conference in Melbourne on North Korean Human
Rights and Refugees, the audience was mesmerised by the stories of Mu, Kim
and Shin. They were told of the harsh prison system, the 51 classifications of
the country's 25 million people and other aberrations that have brought
extreme violations of human rights, severe food shortages and long-standing
political oppression.

They  also  were  briefed  by  Professor  Vitit  Muntarbhorn,  the  UN's  special
rapporteur  on  the  situation  of  human  rights  in  the  Democratic  People's
Republic of Korea, who flew in from Geneva, where he earlier presented his
report on Pyongyang's human rights abuses.

"We  have  to  use  a  people-first  approach,"  he  reiterated  loudly  and  clearly.
This approach, he argued, will help improve the situation inside North Korea.
He pointed out that most of the money inside the country has been invested in
the  defence  industry,  on  weapons  and  ammunition, and not  enough  funding
has reached ordinary people.

The  North  Koreans,  he  added,  must  have  food  security  beyond  food  aid,
which has recently  been  stopped  due  to  Pyongyang's refusal  to receive  food
donations from the US.

"The situation now is not so good," he added.

Vitit  was  passionate  and  optimistic  despite  the  dire  situation  detailed  in  his
latest report, his ninth  since he  was appointed  in  2004  to  investigate human
rights violations in North Korea.

"In times of despair, we must have hope," he said, referring to the situation in
the country which he must call by its full official name.

But he identified North Korea as non-democratic country in his report, much
to the chagrin of many participants, who thought he was too soft and generous
towards the world's worst totalitarian regime.

For his report,  Vitit  interviewed  hundreds  of  North  Korean refugees  and  all
UN-related agencies that have direct or indirect contact with the North Korean
government. Pyongyang has refused to grant him a visa but he hopes that, in
future, the  UN  Human  Rights  Council  will  be  able  to  open an  office  in the
country.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Of late, Pyongyang has cooperated with international organisations, allowing
US-based non-governmental organisations to operate on the ground, and has
engaged in dialogue with the UN on children's rights.

Vitit  also  revealed  that  the  first  pizza  restaurant  was  opened  recently  in
Pyongyang.  "Who  are  these  people  who  decided  on  this  issue?"  he  asked,
wondering about the nature of decision-making. Earlier, he said, women were
prohibited to engage in businesses that would earn them extra income.

Thanks  were  due to  Melbourne  Labor  MP,  Michael  Danby,  who helped  put
the  conference  together,  to  highlight  human  rights  violations  inside  North
Korea.  Danby  said  that  Australia  is  serious  about  human  rights  abuses  in
North Korea.

When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was on the opposition bench, he visited the
country. He told Danby that what he saw there sent chills through his bones.
Since then, he has been working with non-governmental organisations helping
North Korean defectors living overseas and raising awareness of human rights
violations there. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith also took time off
from his busy parliamentary schedule to give an opening speech.

Smith said that although Australia and North Korea have official diplomatic
relations, there is no contact, as Canberra has imposed sanctions against
Pyongyang.

What is sad from the Thai perspective is that one would hope to see at least
one  enlightened  Thai  politician,  like  Danby,  expressing  concern  over  the
human  rights  situation  in  North  Korea.  After  all,  Thailand  is  one  of  the
world's  largest  transit  points  after  China  and  Mongolia  for  North  Korean
asylum seekers.

Strange  but  true,  even  Chinnicha  Wongsawat,  the  opposition  MP  from
Sankampaeng  in  Chiang  Mai,  the  birthplace  of  Anocha  Panjoy,  who  was
allegedly abducted by North Korean secret agents in 1978 in Macau, does not
even  care  to  speak  out  about  the  plight  of  the  Panjoy  family  -  this  despite
extensive  media  reports  since  2005  demanding  information  on  her
whereabouts and providing evidence of where she might actually be in North
Korea. Citizens of at least ten other countries have been identified as kidnap
victims of the North Koreans.

We do have Vitit. In his case, he is the world's foremost human rights expert
on North Korea. Yet, very few Thais would even lend an ear to such an
important subject.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Since 2004, thousands of North Koreans have arrived at the northern border of
Thailand. Through the assistance of the South Korean government and the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, thousands of these asylum-seekers have
been resettled in South Korea.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Atlantic Eye: Branded for life by North Korea

Marc S. Ellenbogen

UPI

MELBOURNE, March 30 (UPI) -- He sits on stage -- gaunt, pale and
uncomfortable. With each question, he winces and curls his lip -- pained by
the intense memories. Born in North Korea's No. 14 Kaechon Political Prison
Camp, it was the only life Shin Dong-hyuk had known until his escape. At 24,
he was branded -- and already long abused -- by North Korea's despicable
political system.

The only known escapee of a system that has 170,000 involuntary internees,
Shin is quiet and unassuming. Every word he speaks is moving -- bringing
this columnist and many in the room to a tear. Pain is written in every move
he makes, every word he utters. His guilt could carry the world on its
shoulders.

"I got out in 2005, but my friend did not," Shin said. "My friend threw himself
on the electric fence so I could climb over him to freedom."

"He gave his life for me," Shin says in a voice of controlled pained rage. As a
teenager, Shin was forced to watch the execution of his mother and brother.
They had been accused of plotting to get out of the camp.

