United Nations General Assembly High-Level Plenary Meeting Addressing Human Rights Abuses and Violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Statement by Greg Scarlatoiu, President and CEO

United Nations General Assembly

High-Level Plenary Meeting

Addressing Human Rights Abuses and Violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Statement by Greg Scarlatoiu, President and CEO

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)

Your Excellency Philemon Young, President of the General Assembly at its 79th session; Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights; Professor Elizabeth Salmón, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK; Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen:

Please allow me to speak on behalf of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea—HRNK. We're an NGO holding UN ECOSOC consultative status. Since 2001, we have embarked on a mission to research, investigate, and report on human rights violations perpetrated by the DPRK regime.

The point I wish to emphasize is that DPRK human rights violations reinforce a regime that is exporting violence and instability—not only in the Northeast Asia region, but also in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

You may all be familiar with the fact that the DPRK has been exporting weapons and ammunition to the terrorist groups that have encircled the State of Israel through Iran. The Type 73 submachine gun—you can see it in the hands of each and every fighter in the Middle East, whether you're talking about Syria, whether you're talking about Iraq, or whether you're talking about Yemen.

The first time the North Korean Musudan ballistic missile was tested—that's a missile based on an old Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile—it did not happen in North Korea. It happened in Iran.

You all remember that massive missile attack against Israel. Those liquid-fuel missiles were based on a North Korean design.

And you know, we see what's happening on the Ukrainian front right now. Millions—millions—of North Korean artillery shells have been exported to Russia, to the Ukrainian front. KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles have been deployed against Ukraine—Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian civilians: men, women, children.

Even troops from the 11th Armed Corps of the Korean People's Army—the North Korean People's Army—have been deployed to the Ukrainian front. 11,000 of them, at the very least. The numbers are increasing.

I do not believe reports that they're just gun fodder. They're not. They're very good troops—well-trained, well-fed, well-indoctrinated. What they have to learn is combined operations: artillery, drones, infantry. They're learning fast.

So, what is the point I'm trying to make here? The point I'm trying to make is that North Korea is no longer just a Korean Peninsula threat. The DPRK is no longer just a Northeast Asian threat. The DPRK is exporting instability and violence to the Middle East and to Europe. And the root cause of this is the human rights violations that the DPRK perpetrates.

Let me quote my good friend John Sifton, and my colleagues at Human Rights Watch, who issued a press release on May 18—just yesterday:

“The United Nations General Assembly should establish a new body to examine the connections between the North Korean government's repressive system and its military programs and nuclear weapons development.”

Concerned governments need to send high-level officials to this plenary today to offer specific ideas on how the General Assembly can better hold North Korea accountable—by documenting the links between the DPRK’s human rights abuses and its weapons programs.

Ladies and gentlemen, what do we know about human rights denial in North Korea?

Most of the 25 million people of North Korea are victims of the Kim family regime's policy of human rights denial. The people of North Korea face discrimination based on a loyalty-based system called Songbun.

The regime preserves itself through producing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, maintaining the Korean People's Army, and keeping its key elites happy through access to luxury goods and hard currency procured from the outside world—generally through illicit means, and also in violation of applicable UN sanctions.

In order to procure the resources needed to preserve itself, the regime oppresses and exploits its people at home and abroad. Prior to COVID, we knew that there were about 100,000 North Korean people deployed—primarily to Russia, China, and the Middle East. Up to 90% of their salaries were being confiscated by the regime.

This DPRK regime perpetuates itself through overwhelming coercion, control, surveillance, punishment, as well as strict information control.

We also know that the major agents of potential change in North Korea are the very people of North Korea. And when I say change, I mean peaceful change—peaceful transformation.

All right. I'm an adopted American, a naturalized American. I was on the streets of Bucharest in December 1989, during the anti-communist revolution. I know how terrible a non-peaceful transformation can be.

What we need in North Korea is peaceful transformation. We need a coherent information campaign focused on telling the North Korean people three stories: the abysmal human rights situation; the corruption of their leadership, particularly the inner core of the Kim family; and the truth about the outside world—especially the free, democratic, and prosperous Republic of Korea, South Korea.

Like-minded UN member states—democracies—must reassume leadership.

We must retake the high ground we once held on DPRK human rights at the UN, and the General Assembly can play an extraordinary role in this process. We must resuscitate the coalition of these like-minded UN member states and democracies. We need stronger UN General Assembly resolutions. We need to advance human rights through multilateral diplomacy, and we need to focus on a human rights-upfront approach to the North Korean conundrum.

We must truly rely on the members of this like-minded coalition. We know who they are: the EU, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and other UN member states. Of course, the Global South—the Global South is extraordinarily important. We must rely on our friends, our partners, our allies in the Global South, who have themselves experienced tremendous human rights violations. They can be absolutely helpful—tremendous, critical allies.

Advancing human rights through multilateral international diplomacy will be key to what I propose as a human rights-upfront approach to the North Korean conundrum.

And of course, I'm speaking on this hallowed ground at the UN. When you say a human rights-upfront approach, what you mean is bringing together the three branches: political, humanitarian, and human rights.

What I mean by this is placing human rights front and center as we deal with the DPRK. What I mean is inducing peaceful change in North Korea.

So let us try to empower the people—and I repeat, the people—of North Korea. Let us step up efforts to send them information from the outside world—information telling them three fundamental stories:

1.     The story of their own human rights.

2.     The story of the corruption of their leadership.

3.     The story of the outside world—especially the story of South Korea, the Republic of Korea.

North Korea joined the UN at the same time as South Korea, in 1991. Upon becoming a UN member state, North Korea assumed international obligations. It must observe the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

North Korea acceded to the two core human rights covenants in 1982—nine years before joining the UN: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The DPRK has also joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

And yet, each and every conceivable civil, political, economic, social, and cultural right is violated in North Korea.

Let us take a look at the constitution of the DPRK. Please excuse this shameless exercise in self-promotion—it's on our website, hrnk.org. You can take a look at the constitution of the DPRK there.

The constitution and other laws supposedly protect rights such as freedom of religion and freedom of assembly—but none of these rights are observed in practice. All that matters is North Korean ideology and the TPMI—the Ten Principles of Monolithic Ideology.

So again, we used to think about North Korea as a Korean Peninsula issue, as a regional issue. That is no longer the case.

In order to support the regime—and to support the exportation of instability and violence to the Middle East and Europe—the DPRK regime relies on human rights violations.

And I will strongly argue in favor of a human rights approach to the DPRK. Unless we resolve the abysmal human rights situation, there will be no answer to this challenge.

And we have had a report from the UN COI—the United Nations Commission of Inquiry. I know that some of the distinguished delegates here have an issue with country-specific mechanisms, and that is all right.

But in February 2014, a UN Commission of Inquiry—three head commissioners: one Serbian, Sonja Biserko; one Australian, Michael Kirby; and one Indonesian, Marzuki Darusman—found that crimes against humanity were being committed in North Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the state.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I will argue that the DPRK regime thrives on crimes against humanity. This regime thrives on human rights violations.

And if we are to bring some resolution to the Korean Peninsula—if we are to restore peace, prosperity, and stability to the Northeast Asia region and other parts of the world—we must focus on North Korean human rights.

Thank you very much for listening, and please remember: hrnk.org.
Thank you very much.

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