HRNK's EXCLUSIVE First Interview with Ji Seong-ho after SOTU Appearance as Guest of FLOTUS Melania Trump

Interview by Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor

Tell us about your escape from North Korea. We heard many details in President Trump's State of the Union speech, but tell us more. How long did it take you to escape? What was your path of escape?

It took me about three months to escape from North Korea to South Korea. The distance of the route that you must take is over 10,000 kilometers (about 6,214 miles). On the journey, I had to pass through a number of countries such as China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand to reach South Korea. Freedom is not so easy to reach. Since this journey is difficult, not many people attempt to escape from North Korea. If you get caught, you are tortured or sent to a political prison camp. Nevertheless, there are people with the courage to try to escape and I am one of them. I escaped from North Korea in 2006 with my younger brother by crossing the Tumen River. I almost drowned to death and after we reached China, we started to think about what we could do. Plainly speaking, we were skeptical about whether we would be able to reach South Korea or not. There was no hope that I would survive because I was not on a safe route and we had to move as quietly as possible without being detected by the Chinese police while at the same time crossing the border holding my crutches made in North Korea. At that time, I thought that I should part from my brother and go on separately. Due to my crutches, I was easily detectable. I thought it would be better if even just one of us could reach South Korea alive. Unfortunately, the journey was extremely harsh. Once, I was caught and threatened to be killed. Another time, I was dehydrated and fainted in a jungle. At that time, I cried and thought "Why was I born in North Korea, not in South Korea? Why did I have to go through this hardship? If I die here, then my body will be eaten by wild animals and none of my family would know that I am dead." I was very sad. I also felt sorrow for the fate of the North Korean people. I promised myself that I would contribute to the reunification of Korean peninsula so that in the future, no more disabled people like me will experience the hardships that I went through. I would like to wipe away the tears of the North Korean people. It is a blessing that I succeeded to escape and reach South Korea, a country of freedom.

Tell us about your life in South Korea. Where and what do you study?

When I first came to South Korea, although I had many things that I wanted to do, not knowing much, I could not do them. I was contemplating what I should do and decided that I should learn about computers. I enrolled in an academy specializing in computers. Thankfully, even though I was disabled, the academy accepted me and I was able to learn to type with only one hand.

Then, my next goal was to go to a university because I had the opportunity to do so. In North Korea, whether or not you can go to a university depends on your social classification [songbun]. In South Korea, you can attend university despite a disability, right? There are no laws that prohibit the enrollment of a disabled person nor are there any laws that prohibit North Korean escapees from attending school. South Korean society is committed to providing various opportunities like education for North Korean escapees to settle and develop themselves. For this reason, I decided to go to a university and I further realized the importance of education. My outlook on life changed and progressed. My experience at a university helped me to see beyond my own life to the broader community of “us.” I questioned myself about many things. Where was I born? How did I end up in South Korea? What was the environment that I was living in? What should I, who has settled down happily in South Korea, be doing for those who are having trouble settling and adapting in South Korean culture and society? Attending university gave me an opportunity to continuously ponder over many things in my life at that time. I understood that my disability was not a “wall” that blocked me from pursuing my life. I still worked very hard. I was admitted into Dongkuk University and majored in Criminal Law.

Today, I am at the same university and am working to obtain my Master’s degree in Law. If there is reunification of the two Koreas in the future, then new laws that are different from the ones administered currently in North Korea will be needed. We will also need temporary laws that can incorporate North Koreans into South Korean society. I want to prepare and research the development of such laws. Specifically, I want to study to help policymakers make better laws that can assist North Koreans in better adapting the democratic system of rule of law.

Tell us about your work for human rights in North Korea?

What I wanted to focus on was not the human rights issues in North Korea. At first, I thought that successfully settling down in South Korea was enough. The reason why I started to work for human rights was because I visited the U.S. When I visited Arizona, many people cried and applauded after listening to my story and they even started a campaign for me. If I did not take action, I heard that I would be no different from a Nazi. I felt burdened to do something. During the campaign, a child of about 6 or 7 years old told me that they were participating in the campaign because they watched a documentary about the suffering of the North Korean people. The child was especially touched by the "kotjebi," homeless children who rummage through the garbage in bare feet during the winter. After listening to this child, I blamed myself. I questioned whether I was the adult. I was surely no better than this child. I reflected deeply after this. I could not just live for myself any longer. There were still people suffering, including the disabled and the "kotjebi" children. It was not sufficient for me to just eat rice and wear warm clothes. It should be my role as a citizen in a democratic society to work for North Korean human rights.

With nothing to begin with, my friends and I became activists for human rights in North Korea by starting NAUH. We started with only $200 in the beginning. However, I thought that if we show candor and diligence then, slowly but surely, others would join us and the things that were needed would be fulfilled in the end. It has been 7 years since the organization began with $200 and now, we have rescued about 270 refugees from North Korea, which cost more than $500,000 dollars. We learned that if we, people who were victims, become advocates and appeal to the world with the truth, then they can help to move the hearts of South Koreans as well as the warm-hearted people around the world in order to make miracles happen. I learned that miracles happen to people who dream and take action. We are actively trying to rescue female refugees who suffer from sex trafficking in China. We also campaign about the human rights situation in North Korea, stating that human rights in North Korea is an urgent issue and needs more attention. People should be activists for these issues so that when the two Koreas do unify someday in the future, people will not be ashamed to face those who once suffered under the Kim regime. When the time comes, we should not look at these people as mere sources of labor, but share our love. We deliver our message through the campaigns, rescue work in China, and radio broadcasts to the young people in North Korea. We show our vision, what we want to do when unified by comparing North Korea, the first homeland, and South Korea, the second homeland. We produce programs that help the “jangmadang” (market) generation to think about what they could do in the future—what they can sell in the emerging and growing market and giving them tips to vitalize the economy. We exhibit the items sold in North Korea's markets so that South Korean people are able to broaden their understanding of the North Korean people. We show what they sell and introduce "kotjebi" by reenacting their lives through theatrical plays. These novel reenactments were performed in the U.S. and South Korea and are still in the works today. This is what we are doing.

Were you able to speak with President Trump prior to the State of the Union? What did you talk about?

The first time that I saw President Trump from afar was at the National Assembly of South Korea when he was giving a speech. I remember crying a lot at the time. He understood, in depth, the sentiments of the North Korean people. I cried because President Trump had compassion for the North Korean people.

It was an honor for me to meet him face to face this time. Obviously, you are only given a short amount of time to meet the President of the U.S. I greeted him and he recognized who I was right way. I was very much surprised. He even winked at me. We took photos together and I saw First Lady Melania Trump. I took photos with her as well. After President Trump’s speech, we took photos again. We did not have a long conversation, but I could sense that President Trump knew a lot about my life and the lives of the North Korean people. He welcomed me with such a warm reception. I was very grateful.

What was going through your head and what were you feeling when every single person at the State of the Union last night was applauding you and your incredible journey?