In  late  2004, the  young  man  who  would  give  his life  for Shin  arrived  from
Pyongyang,  North  Korea's  capital.  They  became  friends,  shared  rations  and
sometimes ate dead birds or rats. Meat was not allowed in the camp. Shin had
never  had  a  friend,  never  knew  trust  and  never  knew  warmth.  It  didn't  last
long at all. "There was a brief period when I believed and hoped. But it died
along with everything else," said Shin, who now lives in South Korea.

Shin was born in 1982 as Shin In Kun. (His current name is South Korean.)
His father, Shin Kyong-sop, was arrested sometime in 1965. The North
Korean secret police came before dawn, carted away all the furniture and
dumped the family in Camp No. 14. Shin's father was the 11th of 12 brothers.

This article was published in the United Press International (UPI) on March 30,

2009.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

"From the moment they were abducted and separated, they were treated as
beast," Shin said.

Shin is riddled with guilt. He does not feel he gave his father's name honor.
He knows his brother was born a few years before him, "but I almost do not
remember him." Shin saw his brother only three or four times before he was
executed. "I lived with my mother for 12 years. She was a farmer and started
work every day at 5 a.m. She returned home every night at 11 p.m. I have
little memory of any affection between us."

"My cousin was raped in the camp at 22. The guards began to fondle her. Her
mother, my aunt, protested. So the guards tied my aunt up to a tree and forced
her to watch the rape of her daughter in broad daylight."

Shin's  aunt  told  everyone  she  could  in  the  camp  about  the  rape.  Soon
afterward, his  aunt  disappeared.  "Nobody  knows  what happened  to her," he
said. "And that is what happens; one by one everyone disappears."

Shin fears his entire line will disappear: "One day, my family might all be
gone from this earth."

The tragic thing is that it is not only Shin's family's story. All the families in
these sick camps suffer a similar fate. All of the abused, unfairly abducted,
corralled "prisoners" mostly disappear.

In April 1996, Shin was taken by handcuff from his schoolhouse while
blindfolded. He found himself descending into a dark underground chamber.
He was brought to an empty room, plopped on a chair. He was shown a sheet
of paper. On it, appeared the names of his father's brothers, two of whom had
supported South Korea during the Korean War. "I wrote my name and placed
my fingerprint on the bottom of the document."

The next day, he was taken to a torture chamber; Shin was 14. All kinds of
torture instruments were around him. He was stripped, his legs were cuffed
and his hands were tied with a rope. "I was hung by my legs and hands from
the ceiling. Someone told me to confess the truth about an escape plan. I said I
knew nothing."

"I had no fear. Even today my lack of fear remains a mystery to me. A
charcoal fire was started and brought near to my back. I felt the intense heat
and shrieked. I struggled hard to avoid the flames. My torturers pierced me
with a steel hook near my groin. I blacked out. I don't know how long I was
unconscious. But I awoke -- rocked by my own feces and urine."

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

It is hard to listen to Shin Dong-hyuk's story. It is so wrenching, so intense; it
is hard to digest, never mind to write about with any objectivity.

My  friend  Michael  Danby,  a  member  of  the  Australian  Parliament  from
Melbourne,  pushed  to  have  the  Ninth  International  Conference  on  North
Korean Human Rights and Refugees in Australia. He has helped many North
Koreans.  The  spiritual  mentor  of  these  sessions  is  the  grand  man  Benjamin
Yoon of the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. He is an old
friend of former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and I had met him in Prague.
Next year's 10th session is in Toronto.

I sit with Shin as he gets off the stage. With him is Sun Mo, a modern artist
and escapee from North Korea. I hope to see them in Seoul in May.

As I look at Shin Dong-hyuk, I want to say something comforting. He looks at
me briefly but turns away.

He reminds me of a lost cat looking for comfort.

As he walks away from the table, he turns back -- a pained, tortured nod in my
direction.

Welcome to North Korea -- the Democratic People's Republic.

(UPI  International  Columnist  Marc  S. Ellenbogen  is  chairman  of  the  Berlin,
Copenhagen and Sydney-based Global Panel Foundation and president of the
Prague  Society.  A  founding  trustee  of  the  Democratic  Expat  Leadership
Council  who  has  advised  political  personalities,  he  sits  on  the  National
Advisory Board of the U.S. Democratic Party.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Human Rights in North Korea

ABC Radio National

James Carleton: Well North Korea doesn't receive too much media attention
beyond  the  questions  of  its  nuclear  ambitions,  or  perhaps  the  health  of  its
supreme  leader,  Kim  Jong-Il,  and  there  is  scant  coverage  of  the  almost
incomprehensible human rights abuses in that country, resembling in scope, if
not  scale,  the  gulags  of  Stalin's  Soviet  Union.  It's  estimated  200,000 people
are currently held in North Korea's political prison camps, where torture and
executions are common practice.

Meanwhile, the country faces yet another food disaster, after consecutive
years of flooding and crop devastation. It is one of the most secretive societies,
as we know, and the full extent of the human rights violations is hidden by
this rigid isolation.

