Amnesty International Report 2000 - Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)

Head of state: Kim Jong il
Head of government: Hong Song Nam
Capital: P'yongyang
Population: 23.7 million
Official language: Korean
Death penalty: retentionist

Despite some diplomatic steps towards dialogue, access to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and information about human rights remained tightly controlled.

Food crisis

The food crisis, described by the World Food Programme as "a famine in slow motion", continued to give cause for serious concern. A joint nutrition survey of children under seven years old conducted by UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the European Union (EU) revealed that 16 per cent suffered from acute malnutrition and 62 per cent were affected by stunting (low height for age). In the absence of data concerning other groups, the full extent of the crisis was not known, but the young and the elderly were believed to be especially vulnerable. Officials acknowledged that the mortality rate had increased over the previous four years, indicating that 220,000 more people had died than would be anticipated over that period.

In April 1999 the highest legislative body, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), considered the budget, which had lapsed since the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994. The budget itself gave only broad indications, but these revealed that both revenue and expenditure had declined by one-half in the five years since figures were last published.

The persistent crisis resulted in hundreds of people crossing to China in search of food. There were reports of people trying to cross the border being shot at by North Korean security forces. Those caught by border guards or returned by the Chinese authorities were at risk of human rights violations. There were reports of detainees being severely beaten by North Korean security guards and sent to unheated, overcrowded prison camps with little food. (Winters in North Korea are harsh with temperatures dropping to minus 25 degrees centigrade.)

There were also reports of trafficking of women and girls in the border area.

International scrutiny

In August the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights encouraged the government to continue to assume its international human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). North Korea had announced in 1997 that it had "withdrawn" from the ICCPR, following a critical UN Sub-Commission resolution. The government announced in 1999 that it would soon present its second periodic report on its implementation of the ICCPR to the UNHuman Rights Committee, but to AI's knowledge this had not happened by the end of the year. North Korea submitted its first report in 1984.

International contacts

1999 saw increased diplomatic activity by the authorities, who initiated a number of meetings with several European countries, the EU and Canada, reviewed their relations with Japan, and held high-level talks with the USA. North Korean officials held talks with the EU where it was reported that the discussions would focus on food assistance, human rights and North Korea's missile program. Former US Defense Secretary William Perry visited the country and offered the lifting of further sanctions by the USA in exchange for greater restrictions on North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs. Japan sent a delegation under former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in November and December which called for a normalization of relations between the two countries. Some sanctions were lifted and civilian links re-established after Japan lifted a ban on charter flights to North Korea.

Contacts between North and South Korea continued to increase, and about 80,000 South Korean tourists visited Mount Kumkang in North Korea during 1999. However, relations with South Korea fluctuated greatly during the year. In June talks on bilateral issues broke down, and for the first time since the Korean War, the South and North Korean navies fought a brief gun battle. One North Korean boat was sunk and some 80 fatalities were reported. In August a workers' team from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions was allowed to travel north to play football with their northern counterparts.