I first thought of my father. I thought that my father would be very happy in heaven to see that the greatest President of the world, the U.S. President, remembers and speaks about him, an escapee who was tortured to death. I am truly grateful. Not just my father, but many North Koreans go through a similar situation where they are arrested, tortured, and incarcerated in political prison camps. To watch President Trump talk about all these at the State of the Union, I could not help but to think about my father. It was a time to remember our past life. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about the people who are currently living in North Korea. President Trump has a will to improve the lives of North Korea and if people like us activists work hard enough, we can wipe away the tears of those North Koreans one day. There would be no more people like my father and myself, who were tortured. There would be no more starvation. There would be no more selling off North Korean people in China. It was not a long period of time, but I had many feelings and I was grateful. The officials of the U.S. executive and legislative branches at the State of the Union all applauded me, and it is a memory I will never forget for the rest of my life.

What does it mean for the North Korean escapee community that you were a guest of the FLOTUS Melania Trump and able to have the spotlight at the State of the Union?

Well, first, it was a great honor. The second that I stepped foot inside the White House, I thought to myself that this was my family’s greatest honor. However, remembering how many North Koreans would want to be there with me, rather than think that I was there alone, I believed that I was there with the hearts of the North Korean people—with all of their hopes, dreams, and wishes. For this reason, I felt that I was carrying a large weight on my shoulders regarding the work I will have to do from now on.

At the moment that I met President Trump, I could not think of anything. Like I said before, he winked at me. I was very comfortable after that. We had the photo session with the President and First Lady Melania Trump. I had many different feelings and thoughts going through my mind. This would have never happened if I was in North Korea. It was because I had escaped from North Korea. It was because the South Korean government granted me citizenship that I was allowed to travel anywhere I wanted freely—a fact that I am really thankful for. I was also bewildered and in awe of the fact that I was in the White House when I have not even been inside the South Korean Blue House yet. All in all, yesterday was a day filled with a rollercoaster of emotions.

For the North Korean escapee community, my visit to the White House and the spotlight at the State of the Union is of significant importance. This moment will be shown to North Koreans in North Korea through many news media outlets, like VOA. This is an extraordinary event. I’m sure many in North Korea have heard that some escapees go to Washington, DC, but that an escapee was invited to the White House and was welcomed by the President of the United States of America and the First Lady will come as a shock to all back home. People will be asking, “Who is that guy?” They’ll say, “He’s a handicapped kotjebi!” People will say, “Wow!” This will blow everyone away in North Korea. Of course, the North Korean government will not like my appearance at the State of the Union. However, I believe the North Korean people will be thankful for how aware and attentive the American people and their government are towards the issue of human rights in North Korea. They will know that many people in the U.S. are aware and care about their suffering in North Korea.

What do you think is going to be different now that you have been publicly recognized by the POTUS and FLOTUS?

From my point of view, this was not a small event. This was a very big event. Furthermore, at the State of the Union, the President directly spoke about the lives of escapees from North Korea and my personal story as well. I received applause from many there. They supported me. The North Korean government would not like this at all. There is no reason for them to like it. The things they wanted to hide are being disclosed to all of the outside world. Actually, that is why they tortured me and wanted me to die. Now, my story has been broadcasted to all the world. They were afraid of this reality coming out to the best known press in the world and the media in South Korea as well. I think Kim Jong-Un also watched the State of the Union yesterday. Wouldn’t he have? Wouldn’t the North Korean Bo-wi-bu (State Security Department) have watched it? I think they would really be fuming. However, at this moment, I think they should be honest about this problem. They should acknowledge their wrongdoing, admit that they have human rights issues, and provide for the disabled. Having a couple athletes in the Paralympics will not be representative of life for all of North Korea's disabled people. The government needs to feed them, provide clothes for them, and house them. This is what the country needs to do since the disabled and the non-disabled are not in the same condition. They need to help them so they do not suffer. I wish they would admit what they are not doing well and try to get better. I hope for that type of North Korea. Of course they would get angry, but what can we do?

I think this experience has become an opportunity to invoke the South Korean people to pay more attention to the North Korean human rights issue because the U.S. President directly presented the issue at the State of the Union. Most of the South Korean people already know about the severity of the human rights situation in North Korea. Even recently, North Korea threatened to launch nuclear missile tests and threatened South Korea as if a war would start. This is ridiculous. They are just like a bullying gangster neighbor. The South Korean people are angry about North Korea's provocations. Furthermore, after this spotlight, I think many South Koreans will become interested once again in the human rights issues in North Korea. After the seeing the work of activists, many people might think more about how terrible the regime has been and how they should not be that way. They could give donations to the NGOs working to improve the improve the human rights situation in North Korea. Wouldn’t this revitalize activists to be able to do more this way? If the heads of state are willing to save the 25 million oppressed North Korean people, I think many people, especially the citizens, youths, and students of the U.S. would follow suit and join the movement to help solve the issues with human rights in North Korea. Therefore, I hope this becomes a chance to disclose the difficult reality of what is happening in North Korea.

Holding up your crutches as you did at the end of the State of the Union last night was a symbol of hope for many, especially for the disabled community in North Korea. Do you have anything else you would like to share in our remaining time?

First, in North Korea, a disabled person is called a “byungshin” [“retard”]. This is what the North Korean government officially labels their own citizens who are disabled. The government tortures the disabled, telling them that they “might as well just die.” That was the life that I lived in North Korea. However, when I escaped to South Korea, never once did I think that I was a disabled person. I was able to live happily and more diligently. [Showing his crutches] These are the crutches that I brought with me from North Korea. The reason why I am actively fighting for the human rights in North Korea is because I want to be an example of hope for disabled North Koreans. I want to stop the North Korean government from torturing and persecuting the disabled in its country. There is also the role of closely monitoring these atrocities towards the disabled. But I can’t do this alone. So, I need the international community, the North Korean people, and the people that care for the North Korean people to all participate in working for the human rights of North Koreans. In this way, I believe there will be an end to the suffering of the North Korean people. I did not know that I would be showing my crutches this often, but it does symbolize my difficult journey.

My only request is that people don’t think about just one person, Ji Seong-ho, but rather, think about the many North Korean people who are still suffering in North Korea right now.

Translated by Grace Soomin Kan, Dohyun Kim, and Hyungjun Yu, HRNK Research Interns

Interview was filmed on Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Please stay tuned for the interview video on our YouTube page: 
https://www.youtube.com/user/committeehrnk.

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Categories: China, crimes against humanity, DPRK, FLOTUS, HRNK, hrnkus, Human Rights, JiSeongHo, Kotjebi, NGO, North Korea, NorthKorea, POTUS, SOTU, South Korea, State of the Union, Torture, Trump, United States

ISC Trilateral Conference Panel #1

Editor: Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor
Original Transcription: Hanmin Sohn, HRNK Legal Research Intern

ISC Trilateral Conference Panel #1 with HRNK Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu (center).

