North Korea: Why Human Rights Must Come First. The second anniversary of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report on human rights in North Korea occurred on February 17, soon after North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket in violation of international sanctions banning the use of ballistic missile technology.
The launch, which followed North Korea’s fourth nuclear test the previous month, was immediately condemned by the U.N. Security Council and by Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who said the launch was “deeply deplorable.” The Secretary General also called on North Korea to “halt its provocative actions,” after which North Korea’s dictator defiantly pledged to launch additional rockets. The crisis has raised new questions about how to deal with the threat from North Korea. Until now, the conventional policy approach has separated security issues from human rights concerns. The basic issue, therefore, is not transactional but has to do with the nature of the North Korean regime. Canadian pastor Hyen Soo Lim 'forced to dig holes in North Korea labour camp' A Canadian pastor serving a life sentence in North Korea for criticising its leaders is being forced to dig holes all day in a labour camp.
Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, who was 60 when he was arrested in February, was sentenced to hard labour for life for 'subversion' - an attempt to destabilise the regime. He is said to work eight hours a day, six days a week, digging holes in an orchard near the camp, where he has never seen any other prisoners. North Korea - amnesty.org. Japanese schoolgirl Megumi Yokota kidnapped by North Korea at just 13. Megumi Yokota went missing aged 13 on way home from school in 1977She was presumed dead but her parents discovered she was kidnappedNorth Korea insists Megumi has since died, but has not given any evidenceHer parents tell UN panel they still believe she will return home one day By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 11:29 GMT, 29 August 2013 | Updated: 13:11 GMT, 29 August 2013 The parents of a Japanese girl who was abducted by the North Koreans at the age of 13 today spoke of their agony over not knowing her fate 36 years on.
For two decades after Megumi Yokota vanished on her way home to school, the police would call her parents whenever they found an unidentified body. Kim Jong-un's Ex-Girlfriend 'Shot by Firing Squad' Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad on Aug. 20, reports said Wednesday.
Sources in China said singer Hyon Song-wol as well as Mun Kyong-jin, head of the Unhasu Orchestra, were arrested on Aug. 17 for violating North Korean laws against pornography and were executed in public three days later. The victims of the atrocity were members of the Unhasu Orchestra as well as singers, musicians and dancers with the Wangjaesan Light Music Band.
They were accused of videotaping themselves having sex and selling the videos. The tapes have apparently gone on sale in China as well. A source said some allegedly had Bibles in their possession, and all were treated as political dissidents. Popular North Korean Comedienne Sent to Work in Coal Mine Over Slip-up. Updated at 11:45 a.m.
ET on 2013-8-9 Authorities in North Korea have sentenced a popular North Korean comedian who once performed for the late dictator Kim Jong Il to an indefinite period of “hard labor” in a coal mine for a “slip of the tongue” during a performance last month, according to sources inside the country. Lee Choon Hong, who is known for satirizing aspects of North Korean society by mimicking voices, made the mistake on "sensitive issues" while performing for workers at a pastureland project in southeastern Kangwon province, said a resident of the North who spoke to RFA’s Korean Service last week. “Lee Choon Hong had a slip of the tongue while giving a performance for the workers at the Sepo reclamation project site,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He was sent to the city of Sunchon in South Pyongan province to carry out reform work at the Jikdong Youth Coal Mine,” he said. Second assignment Reported by Young Jung for RFA’s Korean Service.
N.Korean Cheerleaders Banished to Camps. Women who caught South Korea's attention with their charm and cheerleading antics when they accompanied the North Korean athletes to the Busan Asian Games have ended up in North Korean detention camps.
Lee Myeong-ho, a former inmate of the Daeheung concentration camp in South Hamgyeong Province who recently escaped to China, said 21 beautiful women were detained at the camp since the end of last year. Later I found out that they were the cheerleading team that had gone to South Korea, he said. Lee said since inmates are forbidden to talk to one another, he could not find out for sure what mistake they had made, but the rumor was that they had broken their promise to North Korean security services not to disclose what they had seen in South Korea. Another defector explained the cheerleaders are picked among university students, propaganda squad members and music school students from good families. U.S Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
Abduction Policy Netted Thousands. North Korea’s practice of abducting foreigners may have been wider in scope than previously thought.
North Korea may have abducted up to 180,000 foreigners from 14 countries over the last six decades, much more than what has been reported, according to a new report by a U.S. -based human rights watchdog.