Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/mac/TEXT/HUMANrts/KOREA__N.TXT

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TITLE:  DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA HUMAN RIGHTS
PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995

             DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA*


The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a
dictatorship under the absolute rule of the Korean Workers'
Party (KWP).  Kim Il Sung ruled the DPRK from its inception
until his death in July.  Although he has not yet assumed his
father's positions of President of the DPRK and Secretary
General of the KWP, Kim Jong Il appears to be in control of the
DPRK following his father's death.  Both Kim Il Sung and Kim
Jong Il continue to be the objects of intensive personality
cults.

The North Korean regime subjects its citizens to rigid
controls.  The regime establishes security ratings for each
individual which determine access to employment, schools,
medical facilities, and certain stores as well as admission to
the KWP, but it may have relaxed this loyalty system somewhat
in recent years.  The state leadership perceives individual
rights as an alien concept subversive to the goals of the State
and party.

The State directs all significant economic activity, and only
government-supervised labor union activity is permitted.  The
North Korean economy has contracted by an average of
approximately 7 percent per year over the last 3 years, largely
due to the elimination of Russian/Soviet concessional trade and
aid.  Economic development continues to be hindered by
distribution bottlenecks, inefficient allocation of resources,
poor international credit stemming from the DPRK's default on
much of its foreign debt, and by the diversion of a quarter of
the gross national product to military expenditures.  The
rationing of food, clothing, and energy appeared to continue in
most parts of the country.

(*The United States does not have diplomatic relations with the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.  North Korea does not
allow representatives of foreign governments, journalists, or
other invited visitors the freedom of movement that would
enable them to assess human rights conditions there.  Most of
this report, therefore, is based on information obtained over a
period of time extending from well before 1994.  While limited
in detail, the information is nonetheless indicative of the
human rights situation in North Korea today.)

The Government continues to deny its citizens most fundamental
human rights.  The Penal Code is draconian, stipulating capital
punishment and confiscation of all assets for a wide variety of
"crimes against the revolution," including defection, slander
of the party or State, and possessing "reactionary" printed
matter.  The regime permits no independent press or
associations, and little outside information reaches the public
except that approved and disseminated by the Government.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

Political prisoners, opponents of the regime, repatriated
defectors, and others (reportedly including military officers
suspected of plotting against Kim Jong Il) have been summarily
executed.  Article 52 of the Criminal Law makes the death
penalty mandatory for activities "in collusion with
imperialists" aimed at "suppressing the national liberation
struggle," and some prisoners are sentenced to death for such
ill-defined "crimes" as  "ideological divergence" and other
"counterrevolutionary crimes."

     b.  Disappearance

There is no reliable information on disappearances within North
Korea.  There were reports in the 1980's, however, of DPRK
involvement in the kidnaping abroad of South Koreans, Japanese,
and other foreign citizens.  The Japanese press estimates as
many as 20 Japanese may have been kidnaped and are being
detained in North Korea.  The DPRK denies these reports.

Amnesty International (AI) reports issued in 1993 and 1994
detail a number of cases, including that of the Shibata family
of Japan.  Shibata Kozo and his wife Shin Sung Suk, a Korean
resident of Japan, left Japan in 1960 and resettled in North
Korea.  Mr. Shibata was reportedly charged in 1965 with spying
and sent to a sanatorium.  He reportedly is in poor health,
according to former detainees, and there has been no word about
his wife and three children since 1965.  Mr. Kim Myong Se,
according to AI, has not received any news about his wife,
daughter, or other family members still in North Korea since he
applied for political asylum in Russia in 1992.

     c.  Torture and  Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

There is no information on recent practices, but credible
reports indicate that during the 1980's prisoners were
routinely tortured or ill-treated, and many prisoners died from
torture, disease, starvation, or exposure.  In some cases
executions reportedly were carried out at public meetings
attended by workers, students, and schoolchildren.  Executions
have also been carried out before assembled inmates at places
of detention.