GREG SCARLATOIU:

In today’s day and age, there are surely very few countries that have a perfect human rights record. That said, in 2017, there is only one country on the face of the planet that’s running a system of political prison camps: five detention facilities where 120,000 men, women, and children are being held. In today’s day and age, there is only one country on the face of the planet that has a system of social discrimination based on its citizens’ perceived degree of loyalty to the regime, and degree of loyalty to the regime of their parents and grandparents. And we surely know, based on the findings of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on North Korean human rights, that this is a regime that’s committing crimes against humanity against its own people. This is also a regime that is threatening its neighbors, regional and international peace and security with long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

What North Korea is not though is irrational. This regime is actually very rational. This regime, as terrible as it is, very rationally executes its strategic objectives. Those fundamental strategic objectives are its survival and the establishment of hegemony over the entire Korean peninsula. Because, from the regime’s viewpoint, only unification of the entire Korean peninsula under its hegemony ensures its long-term survival. So, while we have a whole toolkit available to address North Korea, one very important aspect one has to keep in mind is that this is not a status-quo regime. This is a revisionist regime and I think that we have to keep that in mind as we come up with possible solutions.

Where do we stand in terms of human rights under the Kim Jong-un regime? Our organization is tasked to investigate the North Korean human rights situation through witness testimony coming from North Korean defectors, and through some testimony coming from inside North Korea; now it is possible to have some sources inside the country contacted through a combination of Chinese cell phone and official North Korean cell phone. This information also comes from satellite imagery analysis that enables us to monitor North Korea’s detention facilities and compare these findings with testimony coming from witnesses.

As many of you know, I’m sure, ever since Kim Jong-un took power, there has been an aggressive crackdown on attempted defections. The number of defectors arriving in South Korea declined by about 50% from 2011 to 2012, from 2,800 to about 1,500. We have stayed at the same lower levels. We have seen an aggressive purging of senior officials. In December 2016, the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul published a report stating that 340 senior North Korean officials had been purged or executed since Kim Jong-un assumed power. The preferred method of execution is execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft machine gun. You’re talking about a 50 caliber machine gun, four barrels, automatic fire, 14.5 mm for those accustomed to the metric system. Our organization actually managed to secure a satellite image acquired just minutes prior to such an execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft machine gun. Remember, it’s not only those officials who go away. The country applies a system of guilt-by-association called yeon-jwa-je. This is a system of feudal extraction. Up to three generations of the same family are punished. Men, women, and children, the young and the old are held in North Korea’s political prison camps. When one official is purged, it’s also all of the associates, their family and friends that are threatened and punished. These purges are massive. They have surely been happening ever since the early days of the Kim Il-Sung regime, but nevertheless, on Kim Jong-un’s watch, they’ve been extraordinarily intense because, of course, he only had 3 years to prepare for hereditary transmission of power while his father had 20. He was only 28 years old when he took over. His father was 53. Thus, the intensity of the purges. Of course, there are other trends. Political prison camps near the border with China have been shut down. It was bad PR and of course the last thing that the North Korean regime wanted was for more former prisoners to escape across the border into China and subsequently into the free world to tell their stories. Prisoners have been located to other detention facilities that have expanded in the meantime. Camp 14 and Camp 25 expanded by above 100%. Thousands of prisoners disappeared in the process.

We have also documented excessive repression of women. Remember, there has been a marketization process, an informal marketization process building in North Korea since the days of Great Famine. The ones who are most active at the markets are women, in particular, married women. Thus, those who are most often arrested for perceived misconduct at these markets are women. Also, women are those who attempt to illegally cross the border into China without the Kim regime’s approval. They’re the ones who get arrested and forcibly repatriated by China to conditions of danger. Actually, contrary to the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which China is a party, at one re-education forced labor camp, Camp No. 12 in Jongo-ri, 80% of the 1,000 women prisoners are women who are forcible repatriated from China. We were able to document this through both satellite imagery and defector testimony. Actually, a new annex has been built at this detention facility to house those women. Of course, North Korea today is different from North Korea 20 or 10 years ago and we are all aware of factors that are slowly, but surely, eroding the regime’s grip on power. More information is entering the country although this continues to be the world’s most reclusive regime. There has been this process of informal marketization and, of course, information also travels along the informal supply lines established from China all the way to the capital city of Pyongyang. And, of course, this regime has been very resilient. This regime has been in power for almost 69 years. The Soviet Union lasted for 74 years. How has this regime managed to survive its Soviet and Eastern European peers by over a quarter century? Through relentless coercion, control, surveillance, and punishment of its people. For a population of 25 million people, North Korea has 270,000 agents: 50,000 of the State Security Department, the North Korean “Gestapo.”

Add to that 210,000 agents of the Ministry of Public Security, and 10,000 agents of the Military Security Command. The regime has also stayed in power through indoctrination of its people. Indoctrination begins at a very early stage. While babies are still in the cradle, they are taught to point fingers to the pictures of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il on the wall. This indoctrination continues throughout one’s lifetime. People participate in weekly ideological training sessions, where they have to confess to the others, talk about their trespasses, and about how they would strengthen their ideological awareness. They’re subjected to this type of indoctrination day in and day out. And then there is the old pervasive fear of repression, fear of secret agents of the regime, fear of the informers. Each and every person has to be an informant by participating in a neighborhood watch system called in-min-ban, where everybody watches everybody else: family members, friends, and neighbors.

So, where do we stand right now? What are some of the options that we have? Now surely we have a tool kit. And there’s no one single, excuse the cliché, silver bullet. Sanctions have been mentioned today. It is way too soon to assess the effectiveness of sanctions. It is very important that we include human rights in the type of behavior that is subjected to sanctions. This is not done so far in sanctions pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions. It’s all about nukes and missiles. However, human rights has finally been included in the type of the behavior subjected to sanctions in our own U.S. North Korea Policy and Sanctions Enforcement Act. Moreover, in order to address North Korea’s illicit activities, one doesn’t even need sanctions. All that’s needed is the application of domestic and international law, in the countries where the Kim regime is running such activities. All that’s needed is information exchange with the U.S. intelligence community, with the U.S. law enforcement community, that might have knowledge of such operations and those running them.

There is pressure at the UN—pressure based on the human rights campaign that has been ongoing for almost two decades now. Why is it important that we have three strong General Assembly resolutions, three strong Human Rights Council resolutions, that three times the UN Security Council placed North Korean human rights on its agenda? It’s very important because first of all, it is the right thing to do, legally, morally, ethically, and politically. These are universal values. And secondly, because this undermines and erodes the very legitimacy of the North Korean regime. They care about their pocket book, the sanctions. They care about legitimacy, of course, the human rights campaign has a lot to do with eroding whatever semblance of legitimacy they might have left.

Of course, this regime has stayed in power through international deception, as mentioned earlier in relation to its nuclear and missile program. The Kim regime executes a policy of human rights denial established at the highest levels of state, resulting in those crimes against humanity that happen in particular at North Korea’s political prison camps.

A solution that is often mentioned is information. In a worldview centered on liberal IR theory, the solution would be changing the social order. And that makes perfect sense. Presumably, the best tool available is information because after all, the only ones who can affect change are the very people of North Korea. It’s very important to tell them three basic stories: the story of the corruption of their leadership , especially the corruption of the inner core of the Kim family; the story of their own human rights situation, which they do not understand living under such an oppressive regime; and of course, the story of the outside world, especially the story of successful South Korea, not only a prosperous country, but a successful democracy. And what we have been witnessing South Korea over the past few months, surely, clearly proves that South Korea is a very healthy and sound democracy.