But a conference yesterday in Melbourne did shed some light on the situation.
One  of  the  convenors,  the  federal  Labor  member  for  Melbourne  Ports,
Michael  Danby  (he's  the  chairman  of  the  Australian  Committee  for  Human
Rights in North Korea). And also speaking at the conference, Jae-Chun Won,
professor  of  law  at  South  Korea's  Handong  International  Law  School.  He's
also  practised  law  in  the  United  States  as  an  assistant  New  York  district
attorney,  and  he's  contributed  to  a  major  US  Commission  on  Religious
Freedom Report into North Korea.

I'm very pleased to say both men are with me now from Melbourne. Jae-Chun,
Michael, good morning.

Both: Good morning.

James Carleton: Michael, may we start with you. This conference of yours,
it's had first-hand accounts of the situation in North Korea?

Michael Danby: Oh, some of them so dramatic I wish people had heard them.
People who've grown up in a political prison camp who only escaped when
they were 24. Who, together with a friend, jumped across electrified fences,

This is the transcript of the interview of Michael Danby and Jae-chun Won by ABC

Radio National on March 21, 2009.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

and the friend was killed, and they had to make a decision to step over their
body.  People  who  are  brilliant  jazz pianists  who  subsequently  studied  at  the
Tchaikovsky  School  of  Music  in  Moscow,  imprisoned  because  of  them
wanting to play something other than the rigid patterns set down by the North
Korean regime. Very dramatic testimony. And we decided to do it deliberately,
to  try  and  give  people  an  insight  into  how  ordinary  North  Koreans  suffer
under this terrible regime.

James  Carleton:  Jae-Chun  Won,  to  you,  we  know  there  are  many
authoritarian  countries  on  earth,  and  yet  somehow  they  seem  to  bear  no
resemblance  whatsoever  to  North  Korea.  What  is  it  about  the  Kim  dynasty
that has made it such a uniquely abusive place?

Jae-Chun Won: Hi James. There are two things that I want to emphasise.
One is the women and children, usually they're the weakest and they suffer
more in this kind of situation, and two, North Korea's own caste system. What
North Korea did is that they divided the entire population into three categories,
like loyal category, wavering categories, and hostile category. And then they
again divided the entire population into 51 sub-categories, and basically once
you are an enemy of the state, then forever you stay that way and you cannot
ever get access to education, and jobs, and other things.

For  example,  'guilt  by  association'.  What  happened  in  a  situation  like  a
concentration  camp,  is  that  if  your  father  is  allegedly  becoming  a  political
prisoner, then the whole family, the mother and children, even children, will
be sent to the political prison camp.

OK, I could see why they do that, because they want to erase the bad blood,
just  like  what  Cambodia  did  during  the  atrocities.  But  what  we're  finding
recently  like  honourable  Danby  said,  there  are  people,  they  are  born  in  this
concentration  camp;  they  never  saw  outside.  And  imagine,  you're  born  as a
prisoner,  they  do  not  have  citizenship.  What  does  that  mean?  They  are  not
recognised  as  a  legal  person.  So  if  anybody,  a  prison  guard,  killed  these
children, then they're not going to be penalised. Imagine, things like this still
going on today.

James Carleton: I mean, is there a rationale for such a policy to the extent
that one can conceive of one?

Jae-Chun Won:  Well it's difficult to  understand  even  from  a  South  Korean
point  of  view,  but my  understanding is  I  guess  that  there is  some  point  that
Kim Jong-il's father felt that there are some people, they are no good, and they
do  not  deserve  a  second  chance,  which  all  the  western  countries,  and  we
believe that after proper penalty  we rehabilitate them. So what they do, they

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

want to literally erase particular blood. Difficult to comprehend, but if North
Korea feels that way to certain people, like religious people or whatever, then
it's just—but that's the scary part of it, the Juche, how they're running as kind
of almost a mediaeval, feudal/religious cult. So it's difficult to understand, but
that's the current situation.

However,  we  have  to  also  recognise  that  there  are  some  openings  in  North
Korea. There's a growing of the street market of the local women, so that is
kind of giving conflicting messages, but is still happening; it is happening in
the  reality  of  North  Korea,  kind  of  give  us  a  challenge  for  West  and  South
Korea  for  the  engagement  with  the  nuclear  issue,  human  rights  issue,
economic issues, so we have to come up with a comprehensive way to work
with North Korea within the boundaries of the international community.

James Carleton: Did you, Michael Danby, get the sense that there were some
cracks, some openings here, at your conference, given you had some high
level meetings?

Michael  Danby:  There  was  some  grainy  footage  shown  of  current  life  in
North Korea. And two experts said to me, there's some interesting reflections
on that film which I want to share with your listeners. One, just as Professor
Won  said  now,  there  were  women  sitting  outside,  very  brave  women,  with
little hand-written signs telling of goods that they had in the shop behind them.
They're not allowed to display them publicly, and can you believe it, the law
prescribes  that  only  women  over  49  are  allowed  to  sell  in  these  back-alley
markets.

Then there was a confrontation between security police and an elderly woman
on her way to work. She wasn't allowed to wear pants, so the security police
were very angry with her, and started pushing her, and people in the audience
were responding. So what the expert said was, 'This is the first time people in
North Korea start to have the civic bravery to be able to resist security
authorities. Previously in the past, they would have been too scared, they
would have been shot or treated extremely violently.

