1. DPRK REFUGEE-DEFECTOR GRANTED US ASYLUM
by Chung Ah-young Staff Reporter, Korea Times, 30 April 2006
The US immigration court has granted asylum status to a North Korean
defector, and is expecting similar cases to follow. The ruling is the
first case since the North Korea Human Rights Act, passed in 2004, calling
on the US government to allow North Korean refugees into US territory.
Seo Jae-sok, 39, a North Korean defector, was given political asylum status
by the Los Angeles Immigration Court last Friday, after waiting for the
decision in the US for the past 20 months.
"I am happy and feel incredible that I can receive a US passport.
I hope my case will become a hope for other North Korean refugees seeking
asylum in the United States," he said in an interview with The Los
Angeles Korea Times. His case is unusual because he and his family had
already settled in South Korea and obtained South Korean citizenship,
but decided to seek asylum in the United States. The court concluded he
faces persecution in North Korea and granted him political asylum, his
lawyer said.
Seo is a former North Korean military officer who went to the United
States with his wife and two children and requested asylum status in 2004.
Seo defected with his son to China from North Korea in 1997 but was returned
under forced repatriation to North Korea. According to Miriam Kang of
Human Rights Project, a California-based, non-profit human rights organization,
he entered the United States via the Mexican border in 2004.
"Although I am free now, it is a pity to think others are still
suffering pain and poverty in North Korea," he said. However, when
he came to South Korea in 1998 after a series of short stays in other
countries, it was not easy for him to settle with his family in the South
due to bias against North Korean defectors. He said that although he met
his wife, a North Korean defector, in the South and has a sweet daughter
now, he was not happy in South Korea.
"I decided to request asylum in the United States as my son was
suffering from discrimination at a South Korean school just because he
is a child of North Korean defectors," he said. If the US Immigration
office does not appeal to a higher court later, his asylum status will
be finalized.
Currently, some 10 North Korean refugees are seeking asylum in the United
States. However, Washington's position was that the act covers only those
who have not already acquired citizenship of another country and are in
immediate danger. Legal observers and South Korean officials said it was
not yet clear whether Seo was granted asylum under the human rights act
as it is entirely possible that the Los Angeles court acted on its own,
interpreting the legislation independently.
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2. ASYLUM CASE INDEPENDENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
ACT
by Lee Dong-min, Yonhap News Service, 5 May 2006
A recent US court decision granting asylum to a former North Korean refugee
does not reflect the view of the Bush administration and is not expected
to set precedent for other asylum seekers from Pyongyang, US officials
and sources said this week. The Los Angeles Immigration Court had approved
asylum for a North Korean defector who uses pseudonym "Seo Jae-seok"
late last month. Seo and his son settled in South Korea in 1998 and obtained
citizenship. He entered the US in 2003 through the Mexican border with
a woman he married in the South and their son and daughter.
According to Seo's lawyer, the Los Angeles court considered him a North
Korean national and decided to grant asylum. Seo, a former military officer,
claims his family was discriminated against as defectors. His court ruling
was made as the US prepares to accept North Korean refugees as mandated
by the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004. But a State Department official
recently told Yonhap Seo's case is not relevant to the act.
"It is not a part of the Human Rights Act," the official had
said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Section 302 of the law
specifies that asylum eligibility goes to those who are in danger or flight
and have not settled legally in another country. The official emphasized
the court ruling was "completely independent" of administrative
views. "We were surprised by the (court) decision," he said.
"We are looking at it."
He said the Department of Homeland Security can appeal to overturn the
court ruling but did not say whether it will. But a source well informed
about North Korean refugee cases suggested Thursday the administration
could "register concerns" about giving asylum to North Korean
defectors who have already acquired legal residency in another country.
The US is preparing to accept the first group of North Korean refugees
under the act, most of them seeking shelter in American and other embassy
or consulate compounds in Asia. The State Department official said the
US will work with the government of South Korea to confirm the identity
of the refugees and to process them.
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3. US GRANTS ASYLUM TO GROUP OF REFUGEE-DEFECTORS
Associated Press (AP), 7 May 2006
Six refugees from North Korea, including four women who say they were
victims of sexual slavery or forced marriages, have fled to the United
States, a senator said yesterday. The group is the first from North Korea
to be given official refugee status since passage of a 2004 law that makes
it easier for North Koreans to apply for such status.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said the six refugees arrived at an undisclosed
US location Friday night from a Southeast Asian nation. He would not identify
which nation they came from because of worries about security for their
families and to avoid diplomatic complications with the country that sent
them.