Of course, there is the question about diplomacy. Diplomacy of course must never stop. Track 1.5 or track 2, whatever that is. One can never speak against diplomacy. But of course, diplomacy that’s grounded in a very firm understanding of the Kim regime, of how the Kim regime operates, of what the fundamental strategic objectives of the Kim regime are because those are not going to change for as long as the status-quo is maintained in North Korea. Thank you very much.

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Categories: China, Diplomacy, DPRK, Famine, HRNK, hrnkus, Human Rights, humanrights, international affairs, international relations, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, KimJongUn, NorthKorea, Pyongyang, South Korea, UN, ZPU4

Doubling Down on Human Rights Denial at North Korea’s 7th Party Congress

By Robert Collins, HRNK Senior Advisor and Author

When one evaluates North Korea’s Workers’ Party (KWP) 7th Congress, it is apparent that the Kim Regime completely rejected the findings and recommendations of the 2014 Report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK as well as subsequent UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly resolutions. Major shifts in the 7th Party Congress’ organizational structures and the personnel staffed by North Korean elites within those structures indicate that Kim Jong-un and his Kim family regime have no intention of improving human rights for the North Korean people. The 7th Party Congress themes—projected policy lines, Party reorganization, and new elite appointments—all bolster the regime’s ability to enforce its draconian policy of human rights denial by changing nothing in that socio-political dynamic. Indeed, Kim Jong-un’s focus at the 7th Party Congress was on securing his power base and economic programs that support regime objectives,[1] which significantly, if not primarily, focus on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.[2] This comes as little surprise to most and is even expected by those who pay close attention to the regime’s policy of human rights denial and its implementation practices. While there are those who are optimistic about improvements in North Korea’s human rights environment,[3] we are frankly left with mere hope; however, as the saying goes, “hope is not a strategy.”

The two concepts of human rights and weapons of mass destruction stand in stark contrast in terms of regime focus and resource allocation. Kim Jong-un emphasized that Party-led national priorities would focus on economic development and the North Korean nuclear program in his speeches at the 7th Party Congress, thus ensuring the continued conflict between nuclear weapons and human rights as well as impacting the diplomatic priorities of nation-states and international organizations that try to deal with both. As long as this conflict dynamic continues, each North Korean will suffer from deprivation of state support and Party-state denial of the principles enunciated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Indeed, Kim Jong-un admitted as much in his full report of the 7th Party Congress, where he stated, “our people, though they are not well-off …”[4]

Accordingly, the recent sanctions against North Korea by the U.S. Department of the Treasury are welcome indeed. Following the release of the U.S. Department of State’s most recent Human Rights Report, the U.S. Department of the Treasury ’s Office of Foreign Assets Control initiated sanctions against 11 personnel (all KWP members even though not all of them work in Party posts) and five organizations, including the KWP Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), the Ministry of Public Security (national police) and its prison bureau, and the Ministry of State Security (also known as the State Security Department or SSD) and its prison bureau. The most significant sanction was against the ruler of the regime himself, Kim Jong-un.[5], [6] Such actions are the best way to ensure the international community’s efforts will be most effective along with the physical sanctions.

Amanda Mortwedt Oh of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea recently did a superb job detailing how the North Korean human rights situation has proceeded under Kim Jong-un: the suppression continues—if it has not increased—and the international community is taking more actions, such as the U.S. sanctions mentioned above.[7] Those concerned with this issue would do well to read it.

As expected, the regime’s reaction was vitriolic and threatening. Han Song-ryol, Director-General of the U.S. Affairs Department at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, insisted that "the United States has crossed the red line in our showdown," and "we regard this thrice-cursed crime as a declaration of war."[8] However, the 7th Party Congress was all about Kim Jong-un. The strategy that Kim and his subordinates employed was to control the attendance at the Congress and thus, the participation in voting—not to mention the requisite cheering and clapping in response to Kim’s speeches. This control would eliminate any opposition from the beginning. The reorganization and re-staffing were, by specific design, to strengthen Kim Jong-un’s leadership at the top of the regime. To ensure the success of these moves, the KWP OGD (one of the organizations sanctioned by the U.S.) and its sub-elements—provincial, city, and county levels under each local Party committee’s organization secretary—politically vetted each and every delegate to ensure that only the most loyal Party members participated in the 7th Party Congress and its delegate selection process.[9]

Furthermore, the 7th Party Congress Implementation Committee—those responsible for oversight of the Congress and its proceedings—was made up of long-time regime supporters:

1. Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) Standing Committee Chairman Kim Yong-nam
2.  General Political Bureau (GPB) Director, Vice-Marshal Hwang Pyong-so
3. Premier Pak Pong-ju
4. KWP Vice-Chairman Choi Ryong-hae
5. KWP Vice-Chairman Kim Ki-nam
6. KWP Vice-Chairman Choi Tae-bok
7. Minister of People’s Armed Forces Pak Yong-sik
8. Korean People’s Army (KPA) Chief of General Staff General Ri Myong-su
9. SPA Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Yang Hyong-sop
10. National Defense Commission (NDC) Vice-Chairman Vice Marshal Ri Yong-mu
11. NDC Vice-Chairman General O Kuk-ryol
12. SSD Director General Kim Won-hong
13. KWP Vice-Chairman and KWP Finance Department Director Kwak Bom-ki
14. Hamgyeong North Province KWP Party Chairman O Su-yong
15. KWP Vice-Chairman and KWP Cadre Department Director Kim Pyong-hae
16. KWP Vice-chairman and Director of the KWP United Front Department Kim Yong-chol
17. Minister of People’s Security Choi Bu-il
18. Vice-Premier No Du-chol
19. OGD First Vice-Director Cho Yon-jun
20. SPA Standing Committee Honorary Vice-Chairman Choi Yong-rim
21. KWP Vice-Chairman Ri Su-yong
22. Vice-Premier and former Chagang Province KWP Committee Chairman Kim Dok-hun
23. Vice-Premier Kim Yong-jin
24. Vice-Premier Ri Mu-yong
25. Vice-Premier Ri Chol-man
26. KWP Workers’ Organization Department Director Ri Il-hwan
27. KWP Military Industries Department Director Ri Man-gon
28. Former KWP Light Industries Department Director An Jong-su
29. KWP Science and Education Department Director Choi Sang-gon
30. KWP Military Department Director Ri Yong-nae
31. KWP History Research Center Director Kim Jong-im
32. Former Rodong Shinmun Editor Kim Jung-yop
33. KWP First Vice-Director Kim Man-song
34. Former Pyongan South Province Party Committee Chairman Hong In-bom
35. Former KWP Military Industries Department Director Pak Do-chun
36. OGD First Vice-Director Ri Pyong-chol
37. Former KWP Military Industries Department Director Chu Kyu-chang
38. Second Economic Committee Chairman Cho Chun-yong[10]

Every one of these individuals is from the core of the Party elite and has profited enormously from their loyalty to the regime, and from service to the Party and its policies, including human rights denial.

