1. Why have a human rights site for North Korea?
2. Is this a “North Korea-bashing” site?
3. If we could change three things in U.S. policy toward N. Korea, what would they be?
4. What can the media do to help improve the conditions in N. Korea?
5. Can you prove that the contents on this site are true?

Why have a human rights site for North Korea?

The first thing that should come to mind when the country “North Korea” is mentioned is not missiles, but the following:

• Between 1995 and 1998, North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Il has starved to death two million of his 22 million people. (US Department of State, “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” 2000. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices).
• North Korea currently holds at least 150,000 of its citizens (including children) in political concentration camps. (US Department of State, “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” 2005).
• A Chinese police station report, dated Oct. 7, 2003, in Badaogou Precinct, near Baishan City, in Zhangbai Korean Autonomous County, also in Jilin Province, states:
  “At 7 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2003,” Case Report No. 055 begins, “a report was received from the public of several corpses floating in the Yalu River. Officers from the Precinct immediately responded and organized personnel and by 10 a.m. 53 corpses had been recovered.
  “At 5 a.m. on Oct. 4 an additional three corpses were recovered for a total of 56 corpses. There were 36 males and 20 females, including seven children (five male and two female). After examination of the personal effects it was determined that the dead were citizens of the DPRK [North Korea]. Autopsies confirmed that all 56 had been shot to death. It is estimated that the dead were shot by Korean border guards while attempting to cross into China.” (Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2006)
• “The North Korean regime’s obsession with racial purity has led to the killing of disabled infants and forced abortions for women suspected of conceiving their babies by Chinese fathers.” (Michael Sheridan, Times of London, October 15, 2006).
• Most foreign aid donations have been diverted to Pyongyang’s elite and military. Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and other NGOs have pulled out of N. Korea due to the lack of monitoring of aid distribution and the lack of access to the most vulnerable provinces. (Amnesty International, DPRK - Persecuting The Starving, December 2000).
• The total N. Korean refugee population in China, as of January 2000, was approximately 150,000. Without UNHCR protection, many of the female refugees are sold into sexual slavery, and all are exploited. (Amnesty International, DPRK - Persecuting The Starving, December 2000).
• Approximately 100,000 N. Korean agents live in China today to infiltrate N. Korean underground churches as well as to deport and imprison refugees. (Jasper Becker, South China Morning Post, June 17, 2001).
• At the peak of the famine in 1997 when most of the people fed on grass to survive, the N. Korean government imported special ovens and two Italian gourmet chefs to teach their cooks how to make pizza. They then threw a pizza party for Kim Jong Il. (Rory Carroll, The Guardian, April 27, 2001).
• Though hundreds of thousands of N. Koreans flee to China for a better life, the media, human rights organizations, and churches emphasize the human rights abuses in China to a disproportionately greater degree than the atrocities happening in N. Korea.
• North Korea currently ranks 155th as the least economically free country in the world. (2001 Index of Economic Freedom, Dow Jones).
• According to Newsweek International, North Korea is the worst human rights violating country in the world today. (Newsweek International, July 9, 2001).
• In the past 50 years, 1,200 N. Koreans, as of the end of September 2000, have succeeded to defect to S. Korea. (The Korea Herald, October 11, 2000).
• Since the Korean war (1950-53), about 7 million S. Koreans have separated families in the North. Of 116,460 S. Koreans who submitted a formal reunion application, 10.9% of them have passed away before being able to meet with their N. Korean relatives. Among the remaining applicants who are still alive, 59,380 are older than 70 and 31 are centenarians. (Kim Ji-ho, The Korea Herald, July 4, 2001).
• Officially, 487 S. Koreans and 60 Japanese have been abducted by the North since 1953. (Lee Chi-dong, The Korea Times, March 27, 2001).
• South Korea’s current government under Kim Dae Jung has not made human rights a priority in engaging with N. Korea. (Remarks By S. Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, Council On Foreign Relations Luncheon, March 8, 2001).
• North Korea is the only country in the world without free access to the internet. (Reporters Sans Borders, Enemies of the Internet, 2001).

Is this a “North Korea-bashing” site?

We are no more anti-North Korean than the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. is anti-Jewish or the Independence Hall Museum in S. Korea is anti-Korean.

If anything, this is a South Korea-bashing site.

If The Chosun Journal could change three things in U.S. policy toward N. Korea, what would they be?

Updated 10-28-06

Welcome more North Korean refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. Since the enactment of the N.K. Human Rights Act in 2004, the U.S. has granted asylum to 6 North Korean refugees.

1. Require strict reciprocation. No independent monitoring of foreign aid distribution, no foreign aid from the U.S. No foreign aid is better than giving aid to Pyongyang’s elite and military.
2. Fund NGOs working with N. Korean refugees in China.
3. Mention N. Korea’s generational gulags and human rights abuses more than its missile programs.

What can the media do to help improve the conditions in N. Korea?

We can make Kim Jong Il and the world self-conscious about his abuses. Here are some recent examples:

• In 2001 Kim Jong Il’s regime issued an unprecedented report to the UN Human Rights Committee on its alleged human rights abuses which have been increasingly followed in the media around the world.
• In July 2001, seven members of the Jang family successfully escaped from N. Korea after seeking asylum in S. Korea at a UN office in Beijing. The media attention of this event was enormous. In revealing contrast, one year ago, another group of seven had sought asylum in S. Korea at a Russian embassy in China. News coverage was sparse. They were promptly deported back to N. Korea where they have endured imprisonment.

  The more the world realizes just how bad the people are suffering in N. Korea, the world’s governments will be less inclined to tolerate a regime that causes such suffering. The media plays the vital role of increasing this realization in the world.

Can you prove that the contents on this site are true?

We recognize that the contents on this site are so horrendous they border the lines of credibility. To ensure veracity, we link only to reputable news agencies like the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Guardian. Further, we have made available the contact information of living witnesses like Soon Ok Lee who have survived North Korean prison camps and escaped to South Korea. You can find their contact information on the right hand column of the main page under “Living Witnesses”.