Executive Summary

North Korea is the world's most isolated country. There is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of movement. Only certain people can live in the capital city Pyongyang with the government's approval. Newspapers, television and radio are all operated and controlled by the government. Nobody can leave or enter the country without the government's approval. Hundred of thousands of people are locked in concentration camps. People are squeezed out under the dictator leader.

Violation of Human Rights in North Korea

Statement of the Issue / Problem

There are many human rights abuses in North Korea; for instance, there is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and etc. The country is a dictatorial regime under one dictator named Kim Jong-un, son of Kim Jong-Il, grandson of Kim Il-sung. No one can leave or enter without the government's strict scrutiny test. According to a non-governmental organization North Korean Refugees, there are currently between 100,000 and 300,000 North Korean defectors are living in hiding in China and Russia. About 25,000 North Koreans defected to the South since 1953 (J. Strother). Since the North Korean government strictly monitors foreigners from outside and controls its citizens, it is hard to know its human rights abuses' full extent, and is difficult to find good amount of information. Because citizens of North Korea do not have freedom to leave the country, human rights abuses that we could find are all written and recorded by stories of defectors.

North Korean defectors who get caught by Chinese authorities are being sent back to North Korea. What the actual problem for being sent back to North Korea is that “they experience torture, medical and chemical experiments, forced abortions, infanticide, starvation, and hard labor.”, according to the North Korea Freedom Coalition. Many stories of defectors describe that reeducation through forced labor camps such as logging, mining, and tending crops under harsh conditions. Reeducation involved memorizing speeches by Kim II Sung and Kim Jong Il (U.S. Department of State). Numerous defectors and refugees report that border guards had orders to shoot potential defectors. Republican Senator Sam Brownback said, “China should be embarrassed that its policy with North Korea is allowing the East Asian region to become destabilized.” Congressman Howard Berman stated that China should play a more active role in persuading North Korea to stop its belligerence (AFP).

It is a significant problem since human rights in North Korea do not exist at all. The North Korean government argues that human rights are not universal rather distinctive. Furthermore, the government is denying that there is absolutely no human rights abuse in the nation. According to the state news agency of North Korea, “Korean Central News Agency”, The U.S. is abusing more human rights than North Korea. Furthermore, earlier this month, November, Eighty people were publicly executed by firing squad for watching smuggled South Korean Television shows and possessing a Bible (Ryall). Countless number of people escaped to China for freedom and to ...