Kim Jong-un’s consolidation of authority goes even further. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, 129 (54.9%) of the Central Committee's 235 members and candidate members were replaced during the 7th Party Congress,[11] implying that Kim has placed a new set of supporters in the regime’s core positions. If any of those newly appointed personnel had any thoughts of recommending changes to the regime’s policy of human rights denial, they would not have even been considered for appointment to the regime’s core political group. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons why the KWP OGD vetted every attendee. The major shifts in organization and personnel indicate that Kim Jong-un has no intention of improving human rights for any North Koreans, ordinary citizens and select elites alike.

By the time the 7th Party Congress was held in May 2016, the KWP membership stood at 3,467,000 or 13%[12] of the population, including 200,000 candidate members.[13] A total of 1,387 members, including 315 women, participated in the Congress at the April 25th Cultural Hall and there were 200 speakers led by Kim Jong-un,[14] SPA Presidium leader Kim Yong-nam, and GPB Director Hwang Pyong-so. Participating in one form or another at the Congress were 1,545 political workers; 719 military personnel; 423 state administrators; 52 workers’ organizational representatives; and 112 scientists, health specialists, culture and arts representatives, and publishing personnel. One representative for every 1,000 Party members participated in the 7th Party Congress.[15]

Following the 7th Party Congress, Kim Jong-un redoubled his moves to solidify his hold on power at the 4th Session of the 13th SPA. Changes were made to the state constitution, but there were no changes that improved the human rights situation for the North Korean people. The primary change to the state’s constitution was that of Kim Jong-un’s official title becoming “Supreme Leader.” In doing so, Kim has guaranteed that there will be no changes to the regime’s policy of human rights denial because the concept of Supreme Leader is based on North Korean ideology, and is perpetuated and implemented through observance at every level of society for every North Korean through the Ten Great Principles of Monolithic Ideology. This doctrine, which serves as the North’s true constitution, obligates all citizens to sacrifice themselves in every aspect for the Supreme Leader, eliminating human rights as a consideration.

Indeed, if there was ever an opportunity to change policy on human rights in North Korea, it would have been at a time when changes were made to the constitution. But that opportunity was surely missed, or likely never considered. Regrettably, there were no judges, lawyers, or prosecutors appointed to any positions in the new leadership structures either at the 7th Party Congress or the 4th Session of the 13th SPA. There were no human rights observers, pro-Pyongyang or otherwise, invited to either meeting.

Furthermore, it should be noted that all policy change proposals must be processed through the KWP OGD.[16] The tight control exhibited by the OGD during the 7th Party Congress indicates that there was no intent whatsoever to initiate changes. When will the human rights situation in North Korea improve? Certainly, based on evidence and precedent accumulated over the past four and a half years, improvement would be difficult during the reign of Kim Jong-un. Unfortunately, the regime’s policy of human rights denial is likely to get worse before it gets better.

---

[1] Michael Madden, “Deciphering the 7th Party Congress: A Teaser for Greater Change?” 38 North.org, May 20, 2016. URL: http://38north.org/2016/05/mmadden052016/.

[2] Kim Sooyeon, “N. Korea's party adopts decision on nukes at key congress,” Yonhap News, May 9, 2016. URL: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2016/05/09/56/0401000000AEN20160509001200315F.html.

[3] Lee Jung-Hoon and Joe Phillips, “Drawing the Line: Combating Atrocities in North Korea,” Washington Quarterly, 39:2, pp. 61–77. URL: https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/sites/twq.elliott.gwu.edu/files/downloads/TWQ_Summer2016_Lee-Phillips.pdf.

[4] Michael Madden, “KJU Full Report to 7^th Party Congress,” NK Leadership Watch, June 21, 2016. URL: https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/kju-full-report-to-7th-party-congress/

[5] “Report on Human Rights Abuses and Censorship in North Korea,” U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, July 6, 2016. URL: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/259366.htm.

[6] “Treasury Sanctions North Korean Senior Officials and Entities Associated with Human Rights Abuses,” U.S. Department of the Treasury Press Center, July 6, 2016. URL: https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0506.aspx.

[7] Amada Mortwedt Oh, “The Human Rights Factor: Changes Under Kim Jong-un,” HRNK Insider, August 15, 2106. URL: http://www.hrnkinsider.org/2016/08/the-human-rights-factor-changes-under.html.

[8] Eric Talmadge, “5 Points from AP Interview with N. Korean Diplomat,” New York Times via Associated Press, July 29, 2016. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/29/world/asia/ap-as-nkorea-tensions-5-things.html?_r=0.

[9] Michael Madden, “Conferences Held to Elect Delegates to 7^th Party Congress and Provincial Party Meetings,” North Korea Leadership Watch, April 16, 2016. URL:  https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/conferences-held-to-elect-delegates-to-7th-party-congress-and-provincial-party-meetings/.

[10] Cho Jong-hun, “양복입은 김정은 전체인구 약13%가 당원 (Kim Jong-un in Western Suit: 13% of the Population are Party Members),” Tongil News, May 7, 2016. URL: http://www.tongilnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=116535.

[11] “Recent N. Korean congress replaces over half of party’s central committee,” Yonhap News Agency, May 13, 2016. URL: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/05/13/0200000000AEN20160513008000315.html.

[12] In comparison, the Chinese Communist Party membership makes up about 6% of the population.

[13] Cho Jong-hun, “양복입은 김정은 전체인구 약13%가 당원 (Kim Jong-un in Western Suit: 13% of the Population are Party Members),” Tongil News, May 7, 2016. URL: http://www.tongilnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=116535.

[14] April 25, 1932 is the day that North Korea celebrates the establishment of the KPA with respect to the beginning of Kim Il-sung and the anti-Japanese partisans’ efforts against Japan’s colonial government in Korea. The KPA Foundation day was formerly February 8^th and the hall was named the February 8^th Cultural Hall at its founding in October 1975. The hall property covers 124,000 square meters. The seven-story hall itself is about 80,000 square meters and houses a 6,000-seat viewing hall, a 1,100-seat theater, and a 600-seat movie theater. The 6^th Party Congress of October 1980 was also held there.

[15] Cho Jong-hun, “양복입은 김정은 전체인구 약13%가 당원 (Kim Jong-un in Western Suit…13% of the Population are Party Members),” Tongil News, May 7, 2016. URL: http://www.tongilnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=116535.

[16] Hyun Seong-il, 북한의 국가전략과 파워 엘리트: 간부정책을 중심으로 (North Korea’s National Security Strategy and Power Elite: Focus on Cadre Policy) (Seoul: Sonin Publishing, 2007), p.400-403.

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Categories: HRNK, hrnkus, humanrights, KimJongUn, Korea, KWP, North Korea, NorthKorea, OGD, RobertCollins, ROK, South Korea

Meet Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN’s New Special Rapporteur on North Korea

By Christine Chung

Based on the recommendations of the Consultative Group, the President of the Human Rights Council, Choi Kyonglim, proposed Tomás Ojea Quintana for the position of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Human Rights Council approved the appointment on 1 July 2016 during its most recent session in Geneva. On August 1, 2016, his first day as UN Special Rapporteur, we wish to congratulate Tomás Ojea Quintana as he officially takes up his mandate today. 

Mr. Ojea Quintana spoke to HRNK Senior Advisor Christine Chung in his first interview as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK.

