North Korean Forced Labor in the U.S. Seafood Supply Chain

By Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director

October 27, 2023

Note: On October 24, 2023, HRNK Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu was invited to testify before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) for a hearing on the subject of forced labor in the U.S. seafood supply chain. The following text reflects his remarks during the hearing, as prepared for delivery. The full text of his written submission to the CECC can be viewed at this link.

Chairman Smith, Chairman Merkley, distinguished Commissioners, I wish to begin by thanking you for inviting me to testify today. The official dispatch of North Korean workers to China’s seafood processing plants is a breach of applicable UN Security Council Sanctions, international human rights instruments, and most importantly of the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Mindful of CAATSA provisions relating to Sanctions for Forced Labor and Slavery Overseas of North Koreans, HRNK has made a preliminary determination as to whether the working conditions these workers face are subject to Section 302(b) of the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 (22 U.S.C. 9241 (b)). We further endeavored to identify Chinese entities that employ North Korean laborers, with the aim of determining if such entities and individuals in charge meet the criteria under Section 111 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7108). 
 
Until their repatriation began on August 23 or August 29, there were thousands of North Korean workers officially dispatched to Chinese seafood processing factories. In many cases, these workers processed seafood imported from North Korea. The importation of seafood processed by North Korean workers in China, seafood exported from North Korea to China, or a combination of both, into the United States would constitute a blatant violation of CAATSA.
 
Three major seafood processing companies have historically employed North Korean labor and have exported their products to the United States.^[1] Witnesses mentioned the presence of at least three seafood processing factories that employ North Korean workers in Donggang (東港), Dandong City.
 
 
Have Chinese Factories Processed Seafood Imported from North Korea?
 
North Korean seafood exported to China from Najin Port is primarily transported overland by vehicles, through Chinese customs.^[2] It is then distributed and sold in China's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Liaoning Province, or flown to inland cities including Beijing. Seafood processed in Hunchun is exported as frozen or dried seafood to the United States, Europe, Japan, and other countries.^[3] The main North Korean seafood products transported inland in this manner include various species of squid, croaker, snow crab, hair crab, and blue crab.^[4] 
 
North Korean workers process fish caught seasonally, such as cod and pollock as well as clam during clam season. They also process octopus and shellfish, packaged as Chinese export products. There are reported instances of processed seafood marked “Made in China” being shipped out to Vladivostok, where labels are switched to “Made in Russia” and exported to third countries.
 
 
North Korean Workers in Chinese Seafood Processing Plants: 

International Legal Implications
 
The employment of North Korean workers in Chinese seafood processing plants and labor standards violations may contravene the ILO’s Forced Labor Convention (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention (No. 105), other ILO conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (also known as the Palermo Protocol).
 
The North Korean seafood processing workers face:
 
1.  Inhumane Working Conditions: Long working hours, denial of proper rest and breaks, harsh treatment, and minimal safety measures, posing a risk to their physical and mental well-being.
 
2.  Lack of Freedom and Communication: They are often isolated, facing limited contact with the outside world and their families. They are unable to exercise their right to freedom of movement and communication. 
 
3.  Absence of Labor Rights: Such rights, including the right to unionize and engage in collective bargaining, are nonexistent.
 
 
Living and Working Conditions for North Korean Overseas Workers
 
North Korean workers covet overseas positions, as the average monthly remittance of $70 (500 Chinese yuan) is dramatically higher than the $3-dollar average monthly industrial wage in North Korea.^[5] The average bribe paid to be dispatched overseas is $2,000 - $3,000. The workers must borrow the funds from money lenders and pay it back with interest.^[6] The workers are lured with false promises and subsequently entrapped under abysmal working conditions.
 
Wage violations through compulsory “contributions” extracted by the North Korean authorities, unpaid overtime, precarious safety, and health conditions are widespread. 
 
The workers must moonlight for other companies to pay back their loans, with the approval of three site supervisors (party, security agency, technical manager), who must also be bribed. Including moonlighting, a North Korean seafood processing worker in China may make up to about $210 a month. (1,500 Chinese yuan).
 
The North Korean workers' monthly wages are paid upon their repatriation, in North Korean currency, at the official exchange rate. 
 
During the COVID-19 quarantine, the workers received no wages, and the interest on loans increased, reportedly leading to about thirty suicides, most of them women.
 
The Chinese companies pay the North Korean regime mostly based on production volume. The payment is made in Chinese currency. 
 