Yes, that's extraordinary. I saw that from the South Korean point of view, how
North Korean women, they're responding, and protesting, resisting authority.
It's extraordinary, the things that we feel like there is a crack in North Korea,
and there's a possibility, even a possibility that there's some kind of civic
movement, if we work hard and bring more information in to North Korea,
and then take people out and train people and all that.

James Carleton: But the very fact that that mild act of civic resistance,
peaceful as it was, is such a remarkable thing, indicates how far there is to go.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Can we get the change that you're looking for under the Kim dynasty still
being intact?

Michael Danby:  It's  very  difficult  to  conceive  of  it,  because  it is  exactly  as
you say, a much more Stalinist in the old sense regime, where everything is
controlled. But satellite telephones, this grainy footage, the fact that there are
people fleeing, because of hunger and famine, across the Chinese border and
making  it  via  terrible  journeys  across  China,  where  the  opposition  of  the
Chinese  security  police  to  Laos  and Thailand,  all  give  you  some  hope.  And
remember I think a lot of your listeners would probably have seen that great
film,  Goodbye,  Lenin,  about  how  subversive  ordinary  things  of  life  are  to
authoritarian regimes.

One of the people told me that South Korean soap operas, which are seen in
North Korea, have a very disturbing effect on life there. So the real problem
as Professor Won says, it's what happens if we suddenly have a country of 23
million people that disintegrates and goes the way of East Germany? It is a
big problem; we should start thinking about this. It's a problem for just not
South Korea, but it's a problem for China and for the west.

James Carleton: And Professor Won, I expect the East Germans were far
better psychologically prepared for a new life, a new world, than the North
Koreans may have been?

Jae-Chun  Won:  You're  right.  That's  what  we  are  finding  out.  And  we  just
assume  that  we  speak  the  same  language,  so  we  can  communicate  and  we
have the same mentality. But what we found out even during the conference,
is that we have a situation Dong-Hyuk Shin. Incidentally, this gentleman, who
was  born in  concentration  camp, he  came and  testified  for  us.  He  could not
communicate with his own North Korean defectors. Imagine how he can, or
other people can communicate with the south and the rest of the world, so oh
my goodness, there's so much work needs to be done.

James Carleton: Why did he have trouble communicating with the defectors?

Michael Danby: What happened was, because they are encased in such a
prison camp, gulag kind of world, he was not even aware of Kim Jong-Il's
name, they're just prisoners, they're just as described in Ivan Denisovich, by
the great Solzhenitsyn 'zecks'. They're people who don't even understand why
they're there. So while the rest of North Korean society knows the names of
the great leaders and that kind of stuff, these people, 200,000 of them who are
in prison camps in North Korea at the moment, they don't even understand the
outside world, even in North Korea, let alone the rest of the world.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Jae-Chun Won: Just imagine that we have a great pianist, a North Korean
defector—he played the piano. So when I asked this gentleman from the
concentration camp, 'Well, have you ever seen a piano?' he said no, he's never
seen a piano in the concentration camp.

James Carleton: Until you're 24 years old, never heard or seen a piano.

Jae-Chun Won: As though it's an imaginary land of the island, within North
Korea, which even North Korean people, they're fearful, but they don't want
to know what's going on in North Korea. But imagine .

So  another  issue,  if  I  may  James,  one  of  the  serious  issues,  the  women-
trafficking,  refugee  issues,  within  neighbouring  countries  such  as  China.  Of
course China is such an economic power, but it's so difficult for us to speak
out. But many women are sold, and they've become victim of trafficking, and
most  seriously,  imagine  North  Korean  women,  who  are  forced  to  marry  a
Chinese male for example, then they have children. And then these children
are  stateless  children.  They  cannot  register  and  they  cannot  get  any  legal
benefit  whatsoever,  they  cannot  go  to  school,  then  their  mother  will  be
repatriated forcibly, back to North Korea. So things like that , I don't think it is
a political issue, it's a humanitarian issue, but these are the people who are the
forgotten people, and we need to speak out, otherwise they will be suffering
and they will suffer most.

James Carleton: And Professor Won, in the first instance then, do we put
pressure on China, because they're much more likely to be responsive to
lobbying?

Jae-Chun Won: I'd like to give this question to Mr Danby.

Michael Danby: Well, it's a very difficult question James. You were talking
about Chinalco before and the Chinese economic power; it's very hard to get
the  United  Nations  Commissioner  for  Refugees  to  look  at  the  issue  of  the
500,000 North Koreans who are living across the border. The problem is that
China, although it's a member of the treaty that says these people should be
considered  as  refugees  or  the  UNHCR  should  be  allowed  to  come  in,  just
blanket  says  No.  And  we  have  a  terrible  situation,  not  just  of  human
trafficking  of  women,  forced  marriages;  but  you  have  people,  children
stateless,  you  have  North  Koreans  starving,  coming  across  the  border;  you
have  the horrible  prospect  of  them  being returned  forcibly  if  they're  caught,
and,you  know,  they  go  straight  back  into  the  gulag,  straight  back  into  the
North  Korean  concentration  camp,  prison  camp,  labour  camp  system.  And
there are  very  few  that make  it  with  the help  of  some  brave  Chinese  across
China to Kunming and then across the Mekong River, and we saw the footage

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

of how a single family did that, and again, it was—you just have to see things
to realise to realise how lucky we are in Australia, that we don't have to think
of even lives like this.

