Human rights in North Korea

[6][7] According to reports from Amnesty International and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, by 2017 an estimated 200,000 prisoners[8] were incarcerated in camps that were dedicated to political crimes, and were subjected to forced labour, physical abuse, torture, and execution.

The resolution of December 19, 2011, passed by a vote of 123–16 with 51 abstentions, urged the government in Pyongyang to end its "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights", which included public executions and arbitrary detentions.

[14] In February 2014, a UN special commission published a detailed, 400-page account based on first-hand testimonies documenting "unspeakable atrocities" committed by the North Korean regime.

The gravity, scale and nature of these violations revealed a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.Roberta Cohen, joint chair of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said it was now up to the world community to take action to protect those persecuted and bring the perpetrators to justice.

[33] United Nation's Human Rights Resolution 2005/11 referred to specific types of abuses within North Korea: Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, the absence of due process and the rule of law, imposition of the death penalty for political reasons, the existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labour; Sanctions on citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad, such as treating their departure as treason leading to punishments of internment, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or the death penalty; All-pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and on the access of everyone to information, and limitations imposed on every person who wishes to move freely within the country and travel abroad;

Children (some as young as 11[36]) are forced to work on farms and construction sites at the behest of the government, and may be demanded to collect scrap metals and other materials by schools to be sold.

After completing school and military service, North Koreans are assigned their jobs by the state, with no free choice of work, and may still be mobilized into "shock brigades" to carry out manual labor, often in agriculture and construction, for little or no pay.

The government distributes all radio and television sets; citizens are forbidden to alter them to make it possible to receive broadcasts from other nations; doing so carries severe penalties.

[53][54] For example, Ri Hyon-ok was allegedly publicly executed in Ryongchon on June 16, 2009 for giving out Bibles, while her husband and children were deported to the Hoeryong political prison camp.

[55] If authorities discover that North Korean refugees deported from China have converted to Christianity, they suffer harsher ill-treatment, torture, and prolonged imprisonment.

[56][better source needed] The government considers religious activities political crimes,[57] because they could challenge the personality cult and semi-deification of Kim Il Sung and his family.

The issuance of passports is heavily restricted, and those allowed to travel abroad must leave behind family members in North Korea who can be held hostage to ensure their return.

[77] This treatment is more severe in cases where North Korean refugees have come into contact with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are associated with South Korea or with religions, especially Christianity.

[77] In May 2016, Kim Jong Un temporarily banned all weddings and funerals across the country, and freedom of movement into and out of the capital, in preparation for a meeting, on 6 May, of the Workers' Party of Korea, the first gathering of its kind in 36 years.

Reporters Without Borders claims that radio or television sets that can be bought in North Korea are preset to receive only the government frequencies and sealed with a label to prevent tampering with the equipment.

The KCNA's article went on to state that gay marriage "can never be found in the DPRK boasting of the sound mentality and good morals, and homosexuality has become a target of public criticism even in Western countries, too.

Workers on state and cooperative farms account for roughly 30 percent of the population, and most of these farmers are granted an annual allotment of grain at the time of the harvest.

[101] Restrictions on the freedom to move caused the so-called 'hostile class' ‒ whose members were relocated to remote mountain areas ‒ to suffer from the limited access to food.

[97] A UN human rights office report released in May 2019 highlighted the "appalling" levels of hunger that have been affecting around 10.9 million people particularly in north-eastern and rural provinces of North Korea.

"[104] A group called "A Woman's Voice International" alleged that the state forcibly drafts girls as young as 14 years old to work in the so-called kippŭmjo, which includes prostitution teams.

[106] Abortions up to full term are induced by injection; live premature babies or full-term newborns are sometimes killed but more commonly simply discarded into a bucket or box and then buried.

[114] In 2007 a UN General Assembly committee adopted a draft resolution, co-sponsored by more than 50 countries, expressing "very serious concern" at reports of widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including public executions.

If they do not meet the work quota, they are tortured and (at least in Kaechon camp) confined for many days to special prison cells, too small to stand up or lie full-length in.

[citation needed] Regardless of the admission to Prime Minister Koizumi, the North Korean government continues to deny the kidnappings of other foreign nationals and refuses any cooperation to investigate further cases of suspected abductions.

[157] Examples of non-Korean or non-Japanese people abducted by North Korea include Doina Bumbea, from Romania,[158] and Anocha Panjoy, from Thailand, as well as several others.

[citation needed] Since 2005, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution every year to condemn the human rights situation in North Korea.

[160] Cuba's delegation to the United Nations said that the body's claims made against North Korea are politically motivated and seek to impose isolation and pressure on the country, in violation of the Human Rights Council's stated principles.

It created an office at the State Department focused on North Korean human rights, run originally by Special Envoy Jay Lefkowitz.

[168] With the exception of the international abductions issue regarding Japanese, Americans, and South Koreans, which it says has been fully resolved, North Korea strongly rejects all reports of human rights violations and accuses the defectors of promoting only an anti-North agenda.

[169] On September 9, 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul published a report stating that voices of citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, including women, are being curbed.