Human Rights Commission, New York
UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS -- APRIL 2004
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UN Assembly Hall |
A Woman's Voice International held two parallel meetings. On
Friday April 2nd, one parallel meeting was held on China.
On April 6th, the second parallel meeting meeting was held
on North Korea.
The following list of participants were listed as "Additional
Representatives."
Man-Ho Heo--A speaker during the parallel meeting on North Korea in
which he spoke
about the prison camps and human experimentation in North Korea
Debbie Liang-Fenton
Young-Ja Kim--Gave the intervention on Mass Relocations Item 14. She
is employed
by Citizens Alliance in South Korea
Conference Participants
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Participant (right) speaks while moderator Lord Chan looks on |
A Woman's Voice International and Jubilee Campaign delegations |
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An intervention on the plight of NK children delivered
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Won Cheoi Kang (left) and Prof. Manho Heo |
Intervention Agenda Items 12, 13, & 14 follow:
Intervention Agenda Item 12: Elimination of Violence Against Women
Speaker: Ji Sun JEONG
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" would like to draw the attention of this Commission to the systematic and persistent violations of women's rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In a legal and institutional perspective, the North Korean government tried to realize "Equality of Sex'" and "Liberalization of Women", and it succeeded to a certain extent. However, there are still substantial discrepancies between institutional (or legal) stipulations and their practice.
Within the elections of the Supreme Commission of People, North Korean National Assembly, in 1991, in 1998 and in 2003, women received 20% of the deputy seats. However, the rate of women in power organs remains low. The women delegates take only 7% (17 / 248) seats in the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
The segregation of sex between occupations is serious in North Korea. Women laborers are concentrated within agriculture (55.5% of total labor) and in light industry (70% of total labor).
Examining the North Korean Second periodic report on November 2003, the UN independent experts worried about the level domestic violence in North Korean homes.
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" demands a stop to the even more deplorable violence against women in North Korea; in particular this Commission must condemn the trafficking of North Korean defectors and/or refugees in China. We must condemn the forced abortion and infanticide committed upon the children of North Korean women repatriated from China as well as upon the children of women detainees in political prison camps, more exactly political penal-labour colonies.
The deterioration of the North Korean economic situation during the 1990s forced more than 300,000 to flee North Korea to escape the famine and live a precarious life in China, Mongolia, Russia, or South-East Asian countries. With the recent improvement in the food supply, the North Korean government strengthened its border regions to reduce the number of deflectors. However, North Koreans are still defecting to China in search of a better life and/or seeking refuge in South Korea. Sixty to 70 % of the defectors are women, 70 to 80% of whom are victims of human trafficking. The current attitude of the Chinese authorities is to arrest and repatriate all North Korean defectors/refugees.
The DPRK government is forcing abortion upon all of the repatriated pregnant women from China and killing their babies to protect North Korean pure blood.
The infanticides that occur in the political prison camps are the direct result of KIM II Sung's dictates: "Factionalists or enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations." Accordingly, pregnancy and childbirth are considered as crimes and those involved are cruelly punished and executed along with their babies.
In the DPRK, groups of women are specially educated to gratify the desires of KIM Jong II and high-ranking party officials. Referred to as Gippumjo (for joy), these women are divided into Manjokjo for sexual pleasure, Haengbokjo that give massages, and Gamujo that sing and dance half-naked.
The first group of Gippumjo was recruited in 1978 by LEE Dong Ho, First Vice Director of the Department of United Front of the WPK, to serve KIM Jong II at Munsu Chodaeso (Munsu Guesthouse). Currently, the Fifth Department of Staff of the Organic Direction of the Party is responsible for recruiting and training for Gippumjo.
The training takes about 20 months and involves fourteen to twenty year old virgins. The individual specialities are decided during the training period. According to KIM Seon Hui (pseudonym, 24 years old, former member of Gippumjo) and SIN Young Hui (43 years old, former member of Gippumjo), the new Manjokjo recruits are trained in all kinds of sexual skills, while the Haengbokjo recruits are even sent abroad for massage training.
If selected as a Gippumjo, it is impossible to refuse, even in the case of a daughter of a party official. When these women reach 25 years old, they are retired and ordered to marry guards of KIM Jong II or national heroes, and from then on their past as a Gippumjo is kept a secret.
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" appeals to this Commission to appoint a Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights in order to investigate these reprehensible practices within the DPRK and bring the spirit of human rights to the women of North Korea.
Intervention Agenda Item 13: Rights of Children
Speaker: Ji Sun JEONG
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" would like to draw the attention of this Commission to the systematic and persistent violations of children's rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
At the Second Periodic Report, Social, and Cultural Rights, Paragraph 46, the DPRK Government claimed that the state provides "the welfare of children through institutions, enterprises and social cooperative" organizations. However, the statement lacks truth.
According to many western NGOs, food aid in North Korea does not reach the most vulnerable people group, the children. Most food aid is distributed through State institutions. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable children are not in these institutions, as most of the malnourished children do not attend nurseries or kindergartens, but rather stay at home or around Jangmadang (the market places) to get food.