"This is a great act of compassion by the United States and the
other countries involved," said Brownback, a co-sponsor of the law.
He said that the refugees' arrival in the United States showed "the
act is working" by making the refugees' human rights a part of US
policy toward North Korea.
The issue of North Korean human rights has gained attention in Washington
as diplomatic efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons production
program have stalled. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are believed
to have fled across their border into China. The US special envoy on North
Korean human rights, Jay Lefkowitz, said at a congressional hearing April
27: "We need to do more -- and we can and will do more -- for the
North Korean refugees."
"We will press to make it clear to our friends and allies in the
region that we are prepared to accept North Korean refugees for resettlement
here," Lefkowitz said. North Korea long has been accused of torture,
public executions and other atrocities against its people. As many as
200,000 people are believed to be held in prison camps for political reasons,
the State Department said in a report last year.
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4. DPRK DEFECTOR SEEKS ASYLUM FROM ROK
by Barbara Demick, LA Times, 8 May 2006
With her accordion and a suitcase of spring clothes, Ma Young-ae flew
from Seoul to Atlanta two years ago for a month long tour playing folk
songs in church basements. But when it came time to return to Seoul with
her musical troupe, Ma and her husband, North Korean defectors who had
quarreled with the South Korean tour organizer, refused to go to the airport.
What might have been just another spat between a prima donna and her manager
has turned into a diplomatic incident that could strain relations between
the United States and South Korea, one of its closest allies.
Ma, 50, has filed for political asylum in the United States, claiming
repression by the South Korean government. About 20 other North Koreans
have filed similar petitions in US immigration courts making the same
argument, and in at least one case last month, asylum has been granted.
Ma, a petite beauty with a heart-shaped face and daubs of purple eye shadow,
defected from North Korea to China in 1999 and came to Seoul in 2000.
She said she got into trouble when she became active in human rights organizations
in the South that criticized the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong
Il.
"'Don't talk about starvation. Don't talk about human rights,'"
Ma said she was warned repeatedly by South Korean intelligence officials
assigned to watch over her. "The South Korean government doesn't
want anyone making statements that would antagonize Kim Jong Il,"
she said in an interview in her lawyer's office in New York. Like Cuban
exiles, North Korean defectors tend to be unabashedly anticommunist -
a stance at odds with the South Korean government's policy of rapprochement
with the Pyongyang regime.
"The South Koreans are practically keeping these defectors under
house arrest. They don't want anybody to rain on their sunshine,"
said Michael Horowitz, a conservative activist with the Washington-based
Hudson Institute, referring to the "sunshine policy" of cooperation
with North Korea. Ma is not the only North Korean defector to voice complaints.
Many have said they were followed by intelligence agents and refused passports
that would allow them to leave South Korea.
A former missile scientist who testified before Congress about North
Korean weapons of mass destruction in 2003 has complained that his wife,
a fellow defector, received so many threatening phone calls from South
Korean agents while he was in the United States that she was hospitalized
for stress. The scientist is among the North Koreans applying for asylum
in the United States.
In 2004, Congress passed the North Korean Human Rights Act, which among
other provisions ordered that North Korean defectors be granted political
asylum in the United States. But that was directed at refugees coming
directly from North Korea - not those who have already settled in South
Korea. There is little dispute that North Koreans live under one of the
world's most oppressive regimes or that they face persecution when they
try to escape into China. Beijing routinely arrests and repatriates North
Koreans. Over the weekend, six North Koreans who had been in hiding in
China were flown to the United States for resettlement under the human
rights act.
But, as Horowitz said, "once you go to South Korea, there is the
strongest possible presumption that you are living in a democratic country
and it makes it difficult to get asylum." He said US courts had avoided
ruling on the petitions of the North Koreans to avoid offending the South
Koreans. An exception is the case of a former North Korean military officer
who last month was awarded asylum by a US immigration court in Los Angeles.
The officer, Seo Jae-sok, had been living for six years in South Korea
before he entered the United States through the Mexican border in 2004.
Although Seo has claimed he faced discrimination and harassment in South
Korea, his lawyers argued the case primarily on conditions in North Korea.