Men mainly carry frozen fish blocks, and women sit down and peel fish or squid or sort clams and crabs by size. Most of the North Koreans work the whole day in cold storage. Additionally, the pungent smell inside is unbearable. 
 
North Korean workers at the Chinese seafood processing plants usually work about 10 hours a day. If production targets are not met, the workday can extend to over 12 hours. 
 
 
Recommendations
 
The witness respectfully recommends the following:

Continue to encourage civil society groups with relevant networks to continue investigating conditions of work at Chinese seafood processing factories and whether products processed by North Koreans may end up on the U.S. market.

Propose that new findings on violations affecting North Koreans at such factories be included in the Annual Report on Trafficking in Persons, required under Section 110(B) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 707(B)).

Seek to determine whether the government of China has made any serious and sustained efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons, as they relate to the official dispatching of North Korean workers to Chinese seafood processing plants.

Seek to confirm whether seafood exported from China to the United States contains North Korean seafood products, and whether North Korean workers officially dispatched to China processed seafood exported from China to the United States. If confirmed, such products would have to be denied entry at any of the U.S. ports, pursuant to a prohibition under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307).


The witness wishes to thank HRNK team members Ingyu Choe, Mohona Ganguly, Doohyun (Jake) Kim, and Damian Reddy, as well as Jung Gwang-il, Ko Young-hwan, Lee Hyun-seung and Ri Jong-ho for their invaluable contributions to research, translation, direct testimony, and securing testimony by key witnesses in China and North Korea.

^[1] Tim Sullivan, Martha Mendoza, and Hyung-Jin Kim, “NKorean Workers Prep Seafood Going to US Stores, Restaurants,” AP News, August 21, 2021. https://apnews.com/article/sports-middle-east-canada-europe-global-trade-8b493b7df6e147e98d19f3abb5ca090a.
^[2] Baek Seong-ho, “North Korea’s Seafood Production and Exports” [in Korean], KITA Inter-Korean Trade Report vol. 7 (2020). https://www.kita.net/cmmrcInfo/internationalTradeStudies/researchReport/northKoreaTradeReportDetail.do?pageIndex=1&no=13&classification=19&searchReqType=detail&pcRadio=19&searchClassification=19&searchStartDate=&searchEndDate=&searchCondition=CONTENT&searchKeyword=&continent_nm=&continent_cd=&country_nm=&country_cd=&sector_nm=&sector_cd=&itemCd_nm=&itemCd_cd=&searchOpenYn=.
^[3] Ibid.
^[4] Ibid.
^[5] Interview with North Korean escapee, October 8, 2023.
^[6] Interview with North Korean escapee, October 9, 2023.

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Categories: China, Forced Labor, Human Rights, North Korea, Seafood, United States

And the Truth Shall Set You Free

By Nick Miller

August 28, 2023

Nick Miller is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral work examines how the U.S. Intelligence Community analyzed North Korean and Chinese politics during the Cold War. He previously served as a defense analyst for the U.S. Air Force, managing a variety of East Asian security issues.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, the United States has stated that Russia has been looking for resources from North Korea, including weapons and ammunition, in return for providing food and commodities to Pyongyang. While the food situation is reportedly at its worst since Kim Jong-un came to power, there have not been clear signs of a serious famine.^[1]

 

The Biden administration’s policy of openly disseminating intelligence to U.S. allies and the public regarding the war in Ukraine should be maintained to keep everyone aware of the atrocities occurring in Ukraine. This also helps shine a much-needed light on the actions that the North Korean regime continues to take to support Russia, thus violating numerous UN sanctions that have already been imposed.

 

Arms

 

In March, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a Slovakian individual who was attempting to broker arms deals between Russia and North Korea in exchange for new commercial aircraft and raw materials, for the purpose of replacing weapons and munitions spent in Ukraine.^[2] From November to December 2022, the United States exposed how North Korea has been covertly funneling weapons via the Middle East and Africa to support Russia.^[3],[4] North Korean state media, KCNA, stated that it had “never exported weapons or ammunitions to Russia” and did not plan to export any, according to an unnamed vice director general of the General Bureau of Equipment in the Ministry of National Defense.^[5] Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, also dismissed the reports.^[6]

 

Labor 

 

