• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy

Democracy Chronicles

Seeking a Path to Accountability for North Korea Rights Abuses

by DC Editors - February 28, 2019

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Rights Group Seeks Path to Accountability for N. Korea Rights Abuses

From Voice of America

North Korean defectors surveyed by a Seoul-based human rights NGO say there is unlikely to be accountability for past abuses without a complete change of regime in the North, and many say international courts should eventually have a robust role in trying those “most responsible” for victimizing ordinary North Koreans.

The survey, made public this week by the Transitional Justice Working Group, questioned more than 450 North Korean escapees who have been active in the human rights civil sector between 2015 and 2019. More than half of them arrived before Kim Jong Un assumed power from his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011. Ten respondents were interviewed in depth to complement the broader survey.

Physical or psychological consequences

Nearly 48 percent (47.7 percent) of the respondents said they had experienced physical violence directly at the hands of the state. More than 75 percent (75.4 percent) said they were victims of “wider harm,” including the loss of a close family member to execution or starvation, forced repatriation to North Korea from another country, and arrest or detention by the North Korean authorities. In addition, 63.4 percent indicated they still struggle to this day with the physical or psychological consequences of their time in North Korea.

Nearly half of the respondents, or 45.9 percent, called for an international court based in a future unified Korea to hold trials for past abuses. Most of the other respondents were in favor of a either a hybrid court or an all Korean court.

TJWG Research Director Sarah Son, who authored the report, said defectors are practical in their understanding of what’s possible in terms of the legal system’s capacity. “One interviewee said ‘we cannot prosecute everyone who committed crimes under the North Korean regime,'” Son said. ‘We should prosecute based on the seriousness of the crime. Some officials did things because they were forced to do them, even though they did not want to do so,'” she quoted the interviewee as saying.

The rationale for an international court, says the report, is that Korean judges may see the accused as ethnic “brethren” and thus be too lenient. A number of respondents cited concerns that South Koreans lack recent historical experience of grave human rights abuses, posing a possible obstacle to achieving consensus about means of pursuing justice.

Researchers say the survey is a small step toward establishing a grassroots civil society approach toward holding North Korean perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable as North Korea transitions and reunification becomes a more imaginable possibility.

That remains a challenge, as many North Korean defectors arrive in the South with little or no conceptual framework of individual human rights, and others have security concerns. “Eighty-four percent of the respondents said they are fearful of participating in human rights work focused on North Korea,” Son said. “Primarily because they have concerns for the safety of family members remaining in North Korea.”

The report points to various tools of transitional justice that received broad support from the respondents. Financial compensation was considered very important by 70.1 percent; criminal prosecutions by 75.8 percent; official apologies by 76.9 percent; and non-judicial truth-telling by 82.9 percent. An overwhelming 91.5 percent of respondents supported the exhumation of mass burial sites.

Such tools have been implemented in other countries that have experienced atrocities, such as Poland, the native country of Joanna Hosaniak, Deputy Director of the Seoul-based Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. She leads groups of North Korean University Students on tours of Eastern Europe, with stops at secret police archives and concentration camps like Auschwitz.

“One student said it was really a healing process,” Hosaniak said. “Seeing the commonality of pain was the most powerful thing that she’s taking from that experience. The fact that they as North Koreans are not alone, they have never been alone, and the whole idea that the country can transform itself, and yet be in the past in a way, remembering the past and having such powerful policies in terms of processing that past– that this is possible gave them hope for the Korean peninsula.”

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Filed Under: International Democracy Tagged With: Asia, Dictatorships, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, South Korea

About DC Editors

We are your source for news on the all important effort to establish and strengthen democracy across the globe. Our international team with dozens of independent authors are your gateway into the raging struggle for free and fair elections on every continent with a focus on election reform in the United States. See our Facebook Page and also follow us on Twitter @demchron.

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home | ALL NEWS | WORLD | Seeking a Path to Accountability for North Korea Rights Abuses

Primary Sidebar

Advertise button

Courts off the deep end, again

By Andrew Straw February 1, 2023

Closing the courts, shutting down dissent, and violating the rights of whistleblowers. These are not the actions of an open, free society.

The Christian Evangelical Church

By Jack Jones January 22, 2023

I am not against Big Business having a voice, just not all the voices, and especially not an impersonator pretending to speak for God.

democracy chronicles newsletter

DC AUTHORS

No One In Monterey County Is Good Enough To Serve In Legislature

By Joe Mathews January 9, 2023

California’s “democratic reforms” have left a place as… [key] as Monterey County without any state representation from one of its own.

In America, the Joe-mocracy Rules

By Joe Mathews December 27, 2022

A republic? A democracy? No, our country is an avuncular autocracy run by old guys named joe.

Property Rights, Indiana-Style

By Andrew Straw December 24, 2022

Indiana’s justices have replaced constitutional property rights with ad hominem politics. Replacing them starts with better governors.

To The American Oligarchs: Lay Off Us

By Jack Jones December 21, 2022

No matter how many jobs are ruthlessly pulled out from under us, we are still going to do what it takes to put food on the table.

Indiana’s Irrational Ballot Access System

By Andrew Straw December 4, 2022

Opposing the potential 2024 retention of the Chief Justice Loretta Rush will be key to preventing disability discrimination bad blood in Indiana courts.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden’s Loan Forgiveness program

By Jack Jones November 24, 2022

What is unlawful is the Texas federal judge’s decision to strike down President Biden’s loan forgiveness program, not the program itself.

DeSantis Battles Trump in Florida Steel Cage Match

By Steve Schneider November 20, 2022

We take you now to the much-anticipated DeSantis-Trump steel cage match, in which “DeSanctimonious” has promised to “kick Trump’s ass.”

MORE FROM OUR AUTHORS

VISIT OUR POLITICAL ART SECTION:

dc political art

DEMOCRACY CULTURE

Russian Wagner Boss Acknowledges Comparison With Rasputin

Russian Wagner Boss Acknowledges Comparison With Rasputin

January 30, 2023

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to comparisons [with]…Rasputin who treated the son of the last tsar for haemophilia.

ChatGPT Is Changing Education, AI Experts Say

ChatGPT Is Changing Education, AI Experts Say

January 30, 2023

Newly-launched AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT is changing the internet landscape. It presents several opportunities, including in education.

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

Girl Scouts Earn Democracy Badge At Workshop In Salina

January 26, 2023

The workshop assisted Girl Scouts in grades K–10 in earning their Democracy Badge through learning activities on democracy.

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

Study: Media Can Reduce Polarization By Telling Personal Stories

January 26, 2023

Sharing personal experiences and pairing them with facts reduces political dehumanization and increases political tolerance.

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

Study: 2020 Election Resulted In Increased Anxiety And Depression

January 7, 2023

A review of 2020 Household Pulse Survey data reveals that as an election nears, people in [America] report more depression and anxiety.

MORE CULTURE

VISIT OUR US DEMOCRACY SECTION:

American Democracy