|
by Grace Warwick
June 2018 Just a few weeks ago on May 10, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived at Joint Base Andrews accompanied by the three Americans who were being held by North Korea. The freeing of these three men is not something to be overlooked, as it is a definite win for human rights, as well as a win for these men and their families. Many people had speculated the detainees would be freed as the result of the U.S.-North Korea summit. However, this step has already been completed leading up to the summit. Given this step forward and other previous moves by the Trump administration to highlight the human rights situation in North Korea, this poses the question–what is next for North Korean human rights? Specifically, what should be pursued in human rights during the U.S.-North Korea summit, or any other negotiations and dialogue the two countries partake in?
1 Comment
Photos from the Laogai Museum (Used with permission from the Laogai Research Foundation.) All photos by Elizabeth Chu. © Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 2017. By Elizabeth Chu
August 2017 During my summer in Washington, DC, I had the opportunity to visit the Laogai Museum on the corner of 18th Street and T Street. It offers a one-of-a-kind exhibition showcasing the history and abuses of China’s vast network of prisons. I was appalled at the similarities of camp conditions between the Chinese laogai and the North Korean political prison camps. Derived from the Soviet gulag system in the 1950s, the political prison camps in North Korea and China were established for the purpose of containing political dissidence against their respective totalitarian governments. Over the last six decades, both systems have grossly perpetuated human rights abuses through the lack of due process, arbitrary detention, re-education, forced starvation and labor, torture, deaths in detention, and execution. The parallel between these two systems is undeniable. However, the North Korean and Chinese prison systems have evolved to possess several distinct characteristics. This article will focus on the implications of these key differences. By Amanda Mortwedt Oh, HRNK Project Officer
October 2015 Radio Free Asia (RFA) recently reported that a new central policy was issued to North Korean healthcare workers on October 8, 2015, directing gynecologists not to perform abortions or implant birth control devices in their patients, and stating that birth control measures are illegal. Evidence suggests, however, that forced abortions are carried out in North Korea’s detention facilities, especially when the unborn baby is suspected to be “half-Chinese.” As HRNK has uncovered repeatedly in its research and reports, most recently in The Hidden Gulag IV: Gender Repression & Prisoner Disappearances by David Hawk, forced abortions are just one horrifying tactic the North Korean regime implements against women, something Mr. Hawk refers to in his report as a component of “gender repression.” Ms. Kim Min-ji, a former North Korean prisoner interviewed by Hawk, witnessed forced abortions during both of her forcible repatriations from China to North Korea. “The first time, in 2008, a pregnant woman was forced to take some medicine, after which the baby was aborted. The second time, in 2012, the holding center authorities had a baby surgically removed from the womb of a woman who was in the ‘last days of pregnancy.’ The baby was killed.”[1] |
DedicationHRNK staff members and interns wish to dedicate this program to our colleagues Katty Chi and Miran Song. Categories
All
Archives
October 2024
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