There have been reports that North Korea is potentially sending construction workers to Russian-occupied Eastern Ukraine. While this reporting is doubted by some experts, this step would further strengthen Russian-North Korean ties, which have languished after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lim Soo-ho of South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy stated that Russia had utilized North Korean constructions workers in the past due to their low cost. It is also a common strategy for North Korea to export its labor as a way for the regime to generate hard currency, but this activity was targeted in 2017 under UN Security Resolution 2397. Workers were estimated to provide between $200-500 million a year for the North Korean regime. Only a small portion is ever seen by the individual workers, who are under the scrutiny of the Ministry of State Security.^[7]  

 

According to an October 2021 Daily NK report, North Korea prepared to finalize the selection of 800-1,000 workers to the Donbas region in November. An unnamed source stated that North Korea, China, and Russia had agreed that sending North Korean workers did not violate existing sanctions.^[8] There have been unconfirmed reports that the move was delayed due to not wanting to send people to a “danger zone.”^[9]

 

What is to be done and adapted for future use? 

 

Intelligence assessments are almost always kept classified, but the Biden administration has publicly disclosed them to spotlight and shame Russia. It quickly declassified and disseminated intelligence to key allies to highlight a range of issues, including Iranian arms support to Russia and atrocities committed by the Wagner Group. A similar policy should be adapted and utilized as a future tool of U.S. statecraft with respect to North Korea.^[10] 

 

Even after the War in Ukraine reaches a conclusion, this strategy needs to continue and be adapted by future administrations to assist the North Korean people, with the goal of weakening the figures and bureaucratic structures that enable the oppression of the North Korean people. 

 

Some areas that the Biden administration could investigate include:

 

Prison Labor Complex. This includes the networks that enable the construction and operation of prison camps, as well as the distribution and export of items produced at these camps. Such networks could be targeted through sanctions by the United States, its allies, and the United Nations.

 

Food Security. While North Korea has not experienced a second “Arduous March,” it is reportedly experiencing a serious food shortage. Any food that is secured by the regime from the outside world will not go to the people who need it most, but rather, most likely, to elites and the Korean People’s Army.^[11] If and when food aid is sent to North Korea, any diversion of this aid could be disclosed in the same way that North Korea’s ship-to-ship fuel transfers have been reported.

 

Oil Shipments. While China has denied facilitating North Korean oil shipments, China is still a core facilitator for the weakening of UN sanction enforcement and the current sanctions have not ended North Korea’s ability to finance and advance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.^{[12], [13]} According to Cho Bong-hyun of IBK Bank in Seoul, the targeting of oil supplies could paralyze the North Korean economy. However, the biggest obstacle to a full-on oil embargo is China’s veto power in the UN Security Council, since China does not want to manage the impact of a North Korean collapse on its border.^{[14], [15]} In an 2020 annual report to the UN Security Council, it was noted that China’s shipping industry was instrumental in facilitating the coal and oil trade by North Korea in “defiance of UN sanctions.”^[16]

 

While China continues to facilitate North Korean trade and weaken sanctions enforcement, the United States must take a tougher stance on China. China’s continued support ensures the Kim family’s security and continued control over the country. Severing that resource will be essential in creating meaningful change, as it deprives the regime of the means to fuel its weapons programs.

 

 

Focusing on these three issues will erode the North Korean regime’s ability to obtain and utilize resources at the expense of the people. By adapting the Ukrainian plan to North Korea, the United States can expose Pyongyang’s actions and counter its assertions. Truth must be told through information campaigns aimed at the people of North Korea. It is critical to push back against disinformation campaigns that come out of North Korea or China. By exposing Pyongyang’s policies and practices and the individuals responsible for implementing them, the United States and its allies can help bring a brighter future for the North Korean people. 

^[1] “U.S. says Russia looking to North Korea for weapons needed for Ukraine War,” Associated Press, March 30, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-russia-north-korea-ukraine-food-weapons-1.6796215 

^[2] U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Facilitator for Attempted Arms Deals Between North Korea and Russia,” March 30, 2023. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1377.

^[3] David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali, “White House Says North Korea supplying Russia with artillery shells,” Reuters, November 3, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/white-house-says-north-korea-supplying-russia-with-artillery-shells-2022-11-02.

^[4] George Wright, “North Korea sold arms to Russia’s Wagner group, US says,” BBC News, December 22, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64072570.

^[5] Joori Roh, “N.Korea says it has never supplied weapons or ammunition to Russia – KCNA,” Reuters, September 21, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/nkorea-says-it-has-never-supplied-weapons-or-ammunition-russia-kcna-2022-09-21/.