Jae-Chun Won: I think that as for China, we need to make a statement. For
example, South Korean's new president, Lee Myung-Bak, with his state talk
with the Chinese leader, did mention during the state talk, that 'Please do not
repatriate North Korean refugees back to North Korea.' Believe it or not South
Korean past administration hasn't done that for the last 10 years. So I think it's
only  fair  that  the  Australian  government,  yes,  the  economic  trade  and
cooperation is important, but I need to make the point that please do not send
at least women back to North Korea, or if you want to send them, please let's
have an interview, or let the international community interview them so that
we can see whether they're refugees or not. And at the same time, also let's not
send  back  the  women  if  they  have  children  to  take  care  of.  These  are  the
issues that I'm sure the Chinese will be able to respond and they will respond.
And unfortunately I don't think many countries actually raise the issues. Yes,
we need to provide aid, but we also need to talk about these issues, because
unless  we  talk  about  these  people  in  concentration  camps, persecution,  then
they will be forgotten people, and the best way to save them is talk about them,
and  also  approach  it  comprehensively  so  that  we  can  build  a  much  better
security within our region.

You know, North Korea now has an intercontinental missile capacity with a
nuclear head that can hit the mainland United States, and imagine, that
distance, most of Asia is within the range. That is a scary thing if they think
like this.

James Carleton: Michael Danby, before I let you both go, gentlemen, could
you update us on the food situation in North Korea? Did the conference shed
any light on that?

Michael  Danby:  I  think  there  isn't  a  famine  there  at  the  moment,  because
there are good  years, and bad years. There is a food shortage, and of course
your access to food depends on which of the 51 categories you're in, James. If
you're  in  the  untrusted  elements  of  the  population,  you're  deprived  of  food.
Overwhelmingly,  the  international  food  that's  delivered  goes  to  people
associated  with  the  army  and  their  families.  Very  strangely,  despite  the
shortage  of  food,  the  six  shipments  that  have  come  from  the  United  States
have suddenly—the North Koreans say they don't want any more. I think it's
more related to the geopolitical situation than the shortage of food or famine
in  North  Korea,  because  they  don't  want  the  Americans  or  the  Chinese,  or
whoever  is  giving  them  food  aid,  to have  any  leverage.  So  I  don't  think  it's

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

related to how terrible the situation is in North Korea as far as access to food
by elements of the population.

Jae-Chun  Won:  Right.  As  far  as  food  is  concerned,  yes,  we  need  to  give
unconditional  aid  to  the  women  and  children,  but  like  Mr  Danby  said,  that
food needs to go to the needy, so monitoring needs to be there. And I think
that  on  those  issues,  South  Korea,  and  I  think  Australians  and  especially
Melbourne  and  the  people  who  host  us,  appreciate  that.  I  could  see  how
Australia  and  Koreans  and  Asia  can  work  together  on  common  issues  and
speak  with  the  same  voice.  So  I  believe  that  yes,  we  are  going  through  the
kind of winter still, but I really appreciate sunny Australia and the spring will
come, and those relationships as well.

James Carleton: And Professor Jae-Chun Won, you've been a prosecutor in
the US. When that spring comes, will it involve you having a senior North
Korean official in the witness box before you, charged with crimes of
inhumanity; is that a dream?

Jae-Chun Won: Well that's a very point-blank question. I would just say that
if someone does something wrong, I think they need to pay for that. Of course
they could be forgiven, but there are other issues, other approaches like South
African issues has the Truth and Reconciliation. I think everything's open, we
need  to  talk about  it, and let's  take  away  the  fear, and  then  let's  bring more
certainty,  but  at the  beginning, let's  concentrate  on  women  and  children and
something we can do right now. But I thank you for your question. And then
North  Korean  leaders  need  to  be  aware  right  now  that  they  need  to  be
informed that some of the things they're doing are violating the international
criminal law, and then like the Sudan case, that they cannot get away with it.
So let's encourage them, educate them, so that when they become a part of the
international community they will know how, and certainly they can come in
a  more  constructive  way  to  better  themselves,  for  their  sake  and  regional
security.

James Carleton: Well Professor Jae-Chun Won from Handong International
Law School in South Korea, and Michael Danby the Member for Melbourne
Ports, and chair of the Australian Committee for Human Rights in North
Korea; gentlemen, both, thank you very much indeed.

Both: Thank you James, appreciate it.

James Carleton: Some grave news and yet some small reason there for hope,
as we've heard.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Guests

Michael Danby
Federal MP for the seat of Division of Melbourne Ports Chair, The Australian
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Jae-Chun Won
Professor of Law Handong International Law School South Korea

Presenter

James Carleton

Producer

Muditha Dias

Story Researcher and Producer

Julie Browning

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

COMMENTS___________________________________________________

WHAT TO DO ABOUT NORTH KOREA?