Q1:  Many people interested in North Korean human rights have been asking me about you. Could you tell readers a little bit about your background?

Ojea Quintana:  First, thank you for this opportunity to talk to those people who are interested in the situation of those living in North Korea, the DPRK. I have been a human rights lawyer for over 20 years. I have worked in different trials in respect to human rights abuses committed during the military times here in Argentina. I also worked for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bolivia, and I have covered issues regarding reproductive and sexual rights. From 2008 to 2014, I was the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, which took a lot of my time but was very rewarding. 

Currently, I am a professor—I teach human rights. I also continue working as a human rights attorney in Argentina in different cases. At the moment, I am working on a trial regarding the involvement of an automobile company as an accomplice to the military regime in crimes against humanity. And last month, I was honored by the Human Rights Council that appointed me as Special Rapporteur for the DPRK. I am very committed to giving my utmost effort for the improvement of the human rights situation in the DPRK.

Q2:  What motivated you to take on this challenging new mandate?

OQ:  As I mentioned, I have been the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar in the recent past for six years. It was a very important and relevant experience working with this United Nations human rights mechanism. I believe that the appointment of country rapporteurs to let UN members know about the situation of the people inside the country is very effective. My experience in Myanmar shows that you can get progress in different areas around the country in respect to the human rights of the people living there.

The former Special Rapporteur on the DPRK and other UN human rights mechanisms made considerable effort into seeking ways to improve the human rights of the people living in the DPRK. This is for me an extraordinary challenge because there is excellent work that has been done by the former Rapporteur and others. The situation inside the country, according to their reports, is critical in many aspects. For me, working for many years to improve human rights around the world, this is a new challenge. I am happy to get involved in this, trying to contribute to the efforts of so many civil society organizations that have been working throughout the years trying to put onto the UN agenda the problems of the common people in the DPRK who are suffering. I am motivated by this. I hope to contribute to improving the lives of people in the DPRK.

Q3:  Do you see parallels between the situations in the DPRK and Myanmar?

OQ:  Myanmar has been ruled by a military regime for 40 years. During my mandate, starting in 2008 and ending in 2014, throughout those years I could establish that there was at that time a pattern of gross and systematic human rights abuses that entailed crimes against humanity in Myanmar. Therefore, we can draw a parallel between Myanmar and the DPRK since the latest reports, especially those coming from the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK (COI), also showed patterns of human rights abuses in DPRK which were considered by the COI as crimes against humanity.

Let me speak about another parallel: the fact that Myanmar was for many years also an isolated country, isolated from the international community where human rights rapporteurs were unable to visit the country. For a combination of factors, this changed. I had a chance then to visit Myanmar many times; I visited at least nine times. I traveled all over the country. I visited political prisoners, and at the same time, I had the opportunity to meet with the authorities, which is always very relevant when addressing a human rights situation. 

In fact, the ideal of cooperation is central for Special Rapporteurs. Now this seems to be a very critical difference between Myanmar and DPRK, since the authorities of North Korea throughout the years haven’t shown a willingness to cooperate with UN rapporteurs. This, of course, will be a challenge. You may know that when the Human Rights Council of the United Nations appoints Special Rapporteurs, they ask them not only to report to it, but to do this through the principle of cooperation, which is a very important principle in the UN Charter. This has been a critical difficulty in respect to the DPRK. This is a clear difference between Myanmar and DPRK, since Myanmar nowadays has opened to the international community and has even changed from a military regime to a civilian government.

Q4:  How are you planning to approach the particular challenges of the DPRK mandate?

OQ:  The very first element that a Special Rapporteur has to show to the concerned parties, in this case the authorities of the DPRK, is independence and impartiality. Of course, my predecessors and members of the COI have been holding this important attitude. But I’m a new Rapporteur, so the first step is to show independence and impartiality in respect to the situation.

And then there is a question of strategy to try to engage those stakeholders who can somehow influence the DPRK authorities to reconsider their policy towards UN human rights mechanisms including the Rapporteurs, to influence them to start cooperating as it might be to their benefit because cooperation means a willingness to offer assistance, to offer help, in addressing human rights problems. This is something that is difficult. Don’t forget that rapporteurs have mandates from the Human Rights Council for six years, so it is a necessity to think in not only the short term but also the long term for strategy. Bearing in mind the importance of cooperation, it’s my main task to provide a voice to those who suffer human rights abuses on the ground. That’s basically our main mandate as Special Rapporteurs: to report independently and impartially about the suffering, the human rights abuses, by those living in the country. A strategy of cooperation can never compromise that important mandate.

Q5:  As you know, there are almost 30,000 North Koreans now residing in South Korea, while a significant number of North Korean citizens labor overseas in conditions that have been characterized as forced labor. How would they fit into your strategy?

OQ:  The mandate from the Human Rights Council is to address the human rights situation inside North Korea, inside DPRK, so this might show a limitation in terms of territoriality. The problem of addressing a human rights situation is that usually this encompasses different factors that come from different places around the world. In this case, it is clear that the situation of those workers from North Korea who leave the country to work overseas, according to some reports under the worst of conditions, including in countries in Europe and Asia then return to the DPRK, will be of interest. The agenda in this respect includes dialogue and engagement with countries that somehow have connections with the people from the DPRK. As to how, this is something that I need to work on. As a preliminary view, I would say it is in my interest as the Special Rapporteur on the DPRK to listen to those other governments and stakeholders who have this kind of connection with people from the DPRK.

Q6:  What’s your game plan for the first year?

OQ:  At the moment, I am looking into all the information regarding the past but, more importantly, the current human rights situation of the people living in the DPRK. While looking into that kind of information, I am also following crucial developments in respect to the nuclear and ballistic weapons tests in the DPRK and the repercussions from those actions on South Korea, but also in the region. I have not yet defined a clear strategy for the long term. My next commitment is to present a report in New York to the members of the United Nations at the General Assembly. I’m starting to work on that, bearing in mind and considering the extraordinary work of my recent predecessor, Marzuki Darusman, and the Commission of Inquiry, which had defined a clear agenda that I will, of course, consider in my next report. 

I think there’s opportunity with a new stakeholder coming from another region of the world, from South America—I’m based in Buenos Aires, I live in Argentina. There’s the possibility for a new stakeholder from this region, with no connection in the past to North or South Korea, to bring new opportunities for new strategies for the important goal of improvements for those living in the DPRK, to look into the situation of the prisons, to see if there are chances to improve the situation of the people in terms of access to economic, social and cultural rights, particularly in terms of access to health and access to food, and other important human rights issues. In terms of achievements, what Special Rapporteurs would always like to see are improvements in these different areas. I believe these types of improvements in the end will help bring peace to the region and particularly on the Korean peninsula.

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Categories: committeehrnk, DPRK, HRNK, hrnkus, humanrights, NorthKorea, SpecialRapporteur, UN, UNCOI

An HRNK Interview with Justice Michael Kirby, Former Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK

Please click here to view the video.

Q1: In regards to an improvement in North Korean human rights, what was your original expectation of the impact of the Commission of Inquiry and how has it either been met or fallen short?