According to AI, whole families, including children, are
imprisoned together.  "Reeducation through labor" is common
punishment, consisting of forced labor (logging, tending crops)
under harsh conditions.  A small number of people who claim to
have escaped from North Korean detention camps report that
starvation and executions are common.  In one prison, clothing
was issued only once in a 3-year period.  Former inmates have
produced photographs of an inmate wearing specially designed
leg irons which permit walking but make running impossible.  AI
also reports the existence of "punishment cells," too low to
permit standing upright and too small for lying down flat,
where prisoners are kept for up to several weeks for breaking
prison rules.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

Little information is available on North Korea's criminal
justice procedures and practices, and outside observation of
its legal system has not been permitted.

The law provides that prisoners may be held for interrogation
for a maximum of 2 months, but this period may be extended
indefinitely.  Family members or other concerned persons find
it virtually impossible to obtain information on charges
against detained persons.  Judicial review of detentions does
not exist in law or in practice.

Defectors claim that North Korea detains about 150,000
political prisoners and family members in maximum security
camps in remote areas.  An October 1992 report by two former
inmates made reference to the severe living conditions in what
they called "concentration camps."  North Korean officials deny
the existence of such gulags or prisons but admit the existence
of "education centers" for people who "commit crimes by
mistake."

One credible report lists 12 such prison camps in the DPRK.  It
is believed that some former high officials are imprisoned in
the camps.  Visitors to, and any form of communication with,
detainees, although once allowed, are now said to be prohibited.

In July 1991, Cho Kap Chae, a North Korean defector who had
been a ranking official in the DPRK Ministry of Public
Security, said that there were two types of detention areas.
One consists of closed camps from which prisoners never emerge,
and where conditions are extremely harsh.  In the other,
prisoners can be "rehabilitated," and Cho reported that a
prisoner he knew was released after a 3-year detention.

According to an AI report, the Government is currently
detaining for political offenses 58 people, some of them for as
long as 30 years.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

The Constitution states that courts are independent and that
judicial proceedings are to be carried out in strict accordance
with the law.  The Constitution contains elaborate procedural
guarantees.  Article 138 states that "cases are heard in
public, and the accused is guaranteed the right to defense;
hearings may be closed to the public as stipulated by law."
However, the accepted international concepts of an independent
judiciary and individual rights are alien to the DPRK.  The
Public Security Ministry dispenses with trials in political
cases and refers defendants to the Ministry of State Security
for imposition of punishment.

When trials are held, lawyers are apparently assigned by the
Government, and reports indicate that defense lawyers are not
considered representatives of the accused, but rather are
independent parties who are expected to help the court by
persuading the accused to confess guilt.  Some reports note a
distinction between those accused of political crimes and
common criminals, and state that the Government affords trials
only to the latter.  The Government considers critics of the
regime to be  "political criminals."  Numerous reports suggest
that political offenses have in the past included such forms of
lese majesty as sitting on newspapers bearing Kim Il Sung's
picture.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

The constitutional stipulation that "citizens are guaranteed
the inviolability of person and residence and the privacy of
correspondence" does not reflect reality.  The Government
relies upon an extensive system of informers to identify
critics and potential troublemakers.  In some cases, entire
families are detained for alleged political offenses committed
by one member of the family.

The authorities subject citizens in all age groups and
occupations to political and ideological indoctrination.  Even
after Kim Il Sung's death, his cult of personality and
glorification of his family and the official "juche"
(self-reliance) ideology continued to be omnipresent.  The cult
approaches the level of a state religion.  The goal of
indoctrination remains to ensure loyalty to the Kim Il Sung
system and his son and heir Kim Jong Il, as well as conformity
to the State's ideology and authority.  Indoctrination is
carried out systematically not only through the mass media, but
also in schools and through worker and neighborhood
associations.  Citizens with relatives who fled to South Korea
at the time of the Korean War appear to be still classified as
part of the "hostile class" in the DPRK's elaborate loyalty
system.  Because approximately 10 million families were
separated by the war, this category encompasses a significant
percentage of the North Korean population.

The defector Cho Kap Chae estimated that the class of those
considered politically "impure" may comprise 25 to 30 percent
of the population.  Members of this class may still be subject
to some discrimination, although Cho claimed that their
treatment has improved greatly in recent years.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

Articles of the Constitution that require citizens to follow
the "Socialist norms of life" and to obey a "collective spirit"
take precedence over individual political or civil liberties.
While freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and
demonstration are formally guaranteed, they do not exist in
practice.  The regime permits only activities which support its
objectives.

