Amnesty International Report 2015/16 - Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)

Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Head of state: Kim Jong-un
Head of government: Pak Pong-ju

North Koreans continued to suffer denial and violations of almost every aspect of their human rights. Authorities continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain individuals without fair trial or access to lawyers and family, including nationals of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Households, particularly those with members suspected of having fled the country or trying to access outside information, remained under systematic surveillance. The government arranged for more than 50,000 people to work in other countries, collecting their wages directly from employers and keeping a significant portion for its own revenue. Little progress was made in addressing cases of abductions and enforced disappearances of foreign nationals.

BACKGROUND

In the fourth year of Kim Jong-un's rule, international media continued to report executions of senior officials. The Head of State did not attend celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in China and Russia. Inter-Korean relations remained tense. Explosions of North Korean landmines in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in early August caused severe injuries to two South Korean soldiers. South Korean broadcasts across the border to seek an apology resulted in the military on both sides exchanging artillery fire later that month. The tension was resolved after a 43-hour high-level dialogue; North Korea expressed regret over the explosions, and a mutual agreement was reached to continue the reunions of separated families. Natural disasters including a severe summer drought and floods killed at least 40 people, and affected more than 10,000 others, according to state media.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

The authorities continued to impose severe restrictions on freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information regardless of national borders. Although there were three million domestic mobile service subscribers among the population of 25 million, virtually all nationals were barred from international mobile telephone services and access to the internet. Only tourists and foreign residents were allowed to purchase special SIM cards to make calls outside the country or access the internet using smart phones. The existing computer network remained available, providing access to domestic websites and domestic email services only, but even this was not yet widely accessible.

North Koreans who lived close to the Chinese border undertook significant risks in using smuggled mobile phones that were connected to Chinese networks in order to make contact with individuals outside the country. People who did not own one of these phones needed to pay an exorbitant fee and go through a broker. While calling outside North Korea was not a criminal offence in itself, the use of smuggled mobile phones to connect to Chinese mobile networks exposed all individuals involved to the risk of surveillance, as well as arrest and detention on various charges, including espionage.

The government continued to restrict access to various outside sources of information despite the absence of any domestic independent newspapers, media or civil society organizations. Authorities used radio waves to obstruct the reception of foreign television or radio broadcasts, while also making foreign channels unreceivable on legally available appliances. Individuals keeping, watching or copying and sharing foreign audiovisual materials risked arrest, if the material was deemed to be "hostile broadcasting or enemy propaganda" under the criminal law.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY

North Koreans who made calls using smuggled mobile phones reported that they experienced frequent jamming of lines and wiretapping of conversations, among other forms of infringement on the right to privacy. A special unit of the State Security Department for covert intelligence and digital operations used sophisticated, imported monitoring devices to detect mobile phone users who tried to make calls out of the country. Individuals whose conversations were overheard could be arrested if they were found calling someone in South Korea, or if they requested money to be sent to them.

Person-to-person systems of surveillance also remained a threat to privacy. Neighbourhood groups set up by the government for such purposes as ideological education were authorized to conduct home visits at any time, and report on people's activities. Group leaders, together with another dedicated unit of the State Security Department, monitored people's radio and television habits. Households that were suspected of watching foreign audiovisual materials, or receiving money from a family member who had fled the country, were subject to heightened surveillance.

ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS

North Koreans who fled the country reported that arrests had increased, as border controls of both people and goods had tightened under Kim Jong-un's rule. These arrests were arbitrary, as they often took place as a punishment for exercising human rights, as a crackdown on the private market economy, or for extorting bribes.

Hundreds of thousands of people remained detained in political prison camps and other detention facilities, where they were subjected to systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations such as torture and other ill-treatment, and forced labour. Many of those held in these camps had not been convicted of any internationally recognizable criminal offence, but were detained through "guilt-by-association", only for being related to individuals deemed threatening to the state.

In May and June, three South Korean men, Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil, were given life sentences after being convicted of espionage, among other charges, through judicial procedures that fell short of international fair trial standards. A South Korean student, Joo Won-moon, who had been arrested for illegally entering the country in April, was released in October after more than five months of detention without access to his lawyer or family.[1]

MIGRANT WORKERS' RIGHTS

The government dispatched at least 50,000 people to countries such as Libya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Qatar and Russia to work in various sectors including medicine, construction, forestry and catering. Workers were often subjected to excessively long hours, poor safety conditions, deprivation of information about labour laws and lack of access to any government agencies monitoring compliance. Workers did not receive wages directly from employers, but through the North Korean government after significant deductions. Workers remained under surveillance in the host countries as they would be in North Korea, and contact with the local population was heavily restricted.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

In the first 10 months of 2015, the South Korean Ministry of Unification reported the arrival of 978 North Koreans, among them a teenage soldier who walked across the inter-Korean border on 15 June. According to South Korea media, the North Korean military planted extra landmines in 2015 to prevent its soldiers from fleeing to South Korea. The numbers of arrivals were in line with the 1,397 people reported to have arrived in 2014, and similar figures for 2013 and 2012. These figures remained low compared with previous years, due to tight border controls.

North Koreans forcibly returned from China or other countries continued to be at risk of detention, imprisonment, forced labour and torture and other ill-treatment. China ignored non-refoulement obligations in international law by sending back North Koreans and seemingly continued this practice through a 1986 agreement with North Korean authorities. Russia was reported to be formalizing a similar agreement.

RIGHT TO FOOD

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported in September that, after increases in three consecutive years, food production had been stagnant in 2014, while the drought of 2015 had reduced the production of rice and other cereals by more than 10%. Possibly as a result, the government reduced the daily food rations for households in July and August from 410g to 250g per person, well below the amount distributed during the same months in 2013 and 2014. The public distribution system was the main channel of providing food to at least 18 million people – three quarters of the population. With the reduction in rations, the right to adequate food of most individuals was severely threatened.

INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY

Following intensified international scrutiny after the publication in 2014 of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and related discussion at the UN Security Council later that year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights opened a field office in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on 23 June. The new office had been among the recommendations of the report, and was tasked with monitoring and documenting the human rights situation in North Korea, as steps towards accountability. Its opening was met with severe criticism from the North Korean government. The UN Security Council held another discussion of human rights in North Korea on 10 December.

Other UN bodies made efforts to address international abductions and enforced disappearances, but yielded minimal tangible progress. The North Korean government wrote to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in August with regard to 27 outstanding cases; the Working Group noted in its report that the information provided was insufficient for clarification of the cases.

[1] Further information: Student released by North Korea (ASA 24/2609/2015)