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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20121128T000000
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DTSTAMP:20190107T125027Z
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UID:712014-1354060800-1354060800@www.hrnk.org
SUMMARY:International Forum on North Korea
DESCRIPTION:  \nSTATEMENT BY ROBERTA COHEN AT THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON NORTH KOREA\, SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY\, THE KOREA INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY\, LONDON\, NOVEMBER 28\, 2012 \n\n\n \nIn my remarks today as a discussant\, I’m going to focus on the challenges to information gathering in the case of North Korea. But first let me begin by emphasizing the importance of unearthing information about the extent of human rights violations in the country. The organizations on this panel have helped bring to light extensive information about human rights in North Korea. As a result of their meticulous work\, governments and the United Nations have been able to rely on this information for their own reports and policy positions on North Korea.\n \nWe have heard from our panelists today that public executions may be on the decline in North Korea\, in part because of international criticism. We have also heard that North Korea's participation in the Paralympic games may signal a change in policy toward the disabled. And we have heard that fewer people are dying from starvation because they have learned to survive by growing their own food which the government is increasingly permitting. All these areas are being researched as are the prison camps\, where particular efforts are being made to ascertain whether one camp has been closed down and another relocated and the significance of such information.   \n \nThis certainly contrasts with the past when the world was largely in the dark about human rights conditions in North Korea. It was not until 40 years after Kim Il-sung assumed power — in the late 1970s and 80s — that international NGOs first began to report on the human rights situation. More recently with the escape of some 25\,000 North Koreans to the South\, information has become more plentiful about all aspects of human rights in North Korea. Hundreds of former prisoners and former prison guards are among the defectors and have been providing testimony about their prison experiences. And since 2003\, satellite photos of the camps have helped verify the information provided by the former prisoners and guards. North Koreans hiding in China have also been providing information. The report of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea\, Lives for Sale\, is based on interviews with North Korean women who made their way to China. And information is forthcoming — by means of new technology — from North Koreans still inside North Korea.\n \nNonetheless\, many obstacles remain to information gathering.  Let us focus on three.\n \nThe first is the severe crackdown being carried out at the border since Kim Jong-il's death. Shoot to kill orders\, intensified surveillance and other restrictive measures have reduced the number of defectors arriving in the South and with them the information they bring. This year\, the total number of North Koreans expected to reach the South is 1400\, less than half the number who arrived last year and in many past years. North Korea’s efforts to reduce the number is in great measure a response to all the information North Korean defectors have been providing to the outside world\, and which also has been going back into North Korea. China for its part has also been discouraging North Korean departures to prevent instability in the North but also to reduce the bad publicity Beijing has been receiving for forcibly repatriating North Koreans who are then subject to severe punishment. An international discussion is needed on how to address the restrictions imposed on North Koreans trying to exit and the forced repatriations of those who manage to cross the border. Governments\, international organizations\, NGOs and defectors should all be part of this discussion.    \n \nA second difficulty to information gathering is the continued lack of access to North Korea by international human rights groups and United Nations human rights rapporteurs. The only time that a human rights organization was invited to the North was in 1995 (nearly 20 years ago) when Amnesty International was allowed in\, subject to heavy restrictions. That same year\, North Korea invited the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women to visit but only to discuss World War II's comfort women and Japan. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea\, who was appointed in 2004 to investigate and report on the human rights situation\, has never been allowed into the country. Nor has the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights\, the UN’s chief human rights advocate. For nearly10 years\, the High Commissioner has been trying to establish a dialogue and technical assistance programs with North Korea. North Korea\, however\, has made it known that it might only allow a visit of the High Commissioner in exchange for something else — the termination of UN resolutions on the human rights situation. UN member states\, however\, are not inclined to bargain away their resolutions\, and rightly so. An overall international strategy needs to be developed for addressing the lack of access.