Justice Kirby: The situation in North Korea has been going on, as the Commission of Inquiry found, for a very longtime—decades. Therefore, we didn’t expect things would change overnight. We did not expect that the Commission of Inquiry would be permitted to come into North Korea and we, therefore, prepared our methodology on the assumption that we would not be given access to the country, but that didn’t stop us doing our job because there were 26,000 people from North Korea who had fled from that country, living in South Korea and many others living in other countries. So we had plenty of testimony. To what extent were things different from what we expected? Well, I think the value of the inquiry was that it connected a great deal of information from people, who in many cases quite recently, had recently been in North Korea and they could give their testimony and indicate what they went through, what their experiences as human beings were. And they demonstrated that very serious offenses to human rights had occurred and some of those were crimes again humanity, which the international community has promised to react to and respond to. So, that is where the Commission of Inquiry led us. It led us to fact-finding and to reaching conclusions on a high level of standard of proof and making recommendations for the improvement of the human rights situation in North Korea.

Q2: What role does China play as a member of the P5 (US, UK, France, Russia, and China) in the UN Security Council in regards to North Korean human rights?

Justice Kirby: Well, the Commission of Inquiry understood right from the start that the cooperation of the People’s Republic of China was really a key to getting progress in respect of human rights in North Korea. That is because, in part, of the economic links between the DPRK and China, also the historical and fraternal party links between the two countries, the geographical contiguity—China has a border with the DPRK—and the large Korean minority, many of them themselves descended from, or in person, refugees from North Korea who live on the border on China.

Q3: The Commission met with roughly 300 witnesses during its investigation. What struck you as the most compelling and significant issue that victims of the Kim regime face today?

Justice Kirby: The situation in respect to their testimony was graphic. I think the aspect of the testimony that I will never forget was the sheer necessity of food in the human being. Human beings can last for so long without literature, without art, and without the accoutrements of ordinary life, but food is absolutely essential. In our report, there is a very important chapter—very well written if I can say so—explaining how the daily grind of getting food is, for most people in North Korea or outside of the elite, a continuing grave burden on the people. We heard testimony, which was extremely graphic, of the situation of the lack of food in the detention centers. One person, who gave testimony, had the job of leading a wheelbarrow around the encampment to pick up the emaciated bodies of the people who had died overnight and put them in a vat, where they were burned. Their ashes and the body parts were then scattered on the nearby fields in order to help grow the rudimentary needs of food for the detention centers. I am of such an age that I remember seeing vivid images of emaciated bodies at the end of the Second World War, when the Allied soldiers opened up parts of the Nazi-occupied Germany. Sitting there, listening to this testimony, brought home to me that here was I, decades later, listening to testimony of a somewhat similar kind. Therefore, that was the most vivid testimony that I heard. The testimony of women and the suffering they had undergone; the testimony of disadvantaged groups; of disabled people; the testimony of people who could not practice their religion without very grave punishments—all of this was horrific in this day and age that this goes on, and in a country that is a member of the United Nations and has signed up to the United Nations treaties. So there is a job to be done here and it is the obligation of the whole world to make sure that those who are responsible for the crimes against humanity are rendered accountable before the bar of humanity for their crimes.

Q4: What were some of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry regarding North Korean detention camps?

Justice Kirby: The forms of torture that were inflicted on people in the detention camps in North Korea were all horrible: the motorbike torture, the airline torture, but the most horrible of all was the pigeon torture—when people were manacled and held above the floor so they couldn’t stand; they couldn’t rest; they couldn’t sleep; they vomited; they defecated; and they didn’t want to continue to live.

Q5: Do you foresee the public release of the names of the alleged perpetrators as part of an accountability or transitional justice measure?

Justice Kirby: We recommended that the matter should be referred by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court, where there is a prosecutor, who could have access to the material of the Commission of Inquiry and that prosecutor’s own investigations. That was the correct way to go about it. This is yet another instance of the fact that the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea acted with great propriety and care. We were prudent and we were careful. We thought that the step of launching a prosecution was a step that should be taken by a prosecutor, not by the Commission of Inquiry. Our job was to find facts, and that is what we did and all that we did.

Q6: What do you believe HRNK and other NGOs can do to ensure accountability for crimes against humanity in North Korea as an international goal?

Justice Kirby: Make sure that the world hears your voices. The voices of the people of North Korea cannot be heard. They cannot have access to the Internet. They cannot speak to us, but we can speak out for them and to them. It’s important that the United Nations should make our voices heard in North Korea and that is an important message that we should bring. Civil society should bring it and they should remember the motto: never give up; never give up; never give up. That is the motto they should accept for the voices of North Korea and they should become the voice of North Korea today, tomorrow, and until the human rights situation in North Korea is radically changed for the better.

Q7: What message would you like to send to HRNK’s board of directors, staff members, interns, volunteers, and supporters?

Justice Kirby: I have completed by duties in respect to North Korea, but your duties continue. Your duties involve lifting your voices, not being satisfied with inaction on the report. Getting a report is a good thing. It has put this matter on the agenda of the international community, but a report of itself does not change things in North Korea. It’s important that the change agents should be you. The change agents within North Korea are difficult to organize because of the totalitarian regime that exists there. Therefore, they need friends. They need friends outside North Korea. They need people who will lift their voices and pursue their actions peacefully in order to promote the changes that the Commission of Inquiry recommended. My recommendations and my words to those in HRNK would be to:

Stay the course, continue your efforts, and never give up in your efforts to bring human rights to North Korea. Be absolutely sure that in the end, human rights will come to North Korea. We humans are genetically programmed to search for rationality and to love one another and because of that fact, we will ultimately see an end to the oppression of human rights in North Korea. When that happens, HRNK will have an honored place in those who have worked for human rights for the people of North Korea.


Edited by Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor

Original transcription by Caitlin Lenzner-White, HRNK Research Intern

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Categories: analysis, China, committeehrnk, crimes against humanity, DPRK, Germany, Holocaust, HRNK, hrnkus, humanrights, NK, NKgulag, North Korea, NorthKorea, Torture, UNCOI, UNHRC

Muddying the Waters: North Korea’s Deceptive Media Offensive

By Greg Scarlatoiu

Greg Scarlatoiu is executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) in Washington, D.C. At HRNK, he supervises, manages, and coordinates the drafting, publication, and dissemination of reports investigating the North Korean human rights situation. In close coordination with HRNK’s board of directors, Scarlatoiu shares HRNK’s findings and recommendations with UN agencies and international NGO networks. A seasoned lecturer on North Korean human rights, political security, and economic issues on the Korean peninsula, he has appeared as an expert witness at several Congressional hearings on North Korean human rights. An experienced social audit consultant, he is currently finalizing a report on North Korean workers officially dispatched overseas. For twelve years, Scarlatoiu has been authoring and broadcasting the weekly Scarlatoiu Column to North Korea for Radio Free Asia (RFA). A visiting professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, he holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and an MA and BA from Seoul National University, Department of International Relations. Scarlatoiu was awarded the title of Citizen of Honor, City of Seoul, in January 1999. He is fluent in Korean, French, and Romanian.

