Amnesty International Report 1994 - North Korea
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Date:
1 January 1994
(This report covers the period January-December 1994)
KOREA (DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC)
New information emerged about prisoners of conscience who appeared to have been detained for years, sometimes decades, without trial or after unfair trials. They included relatives and children of alleged government opponents. Hundreds of political prisoners were reported to be in unacknowledged detention. Former prisoners stated that conditions of detention were harsh and that ill-treatment of prisoners was common. Reports suggested that executions had taken place, including some in public.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) remained largely isolated, partly because foreign travel by North Koreans and access to the country by foreign nationals were severely limited by the government. The authorities did not allow independent observers to visit places of detention or to investigate reports of human rights violations.
In March a three-week state of "semi-war" was declared by the government during joint exercises close to the country's border by armed forces of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the USA. In April Kim Jong Il, son of President Kim Il Sung, was elected by the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) as chairman of the National Defence Commission, succeeding his father. In December the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) stated that planned economic objectives failed to be achieved "due to world events and the difficult situation [these] created in [North] Korea". The WPK also announced that Kim Il Sung's younger brother, Kim Yong Ju, had been elected to the party's political bureau.
In January Amnesty International learned that an Institute for Research into Human Rights had been created in 1992 in Pyongyang, headed by Li Chang Ha, a member of the Standing Committee of the SPA. The scope of the Institute's work was unclear but the government stated that it would be responsible for replying to a memorandum submitted by Amnesty International in 1992 detailing its concerns about the human rights situation in the DPRK. However, by the end of the year no response had been received.
In June Paek In Jun, a Vice-Chairman of the SPA, led the DPRK delegation to the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. He stated that "the problem of human rights of the citizens in each country is a matter to be solved by each sovereign state" and opposed "interfering" and "putting unreasonable pressure" on states. He made no reference to specific allegations of human rights violations in his country.
New information emerged about prisoners and possible prisoners of conscience. They included people accused of "crimes against the state", relatives of people who had sought political asylum abroad and people accused of illegal contacts with foreigners. According to unofficial sources, a woman was sentenced to four years' "re-education through labour" in March because she had had contacts with a foreign student which she failed to report to the authorities. It was unclear whether she had been tried or was given a term of administrative detention, imposed without trial.
Shibata Kozo, a Japanese national imprisoned since 1964, was also believed to be a prisoner of conscience. Having served a 20-year sentence for allegedly encouraging Japanese women resident in Pyongyang to protest after they were denied permission to visit their families in Japan, he should have been released in 1984. However, he continued to be held despite poor health and in late 1990 was being detained in Sungho village near Pyongyang. Since then there has been no news of him: he was not known to have been released. Two other prisoners who had been arrested in December 1982 with their two children, apparently by officials of the Ministry of State Security, were also said to be still detained for political reasons and to have been denied permission either to see or correspond with their relatives.
An unknown number, believed to be many hundreds, of political prisoners were held without trial in unacknowledged detention. Whole groups of North Koreans were believed to have been taken into custody for "re-education" after returning from studies abroad, but details were not available. Those reportedly held included children and young people, among them Oh Hae Won, aged 18, and Oh Kyu Won, aged 15. They were believed to have been detained since 1986 with their mother Shin Sook Ja, after their father sought asylum abroad. They were reportedly held in a "re-education through labour" detention camp in Yodok, Hamgyong South Province, and were prisoners of conscience.
Some political prisoners were reportedly held without trial, others after grossly unfair trials. The latter were believed to have been sentenced by tribunals whose judges were apparently required to carry out the policies of the WPK. Lawyers were said to have virtually no access to prisoners before they came to trial. In certain cases, the authorities apparently imposed periods of administrative detention on individuals accused of less serious offences which did not warrant a full trial. In such cases, the accused reportedly had no access to legal counsel and no effective opportunity to present a defence.