\n \nA third difficulty arises when UN officials and governments do not give full weight to defector testimony. Because the UN and governments can not directly assess the situation themselves\, they often qualify the information they receive from defectors\, sometimes even making it seem doubtful. UN High Commissioners for Human Rights for example have long pointed out that the UN can not form its own independent diagnosis of the situation because they cannot verify it directly. This may explain in part why no High Commissioner has ever issued a separate stand alone statement on North Korea’s human rights situation. There may be other reasons as well but the lack of direct access has for too long served as a handy rationale.\n \nThe US State Department Human Rights Report on North Korea for 2011 even contains a disclaimer at the end that says that no one can “assess fully human rights conditions or confirm reported abuses” in North Korea and that defector information can be dated. The language on political prison camps in the report therefore rings a bit tentative: the camps are attributed to reports of defectors or NGOs which presumably can not be confirmed.\n \nYet former prisoners and prison guards have been regularly providing first hand accounts of their experiences so that there is accumulated testimony\, which often corroborates other testimony\, making it factual. Sometimes the testimonies are accompanied by drawings. Satellite photos further provide verification of the camps. Shouldn’t a new approach be developed for dealing with human rights information coming from those who directly experienced severe and unspeakable abuses? The idea that international monitors have to verify each and every piece of information through a visit to the country and its prisons sets up a gold standard of proof that would be inapplicable in many situations. Even if a visit were ever permitted\, the access allowed would not permit the kind of verification sought. To Shin Dong-hyuk\, the prisoner who escaped Camp 14\, “more and more people are dying in the camps. We cannot wait for more tangible evidence.”\n \nSince 2008\, reputable NGOs have found the violations reported so grave as to warrant calling upon the UN General Assembly and Security Council to investigate whether North Korea is committing crimes against humanity. A coalition formed in 2011 of more than 40 organizations is calling for a UN commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in North Korea. The UN Special Rapporteur\, Marzuki Darusman\, in his 2012 report to the UN General Assembly himself acknowledges that certain widespread or systematic imprisonment may constitute crimes against humanity and expresses support for a mechanism of inquiry.\n \nBut there still remains a substantial gap between what the NGOs and independent experts are calling for and what senior UN and government officials are ready to acknowledge and act upon. The gap of course benefits North Korea. Regularly calling attention to the lack of verifiable information in North Korea unintentionally lends support to its efforts to hide its human rights record – particularly the camps which are hidden away in the mountains. It also unintentionally lends support to its claim that human rights abuses are unfounded allegations emanating from those who betrayed their country.\n \nWhy not convene an expert meeting on the information gap? It should identify the information that is available and the information that is lacking\, ascertain which information constitutes crimes against humanity\, and decide how such information can best be presented to and used by UN and government officials. The information could be broken down to encompass specific issues – such as the imprisonment of whole families because of guilt by association\, the incarceration of children in camps\, and the cases of specific prisoners about which information has come to light. Such a meeting must address why governments and the UN haven’t yet figured out a way to shine a spotlight on the prison camp system – about which so much information has come out. \n \nFurther\, it would be valuable for governments to monitor the camps via satellites and if possible share the information with NGOs. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea has been adept at working with Google Earth and Digital Globe to establish a watch over the camps\, but interpretation of the information could benefit from government expertise.   \n \nFinally\, greater support is needed to get new technology into North Korea — whether USB flash drives\, phones or miniature recording devices — in order to bring information out from North Korea. And greater support is needed for radio broadcasts\, DVDs and mobile media equipment to send information into the country. People to people exchanges should also be encouraged to increase the information flow. North Korea has been making extensive efforts to restrict information into and from its country but it has been failing in this enterprise. The more that North Koreans learn about conditions in other countries\, the more likely it will be that they will seek reform of their own. \n \n\n 
URL:https://www.hrnk.org/event/international-forum-on-north-korea/
CATEGORIES:Events,HRNK Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20121012T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20121012T133000
DTSTAMP:20190107T125021Z
CREATED:20190107T125008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20190107T125021Z
UID:712012-1350028800-1350048600@www.hrnk.org
SUMMARY:North Korea’s Political Prisoner Camp System and the Plight of North Korean Refugees:  A Call for Action
DESCRIPTION:Seating is limited. Please RSVP to hrnkla@hrnk.org. 