"Our cases are based on the horrors of life in North Korea. If you
had to prove persecution in South Korea, it would be a rare case that
would win," said Jesse Moorman, a lawyer with the firm IRC, which
has 15 similar cases pending.
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5. DISSIDENTS GIVE A NAME TO CONDEMNED CHRISTIAN
by Anna Fifield, Financial Times, 3 May 2006
When Son Jong-hoon's phone rang in Seoul six weeks ago, it brought the
news he had been dreading. It was his sister, calling from Musan in northern
North Korea to tell him that their eldest brother was to be executed.
"The death sentence has been determined but no one knows when the
execution will take place," Mr. Son told the Financial Times last
week. "We heard the news around the end of March and I see no reason
for delaying the execution. My brother had escaped from the North before
so it may come soon."
Son Jong-nam, 48, is accused of treason for preaching Christianity and
betraying North Korea by sharing information with his brother, who now
lives in South Korea. North Korea is among the world's most repressive
governments and has one of the worst human rights records. But it is highly
unusual for news of a planned execution to make it to the outside world.
A campaign led by the younger Mr. Son, with the support of defector-led
human rights organizations in South Korea and Christian activists, is
the first mounted to prevent the death of a named individual in North
Korea. It coincides with the re-emergence of North Korean human rights
as a political issue. Last month activist groups held North Korea Freedom
Week in Washington and a conference will be held in Norway next week.
The younger Mr. Son left North Korea in 1998, following his older brother,
who had become a Christian during a year he spent in China. But in 2001,
the elder Mr. Son was arrested by Chinese police and sent back to North
Korea, where he spent three years in a prison camp. "The regime thought
my brother was doing missionary work to spread (Christianity) to North
Korea - he had to deny the allegations to survive," said Mr. Son,
who made his way to South Korea in 2002. Religion is in effect banned
in North Korea.Two years ago, the elder Mr. Son was released on parole
and sent to work in the northern city of Chongjin. He managed to cross
the border into China once more, where the brothers met again. "When
I saw him in 2004, my brother had terrible injuries and could barely walk.
He told me he went through terrible and harsh torture," Mr. Son says.
The elder Mr. Son returned to North Korea for fear of endangering his
family there, but someone told the security office about the Chinese visit
and he was arrested again. Using a pre-paid mobile phone that Mr. Son
had given his older brother in 2004, their sister rang in January with
news of the arrest and then in March with the sentence. It is not possible
to verify Mr. Son's version of events but human rights activists say the
account tallies with what is known about North Korea.
More than 20 organizations last Friday called on the National Human Rights
Commission in Seoul to act to save Mr. Son's life. About 60 people demonstrated
outside the North Korean embassy in London, in a protest organized by
Christian Solidarity Worldwide. "If this (execution) goes ahead it
should affect relations and North Korea should be encouraged to take that
into consideration," says Elizabeth Batha of CSW.
The campaign comes as the Bush administration, losing patience with talks
on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, focuses increasingly on human rights.
The North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004 requires the US administration
to "facilitate" the entry of North Korean refugees into the
US. But, concerned that none has been accepted from outside South Korea,
Washington is understood to be looking in places such as Mongolia and
Thailand for a North Korean who could quickly be taken to the US without
the usual checks required for refugees from countries on the US list of
state sponsors of terrorism.
There are estimated to be 200,000-300,000 North Koreans living in China,
which considers them economic migrants and sends those who are caught
back to North Korea. Human Rights Watch says people who are repatriated
after leaving North Korea without permission are subject to harsh punishments,
including time in forced labour camps and the death penalty, if they are
found to have had contact with westerners or South Koreans, especially
missionaries.
Mr. Son hopes his brother's case will serve as a lesson to the international
community: "I would like to let the world know not only about my
family tragedy but also about human rights violations prevailing in North
Korea."
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6. BUSH MEETS WITH DPRK REFUGEE-DEFECTORS
White House Press Release, 28 April 2006
THE PRESIDENT: I have just had one of the most moving meetings since
I've been the President here in the Oval Office. I met with a mom and
a brother who long to be reunited with her daughter and his sister. They're
apart because the North Korean government abducted the child when she
was a teenager. And all the mom wants is to be reunited with her daughter.
It is hard to believe that a country would foster abduction. It's hard
for Americans to imagine that a leader of any country would encourage
the abduction of a young child. It's a heartless country that would separate
loved ones, and yet that's exactly what happened to this mom as a result
of the actions of North Korea. If North Korea expects to be respected
in the world, that county must respect human rights and human dignity
and must allow this mother to hug her child again.
