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| NORTH KOREA FREEDOM COALITION > RESOURCES |
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North Korea Human Rights InformationNorth Korea is a dictatorial regime controlled by one man, Kim, Jong-il. Under his rule, millions of North Koreans have perished through starvation and while other have died during imprisonmnent in its large prison/labor camps. Human rights in North Korea are virtually non-existent as the government regulates individual lives from speech, opinion, and thought, to employment, travel, and food rations.
Hundreds of thousands have fled to China and other neighboring countries to seek subsistence. However, China continues to forcibly repatriate North Koreans to a fate that includes imprisonment where they may experience torture, medical and chemical experiments, forced abortions, infanticide, starvation, and hard labor.
A handful of North Koreans desparately force their way into foreign compounds in China and are fortunate enough to gain passage to South Korea, while others travel through "underground railroads" seeking final destination in South Korea. The tragedy that North Koreans face continue to escalate. Please see below for more information. Click here for our FACT SHEET. (PDF)
Lack of Human Rights in North Korea North Koreans lack almost every human right since the government regulates speech, opinion, thought, press, information, employment, movement, location of residence, food rations, assembly, association, and even the right to life. Petty crimes and any type of perceived disloyalty to the dictator can land a North Korean in a prison camp along with all family members, or even immediate execution. Arbitrary arrest, detention, and lack of fair and public trials are commonplace. Further, torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment are experienced frequently by detainees in prisons. Links to more information below.
Famine and Food Crisis Due to a variety of factors including the North Korean regime's implementation of an ineffective ideology called Juche or Self Reliance, which promotes national isolation, misallocation of resources, economic mismanagement, loss of support from former Soviet Union, discrimination, diversion of food aid, and natural disasters, the vast majority of North Korean citizens who live outside of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
North Korean Refugees in China and Forced Repatriation As the food crisis and discrimination continues, the North Korean refugee issue grows with estimates of up to 300,000 North Koreans residing in China. This is compounded by China's refusal to create and implement a legal process through which North Koreans can obtain refugee or asylum status. Instead, China brands a blanket determination identifying them as purely economic migrants and seeks to forcibly repatriate North Koreans to a highly certain fate of arbitrary detention, torture, and possible execution. China continues to repatriate in violation of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol of which it is a party to.
Furthermore, China has prosecuted and imprisoned humanitarian aid workers found helping North Koreans, including foreign nationals from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan.
North Korea's Prisons
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© North Korea Freedom Coalition.
The international community became aware of food shortages in North Korea in 1991. It is reported by 1997, only 6% of the population was receiving food through the Public Distribution System (PDS). North Korea continues to rely heavily on international food aid, however, there are doubts that some of the food aid is reaching those in desparate need. Children suffer the worst, particularly orphans. In 2003, it was reported that 42% of North Korean children suffer from chronic malnutrition, resulting in drastic height and weight differences with children from the South.
A fortunate handful of North Koreans have forced their way into foreign compounds in China and have successfully traveled to South Korea. Others seek to make it to South Korea through "underground railroads" set up by NGOs and other individuals secretly working in China. However, many attempt to survive in China, living in fear as they try to avoid Chinese authorities and repatriation. Without any civil rights and protection by the government, women and children are largely at risk of exploitation. It is estimated that up to 70% of North Korean women in China are trafficked. Many children, especially orphans, become street children.
According to the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, there exists a vast network of structured institutions for punishment in North Korea including forced-labor colonies, camps, prisons, and short term detention facilities along the North Korea-China border. Prisoners are brutally treated in these institutions with testimonies from North Korean defectors describing the application of torture techniques, hard labor, starvation, forced abortions, infanticide, families of up to three generations imprisoned, detention without judicial process, public executions, chemical and medical experimentation on prisoners, and gas chambers, resulting in thousands of deaths. Comparisons have been frequently made to the Nazi concentration camps.