^[6] Trever Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom, “U.S.: Russia could be about to buy ‘millions’ of North Korean shells, rockets,” Reuters, September 7, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-is-buying-artillery-ammunition-nkorea-report-2022-09-06/.

^[7] Kim Tong-hyung, “N. Korea may send workers to Russian occupied east Ukraine,” Associated Press, September 1, 2022. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-united-nations-south-korea-moscow-663c0f754b2c04644b532918fdeed3ab.

^[8] Mun Dong-Hui, “N. Korea finalises selection of workers to join reconstruction efforts in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine,” Daily NK, October 21, 2022. https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-finalizes-selection-workers-join-reconstruction-efforts-russia-occupied-parts-ukraine/.

^[9] Mun Dong-Hui, “Pyongyang delays sending of workers to Eastern Ukraine due to security concerns,” Daily NK, February 1, 2023. https://www.dailynk.com/english/pyongyang-delays-sending-workers-eastern-ukraine-due-security-concerns/.

^[10] Julian E. Barnes and Adam Entous, “How the U.S. Adopted a New Intelligence Playbook to Expose Russia’s War Plans,” The New York Times, February 23, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/us/politics/intelligence-russia-us-ukraine-china.html.

^[11] Human Rights Watch, “A Matter of Survival: The North Korean Government’s Control of Food and the Risk of Hunger,” May 3, 2006. https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/05/03/matter-survival/north-korean-governments-control-food-and-risk-hunger.

^[12] “China Denies Involvement in Illicit Oil Shipments to North Korea,” VOA News, December 29, 2017. https://www.voanews.com/a/south-korea-oil-hong-kong-north-korea/4184019.html.

^[13] “North Korea: South seizes ship amid row over illegal oil transfer,” BBC News, December 29, 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42510783.

^[14] Stella Cooper, Christoph Koetti, and Muyi Xiao, “5 Takeaways From Investigating Covert Oil Deliveries to North Korea,” The New York Times, March 22, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/world/winson-north-korea-oil-tankers.html.

^[15] Tony Monroe and Jane Chung, “For North Korea, cutting off oil supplies would be devastating,” Reuters, April 13, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-china-oil-idUSKBN17F17L.

^[16] “North Korea defies sanctions with China’s help, UN Panel says,” The Guardian, April 18, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/18/north-korea-defies-sanctions-with-chinas-help-un-panel-says.

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Categories: China, North Korea, United States

Education, Information, and Liberation for North Koreans

 By Jihyun Park

Translated into English by Jeune Kim, HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Greg Scarlatoiu, HRNK Executive Director

HRNK contributor Ms. Jihyun Park is a British North Korean escapee and human rights activist. Ms. Park is co-author of “Deux Coréennes.” She is a survivor of forced marriage and human trafficking. She escaped from North Korea twice, enduring imprisonment in gulags and many near-death experiences. Today, she displays immense courage, raising awareness of the plight of North Korean women and the crimes against humanity they suffer. In doing so, she continues to face danger on a daily basis. Ms. Park received the NatWest's Chairman's Award AWA in 2018 and the Amnesty Brave Award in 2020. Currently, she is running as a conservative candidate for local election in the United Kingdom.

North Korean teachers have always had control over the ideology of the children. They teach history, and the idolization of Kim Il-sung for the ultimate purpose of cementing the Kim family regime’s grip on power. Korean War orphans sent to Eastern Europe had a different educational experience. Eastern European teachers educated them, taking on subjects such as art and music. The role of literature was particularly significant. Of course, the repression of intellectuals in Eastern European countries that received those North Korean children was harsh. But, particularly after the death of Stalin in 1953, Eastern European countries experienced a slight relaxation of draconian restrictions. That all ended with the Hungarian anti-communist revolution of 1956.

Their Eastern European teachers taught the North Korean children about ancient Greek mythology, classical literature and had them read the works of Shakespeare. Many of the children realized that there was a world out there, completely different from the one of uniform collectivism emphasized by North Korean teachers. There were even children who secretly borrowed books and read them when they were out of the sight of North Korean teachers. What they discovered was self-reflection, the power to reflect back on themselves.

The children’s eyes were opened to the freedom and universal human rights that shaped modern civil society in Europe. They learned this from Eastern European teachers, even though Eastern Europe itself was, at the time, under the yoke of communist dictatorship. It was a profound change that could not have taken place if these children had not lived in Eastern Europe. Oppressed as they were, some of their Eastern European teachers still had memories of different times, and different political systems.