Michael Danby

MP, Australia

Chair, the Australian Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Thirty  years after  Deng  Xiaoping’s  economic reforms  in  China,  which gave
the world’s largest Communist country at least a partly marketised economy
and  lifted  hundreds  of  millions  of  people  out  of  poverty,  and  twenty  years
after the first free elections in Poland, which marked the beginning of the end
of European communism, the world still confronts the dilemma of what to do
to help the 25 million people of North Korea, the last relic of the high Stalinist
era  of  the  Cold  War.  Only  in  North  Korea  is  the  deadly  combination  of  a
totally  repressive  political  system  and  a  totally  unworkable  communist
economic regime still in place.

Kim Jong-il, hereditary ruler of North Korea, extorts aid money from the west,
and then spends it on the world’s most bloated armed forces while his people
literally starve. His regime brands whole classes of its people as “objectively
hostile elements” and treats them and their children as enemies. It has broken
every commitment it has ever given to the international community, whether
on human rights or nuclear weapons.

On March 20 & 21 200 people gathered in Melbourne at the 9th International
Conference  on  North  Korean  Human  Rights  and  Refugees.  The  conference
was  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Endowment  for  Democracy  in
Washington  and  a  South  Korean  NGO,  the  Citizens  Alliance  for  North
Korean  Human  Rights.  Many  guests  came  from  South  Korea,  others  from
Japan, the  US,  Canada and  Europe.  They  included  academics, human rights

This article was published in the Jakarta Post on April 11, 2009.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

activists, Members of Parliament and government officials. The Korean
community in Australia was strongly represented.

The  conference  was  marked,  I’m  sad  to  say,  by  pessimism  and  frustration.
North Korea continues to demand and receive large amounts of aid as its price
for good behaviour, but it never seems actually to improve its behaviour. We
heard  strongly  expressed  disagreements  among  our  Korean  guests  about
whether the conciliatory “sunshine policy” of former South Korean Presidents
Kim  Dae-jung  and  Roh  Moo-hyun,  or  the  tougher  policy  of  the  current
conservative President Lee Myung-bak, offered better prospects for advancing
human rights in the North.

We  also  heard  shocking  stories  of  the  plight  of  North  Koreans  –  starved,
regimented,  deprived  of  the  most  basic  rights,  trapped  in  an  Orwellian
nightmare  of  lies  and  propaganda,  cut  off  from  the  outside  world.  At  least
250,000 people languish in forced labour camps, where most of them will die.

We  were  privileged  to hear  from  three  defectors  from  North  Korea  –  one a
talented pianist, one a painter. The third, Shin Dong-hyuk, is the only person
known to have escaped from a North Korean labour camp. While their stories
and  their  example  inspired  us,  the  fact  remains  that  only  a  trickle  of  North
Koreans  succeed  in  escaping  over  the  Chinese  border,  where  they  face  a
dangerous and uncertain future as unrecognised refugees in a country which
does not want them on its soil.

For years the US, Japan, Australia, the EU and other countries have tried to
persuade or bribe Kim Jong-il and his cronies to loosen their grip on power, to
no  effect.  In  his  speech  to  the  conference,  Australian  Foreign  Minister
Stephen  Smith  pledged  to  keep  up  Australia’s  efforts  to  bring  about  an
improvement,  but  the  truth  is  that  no-one  knows  how  or  when  this  will  be
brought about.

The  UN’s  special  rapporteur  on  human  rights  in  North  Korea,  Thai  law
professor Vitit Muntabhorn had just delivered an official report to the UN in
Geneva.  So  far he  is not  yet  been  allowed  even  to  set  foot  in  North  Korea.
Professor  Vitit’s  language  to  the  Melbourne  conference  was  diplomatic,  but
his  message  was  clear:  there  has  been  no  improvement,  and  there  is  no
prospect of improvement anytime soon.

Ministers  and  diplomats are  constrained  in  what they  can say  in  public,  but
some people at the conference had more freedom to speak their minds. Carl
Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, spoke of the
inevitable  tendency  of  all  totalitarian  regimes  to  erode,  and  eventually  to
collapse.  Two  outspoken  academics  who  grew  up  in  the  Soviet  Union  said

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

bluntly that no amount of persuasion or bribery would induce Kim Jong-il to
moderate his regime, because he and the army-police apparatus he depends on
care only about their own power and wealth, and have no intention of
following either the Soviet path to dissolution or the Chinese path to reform.

The  continued  existence  of  the  Stalinist  regime  in  North  Korea  confronts
people of goodwill with a terrible dilemma. If we cut the country off from all
aid, in the hope that this will bring about the downfall of the regime, this will
greatly  increase  the  suffering  of  the  people.  If  on  the  other  hand  the  world
engages with North Korea and increases aid, it is likely that the regime will,
as it has done in the past, use that aid to bolster its grip on power, feeding the
party and military elite and starving the people.

I  would  like  to  suggest  some  practical  steps.  One  is  that  there  needs  to  be
increased  pressure  on  China  over  its  treatment  of  North  Korean  defectors.
China  must  stop  repatriating  these  people  to  certain  death  in  North  Korea,
must recognise them as refugees, and should allow the UNHCR access to the
border  region  so  that  defectors/refugees  can  be  helped  to  leave  for  third
countries.  One  speaker,  Masaharu  Nakagawa  MP,  a  senior  member  of  the
Japanese  Democratic  Party,  suggested  that  members  of  western  Parliaments
should press to be allowed to visit the border area, and this is something I will
certainly pursue.