I talked to a family, a young North Korean family that escaped the clutches
of tyranny in order to live in freedom. This young couple was about to
have a child, and the mom was five months pregnant when they crossed the
river to get into China. They wandered in China, wondering whether or
not their child could grow up and have a decent life. They were deeply
concerned about the future of their child. Any mother and father would
be concerned about their child.
They had to wander because they did not want to have their child grow
up in a society that was brutal, a society that did not respect the human
condition. By the grace of God they found save haven, their child was
born, and now safely sits here in the Oval Office.
I talked to a courageous man who escaped from North Korea. He was in
the North Korean military. He saw first hand the brutal nature of the
regime, and he couldn't -- his heart could no longer take it. He followed
his conscience and escaped. He speaks for thousands who have escaped North
Korea and thousands who live inside the country; he speaks eloquently
about the need for their freedom, for them to be treated decently.
The world requires courage to confront people who do not respect human
rights, and it has been my honor to welcome into the Oval Office people
of enormous courage: a mom, a mother and dad of a young child, a former
soldier, a brother. And so I welcome you here. We're proud you're here.
I assure you that the United States of America strongly respects human
rights. We strongly will work for freedom, so that the people of North
Korea can raise their children in a world that's free and hopeful, and
so that moms will never again have to worry about an abducted daughter.
May God bless you all, and thanks for coming.
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OPINION:
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7. HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DPRK
by Lutz Drescher, East Asia Liaison Secretary with the Association of
Churches and Missions in South West Germany, November 2005
"There are only a few countries in the world about which we have
as little accurate information as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea".
This should be the first sentence of any article dealing in a serious
way with North Korea. Regarding reports about North Korea, it is often
quite difficult to decide what is fact and what is mere myth. In addition
to this, political interests often influence the manner of reporting.
This makes writing about the human rights situation in North Korea a difficult
task.
In this article I am not going to probe into specific allegations, nor
am I going to report about North Korean statements in these matters. Rather,
I am going to name the dimensions of the question of human rights in North
Korea, and will try to determine what might be the future developments.
The question of human rights has several dimensions. Very basically,
one of them is the right to live. The basic right to live has been threatened
in North Korea during a severe famine that took hold of the country in
the second half of the nineties. The exact number of people who lost their
lives is still unknown. According to sources in North Korea, the number
is 250 000, while international observers say up to three million people
died. The cause of this famine has been a series of bad harvests due to
floods followed by severe droughts.
But the reason underlying the bad food supply can be found in an overall
economic crisis. This crisis is partly caused by the fact that after the
breakdown of the communist countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union, they changed the barter system of oil for other natural resources
and began to demand payment in Dollars. It can be said, that now even
in North Korea "the Dollar rules". The permanent lack of energy
has caused a breakdown of much of the industries and even of the infrastructures.
The per capita income has decreased during the nineties from US$991 to
a mere US$475. Even today, years after the flooding and the drought, 6.5
million of the 23 million North Koreans are dependent on food supply from
abroad. Not only is there a lack of food, but of medicines as well. The
most affected are the children. The death rate of children has increased.
Some even estimate a death rate of 5%.
Because of the famine, North Korea has at least partly opened to humanitarian
aid from abroad. Although some of the agencies have withdrawn because
of the restrictions, many of them remain in the country. The reason they
give is: "The right to live is the most basic of the human rights."
Or to put it another way, "Human life is more important than human
rights".
Erich Weingartner, who lived in North Korea for more than two years working
as a coordinator of the humanitarian aid of churches and other NGOs makes
a similar statement. At an international conference that was attended
by representatives of the churches of both North and South Korea in Germany
in 2004, he gave a lecture about: "The role of NGOs between cooperation
and confrontation". Asked about human rights during the discussion,
he replied that between silence and accusation there is another way: to
improve the life conditions of the people as a whole and in every respect,
"because not only the right of individuals to live in freedom, but
the right to have ones basic needs fulfilled is human right." It
can be observed that because of the work of the NGOs, North Korea has
gradually opened and has been partly liberated from its chosen and enforced
isolation.
(It should be added here that there has been a change in the North Korean
Policy. At the end of 2005, some of the foreign aid organizations had
to leave the country. In a way, this is also proof that their presence
has brought about some change.)