URL:https://www.hrnk.org/event/north-koreas-political-prisoner-camp-system-and-the-plight-of-north-korean-refugees-a-call-for-action/
CATEGORIES:Events,HRNK Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20120911T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20120911T150000
DTSTAMP:20190107T125018Z
CREATED:20190107T125008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20190107T125018Z
UID:712011-1347370200-1347375600@www.hrnk.org
SUMMARY:An Update on the Campaign to Rescue Dr. Oh Kil-nam's Family
DESCRIPTION:The Story of Oh Kil-nam and His Family \n\n \nSource: Chosunilbo\n \n\n \nDr. Oh Kil-nam was once a South Korean elite strongly opposed to the Yusin Constitution system\, who left South Korea to study in Germany.\n \nAfter the No. 3 Office of the Central Committee of the Workers Party noticed Dr. Oh in Germany\, North Korean agents approached him and lured him to North Korea with promises of a position\nin which he could study economics as much as he pleased. The North Korean agents also promised medical treatment for Dr. Oh’s wife\, who was suffering from hepatitis. Because of these promises\, Dr. Oh decided to enter North Korea in 1985\, bringing his wife and two young daughters\, Hye-won and Gyu-won\, with him.\n \n“It was a real donkey act!” Dr. Oh said of his decision. Upon arriving at the airport in Pyongyang\, he had already realized his mistake. His family was sent to a military camp in the mountains\, and they were forced to repeatedly and solely study the sayings of Kim Il-sung. After that he was posted to a position at the “Voice of National Salvation\,” a North Korean radio propaganda broadcaster targeting South Korean people.\n \nThe following year\, Dr. Oh was instructed to go to Germany to win over South Korean students studying there for the North Korean government. He was not allowed to bring his family with him to Germany\, and they were forced to stay in North Korea. His wife\, Shin Suk-ja\, pushed him to take the opportunity to defect back to South Korea. Dr. Oh eventually asked for asylum in Copenhagen\, Denmark in 1986 and reentered South Korea in 1992. In that period he had relentlessly tried to bring his family to him wherever he was\, in every way conceivable\, but failed to do so.\n \nAccording to Dr. Oh\, the so-called national composer\, Yun Isang\, tried to apply pressure to Dr. Oh saying\, “You betrayed the Leader Kim Il-sung\, who did you a favor. As well\, you also know the secrets of the Mt. Chilbo Liaison Office (which is in charge of the “Voice of National Salvage”). Therefore\, we have no choice but to take your family hostage.”\n \nYun again attempted to persuade Dr. Oh to go back to North Korea by giving him a letter from Dr. Oh’s wife. There was also an audio tape recorded by his wife and two daughters\, which sounded as though they had been forced and threatened into recording.\n \nSince 1987\, Shin Suk-ja\, Hye-won\, and Gyu-won- Dr. Oh’s entire family-have reportedly been imprisoned in the notorious political prison camp- Yoduk. Kang Cheol-hwan\, Ahn Hyuk\, Kim Tae-jin\, and other former prisoners of Yoduk who now live in the South have testified unanimously that they have met Dr. Oh’s family in Yoduk.\n \nNow South Korean NGOs have undertaken this campaign to rescue Dr. Oh’s wife and children from the prison camps of North Korea. The aim of this campaign is to collect signatures from South Koreans and citizens of the world to urge UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take care of Shin Suk-ja\, Hye-won\, and Gyu-won\, and to work to bring them back to their home in South Korea.\n \n-ICNK\nOctober 27\, 2011\n \n 
URL:https://www.hrnk.org/event/an-update-on-the-campaign-to-rescue-dr-oh-kil-nams-family/
CATEGORIES:Events,HRNK Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20120719T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20120719T133000
DTSTAMP:20190107T125008Z
CREATED:20190107T125008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20190107T125008Z
UID:712009-1342699200-1342704600@www.hrnk.org
SUMMARY:Coercion\, Control\, Surveillance\, and Punishment:  An Examination of the North Korean Police State