On Monday, September 21, 2015, the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva featured a panel discussion on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), including the issue of international abductions, enforced disappearances, and related matters, moderated by Michael Kirby, former chair of the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK (UN COI). The panelists included Mr. Koichiro Iizuka, vice secretary-general of the Association of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea.

The main panel was followed by a side event featuring the tragic accounts of South Korean, Japanese, Romanian, Thai, and other nationals abducted by North Korea. The panelists included Mr. Hwang In-chul, whose father was a passenger on Korean Air Lines YS-11, hijacked by North Korean agents on December 11, 1969. Mr. Hwang's father was one of 11 passengers and crew members who were never returned to South Korea.

On the same day, CNN’s Will Ripley and Tim Schwarz published a story based on sources inside North Korea, claiming that Ms. Mun Su Gyong, a North Korean national, was allegedly abducted by South Korean agents while working as a waitress at a North Korean state-owned restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. One of the sources quoted is the former manager of the respective restaurant, who reportedly believes that South Korean spies posing as North Korean businessmen “frequented the restaurant for two years,” befriended Ms. Mun, and then abducted her, forcing her into a car and driving away. At the time of the alleged “abduction” four years ago, Ms. Mun was twenty years old. The report included an interview with Ms. Mun’s parents.

Source: CNN

By offering this story to a prominent U.S. media organization, the North Korean authorities likely attempted to counter efforts by the UN and the international community to focus attention on South Korean nationals and citizens of other countries abducted by North Korea. As we learned from an excellent David Hawk piece published by US-Korea Institute’s 38 North about a year ago, the North Korean government reacted to the highly critical report of the UN COI through: a “counter-report” by the North Korean Association of Human Rights Studies; a significantly revised approach to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism; and a diplomatic “counter-offensive,” which involved the North Korean foreign minister appearing before the UN General Assembly for the first time in 15 years, and so-called “press briefings” focused on denial of the appalling North Korean human rights record.

By offering this story to a prominent U.S. media organization, the North Korean authorities likely attempted to counter efforts by the UN and the international community to focus attention on South Korean nationals and citizens of other countries abducted by North Korea. 

As part of the same strategy, the North Korean regime’s propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, launched ferocious attacks against UN COI witnesses, including former political prisoners Jung Gwang-il and Shin Dong-hyuk, and also North Korean defector and scholar Cho Myung-chul, the first North Korean escapee to become a South Korean National Assembly member.

On the upside, the North Korean regime’s approach to human rights has surely changed post-UN COI. Its fundamental strategic stance on human rights used to be utter neglect. Always overshadowed by nukes and missiles, human rights would easily disappear off the radar screen of the international community, so the Kim regime knew there wasn’t much to worry about. Post-UN COI, even the North Korean regime has come to the realization that human rights is here to stay, and it can no longer just ignore attempts by UN agencies, foreign government agencies, and international NGOs to shed light on its abysmal human rights situation. Pursuant to the findings of the UN COI, North Korea is no longer seen as a bizarre relic of the Cold War, but as a post-communist, post-industrial, dynastic kleptocracy that is subjecting its own people to crimes against humanity in order to maintain its grip on power.

Post-UN COI, even the North Korean regime has come to the realization that human rights is here to stay, and it can no longer just ignore attempts by UN agencies, foreign government agencies, and international NGOs to shed light on its abysmal human rights situation.


On the downside, North Korean attempts to compromise witnesses and muddy the waters by misleading foreign media organizations will continue. Since the release of the UN COI report in February 2014, CNN has done excellent reporting on the North Korean human rights situation, and perhaps that is why it was the media organization targeted by North Korea’s deception in this case. 

In the particular case of the young North Korean woman allegedly “abducted” by South Korean agents, the story, published undoubtedly with the approval of the North Korean authorities, presents the following problems:

• The former manager of the respective restaurant claims that Mun Su Gyong had been befriended by "South Korean spies" posing as North Korean businessmen. I have interviewed former restaurant workers who escaped and found their way to South Korea. The waitresses' "befriending" customers is reportedly a big red flag for the managers running these restaurants. The girls who get too close to customers are quickly disciplined, and in extreme cases sent back to North Korea. Sustaining such "friendship" with customers, well known to other waitresses and the manager, would be impossible. One has to remember this is a tightly confined space. The waitresses work and live together under strict surveillance. They are only seldom allowed to go shopping or sightseeing, and even then only in groups, never alone. 
• With 28,000 former North Koreans already living in South Korea, including some former senior officials, there is absolutely no conceivable need for South Korean intelligence agents to kidnap North Koreans. 
• There are former restaurant workers already living in South Korea. There would be no practical need for South Korean intelligence agents to kidnap additional restaurant workers. 
• South Korea is a liberal democracy that has discarded the dark legacy of its authoritarian past. The UN Secretary-General is a South Korean national, the president of the World Bank is a Korean American born in South Korea, and South Korea contributes in many meaningful ways to international humanitarian and development assistance as well as peacekeeping operations. South Korea is not a rogue state conducting abductions of its own nationals or other countries' nationals overseas. It is North Korea that has kidnapped nationals of South Korea, Japan, China, France, Guinea, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Macau, Netherlands, Romania, Malaysia, and Singapore.

It is North Korea that has kidnapped nationals of South Korea, Japan, China, France, Guinea, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Macau, Netherlands, Romania, Malaysia, and Singapore.

To the reader interested in learning more about North Korea’s abduction of citizens of South Korea and other countries, I highly recommend HRNK’s report “Taken,” by Yoshi Yamamoto, published in the spring of 2011. While I do hope that, if she is indeed alive and separated from her family, Mun Su Gyong will be reunited with her loved ones, one has to remember: 82,959 South Koreans were abducted by North Korea during the Korean War; 3,824 South Koreans, most of them fishermen, have been abducted since the July 27, 1953 Korean War Armistice; 93,000 ethnic Koreans residing in Japan were lured back to North Korea and never allowed to leave, many of them trapped together with Japanese spouses; hundreds of Japanese and Chinese nationals have been abducted to North Korea; and at least 25 nationals of countries other than South Korea, Japan, and China have been reportedly taken against their will. With 180,108 nationals of South Korea and other countries taken by North Korea, that regime must provide a full accounting of those abducted and detained, facilitate the reunification of abductees’ families, return the remains of deceased abductees, and observe the right of freedom of movement by allowing the surviving abductees to return to their families. With abductions by North Korea featured prominently in UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK Marzuki Darusman’s most recent September 8, 2015 report to the General Assembly, this issue is here to stay. The North Korean regime should rest assured that its attempts to muddy the waters and run anti-human rights media campaigns will, once again, be doomed to failure.

With 180,108 nationals of South Korea and other countries taken by North Korea, that regime must provide a full accounting of those abducted and detained, facilitate the reunification of abductees’ families, return the remains of deceased abductees, and observe the right of freedom of movement by allowing the surviving abductees to return to their families. 

To download a free PDF copy of “Taken,” go to: http://hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Taken_LQ.pdf.

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Categories: analysis, CNN, ColdWar, DPRK, HRNK, hrnkus, humanrights, KimJongUn, NK, nonprofit, NorthKorea, southkorea, UN, UNCOI, UNGA