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April 02, 2013
Please click on the link for the conference agenda.
December 13, 2012
Jae Ku, director of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS; Gordon Flake, co-vice chair of the board of directors at Human Rights North Korea and executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; Insung Kim, researcher at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights; Joseph Bermudez Jr., senior analyst at DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center; and Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, discussed this topic. Keynote remarks were delivered by Carl Gershman, president of National Endowment for Democracy, during lunch following the panel discussion.
November 28, 2012
STATEMENT 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
In 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.
We 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.
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September 11, 2012
The Story of Oh Kil-nam and His Family
Source: Chosunilbo
Dr. Oh Kil-nam was once a South Korean elite strongly opposed to the Yusin Constitution system, who left South Korea to study in Germany.
After 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
in 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.
“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.
The 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 1
July 19, 2012
Please click on this link for the photo gallery from this event.
The 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).
Authored 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.
The 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.
SPEAKER BIOS:
Ken 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 E
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June 06, 2012
Please click on this link for the photo gallery from this event.
For thirty years, U.S. North Korea policy have sacrificed human rights for the sake of addressing nuclear weapons. Both the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have thrived. Sidelining human rights to appease the North Korean regime is not the answer, but a fundamental flaw in U.S. policy. (Published by the National Institute for Public Policy)
Sep 26, 2022
North Korea’s forced labor enterprise and its state sponsorship of human trafficking certainly continued until the onset of the COVID pandemic. HRNK has endeavored to determine if North Korean entities responsible for exporting workers to China and Russia continued their activities under COVID as well.
George Hutchinson's The Suryong, the Soldier, and Information in the KPA is the second of three building blocks of a multi-year HRNK project to examine North Korea's information environment. Hutchinson's thoroughly researched and sourced report addresses the circulation of information within the Korean People's Army (KPA). Understanding how KPA soldiers receive their information is needed to prepare information campaigns while taking into account all possible contingenc
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This is the second HRNK satellite imagery report detailing activity observed during 2015 to 2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as “Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaech’ŏn” (39.646810, 126.117058) and
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at civil and political prison facilities throughout the nation. This study details activity observed during 1968–1977 and 2002–2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as "Kyo-hwa-so No. 3, T'osŏng-ni" and endeavors to e
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former detainee interviews to shed light on human suffering in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea) by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This report provides an abbreviated update to our previous reports on a long-term political prison commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as Kwan-li-so
Through satellite imagery analysis and witness testimony, HRNK has identified a previously unknown potential kyo-hwa-so long-term prison-labor facility at Sŏnhwa-dong (선화동) P’ihyŏn-gun, P’yŏngan-bukto, North Korea. While this facility appears to be operational and well maintained, further imagery analysis and witness testimony collection will be necessary in order to irrefutably confirm that Sŏnhwa-dong is a kyo-hwa-so.
Jul 22, 2021
"North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 8, Sŭngho-ri (승호리) - Update" is the latest report under a long-term project employing satellite imagery analysis and former political prisoner testimony to shed light on human suffering in North Korea's prison camps.
Jul 01, 2021
Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations" is HRNK's 50th report in our 20-year history. This is even more meaningful as David Hawk's "Hidden Gulag" (2003) was the first report published by HRNK. In his latest report, Hawk details efforts by many UN member states and by the UN’s committees, projects and procedures to promote and protect human rights in the DPRK. The report highlights North Korea’s shifts in its approach
South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes against Humanity by Robert Collins underlines similarities between two systematically, deliberately, and thoroughly discriminatory repressive systems. This project began with expert testimony Collins submitted as part of a joint investigation and documentation project scrutinizing human rights violations committed at North Korea’s short-term detention facilities, conducted by the Committee for Human Rights