Why did Kim Il-sung bring the war orphans living in Eastern Europe back to North Korea during the late 1950s and start shutting out all information from the outside world? Finding out what it is that transformed the thoughts and behavior of these children is the fundamental key to solving this North Korean puzzle today.

Kim Il-sung brought these children back to North Korea because of the art and culture they encountered in Eastern Europe. He did so because, even though Eastern Europe was ruled under a communist system at the time, its culture had been founded on individualism and the way of thinking that shaped modern European civil society had also evolved from individualist philosophy.

Just as it did 70 years ago, North Korea continues to maintain the most brutal regime in history under the Kim family dictatorship and, in the name of xenophobia, blocks information coming from the outside.

Why does North Korea restrict information? In a totalitarian dictatorship, they must root out all the flowers and trees that grow in the fields, and instead plant flowers of their own favorite color, and divide and cultivate them based on their components (songbun). In addition, North Korea regards “double thinkers” (those who pay lip service to the Kim regime, but are suspected of being sympathetic to different political systems) as a hostile class, so people cannot share what they really think with their families at home, nor with their relatives outside.

When I was young, there was a song that my father would always sing during the holidays, when he and his friends had one drink too many. It was a folk song called “Let Us Go to the Sea.” He would sing, “Let’s go to the sea over there, let’s go to the sea…” Because I was young then, I did not understand what that song meant. But now, I understand that it was about the desire to gaze at the vast blue sea and freely express all the sorrow and resentment from deep within to one’s heart’s content. My parents’ generation only knew loyalty to the Supreme Leader. They could not even confidently answer their own children’s questions, fearing a mistake could downgrade their songbun status; they feared even inquiring about the whereabouts of their own relatives.

It was in the 1990s when the Arduous March began to permeate this dark land. Numerous people dying of starvation left; they were people who left North Korea and went to China, clutching their starving stomachs, because they had to survive.

The place where they went was also dominated by a communist regime, but for the people of North Korea, it was an opportunity to discover a new world. And as we saw the distorted and falsified history of North Korea, we were able to open our eyes.

The first thing we heard in China was Chinese people cursing Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Even though the government controlled everything, the Chinese people could freely watch dozens of TV channels. The moment I saw them watching South Korean dramas on satellite TV and singing South Korean songs, I was so surprised by this kind of world that I asked myself the question: “Who am I and where am I from?”

Even as I was forcibly repatriated, beaten, and tortured as a “traitor” in a North Korean prison, I was able to endure the suffering because of the image that sparked before my eyes: being in that place, like I was receiving a gift for the first time in my life. I lived determined to go back to that place. This is why people who are forcibly repatriated twice, even three times, still want to leave that hellscape.

For those who are not living in a tunnel but in a lightless cave, information, culture, and art are like warmth that melts away the chill on a cold winter’s day, a moment to forget the struggles and dance beneath the palm trees, and a lighthouse in the middle of a dark sea that you are blessed to see as a gift from God.

What the North Korean regime fears is this gift from God—that the people of North Korea will think differently from the regime. Therefore, the North Korean regime regulates its people according to a planned daily schedule from when they wake up in the morning to when they go to sleep in the evening, coercing them into forced labor, and not allowing for any free time.

Even as they see the people dying of starvation, without any concern for their lives, they continue to force upon them an overwhelming amount of political brainwashing, never stopping even once.

They use idolization to entrap the minds of the North Korean people living under a dictatorship and oppress their souls.

The law that has been proposed on the order of Kim Yo-jong in step with this North Korean regime is the law regarding the development of inter-Korean relations; it is the anti-leaflet law in South Korea. Anti-North Korea leaflets not only include information that discloses the brutal atrocities committed by the dictatorial North Korean regime, but also things that will melt the hearts and ease the hardships of North Koreans. Activists even send gifts, such as vitamins, Bibles, and portable media devices containing culture and art.

Before Germany was reunified, the East German government said that their enemies were on the roofs, fearing the antennas mounted on the roofs used to watch West German TV. After reunification, the people of East Germany said that during the day they were in East Germany and at night they were in West Germany, demonstrating how the information flowing in from West Germany had changed them.

The current administration that speaks of peace on the Korean peninsula, President Moon Jae-in’s family were also refugees who came to South Korea during the Hungnam evacuation that is referred to as the Christmas Miracle. If they had no information, would they have gotten on that boat? Moon, whose family received the miraculous information that others did not receive and settled in South Korea and became president, is now obstructing the miraculous information that the people of his hometown longed for while shouting for peace on the Korean peninsula. Whom does this hypocritical “peace” serve?

