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(2nd LD) N. Korea's human rights record remains deplorable: State Dept.
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's human rights record remains "deplorable" under an "absolute" dictatorship by reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, the State Department said Thursday.
"The government's human rights record remained deplorable, and the government continued to commit numerous serious abuses," the department's 2009 Human Rights Report said. "Citizens did not have the right to change their government. The government subjected citizens to rigid controls over many aspects of their lives."
The report comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton granted Lee Ae-ran, a North Korean defector, the Award for International Women of Courage in an apparent effort to draw international attention to North Korea's dire human rights situation. Lee, a professor of nutrition and culinary arts at Kyungin Women's College in South Korea, was among 10 prize recipients Wednesday.
"She was a witness to tyranny at a very early age," Clinton said. "She defected to South Korea and transformed her life, where she has been a force for promoting human rights of the North Korean refugee community."
First lady Michelle Obama, also attending the award ceremony, noted Lee's eight years in a prison camp as a child.
"After a harrowing escape to South Korea, she became a tireless advocate for North Korean refugees and the first defector to run for Korea's national assembly."
The report also said:
-- North Korean citizens are "denied freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, and the government attempted to control all information."
-- "There was no civilian control of the security forces, and members of the security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses."
-- There are continued reports of "extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners, harsh and life threatening prison conditions, and torture."
Speaking to reporters on the release of the report, Michael Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, described North Korea as "an incredibly closed society," noting "a total intolerance of dissent; lots of prisoners in very poor conditions; very little room for people to even get information."
"It's probably one of the most closed societies in the world," he said. "So across the board, I would say, the conditions are poor, they're not getting better. And we continue to be very mindful of the plight of the North Korean people in living in that circumstance."
Posner also said that the U.S. government has "a range of concerns" regarding "North Korea and the nuclear capability and all that," although the report focused on North Korea's human rights situation.
North Korea invited stronger sanctions from the United Nations early last year with its second nuclear test, worsening its economic plight.
Pyongyang has demanded the sanctions be lifted as a precondition for its return to the six-party talks, in lull for nearly a year. Washington insists the North come back to the nuclear dialogue first.
Pyongyang also wants talks toward a peace treaty officially ending the 1950-53 Korean War.
The report touched on the hardship of North Koreans fleeing to neighboring China in search of food and a better life.
"There continued to be reports of severe punishment of some repatriated refugees," it said. "There were widespread reports of trafficking in women and girls among refugees and workers crossing the border into China."
The report said "tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands" crossed the border into China last year.
"Some settled semipermanently in northeastern China, others traveled back and forth across the border, and others sought asylum and permanent resettlement in third countries," it said. "A few thousand citizens gained asylum in third countries during the year."
South Korea has received about 18,000 North Korean defectors since the end of the Korean War. The U.S. has taken in nearly 100 North Korean refugees since the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.
China has been under criticism for repatriating North Korean refugees under a secret agreement with North Korea, recognizing defectors as economic immigrants rather than refugees.
Repatriated North Koreans are subject to "a minimum of five years of labor correction," or "indefinite terms of imprisonment and forced labor, confiscation of property, or death," the report said.
Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, said earlier this week that the U.S. is "very concerned about humanitarian issues" in North Korea and will "continue to press human right issues as we've done in the past."
King, however, emphasized the difficulty of getting good information. Since taking office in November, he has toured South Korea, Japan and China on fact-finding missions, but has yet to visit North Korea.
His predecessor, Jay Lefkowitz, was never allowed into North Korea.
In a report to sum up his four-year tenure in January last year, Lefkowitz urged Obama to emphasize human rights in the six-party talks and link any aid to Pyongyang with human rights improvements.
And in Seoul in January, King said that the U.S. will raise North Korea's human rights record in future six-party talks.
The State Department, however, said King will not be part of the U.S. delegation to the nuclear talks, a policy consistent with that of the Bush administration, which did not want to jeopardize the fragile multilateral forum.
"To the extent that, at some point in time, once North Korea's taken steps that we've outlined (for the North's denuclearization), if there is a serious discussion about normalization with the United States, we would expect that human rights will continue to be part of that discussion," spokesman Philip Crowley said recently.
Turning to South Korea, the report said, "The government generally respected the human rights of its citizens," but noted continued "societal discrimination" against "women, persons with disabilities, and minorities."
"Traditional attitudes limited opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities," it said, noting 1,115 alleged cases of discrimination were brought before the National Human Rights Commission last year.
Rape, domestic violence, and child abuse also remained "serious problems," it said, citing 12,132 cases of domestic violence.
The report found no "politically motivated disappearances" in South Korea, which were reported occasionally in the 1970s and '80s under authoritarian rule.
It expressed concerns about the anti-communist National Security Law, which "grants the authorities powers to detain, arrest, and imprison persons who commit acts the government views as intended to endanger the security of the state."
The law is a Cold War legacy that bans South Koreans from traveling and communicating freely with the communist North, with which South Korea is technically at war.
"The number of NSL investigations and arrests has dropped significantly in recent years," it said.
Freedom of speech and of the press is also "generally respected in practice," it said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
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