The Government strictly curtails the rights of freedom of
expression and association guaranteed under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which North Korea
became a party in 1981.  The authorities may punish persons
criticizing the regime or its policies by imprisonment or
"corrective labor."  One defector reported in 1986 that a
scientist, whose home was bugged through his radio set, was
arrested and executed for statements made at home critical of
Kim Il Sung.  In another case, AI reports that a family
formerly resident in Japan was sent to a "reeducation through
labor" center because one member of the family allegedly made
remarks disparaging the Government.

The Government attempts to control all information that enters
and leaves the DPRK.  It carefully manages the visits of
Western journalists.  The authorities restricted access to
Russian publications that carried articles critical of North
Korea, and during 1991 closed several of their offices.
Domestic media censorship is strictly enforced, and no
deviation from the official government line is tolerated.  The
regime prohibits listening to foreign media broadcasts except
by the political elite, and violators are subject to severe
punishment.  Radios and television sets are built to receive
only domestic programming.  The Government controls artistic
and academic works, and visitors report that the primary
function of plays, movies, operas, children's performances, and
books is to contribute to the cult of personality surrounding
Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The Government prohibits any public meetings without
authorization.  There are no known organizations other than
those created by the Government.  Professional associations
exist solely as another means of government control over the
members of these organizations.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

The Constitution provides for the rights of "religious liberty
and the freedom of antireligious propaganda."  However, the
regime firmly discourages all organized religious activity
except that which serves the interests of the State.  In recent
years, it has facilitated the formation of government-sponsored
religious organizations to advance its foreign policy goals.
The DPRK claims there are 10,000 Christians who worship in 500
home churches, and the Chondogyo Young Friends Party, a
government-sponsored group based on a native Korean religious
movement, is still in existence.  There are a few Buddhist
temples where religious activity is permitted, and two
Christian churches--one Protestant and one Catholic--were built
in late 1988.  Some visitors attest to the authenticity of the
church services and to the faith of the worshipers observed;
others say the church activity appears staged.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
         Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

The DPRK regime strictly controls internal travel, requiring a
travel pass for any movement outside one's home village; these
passes are granted only for official travel or attendance at a
relative's wedding or funeral.  Long delays in obtaining the
necessary permit often result in denial of the right to travel
even for these limited purposes.  Only a very small elite have
vehicles for personal use.  The regime tightly controls access
to civilian aircraft, trains, buses, food, and fuel.  Most
workers are required to live outside Pyongyang, the capital,
and commute to and from work on foot.

Reports, primarily from defectors, indicate that the Government
routinely uses forced resettlement, particularly for those
deemed politically unreliable.  The Government strictly
controls permission to reside in, or even enter, Pyongyang.

The regime limits foreign travel to officials and trusted
artists, athletes, and academics.  It does not allow
emigration, although there have been a limited number of
defections.  Recently, the number of defectors has increased
somewhat.  The regime retaliates against the relatives of those
few persons who manage to escape.  Involuntarily repatriated
defectors have been jailed or in some cases executed.  As a
rule, the regime does not currently allow students to study
outside of friendly countries.

From 1959 to 1982, 93,000 Korean residents of Japan, including
6,637 Japanese wives, voluntarily repatriated to North Korea.
Despite regime assurances that the wives, 1,828 of whom still
had Japanese citizenship, would be allowed to go home to Japan
every 2 or 3 years, none is known to have done so.  Most have
not been heard of again.

Over the past decade, the DPRK has gradually permitted an
increasing number of overseas Korean residents of North
America, Japan, China, and other countries to visit their
relatives in North Korea.

Section 3  Respect for Political Rights:  The Right of Citizens
           to Change Their Government

Citizens have no right or mechanisms by which they can effect
transitions in leadership or changes in government.  The
political system is completely dominated by the KWP, with Kim
Il Sung's heir Kim Jong Il apparently in control.  (There is
very little hard information available on intraregime politics
following Kim Il Sung's death.)  The legislature, the Supreme
People's Assembly, which meets only a few days a year, serves
only to rubberstamp resolutions presented to it by the party
leadership.

