8He has (A)told you, O man, what is good;
And (B)what does the LORD require of you
But to (C)do justice, to (D)love kindness,
And to walk (E)humbly with your God?
Today North Korea stands out as the number one human rights issue in the world.
Concentration Camps
After the holocaust we said never again. However North Korea operates:
… the world’s worst concentration camps since Nazi Germany, camps that occupy vast areas of the country.
More facts:
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea estimates that North Korea holds approximately 200,000 people in its system of concentration and detention camps, and that 400,000 people have died in these camps from torture, starvation, disease, and execution.
One Free Korea » North Korea’s Largest Concentration Camps on Google Earth
In these camps there is no limit to the amount of cruelty that exists including habitual rape,
Especially beautiful women suffered the most. It has been known that Kim Byeong-Ha … selected pretty women and slept with them in an inspection visit to the camps. Then those women were transferred … and used as an experiment subject and killed. [….]
There is a “Cadre Guest House†at No. 14 Political Prison Camp… When senior officials come from Pyeongyang, pretty maidens aged 21 to 25 are selected among female inmates, bathed and then sent to them. After the officials make a sexual plaything of those females, they charge the women with fleeing and kill them to keep secrets. [KBA 165]
One Free Korea » Camps 14 and 18, North Korea: Satellite Imagery and Witness Accounts
infanticide and forced abortions.
North Korea has been accused of killing the babies of women who are forcibly repatriated from China.
The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) said the women were kept in short-term detention camps where they are either given abortions or their babies are killed at birth.
…
One woman told of being forced to assist injection-induced labours and then watching as a baby was suffocated with a wet towel in front of its mother.
Many former prisoners told of babies buried alive or left face down on the ground to die. They were told by guards this was to prevent the survival of half-Chinese babies.
Slavery
North Korea is a slave state. An example of this is the “150-day Battle.â€
North Korea has extended a campaign urging citizens to work harder for 100 more days…
The so-called 150-day Battle, which compels North Koreans to work harder and put in longer hours, began on April 20 as part of the country’s efforts to resolve food shortages and rebuild its frail infrastructure.
North Korean Economy Watch » Blog Archive » “150 Day Battle†production campaign stories
Every single person is a slave to the state. Whether it is in factories or prison camps or even in foreign countries.
The report states that the North Korean women permitted to work in places like Nachod, Zebrak and Zelezna are exploited and that the majority of their earnings – which are minimum wage – go to the North Korean government. Furthermore they are constantly under the watchful eye of guards and are evidently only allowed to leave their dormitories in groups.
United States accuses Czechs of hiring North Korean slaves – Radio Prague
Even the children are slaves of the state.
The Arirang performance is not only a system of propaganda commending military first politics and the dictatorship, but it incorporates harsh training and corporal punishment for children made to participate in it… Because of this, North Korean human rights groups and international human rights groups are increasingly voicing concerns that the conditions under which North Korean children prepare for the Arirang performance constitute a serious violation of U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Daily NK – North Korea’s Arirang is the Best Performance for the Body?
Starvation
As a Communist state North Korea’s government is responsible for supplying its people with food. And this government chooses to use its food as reward or punishment. The result has been a famine that killed approximately two million people in the 90’s or almost 10% of its population. Starvation and malnutrition still affect many parts of the country.
Today, most North Koreans live on less than 1700 calories a day. This puts the population at severe risk of malnutrition and infection and perilously close to starvation in some areas. A North Korean child can expect to be up to 7 inches shorter than his South Korean counterpart and 20 pounds lighter by adulthood.
Sadly enough because of the starvation the life of North Koreans is even worse than a slave.
The situation is actually slightly worse than indentured servitude. The slave owner historically promises, in effect, at least to keep his slaves fed. In North Korea, this compact has been broken. It is a famine state as well as a slave state.
North Korea, slave state. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine
Refugees
Because of the horror that is North Korea refugees have been streaming by the tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands into China where:
- They have no rights.
- The majority are trafficked into slavery. 80% – 90% of North Korean refugee women are trafficked into sexual slavery, forced marriages, etc. This is the highest percentage of any single population in the world.
- Daily they fear being captured by North Korean bounty hunters or Chinese police.
- If repatriated they face definite torture and possible execution.
Yet North Korean refugees refer to this existence as heaven.
For Red, whose family lived within sight of the border, China appeared a seductive paradise. "I could see so many lights from apartment blocks and a power plant. China looked so rich." She had been raised on a collective farm in the province of North Hamgyong, the poorest part of North Korea and the source of most border crossers. "I grew up seeing people getting sick and dying from eating grass," she said.
What Can Be Done?
I believe the number one thing we can do is raise awareness and start shouting “NO MORE!â€
North Korea and China’s governments still operate within the Confucian culture of honor and shame.
North Korea denies that any of the concentration camps exist. They never let Laura Ling and Euna Lee spend a day in one of the camps because they don’t want the world to know.
China repeatedly denies that North Korean refugees are inhumanely treated. When the world’s spotlight fell upon the North Korean refugees apprehended by Chinese soldiers at the gates to the Japanese embassy as shown in the photo above, those refugees were allowed safe passage to South Korea. However the tens of thousands of other anonymous captured refugees are sent back to North Korea for torture without any remorse.
Every church, synagogue, temple, house of worship, etc. should talk about North Korea, “the world’s greatest ongoing atrocity.†Every government should demand North Korea and China respect the international standards for human rights. The United States and South Korea should demand that human rights be a part of every negotiation.
We can make a difference. We can say “NEVER AGAIN!†We can love North Korea.
What do you think should be done?
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