DESCRIPTION:Please click on this link for the photo gallery from this event.  \n \nThe Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) launched the 130-page report\, Coercion\, Control\, Surveillance\, and Punishment: An Examination of the North Korean Police State\, on July 19 at the Korea Economic Institute (KEI).   \nAuthored by North Korean leadership specialist Ken E. Gause\, Coercion\, Control\, Surveillance\, and Punishment reveals that the Kim family created a pervasive state security apparatus to consolidate power\, relying on constant surveillance and a network of informants to root out threats to the regime from the smallest neighborhoods to the highest levels of the military. \nThe report rollout\, moderated by Greg Scarlatoiu\, HRNK Executive Director\, also featured remarks by discussants Chuck Downs\, former HRNK Executive Director\, Helen-Louise Hunter\, HRNK Board Member\, and Kim Kwang-jin\, HRNK Non-Resident Fellow. \n  \nSPEAKER BIOS: \nKen Gause\, the report author\, is a senior research analyst with CNA Strategic Studies’ International Affairs Group and Iranian Studies Program. He oversees CNA’s work on foreign leadership studies and is expert on leadership issues concerning North Korea. Mr. Gause began his career as a leadership analyst with the U.S. government\, posted for three years in Moscow. Since the mid-1980s\, he has worked for a number of defense-related think tanks\, where he has strived to push the boundaries of leadership analysis. Prior to joining CNA in 1999\, Gause was Director of Research for Keesing’s Worldwide Directory of Defense Authorities. Mr. Gause holds a B.A. in Political Science and Russian from Vanderbilt University\, and earned an M.A. in Soviet and East European Affairs from George Washington University. \nChuck Downs was HRNK Executive Director from 2008 to 2011 and Board member from 2001 to 2008. He authored Over the Line: North Korea’s Negotiating Strategy while serving as Associate Director of the Asian Studies Program at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Downs served for most of his career in the Pentagon\, as Deputy Director for Regional Affairs and Congressional Relations in the Pentagon’s East Asia Office. Mr. Downs was also Senior Defense and Foreign Policy Advisor to the House Policy Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives. As a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy he chaired the North Korea Working Group\, providing policy recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Downs graduated with honors in political science from Williams College in 1972. \nHelen-Louise Hunter\, member of HRNK’s Board and Executive Committee\, is an attorney who has engaged in private practice with a large international law firm in Washington\, D.C.\, and has served as Permanent Law Clerk in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. For more than 20 years\, she was a Far East specialist at the Central Intelligence Agency. In the late 1970s\, she served as the Assistant National Intelligence Officer for the Far East. She is the author of Kim Il-song’s North Korea (1999). \nKim Kwang-jin is a North Korean defector and former DPRK international finance agent. An HRNK non-resident fellow\, Mr. Kim is currently a resident senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) in Seoul\, South Korea and HRNK non-resident fellow. Mr. Kim is an invaluable experienced resource shedding light into the darkest corners of the North Korean regime’s secret and illegal international financial operations. His revelations have saved re-insurance companies tens of millions of dollars and brought an end to an important method the corrupt regime employed to earn from foreign sources the funds it needed to maintain its internal oppression. Mr. Kim holds an MBA in Finance and Insurance from Kookmin University (Seoul\, 2012)\, a Masters in Economics/IT of North Korea at the University of North Korean Studies (Seoul\, 2008)\, a Degree in British Literature from Kim Il-sung University (Pyongyang\, 1989)\, and a Degree in English from the Pyongyang Foreign Language Institute (1984). Working for the North Korean regime\, Mr. Kim served as Singapore Representative of North East Asia Bank (2002-2003); an agent of the Korean Foreign Insurance Company and North East Asia Bank\, Pyongyang\, (2000–2002); a manager of the Foreign Trade Bank of DPRK (1999)\, and Professor of the Pyongyang Computer College (1991–1997). He has produced a number of publications on the North Korean economy and the current power transition in North Korea\, including two HRNK reports. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.hrnk.org/event/coercion-control-surveillance-and-punishment-an-examination-of-the-north-korean-police-state/
CATEGORIES:Events,HRNK Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20120606T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20120606T153000
DTSTAMP:20190107T125013Z
CREATED:20190107T125008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20190107T125013Z
UID:712010-1338991200-1338996600@www.hrnk.org
SUMMARY:Marked for Life: Songbun\, North Korea's Social Classification System
DESCRIPTION:Please click on this link for the photo gallery from this event.
URL:https://www.hrnk.org/event/marked-for-life-songbun-north-koreas-social-classification-system/
CATEGORIES:Events,HRNK Events
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