In an effort to create the appearance of democracy, the DPRK
has created several "minority parties."  Lacking grass roots
organizations, they exist only as rosters of officials with
token representation in the Supreme People's Assembly.  Their
primary purpose appears to be that of promoting government
objectives abroad as touring parliamentarians.  Free elections
do not exist in North Korea.  Although elections to the Supreme
People's Assembly and provincial, city, and county assemblies
are held regularly, in all cases there is only one government-
approved candidate in each electoral district.  According to
the media, over 99 percent of the voters turned out to elect
100 percent of the candidates approved by the KWP.  The vast
majority of the KWP's estimated 3 million members (in a
population of 22 million) work to implement decrees formulated
by the party's small elite.

Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
           Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
           of Human Rights

The Government does not permit any domestic organizations to
monitor human rights conditions or to comment on violations of
such rights.

AI representatives visited the DPRK in 1991 and met officials
from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Public Security, as
well as with judges, lawyers, and legal scholars.  Subsequently,
the DPRK has ignored requests for visits by AI, Asia Watch, and
other human rights organizations.

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
           Disability, Language, or Social Status

The Constitution grants equal rights to all citizens.  As noted
above, however, the Government denies its citizens the most
fundamental human rights.

     Women

The Constitution states that "women hold equal social status
and rights with men."  However, few women have reached high
levels of the party or the Government.  Women are represented
proportionally in the labor force, with the exception of small
factories in which the work force is predominantly female.

Neither government policy nor traditional social norms condone
violence against women.

     Children

Social norms reflect traditional, family-centered values in
which children are cherished.  The State provides education for
all children.  There is no pattern of societal or familial
abuse of children.

     People with Disabilities

There are no legally mandated provisions for accessibility to
buildings or government services for the disabled.  Traditional
social norms condone discrimination against the physically
handicapped.  Handicapped persons, other than war veterans, are
reportedly not allowed within the city limits of Pyongyang.
According to one credible report, authorities check every 2 to
3 years in the capital for persons with deformities and
relocate them to special facilities in the countryside.

Section 6  Worker Rights

     a.  The Right of Association

Nongovernmental labor unions do not exist.  The Korean Workers'
Party purports to represent the interests of all labor.  There
is a single labor organization, called the General Federation
of Trade Unions of Korea, which is affiliated with the formerly
Soviet-controlled World Federation of Trade Unions.  Operating
under this umbrella, unions function on the classical Soviet
model, with responsibility for mobilizing workers behind
production goals and for providing health, education, cultural,
and welfare facilities.  They do not have the right to strike.
North Korea is not a member of, but has observer status with,
the International Labor Organization.

     b.  The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

Workers have no right to organize or to bargain collectively.
Wages are set by government ministries.  The State assigns all
jobs.  Ideological purity is as important as professional
competence in deciding who receives a particular job.  Factory
and farm workers are organized into councils, which do have an
impact upon management decisions.

     c.  Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

There is no prohibition on the use of forced or compulsory
labor, and the Government routinely uses military conscripts
for construction projects.  "Reformatory labor" and
"reeducation through labor" are common punishments for
political offenses.  AI reports that forced labor, such as
logging and tending crops, is common among prisoners.

     d.  Minimum Age for Employment of Children

No data are available on the minimum age for employment of
children.  However, education is universal and mandatory until
age 15, and it is believed that this regulation is enforced.

     e.  Acceptable Conditions of Work

No data are available on minimum wages.  They appear to be
adequate to support workers and their families at a basic
subsistence level.  Wages are not the primary form of
compensation since the State provides all educational and
medical needs free of charge, while most goods are distributed
according to a rationing system and only token rent is charged.

In January labor regulations for foreign-funded enterprises
were reportedly adopted by the Administration Council.
Referring to labor contracts, they set out provisions on the
employment and dismissal of workers, technical training, work
hours, rest periods, remuneration, labor protection, social
security, fines for violations of regulations, and settlement
of disputes.

The Constitution stipulates an 8-hour workday, but several
sources report that most laborers work 12 to 16 hours daily.