The following line from the bill sparked much anger:

Article 25 (Penalties) ① A person who violates Article 24 (1) shall be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison or fined up to 30 million won.

Reading this bill sent chills down my spine, reminding me of the forced repatriation from China. The Chinese government made sure that if a Chinese national discovered a North Korean escapee, they would immediately inform the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and then get paid with a reward. As a result, the Chinese would feverishly search for North Korean defectors and report them, driving them to be forcibly repatriated. Many North Korean lives were lost, and this resulted in many separated families.

This law, which is like the South Korean government making a public notice to its citizens to report those who launch anti-North Korea leaflets to authorities, is mortifying for North Korean escapees.

It is the duty and mission of a free individual to lend a helping hand to those who are reaching out and seeking help from a dark place.

There are many people in North Korea who are living as “double thinkers,” and it is information about culture and art that has come in from the outside world that has brought about this change of thought.

Even though we are not able to travel to North Korea, we should not forget the extraordinary sense of accomplishment when information and news from the outside world reach the North Korean people.

Even now, there is something that the South Korean government should not forget. If the enemy of the North Korean dictator right now is the free government of South Korea, then tomorrow, those who put this bill into effect must keep in mind that they could easily become enemies of the dictator. One day, they may even become slaves as well.

One thing is sure: No leader, no government, and no law will be able to prevent the North Korean people from accessing information from the outside world—not even Kim Jong-un or Moon Jae-in. They have already tasted the free world through information entering North Korea. There is no turning back.

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Categories: China, communism, crimes against humanity, DPRK, education, Escapee, Famine, Freedom, Human Rights, Information, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Liberation, North Korea

Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping: “As Close as Lips and Teeth” on Human Rights Denial

By Amanda Mortwedt Oh

A commemorative stamp of Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping 

appeared in the Rodong Sinmunon April 20, 2018.[1]

"If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.” This Chinese proverb is frequently invoked to explain the interdependence of North Korea and China’s relationship with one another. Put another way, the two countries are “as close as lips and teeth,” which became more readily apparent when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and China’s Xi Jinping met in person last month. Nowhere is their interdependent bond more apparent than the countries’ policies of human rights denial,[2]seen most strikingly in their collusion to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees back to Kim’s gulags.[3]And this is precisely why human rights issues must be part of the discussion in the upcoming two summits between Kim Jong-un and Presidents Moon Jae-In and Donald Trump, respectively. The North Korean people deserve to have leaders face the reality of the North Korean regime. Now is an opportunity for Presidents Moon Jae-In and Donald Trump to urge Kim Jong-un to improve the human rights of North Koreans.

Importantly, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK (UN COI) noted North Korea and China’s close relationship in 2014 after it concluded an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in North Korea. In addition to finding evidence to support the tragedy that is the North Korean people’s pervasive victimization by the Kim family regime, amounting to crimes against humanity in many instances, the UN COI warned China on supporting North Korea’s atrocities. It urged China to caution relevant officials that their conduct could amount to the aiding and abetting of crimes against humanity where repatriations and information exchanges are specifically directed toward or have the purpose of facilitating the commission of crimes against humanity in North Korea.[4]

As a result of the diligence of civil society organizations, governments, and the United Nations, we know the North Korean regime systematically oppresses its people in ways that violate international law and customs, are universally immoral, and have the potential to pose a security threat to South Korea, the United States, and the Asia Pacific region. Kim’s regime is unquestionably criminal and the United Nations Security Council should refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.[5]Furthermore, North Korea’s collusion with other tyrants of the world, specifically its weapons (both chemical and conventional) support to Bashir Al-Assad in Syria,[6]demands discussion at these summits at a minimum.

