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Tag: prison camps

  • North Korea Could Face Punishment After Inquiry

    North Korea has had some light shed on the country’s methods of operation and extreme human rights violations with the release of the report from the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights on Monday.

    Horrific testimony from those who were captured and imprisoned, for reasons as shady as having a suspicious family member or trying to find food for their families, have been painstakingly extracted from those who have survived the hell of North Korean Prison Camps.

    These stories, which are painful to hear and excruciating to tell, have been gathered over the last eleven months in an ongoing investigation into human rights violations by leaders of North Korea’s troubled regime, according to CNN.

    Some of the tales from survivors are of the kind that once heard, will never be forgotten. They are the kind that inspire shock and disbelief and admittedly paint a picture of a brutal and heartless government “that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”

    The story of a malnourished pregnant woman who, against all odds, gave birth in a filthy camp was especially disturbing. A guard was alerted to the baby’s arrival by its cries, for which the young mother was brutally beaten. As he beat her, she begged to keep her new baby. When she was on the verge of unconsciousness, he forced her to pick up her baby and hold it face down in water until the cries stopped forever.

    In August, North Korea condemned the hearings as a “charade” to “hear testimonies from human scum” and in another response, North Korea said in a letter that it “totally and categorically rejects the Commission of Inquiry”.

    As determined as North Korea may be to write off accusations and investigations, the testimonies of North Korea’s survivors are damning enough to erase any doubt there may have been that human rights in that country have been exceedingly and inarguably violated.

    The commission also told China that it might be “aiding and abetting crimes against humanity” by sending defectors back to North Korea to face unspeakable torture and almost certain death.

    “These are not the occasional wrongs that can be done by officials everywhere in the world, they are wrongs against humanity, they are wrongs that shock the consciousness of humanity,” Michael Kirby, a former chief justice of Australia and chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, told waiting journalists.

    The stories are unmistakably inhumane and invoke images of Nazi concentration camps. Take this testimony from a young woman, for example.

    “We finished our work and we were about to pick up this grass or the plant that we knew we could eat,” former prisoner Jee Heon A told the commission of her friend, Kim Young Hee. “And then the guards saw us, and he came running and he stepped on our hands and then he brought us to this place and he told us to kneel.”

    The guard forced the two girls to eat grass, roots, and soil. Kim Young Hee became extremely ill with diarrhea after eating the soil, and soon died, leaving Jee Heon A feeling alone and helpless.

    “There was nothing I could do,” Jee said. “I could not give her any medicine. And when she died, she couldn’t even close her eyes. She died with her eyes open. I cried my heart out.”

    She then told of the mass burial of her friend, Kim, with about 20 other bodies, a fairly common occurrence.

    “We covered the hole with clumped and frozen earth, but after a week when we went to the tomb, it was gone, the bodies were not there. We felt strange when we were going up that hill. We later found out that the old man who was guarding the place had his dogs eat the bodies. He raised five dogs and the dogs were eating the heads and the body parts of dead bodies.”

    These are just a partial example of the unimaginable conditions for prisoners in North Korea.

    Supreme leader Kim Jong-un and his security chiefs could possibly face international justice for the systematic Nazi-style torture and killing of the citizens of North Korea, according to Reuters.

    Michael Kirby said he expected the group’s findings to “galvanize action on the part of the international community”. If it doesn’t, we should be eternally ashamed of ourselves.

    Image via You Tube

  • Prison Camp Abuses In North Korea Come To Light

    North Korea is not exactly renown for being a stable, friendly country with an impeccable report card for human decency. Quite the opposite, actually. North Korea is, in the most basic of terms, completely insane. The country is made up of one political party and is completely ruled by a singular man; Kim Jong-Un, who is the son of Kim Jong-il and grandson to Kim Il-sung, making him the third generation of the Kim family to rule over North Korea with a dictator’s fist. The craziness and atrocities that make up Korea are pretty common knowledge, but if you would like a refresher course, be sure to check out Vice’s video series on their infiltration into North Korea. The first of said videos can be found below; we’ll wait for you to catch up and meet back here.

    North Korea has been in hot water with the United Nations in the past on the grounds of human rights violations, among other problems. The atrocities committed at North Korean prison camps have long been known to be terrible and horrific, though little attention was given to the issue on a global level. Escapees from the camps, which are usually populated by “political prisoners” and their friends and family, have bravely stepped forward to give their testimonies about their experiences inside these camps. Perhaps the most famous instance of this is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a prison camp escapee who travels the world looking to inform others about his experiences in order to inspire action against such cruelties. A video of Shin Dong-hyuk talking about his experiences can be found below.

    Shin Dong-hyuk may now have his wish fulfilled; after years of imprisonment and activism across the globe, the United Nations will be hearing testimonies from North Korean prison escapees, with the testimonies beginning today. The hope is that the testimonies can be used to levy charges against the North Korean government, which denies any abuse or infringement when it comes to human right’s issues. The United Nations panel will gather evidence, hear testimonies, including that of Shin Dong-hyuk, and pressure North Korea to open up to investigations and clean up its act.

    According to some estimates, there are possibly up to 200,000 prisoners in North Korean prison camps, and the abuses they face are unthinkably awful. Shin Dong-hyuk has previously recounted having to witness the execution of his own mother and brother, as well as having his own finger chopped off for the offense of dropping a sewing machine. Shin Dong-hyuk was quoted as saying, “Because the North Korean people cannot stand up with guns like Libya and Syria … I personally think this [speaking to the UN] is the first and last hope left.”

    Jee Heon-a, another prison camp escapee, recounts that she saw other prisoners eating salted frogs, since they were one of the few forms of nourishment. She went on to say that she also subsisted off of the meager meat. She recounted seeing a mother forced to kill her own child after being beaten by a prison guard; the newborn was drowned in a pail of water, and then taken away by the grandmother who helped birth it. Other accounts talk of children as young as seven being clubbed to death in the prison camps, among other horrors.

    It is unsure of what the United Nations will be able to do in means of halting this atrocities against basic human rights, but the hope is that by simply raising awareness of the issue, change will come. The writer’s heart goes out to the brave men and women who will testify in the upcoming meetings, with hope that their words with spark change and revolution in the world, as well as freedom for the masses still trapped in unspeakable horror.