UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Torture, public executions, extra judicial and arbitrary detention, the absence of due process and the rule of law, imposition of the death penalty for political reasons, the existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labour;
Sanctions on citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad, leading to punishments of internment, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or the death penalty…
Severe restrictions on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and on equal access to information…
Continuing violation of…fundamental freedoms of women, in particular the trafficking of women for the purpose of prostitution or forced marriage and the subjection of women to human smuggling, forced abortions, gender-based discrimination and violence…
An excerpt from a draft resolution at the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee in November 2007
Under the dictatorial regime of Kim Jong-Il, people in North Korea are mentally and physically oppressed every day. Their human rights are virtually nonexistent as the government restricts individuals of freedom of speech, religion, assembly, opinion, mobility, and others.
Concentration Camps
The government manages a network of political concentration camps that houses over 250,000 inmates, virtually all sentenced for life.
ⓒCitizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights
Religious Oppression
In North Korea, the state has successfully brainwashed the majority of North Koreans to worship the deceased leader Kim Il-Sung as God and his son Kim Jung-Il as Son of God. Sculptures and portraits of the two are at everywhere to always remind their mightiness. Under these idols, a religious person, especially if Christian, risks his or her life every day. Among the 250,000 inmates of harsh concentration camps, it is widely accepted that between 50,000 and 70,000 are Christians.
Interestingly, around a half century ago, before Korea was separated into two countries by war and Cold War ideology, Pyeongyang actually used to be a flourishing centre for Christianity and purported to be the Jerusalem of Korea. In fact, North Korea’s constitution still grants freedom of religion, but only states that religion shall not be used as a means to drag in foreign powers or create social order.
Refugees
To emancipate themselves from starvation and overwhelmingly restrictive life-style under the state’s surveilance, many North Koreans choose to flee to People’s Republic of China every year in hopes of finding a free world.
