North Korea has been very “popular” in recent years due to the death of its leader Kim Jong-Il and the threats of war and its constant bomb testing. After Kim Jong-Il’s death, his son, King Jong-Un, took control of the country. North Korea is located in the upper Asian hemisphere, to the north west of Japan, attached to North Eastern China and right above South Korea. Since then, numerous people have escaped from North Korea and have told stories of the horrific human rights abuses occurring there. The world has been listening. But, currently, not much is being done. The North Korean leaders have been putting all of their resources towards developing military technology while the citizens are forced to work in labor camps, are starving to death due to terrible living conditions and very meager food rations, and are tortured for no good reason, such as the guards beating the citizens to death because the guards are bored or they just want some stress relief. We, as fellow human beings, should take action in North Korea due to their horrific human rights abuses and do something about it due to the forced labor that is occurring within the country, starvation problems, and torture that the North Korean government seems to be doing nothing about. The main merit we have in terms of bringing light to the situation in North Korea are the prison and labor camp escapees since the North Korean government refuses to let the UN or any other agency or government body into their country very often in order to do any sort of “checking” on the leaders of the country or how to country operates.
The labor camps in North Korea are very prominent. Hundreds and thousands of people are held against their will and are forced to work for hundreds of hour...
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...Controversies Over North Korean Human Rights In South Korean Society." Asian Perspective 31.2 (2007): 23-46. ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.
"Rep. Smith Comments on North Korea Human Rights Update, International Abduction Issues." US Fed News Service, Including US State News. Apr 27 2006. ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.
Robertson, Phil. “North Korea: Denial of Rights Forces Back Refugees.” Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 30 May, 2013. Web. 9 Oct 2013.
“TLHRC Hearing- North Korea: Ongoing Human Rights Violations in an Era of Change” Cannon HOB. Lanham: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc, 2012. Sept 18, 2012. ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.
“Tom Lantos Commission Co-Chairs Wolf and McGovern Join International Parliamentarians in Urging End to Human Rights Abuses in North Korea.” Lanham: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc, 2011. ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.
Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, delivers an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man’s extremely conflicted life in a labor camp and an endeavor of escaping this place he grew up in. This man’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man’s imprisonment and escape into South Korea and eventually, the United States, from North Korea. This biography that takes place from 1982-2011, reports to its readers on what is really going on in “one of the world’s darkest nations” (back cover of the book), that is run under a communist state and totalitarian dictatorship that was lead by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and currently lead by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adaptation of his life and how one man can truly evolve from an animal, into a real human being.
Madison Park. "'Abundant evidence' of crimes against humanity in North Korea, panel says." 2014. 19 Feb. 2014
(migrationinformation, 2008). Citizens of North Korea do not attain the freedom to leave and experience other states. North Korea’s lack of freedom not only affects their citizens but also individuals from other countries in a negative sense, cutting off social bonds as a result. Not having mobility rights is an infringement on their negative liberty on account of the option of immigrating or emigrating not being available to them due to the laws placed by the government. In actuality, citizens “caught emigrating or helping others cross the border illegally are detained” (migrationinformation, 2008).
Schattuck, John. “Overview of Human Right Practices, 1995,” Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. March 1996: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Three and a half million men women and children died in concentration camps, after they had been worked half to death in the use of slave labour.
Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. "Prisoners in North Korea Today." Detention Facilities in North Korea Today (2011): 173+. NKDB. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
Little is known about North Korea except for news stories concerning international terrorism, nuclear arms threats, and prison camps. From space, North Korea is shrouded in darkness like the history that surrounds this country. This is due to the nation's strict closed-country policy: not many outsiders have visited there and not many North Koreans have traveled to the outside world. While little action can be taken to help the North Korean people, action taken by the United Nations is crucial. Recently, United Nations human rights investigators issued a horrific report documenting massive human rights violations in North Korea. The United Nations feels these crimes of humanity should be brought to the International Criminal Court. UN members work to "promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” (Youth For Human Rights). North Korea unlike any other country in the world cannot be reported on fully because of regulations on people entering its boundaries.
Climate, conflict, isolation, and corruption culminated in millions of lives lost, surely with no small amount of pain and suffering endured. Though international intervention can only help to the degree that authorities in North Korea will allow it, we are not left entirely without recourse. It is too late now to undo the damage of the North Korean famine, and although power has since changed hands, the country remains famously isolated. If, however, we tell the story as best we can, and deny ourselves the comfort of closing our eyes when faced with such a colossal tragedy, then perhaps in the future we find a solution. Silent are the Koreans who perished, and silent still are the authorities that chose seclusion over security. If we wish to prevent this from happening again, we must not let their silence be our silence as well.
But hopefully the United Nations will stop this from happening with a peace talk. Works Cited Flow, Capital. " Genocide and Crimes of Humanity Ongoing In North Korea." Forbes.com.
“There are at least 12.3 million persons in forced labour today” (www.ilo.org). A great number of the victims are poverty-stricken people in Asia, “whose vulnerability is exploited by others for a profit” (www.ilo.org).
Firstly, there are many examples of child labor ranging from farming to factory work. For example, Around 14 million children have been subjected to child labor to produce different goods. Among these goods are carpets, clothing, soccer balls, bricks, and
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
.... The two countries are reconnecting rail lines and sent a combined team to the Olympics. Even the United States is providing $500 million dollars a year in food to the starving North Koreans. The new South Korean President, Roh-Moo-hyun was elected on a peace platform and suggested US troops may be gone within ten years. Works Cited North Korean military and nuclear proliferation threat: evaluation of the U.S.-DPRK agreed framework: joint hearing before the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade and Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first session, February 23, 1995, Publisher: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs, Congressional Sales Office; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2340405.stm http://www.iht.com/articles/95391.html
Steinberg, David I., and Donald N. Clark. "Review of The Kwangju Uprising: Shadows over the Regime in South Korea." The Journal of Asian Studies 47.3 (1988): 662-63. Print.
Magno, A., (2001) Human Rights in Times of Conflict: Humanitarian Intervention. Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, 2 (5). [online] Available from: http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/publications/dialogue/2_05/articles/883.html> [Accessed 2 March 2011] United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (2000) Human Rights and Human Development (New York) p.19