By:
• So Channtha

• November 5, 2024 , 11:55 AM

North Korea is known as one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world. In the era of totalitarian Kim Jong-un, the North Korean government has been accused of committing widespread and systematic human rights violations—the practices that can be deemed as crimes against humanity. 

Even with the commitment of North Korea to significant pressure and multiple recommendations from the international community, mainly through The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the overall human rights situation in this country did not improve but instead worsened.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Every four and a half years, member states examine the human rights status of some 42 countries and decide whether they are making improvements. North Korea is due for its fourth review on November 7, 2024, after its first review in 2009, followed by 2014 and 2019 reviews.

In 2019, the third review, the international community gave the North Korean authorities 262 recommendations. North Korea, however, accepted only 132 recommendations while selectively rejecting the remaining 130—including the closure of political prison camps and an end to forced labor. Since accepting recommendations that were less demanding to the regime, such as bolstering international human rights cooperation and protecting vulnerable groups, Pyongyang has mostly sidestepped its commitments, resulting in a worse human rights situation.

In particular, North Korea has disregarded fundamental demands in critical areas concerned with freedom, including eliminating political prison camps and suspending public execution. In contrast, the regime has passed additional laws to muzzle citizens with even more control over their thoughts and actions. For instance, the Reactionary Thought Culture Act, The Pyongyang Culture and Language Protection Act, And the Youth Culture Act severely curtailed individual expression and access to information. The penalty harshness of these laws — life imprisonment and the death penalty — for using a South Korean accent, as well as generating and distributing unsanctioned media content. In addition, the regime has taken steps to enhance surveillance and control measures, including setting up concrete barriers and installing anti-personnel mines on its borders with South Korea and China to stop defecting soldiers and the broadcast of information. Drones that perform surveillance purposes further curbed the movement of North Korean citizens.

 It is reported that North Korea operates a network of political prison camps with tens of thousands of people detained in them without trial, including children. These camps have a horrible reputation for torturing their prisoners, forcing labor, and executing people. Most of these prisoners are beaten, sometimes to death, and there are no actual conditions in there to survive. These camps are clear violations of international human rights standards, but the North Korean government continues to deny their existence and refuse to allow independent inspections.

North Korea is a habitual user of forced labor, and citizens, including children, engage in hazardous work. Among the worst forms of forced labor are used by the government as a means of punishment and control, generally against those considered disloyal to the regime. Public executions are also a tool of fear and intimidation. For example, it is legal to execute people who watched foreign media, people who practiced religion or tried to defect.

North Korea, with a blocked economic liberalization and a flourishing criminal underground, lacks an independent judiciary. There is no presumption of innocence, and detention and punishment at arbitrary are widespread. Judges and lawyers are put in a position of repression, working under the strictest control of the regime, which uses the legal system as a tool.

The country faces significant challenges due to inadequate access to primary health care and persistent food shortages. Military spending and nuclear weapons development take precedence over the welfare of its citizens. These problems are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put strict lockdowns on the country that further cut people's access to food and medical supplies. Policies of isolation and refusal to accept international aid have been combined with the regime's refusal to accept international assistance to leave millions of North Koreans in a state of severe deprivation.

The international community has continually called on North Korea to improve its human rights record at repeated intervals. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights in North Korea, created in 2014, is the only formal commission of inquiry into human rights in North Korea and has found that the North Korean government committed crimes against humanity (extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, and forced abortion). However, North Korea has refused to join the international human rights machinery and to undertake any serious reform. 

The UN and the international community have tried to hold North Koreans accountable for human rights abuses. However, the DPRK's response to such efforts has been one of rejection and denial. The coming UPR cycle presents another opportunity for the international community to exert pressure on North Korea to make real progress in improving its human rights record. The protection and promotion of human rights in the DPRK must be achieved by the DPRK's acceptance of the recommendations and implementation of them in good faith. 

Moreover, ASEAN should actively express its concern about human rights as an issue in the DPRK. The organization needs to persuade the DPRK to endorse and rally for recommendations toward change that advocate human rights protection and promotion. In doing so, ASEAN can balance a discourse that incorporates responsibility and improvement to the region's societies.

To sum up, the commitment to human rights by North Korea is still fictitious. The global community must continue to focus on the situation concerning human rights and support citizens’ rights in North Korea. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has become a valuable platform for this advocacy, and the human rights situation in North Korea cannot be ignored. The world must continue to apply pressure and work hard toward change for a better human rights situation in North Korea. The upcoming cycle of the UPR is not merely a bureaucratic process but an opportunity for North Korea to prove its genuine commitment to human rights reform. 
 

So Channtha is a Politics and International Relations Lecturer at various universities based in Cambodia.