Yet, Xi Jinping, now “leader eternal,”[7]took the opportunity, or perhaps succumbed to pressure,[8]to hold the first summit with Kim Jong-un ahead of the summits with Moon and Trump. This spells the worst for serious discussion of human rights with Kim going forward because of China’s terrible human rights record as well as China’s practice of repatriating North Korean escapees back to the North.[9]Nevertheless, perhaps there has never been a more important time and topic to discuss in the Moon-Kim and Trump-Kim summits. In a visit that took the international community by surprise, Kim traveled to China by armored train to meet Xi for the first time on March 25, 2018. Kim’s next summit is now set for April 27, 2018 with President Moon, giving China and North Korea about a month to continue to collude on negotiation strategy and cooperative practices.[10]

The Xi-Kim Summit confirms that people’s basic and fundamental human rights are in even more peril. Both regimes mercilessly repress human rights, and it doesn’t take much more than an internet search–not to be taken for granted in China–to read news about China’s “re-education” camps for Uyghurs, for example.[11]These camps are aimed at squashing political dissent for a leader who has, in effect, already removed voting rights from the people of China. The fact that Xi has clear influence over Kim, who traveled outside of his comfort zone of North Korea, means that human rights considerations are nonexistent, except for a policy of human rights denial, coined by North Korean leadership expert Robert Collins for HRNK.[12]

As a result, Presidents Moon and Trump should push back during the upcoming summits against this collusion to deny human rights. With that in mind, these are the top five human rights considerations for Presidents Moon and Trump to discuss with Kim Jong-un, all of which North Korea violates in contravention of its five international human rights treaty obligations:[13]

1. North Korea’s system of political imprisonment, manifested in modern-day gulags, where crimes against humanity are occurring. At a minimum, families of prisoners must be notified of their loved ones’ whereabouts and when they are killed or die in detention.[14]Kim Jong-un must also be pressed to release the three Americans and six South Koreans in detention. While the regime acknowledges its long-term labor facilities (kyo-hwa-so) it still denies the existence of its political prison camps (kwan-li-so) despite continually mounting evidence.[15]
2. North Korea’s and China’s practice of detaining North Korean escapees and forcibly repatriating them to North Korea, where they face torture and, at times, death in detention. Kim must not order the execution of those fleeing North Korea, as has been reported as the current practice and witnessed via video.[16]
3. Separated families deserve to be reunited with their loved ones, intentionally separated by North Korea for sixty-five years. So many of these family members have died or are elderly now, and soon this basic human right to family will be denied forever with their passing.[17]
4. The full return and accounting of prisoners of war and those abducted by the North Korean regime.[18]As an ally against the Kim regime, Japan has specifically requested this issue be a part of the summits as well.
5. An assurance against the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of war, especially against innocent civilians. In line with this, Kim must end the reported practice of testing these weapons against prisoners.[19]

Ultimately, the Xi-Kim summit is an indicator that the near future of human rights progress in North Korea remains bleak. Despite and because of this, now is the time to be even more hardened in the commitment by the Republic of Korea and the United States to push for human rights reform in North Korea, as people’s lives depend on it.

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[1]On April 20, 2018, Christopher Green (@Dest_Pyongyang) tweeted, “Nothing says lips n teeth’ like #NorthKorea issuing a commemorative stamp. From today’s Rodong Sinmun. pic.twitter.com/dKXMw3bVhW.” The picture shows the stamp above in the Rodong Sinmun. 

[2]In 2014, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK found that “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” perpetrated against the people of North Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the state, amount to crimes against humanity in many instances. Crimes include murder, enslavement, deliberate starvation, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, torture, and enforced disappearances, among other hardships.

[3]North Koreans forcibly repatriated by China systematically endure persecution, torture while being interrogated about their activities abroad, sexual violence, and imprisonment in North Korea’s inhuman detention system. Persons found to have contact with the Republic of Korea or Christian churches may be forcibly disappeared into political prison camps, imprisoned in forced labor camps, or summarily executed.

[4]UN Human Rights Council, Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, UN Human Rights Council, A/HRC/25/63, February 7, 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/ReportoftheCommissionofInquiryDPRK.aspx.

[5]See the International Bar Association and the War Crimes Committee’s report, “Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity in North Korean Political Prisons,” (December 2017) requesting “that the UN provide the ICC or a special tribunal with jurisdiction to appropriately investigate, punish and remedy the crimes against humanity” committed by the Kim regime. 

[6]See Robert Collins, “North Korea: Committing Crimes Against Humanity in Two Regions of the World,” HRNK Insider, April 19, 2018,http://www.hrnkinsider.org/2018/04/north-korea-committing-crimes-against.html?m=1.

[7]Tom Rogan, “Democracy Dies in Communism: Washington Post runs Chinese propaganda op-ed,” Washington Examiner, April 3, 2018, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democracy-dies-in-communism-washington-post-runs-chinese-propaganda-op-ed.