Political prisoners in "re-education through labour" detention camps were reportedly held in extremely harsh conditions. Former prisoners said that in previous years many inmates had died of cold, hunger or untreated illnesses, and that those in the camps were deprived of all rights. Some camps were reported to hold "special" categories of prisoners and to receive virtually no food or other supplies, with the inmates expected to produce their own food to survive.
Some North Korean forestry workers were also reportedly held in makeshift prisons in camps run by North Korean officials and located in the far east of the Russian Federation. Those who attempted to leave the camps, set up for forestry working by agreement between the DPRK and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), were reportedly detained for indefinite periods. Concern over the detentions, and the poor working conditions in the camps, reportedly led the Russian authorities to decide to close the camps by the end of 1993.
Unofficial sources suggested that the death penalty is widely used, including for political offences. The 1987 Criminal Law describes the death penalty as one of the two kinds of "basic penalties" to be imposed on criminal offenders. This provides a mandatory death penalty for activities "in collusion with imperialists" aimed at "suppressing the national-liberation struggle" and the "revolutionary struggle for reunification and independence". The death penalty is also mandatory for "acts of betraying the Nation to imperialists", and discretionary for offences including "extreme cases" of "betrayal of the country"; participation in a plot to overthrow the Republic or in acts of revolt; acts of "terrorism" against the WPK and government "cadres and patriotic people"; and murder, in particularly serious cases. The precise nature of some of these offences is not defined in the Criminal Law.
DPRK officials told Amnesty International in 1991 that the death penalty was used only "in rare circumstances", but they refused to provide detailed information. They said that statistics on the use of the death penalty were collected but were not then available. However, witnesses at public announcements of death sentences, former detainees and visitors to North Korea reported in 1993 that the death penalty is used frequently, with dozens of prisoners executed each year, including people convicted of economic offences. In one case in November 1992, according to a government statement in October, Chu Su Man, a 30-year-old man officially described as an "habitual violent offender" and convicted of murder, was publicly executed "at the request of the crowd". In other cases in 1992, prisoners under sentence of death had been displayed at public meetings attended by workers and students, including school-age children. Executions were reportedly carried out in front of such meetings. Detainees were also reportedly executed in front of assembled inmates in detention centres.
Amnesty International again sought information from the government about people reportedly held for political reasons and about the use of the death penalty, but there was no response to these inquiries. In October Amnesty International published a report, North Korea: Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns. This drew attention to the cases of prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners, allegations of ill-treatment and the use of the death penalty. The report also criticized the inadequate human rights safeguards in the Constitution, which fail to meet the requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the DPRK acceded in 1981, and other human rights standards. Amnesty International expressed particular concern that certain provisions of the Criminal Law are so vague that they can result in imprisonment for the peaceful exercise of fundamental rights - those convicted of being "in revolt" can be imprisoned for up to 10 years, and those who "encourage others to attempt the undermining of the Republic" for up to seven years.
When publishing the report, Amnesty International called on the government to release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally; to ensure that all other political prisoners were given fair and prompt trials or released; to safeguard all prisoners against ill-treatment; and to commute all death sentences and abolish the death penalty. Amnesty International also called for the introduction of effective human rights safeguards and their implementation in practice. The organization also reiterated its call to the government to open the country to independent human rights monitors.
The government responded to Amnesty International's report: it "categorically rejected" its contents, describing them as "either utterly groundless or far from the fact". However, the government provided no information about individual prisoners of conscience and others whose cases had been cited in the report. Referring to Amnesty International's criticism of the Criminal Law, the authorities said that provisions relating to "crimes against the state" have "crime-preventive significance and are rarely applied". They denied too that North Korean-run camps in Russia were used to held prisoners: they had "only education rooms" to "educate workers to properly observe the Russian laws". The government's response also said that the death penalty was rarely imposed and that no one had been sentenced to death for political reasons. However, it confirmed the use of public executions.
Amnesty International repeatedly informed the government of its wish to visit the DPRK to obtain further information about human rights but there was no response.
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