According to an order of KIM Jong II to "stabilize the livelihood of vagrants throughout the country" on September 27, 1995, the North Korean government established "Children's Detention Camps" (Gu-yichil eorinvi suyongso). They are located in ruined apartments and hold homeless children (Kotjebi). The children within these detention camps are not properly provided for and many die of malnutrition.
In a press release dated 30 October 2003, the UNDP reported that 6.5 million malnourished North Koreans need food aid in 2004, which represents more than a quarter of the population. Four out often young children suffer from chronic malnutrition or stunted growth.
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" demands protection for children from mental torture and shock.
Children in North Korea are exposed to traumatic shock from witnessing public executions. In the Spring of 2002, I met M. H. KIM, a 14-year-old North Korean refugee girl who told me this tragic account. When she was 11 years old, in her second year of elementary school, her teacher brought her entire class to attend a public execution near the school. The DPRK bound the heads, necks, breasts, abdomens, and legs of three persons to pillars. Each person was shot three times. Brain parts splattered onto the children in the front row. This horrible scene of a public execution still haunts M. H. KIM even today. There have been numerous other eye witness accounts of children forced to attend public executions.
Mr. Chairperson, Women's Voice International is concerned about the educational right of children in the DPRK. The North Korean government discriminates amongst children and offers educational benefits on the base of the Seongbun, ascription to social class based on three strata with 51 sub-categories. The children from lower classes are deprived of quality educational opportunities.
Serious discrepancies in health services for children also exist. Although, the DPRK stipulates that the state provides "a complete universal, free medical care system", the reality is that the medical services are insufficient due to shortages of drugs and obsolete equipment. Therefore, the system allocates medical benefits according to the Seongbun or class, thereby depriving the lower classes of children from receiving adequate medical services based on their parent's political and social class.
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" appeals to this Commission to appoint a Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights in order to investigate these reprehensible practices within the DPRK and give all children of North Korea the right to the Same quality of life.
Intervention Agenda Item 14: Mass Relocations
Speaker: Young Ja KIM
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" would like to draw the attention of this Commission to the deplorable situation for the North Korean defectors/refugees in foreign countries, especially in the People's Republic of China, and systematic and persistent violations of their basic human rights.
The deterioration of the North Korean economic situation during the 1990s forced more than 300,000 to (lee North Korea to escape the famine and live a precarious life in China, Mongolia, Russia, or South Fast Asian countries. With the recent improvement in the food supply, the North Korean government strengthened its border regions to reduce the number of defectors. However, North Koreans arc still defecting to China in search of a better life and/or seeking refuge in South Korea. Sixty to 70% of the defectors are women, 70 to 80% of whom arc victims of human trafficking.
The current attitude of the Chinese authorities is to arrest and refouler all North Korean defectors/refugees, without any screening whatsoever to determine whether any of them fled pursuant to a well-founded fear of persecution, whether any of them suffered past persecution, and total disregard to thorn as a population of particular concern.
The DPRK government is forcing abortion upon all of the repatriated pregnant women from China and killing their babies to protect North Korean pure blood. Certainly any woman facing this horrific fate possesses a well-founded fear of persecution.
The North Korean male defectors/refugees are exploited especially in North-East Provinces of China because of their vulnerable legal status. Mostly they are not paid after their hard works. If they make protest to their employer, they are threatened to being delivered to police.
Upon refoulement, each refugee is arrested, interned, and interrogated to determine whether they met any South Korean people and/or religious missionary.
I interviewed several hundreds of North Korean refugees in China, in Burma and those who are living in the Republic of Korea. All of the persons who had been arrested and accused of leaving their homeland without permission were tortured during the preliminary examinations of the National Security and Integrity Agency and/or of Ministry of Public Security. Upon confession of meeting South Koreans or missionaries, the refouled refugees were sent to special jail for political prisoners, or to a political penal-labour colony.
Please let me present five such victims:
LEE Young-guk (YI Yeong-guk): Male, Born on May 15, 1962, Former residential address in North Korea: 24-ban, Sanbong, Musan-gun, Province of North Hamgyeong.
KIM Hyeok: Male, Born on Jan. 17, 1982, Former residential address in North Korea: Cheongjin City, Province of North Hamgyeong.
BAE (lwon-cheol: Male, Born on Aug. 30, 1966, Former residential address in North Korea: 11-ban, Sanseong-gu, Onseong-gun, Province of North Hamgyeong.
BANG Song-wun: Born on March 20, 1967, Former residential address in North Korea: 7-ban, Songhyang-dong, Songpyeong-guyeok. Cheongjin City. Province of North Hamgyeong.
JI Hae-nam: Born on May 17, 1948, Former residential address in North Korea: Namunri, Hamhung city, Province of South Hamkyung.
In addition. all North Korean juvenile defectors in China are deprived of their right to education. They can be exploited very easily by criminal organizations.
Mr. Chairperson, "A Woman's Voice International" appeals to this Commission to appoint a Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights in order to investigate this deplorable Situation for the North Korean people who are searching for relocation for a better life.
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