Another step is to create every opportunity for North Koreans to engage with
the  outside  world  and  see  that  what  their  regime  tells  them  about  the
‘paradise’ they live in is false. Even controversial economic engagement such
as  the  Kasong  industrial  zone  which  admittedly  economically  props  up  the
regime  is  subversive  of  the  deeply  isolated,  wolkenkuckkuckscheim  (cloud
cuckoo land) that the half cult, half Stalinist regime forces North Koreans to
live in.

Whether they come as students, diplomats or entertainers, every North Korean
who is exposed to the outside world can become an agent of change when
they go home. We know that North Korea fears human rights activism – that’s
why our conference was denounced by an editorial in the North Korean party
daily Rodong Shinmun. We should do everything we can to increase that
pressure.

Michael Danby is a Labor Party member of the Australian House of R

epresentatives and is Chair of the Australian Parliament’s Sub-Committe

e on Foreign Affairs. As Chair of the Australian Committee for Human

Rights in North Korea, he was the host of the 9th International Confer

ence on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Toward a Greater Multilateral Cooperation

on North Korea

Nakagawa Masaharu

Member of the House of Representatives

The Democratic Party of Japan

Senior Director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

First Day

Keynote speakers H.E. Hideaki Ueda, Ambassador in charge of Human Rights
and Humanitarian Affairs, H.E. Seong Ho Jhe, Ambassador at Large for
Human Rights, and Vitit Muntarbhorn, United Nations Special Rapporteur on
the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK each expounded on North Korean
human rights issues such as Japanese abductees, North Korean refugees,
separated familiesin North and South Korea, and concentration camps.

From  Japan,  Ambassador  Ueda  led  off  with  an  overview  of  the  abduction
issue.  Professor  Teresa  Morris-Suzuki  of  Australian  National  University
followed  with  a  discussion  of  ethnic  Koreans  and  their  Japanese  wives  and
families  who  had  returned  to  North  Korea  under  the  “repatriation  project.”
Notably,  Prof.  Morris-Suzuki  stressed  the  need  for  cooperation  with  South
Korea on those issues.

After remarks by experts and government officials, participants watched some
heartrending documentaries, including Chosun Ilbo’s "On the Border,” and
another documentary about the musical “Yoduk Story.”

In addition, several former North Korean refugees, through various mediums,
called for swift change in North Korea. A painter depicted Pyongyang’s “rule
by mass hypnosis”; a pianist touched the participants’ hearts with his brilliant
performance; and a young man who was born in a concentration camp gave a
testimony about his experience of witnessing the execution of his mother and
brother and subsequently fleeing from there. The Australian media showed a
keen interest in this conference, giving a prominent coverage of these North

This article was published in the Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, No.062 in

April 2009.

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Korean refugees’ activities.

Second Day

A roundtable discussion was held among government authorities, experts from
universities  and  think  tanks,  and  representatives  of  NGOs.  Government
authorities  included  Australian,  South  Korean,  and  Japanese  lawmakers,  a
former  South  Korean  Vice-Minister  of  Unification, and ambassadors.  In the
discussion, I requested the participants’ cooperation in the following areas.

First,  by  fine-tuning  Japan’s  North  Korean  Human  Rights  Act,  Japan  must
continue  to  fight  against  North  Korea’s  abduction  and  other  human  rights
abuses.  In  addition,  Japan,  like  South  Korea,  must  take  seriously  the
possibility of North Korea’s collapse and be prepared for contingencies.

Second, the current bilateral negotiations between and Japan and North Korea
regarding the abduction issue should be expanded to include South Korea and
other  relevant  countries.  We  must  no  longer  sit  idly  by  as  the  Japan-North
Korea working group within the Six-Party Talks makes little progress. Similar
issues exist between North and South Korea as well. Two Koreas have been
engaged  in  bilateral  negotiations  about  separated  families.  As  noted  during
this  conference,  abduction  and  other  human  rights  issues  are  very  broad  in
scope.  More  than  200,000  North  Korean  refugees  are  exposed  to  severe
human rights violations in Northeast China. The relevant neighboring nations
should  join  hands  in  confronting  North  Korea  about  these  and  other  human
rights  issues,  such  as  missing  persons  from  the  Korean  War  and torture  and
forced labor in political prison camps. The relevant countries should demand
that North Korea address Japanese abductee and other human rights issues in
a multilateral context.

Third,  lawmakers  from relevant  countries  should  form a monitoring team to
inspect the local situation along the China-North Korea border. They should
be  accompanied  by  officials  from  UNHCR’s  Beijing  office.  I  hope  that
Australian lawmakers would participate as well.

Fourth,  the  International  Parliamentarians'  Coalition  for  the  North  Korean
Refugees  and  Human  Rights  (IPCNKR)  plans  to  hold  a  general  meeting  in
Bangkok this year. Human rights are an important political issue for Thailand
for  sevaral  reasons.  Anochie,  a  Thai  citizen,  has  been  kidnapped  by  North
Korea;  Thailand  serves  as  a  transit  point  for  North  Korean  refugees;  and  it
hosts a growing number of persecuted minorities from neighboring Myanmar.
I  requested  lawmakers  from  Australia  and  other  neighboring  countries  to

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

participate in this year’s meeting.