Because of the famine, many North Koreans fled to Northern China. Some
estimate that up to 300,000 North Koreans have been living in Northern
China, but the overall number seems to have decreased to a number between
10,000 to 30,000. According to a survey of the Ministry of Unification
in South Korea, 55% left North Korea because of poverty, only 9% left
because of dissatisfaction with the political system. Others fled out
of fear from punishment, or in order to join family members who had left
the country earlier.
In the beginning it was not too difficult for them to live among the
2 million Chinese of Korean origin, who also speak the Korean language.
An unsolved problem, however, is that they are not accepted as refugees
by the Chinese government, which does not allow the UNHCR to work with
them. Because of their illegal status, they are prone to abuse and even
sexual exploitation.
There have been many reports regarding the intrusion of refugees into
foreign embassies or schools in Beijing. But differences of opinion exist
regarding the consequences of these actions. Some look at it as an important
means to create awareness about the situation of refugees, and to denounce
human rights violations. Others emphasize that it is because of theses
actions that the Chinese government started to crack down on refugees,
increasing the number of those sent back to North Korea.
Contradictory reports circulate about the fate of those who are sent
back. Some claim that all of them are imprisoned in camps for years. In
my interviews with refugees and those who help them, I found out that
some of them fled several times. Having been sent back and taken into
custody, they were released after a short time. It is of course a problem
that the basic right to move around freely is not respected in North Korea.
The number of reports about human rights violations in North Korea gives
reason for concern. On the other hand, many of these reports are contradictory.
The alleged existence of camps, public executions, medical tests with
prisoners, enforced abortions, and torture is often reported. One result
of these allegations has been a resolution on North Korea at the UN Human
Rights Commission in 2003. In 2004, a special envoy was appointed, who
gave his first official report in 2005. In his report, he strongly urges
the DPRK to fulfill all the obligations as signatory of four Human Rights
Conventions (the International Convention on Political and Civil Rights;
the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
Convention on the Rights of Children; Convention to Abolish Discrimination
Against Women).
Regarding individual civil rights and liberties, it is important to acknowledge
that North Korea is not a democracy in the Western way. According to the
DPRK constitution, the freedom of speech and assembly (§ 67) and
the freedom of religion (§ 68) are safeguarded. But they are in fact
limited. The collective is more important than the individual. Since even
today Confucian thinking is important in North Korea as an undercurrent,
this has a cultural dimension, not merely a political one.
But there is another important aspect that has to be taken in consideration
in all discussions about human rights. Up to the present, there is only
an armistice and no peace treaty. Visiting North Korea twice, I found
that people there feel threatened by the presence of American troops in
the south, whether this is rational or not. Similar to the situation in
the south during a long time in recent history, national security is more
important to them than the question of individual human rights.
The real question therefore ought to be how the situation can be improved.
In October 2004, US President G.W. Bush signed the so-called "North
Korea Human Rights Act". It is foreseen that groups promoting Democracy
in North Korea are receiving financial means. There has been a lot of
criticism of this new law, not only in North Korea, but also in South
Korea, and to a lesser extent in China. There are enough reasons to suppose
that the intention of this act is the promotion of a change of the system
in North Korea. The question of Human Rights would thereby be politically
instrumentalized. Left open is the question what the result of such a
system change would be. In South Korea as well as in China, people are
afraid of a massive influx of refugees, which will cause problems that
cannot be easily solved.
Those who criticize this act are hoping that instead of a change in the
system, a gradual change within the system can be achieved. They hope
that through cooperation, North Korean society will open up and the situation
of the people will improve in each and every respect. Necessary to achieve
this goal are trust building measures, a Treaty of Nonaggression with
the USA, and the signing of a peace treaty. Only in this way it can be
guaranteed that the question of security no longer dominates the question
of human rights.
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QUIDNUNC
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HOW MANY PEOPLE IN NORTH KOREA HAVE UNFETTERED ACCESS TO INFORMATION
ABOUT THE WORLD OUTSIDE THE DPRK? *************************************************
In addition to Erich Weingartner's two categories of North Koreans with
some access to outside information (i.e. contact with China in border
areas and civil servants in some government jobs), I would add a third:
the considerable number of DPR Koreans who travel abroad on delegations
or to attend conferences, training courses and other educational pursuits.
Victor Hsu, DPRK Country Director, World Vision International *************************************************
WHAT NOW?
How many NGOs continue to remain resident in the DPRK? Which ones?
