North Korea: Human Rights Must be Part of Disarmament Agreement

New York
North Korea's decision to abandon its nuclear weapons program is a welcome development, but it is one that must not eclipse the country's appalling human rights crisis, Freedom House said today. While resolving the nuclear dispute is a notable achievement of the six-party talks in Beijing, human rights in North Korea continue to deteriorate. Real security in the Korean Peninsula will not be achieved until the rights of all North Koreans are no longer brutally violated.

"There is a real risk that the human rights agenda, never high on the international community's priority list, will now fall by the wayside with this agreement on North Korea's nuclear weapons program," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. "If North Korea truly wishes to join the community of nations, and if its negotiating partners truly wish for a peaceful region, the country's egregious human rights record must be the focus of serious discussions through which positive concrete changes come about," she said.

The joint statement signed in Beijing commits North Korea "to abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and recognize norms of international relations." As such, North Korea is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and therefore obligated to protect human rights as part of the nuclear disarmament arrangement. The democratic signatories-South Korea, Japan, and the United States-should ensure that North Korea honors this commitment by making human rights central to the implementation process of the agreement.

Since 1996, up to two million North Koreans have died from starvation due to preventable famine. The regime of Kim Jong Il often diverts International food aid to the army and to Communist Party loyalists. Today, at least 200,000 political prisoners are languishing in gulag-like "re-education" labor camps where torture and starvation are common. Tens of thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in China face execution if returned to their home country and many refugees have reported that systematic medical and scientific experiments are carried out on political prisoners. According to Freedom House's latest annual global survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World, "the government engages in collective punishment, whereby an entire family can be imprisoned if one member of the family is accused of a crime."

In spring 2005, Freedom House initiated a Human Rights in North Korea program to galvanize global opinion toward alleviating the suffering of 20 million Koreans living under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il. For more information about the project, please visit: http://www.nkfreedomhouse.org or contact Project Director Dr. Jae Ku.