About HRNK

In October of 2001, a distinguished group of foreign policy and human rights specialists launched the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) to promote human rights in North Korea.

HRNK’s Guiding Objectives

Close North Korea’s gulags:

Up to 200,000 people are believed to be imprisoned without due process, under inhumane conditions, for political reasons; an estimated 400,000 have died in such camps. We should seek access to the camps for International Red Cross inspection teams, a list of those imprisoned and those responsible for their care, and information regarding their sentences and their conditions. A special effort must be made to release those who are detained in the camps without charge, because of a policy of collective punishment for the kin of political prisoners. This practice, and infanticide against inmates’ new-born children should be stopped immediately.

Open North Korea’s borders:

North Korea and China must cease criminalizing the act of leaving North Korea without permission, and the rights of those fleeing North Korea’s political persecution must be respected. Escapees are political refugees who must not be forcibly repatriated. UNHCR must be given access to North Koreans in the border areas. Foreign citizens abducted by the regime and held against their will must be allowed to return to their homes.

Inform North Korea’s Citizens:

Provide information to the North Korean people, especially via radio and other media, ending their forced isolation.

Foster good economic principles:

Encourage companies investing in North Korea to develop a code of conduct, similar to the Sullivan principles that were applied in South Africa to protect workers and other citizens.

Promote access throughout North Korea:

Human rights organizations, and independent media must be given access to North Korea, thereby ending the information blockade that has prevented the true picture of conditions in north Korea from being known. Humanitarian relief to the North must be monitored to verify relief is reaching those most in need.

Feed the hungry in North Korea:

Under the regime’s military first policies, food supplies, even internationally provided food assistance, is being withheld from those that need it most and provided to those who are categorized as loyal to the regime. This use of food as a method of political retribution and coercion must stop.

Link Development Assistance to North Korea to tangible improvements in the regime’s human rights record:

Development Assistance to the government of North Korea must be predicated on steps taken by it to protect the rights, including freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of conscience of the people of North Korea.

Current Activities:

The Committee’s research and publication activities focus on how the North Korean totalitarian regime abuses the rights of its citizens, its vast system of political prisons and labor camps, the regime’s denial of equal access to food and goods, and the plight of refugees fleeing to China.

Our well researched and well-written studies have established our reputation and our leading role in the growing international network of human rights, humanitarian assistance, and policy organizations committed to opening up and revealing North Korea to the rest of the world.

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