Achievements and Tasks

Ambassador Ueda gave an overview of the abduction issue, and Prof. Morris-
Suzuki  described  the return  of  ethnic  Koreans  and their  Japanese  wives  and
families  to  Japan.    Prof.  Morris-Suzuki’s  discussion  included  a  historical
account  of  the  repatriation  project  of  ethnic  Koreans,  Japanese  wives,  and
their families, which was implemented by the General Association of Koreans
in  Japan  (Chongryun)  under  the  direction  of  the  North  Korean  authorities.
Ambassador Ueda’s and Prof. Morris-Suzuki’s remarks were very effective in
helping the audience understand Japan’s position.

In standing against the North Korean military dictatorship of Kim Jong-il, the
participants reached a consensus that it is important for surrounding countries
to work together to protect the universal value of human rights and raise
international awareness, rather than trying to handle the issues in a series of
disparate bilateral negotiations.

There  are  two  major achievements  of  this  international  conference  on  North
Korean  refugees  and  human  rights.  First,  the  Chairman  of  the  Joint
Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade and several
other  Australian  lawmakers,  as  well  as  Australia’s  human  rights  and  North
Korea experts, have expressed a firm stance that Australia must get involved
in  North  Korea  issues  in  one  form  or  another.  Second,  the  new  network  of
lawmakers will enable greater cooperation among various nations in the years
to come.

■

Translated by Young-Deok Choi and Yoon-Suk Choo

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

International Concerns Over

North Korean Human Rights

Un-Chul Yang

Senior Research Fellow, Sejong Institute, Republic of Korea

The 9th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees

Civilian efforts to improve North Korean human rights are ongoing. The 9

International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees was
held from March 20

to 21

in Melbourne, Australia. About three hundred

participants,  including  the  Honorable  Stephen  Smith,  Minister  of  Foreign
Affairs  of  Australia,  Vitit  Muntarbhorn,  UN  Special  Rapporteur  on  the
Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK, and H.E. Hideaki Ueda, Ambassador
in charge of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, MOFA, Japan, attended
the  conference.  The  meeting’s  agenda  included  the  current  state  of  North
Korean human rights  abuses  and  ways  to  improve  the  situation.  In addition,
participants enjoyed performances by North Korean artists, heard testimonies
by  political  labor  camp  detainees  and  watched  documentary  films  on  North
Korea.  In  general, the  conference  objectively  portrayed  the  economic  plight
and political persecution experienced by North Korean people.

Stephen Smith, the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, drew attention to
the seriousness of the human rights violations in North Korea and stressed the
need for more assertive involvement by the international community. To this,
a member of the Australian Parliament and Ambassador Ueda added cautious
yet  positive  comments  concerning  returnee-refugees  in  Japan  and  the
possibility of future admittance of North Korean refugees. Ambassador Ueda
also  presented  accounts  of  the  Japanese  abductees  in  North  Korea.
Furthermore,  in  explaining  the  purpose  behind  this  annual  international
conference  Carl  Gershman,  President  of  the  National  Endowment  for
Democracy  (USA),  emphasized  the  need  for  international  cooperation  in
liberalization of North Korea.

This article was published in the Current Issues and Policy of the Sejong Institute in

April 2009.

Life & Human Rights in North Korea

Vitit Muntarbhorn, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights
in  the  DPRK,  highlighted  North  Korea’s  disgraceful  record  as  the  world’s
worst  persecutor  of  Christians  for  the  seventh  consecutive  year.  He
emphasized  that  the  priority  of  North  Korea’s  policy  must  shift  from  its
military  to  its  people.  Mr.  Muntarbhorn  also  put  forth  the  principle  of  4Ps
(Prevention,  Protection,  Provision,  and  Participation)  to  deal  with  such
pressing  issues  as  food  and  basic  necessities,  personal  security,  and  asylum
and  migration.  In  order  to  improve  the  human  rights  conditions  in  North
Korea, he proposed that the international community help North Korea secure
food, establish constructive aid policies, and take full advantage of the larger
UN  system.  Lastly,  he  expressed  some  optimism  about  improvement  of
human  rights  in  North  Korea  as  a  result  of  continued  pressures  from  the
international  community.  The  participants  acknowledged  the  seriousness  of
human rights  violations in  North  Korea and  agreed  to  actively  seek  ways  to
bring further changes.

In order to improve the human rights conditions in North Korea, the United
Nations and the international community are pushing for effective distribution
of food and essential goods, assurance of ordinary citizens’ right to make ends
meet  without  the  interference  of  the  state,  cessation  of  punishment  of
repatriated  North  Korean refugees  and  abolition  of  public executions.  Long-
term  goals  include  the  eradication  of  extreme  forms  of  surveillance,
improvements in the legal system, preventive measures against North Korean
exodus,  termination  of  human  trafficking,  protection  from  exploitation  and
violence, and protection of the defenseless. As for the supervision of food aid,
the principle of ‘no access, no food’ is becoming a requirement.

■

Translated by So-Jin Kim and Yoon-Suk Choo