[8]Yun Sun, “Kim Jong Un Goes to China: Mending A Weathered Alliance,” 38 North, April 3, 2018, https://www.38north.org/2018/04/ysun040318/.

[9]See HRNK’s Co-Chair Emeritus Roberta Cohen’s and Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu’s December 12, 2017 Congressional testimonies on China’s treatment of North Korean refugees: https://www.hrnk.org/events/congressional-hearings.php.

[10]“China received a warning by the UN COI in 2014 that its policy of forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees could potentially amount to aiding and abetting North Korean perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The UN COI urged China to caution relevant officials that conduct could amount to the aiding and abetting of crimes against humanity where repatriations and information exchanges are specifically directed toward or have the purpose of facilitating the commission of crimes against humanity in North Korea.” Statement of Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), on “Protecting North Korean Refugees” at the Hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, December 12, 2017, https://www.hrnk.org/events/congressional-hearings-view.php?id=12.

[11]HRNK’s Board Member Jerome Cohen, a pre-eminent scholar on China, has written about this issue in detail. See Jerome Cohen, “China sends Uyghurs to re-education camps as a “preventive measure,” Jerry’s Blog, March 27, 2018, https://www.jeromecohen.net/jerrys-blog/china-sends-uyghurs-to-re-education-camps.

[12]See Robert Collins, “Pyongyang Republic: North Korea's Capital of Human Rights Denial,” (Washington, DC: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2016), https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Collins_PyongyangRepublic_FINAL_WEB.pdf.

[13]Of the ten “core international human rights treaties,” North Korea has signed, acceded to, or ratified five: the ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, CRC, and most recently the CRPD. SeeOHCHR, The Core International Human Rights Instruments and Their Monitoring Bodies, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CoreInstruments.aspx.

[14]See Robert Collins and Amanda Mortwedt Oh, “From Cradle to Grave: The Path of North Korean Innocents,” (Washington, DC: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2017), 47-50, https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Collins_Cradle_to_Grave_WEB_FINALFINAL.pdf.

[15]HRNK reports on North Korea’s prisons are available at https://www.hrnk.org/publications/hrnk-publications.php. Its most recent, “The Parallel Gulag: North Korea’s ‘An-jeon-bu’ Prison Camps,” provides satellite imagery of over 20 suspected kyo-hwa-sofacilities inside North Korea. See David Hawk with Amanda Mortwedt Oh, “The Parallel Gulag: North Korea’s ‘An-jeon-bu’ Prison Camps,” (Washington, DC: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2017), https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Hawk_The_Parallel_Gulag_Web.pdf.

[16]Tweet by Jihyun Park (@JihyunPark7) showing “A #video shot by a #NorthKorean security guard #shot by two women trying to escape. Two women are #mum and #daughter. #YaluRivel [sic],” https://twitter.com/jihyunpark7/status/977827453954555904?s=21.

[17]See OHCHR, “Torn Apart: The Human Rights Dimension of the Involuntary Separation of Korean Families,” 2016,   https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Report_TORN_APART.pdf.

[18]See Yoshi Yamamoto, “Taken! North Korea’s Criminal Abduction of Citizens of Other Countries,” (Washington, DC: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2011), https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Taken_LQ.pdf.

[19]Dr. Anthony Cordesman's testimony: 

There are indicators that North Korea has a biological weapons program well underway. Several North Korean defectors have claimed that the North tested biological and/or chemical weapons on mentally or physically deficient children and concentration camp prisoners.

Mr. John Parachini's testimony:

The evidence to date of a North Korean biological program is thus far not comparable to the evidence for NK’s nuclear, missile, chemical, and conventional weapons capabilities. Defector reporting presents the most worrisome picture of the North Korean biological weapons program, but most of these reports cannot be corroborated or have been proven false. During 2003–2004 and 2009, several defectors claimed that NK tested biological agents on political prisoners, but these reports are difficult to verify. Recent defectors have been reported to have been vaccinated for anthrax, which has led some to assert that the regime has anthrax in its arsenal and is prepared to use it.

See Joint Subcommittee Hearing: More Than a Nuclear Threat: North Korea’s Chemical, Biological, and Conventional Weapons | House Committee on Foreign Affairs: Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade and Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, March 23, 2018, https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/joint-subcommittee-hearing-nuclear-threat-north-koreas-chemical-biological-conventional-weapons/.

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Categories: China, DPRK, HRNK, humanrights, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae In, North Korea, South Korea, summit, Trump, UNCOI, United States, Xi Jinping