‘So many people died, they wrapped bodies in plastic sheets and buried them in a mountain.’
Human Rights Watch, one of the industry bigs that (until now) had been mostly absent from the discussion of human rights in North Korea, has made an important entry into that discussion, via this Washington Post op-ed by Kay Sok. Ms. Sok makes several important points here, and the first of these is how North Korea’s version of socialism is a recipe for selective deprivation as a weapon of class warfare:
Many of these North Koreans crossed the border because the state failed them. North Korea claims to have a socialist system under which all citizens receive free food, education, medical care and housing. But the reality is that only the country’s elite enjoy such privileges. The rest of the population is left to fend for itself. Undertaking the dangerous and difficult journey to China is a form of self-defense. The North Korean government fails to feed its people but then persecutes them for trying to survive.
The second point is what a bunch of sick, heartless fascist thugs the Chinese police are:
A 59-year-old North Korean woman told us about her deportation from China and punishment in North Korea. Her crime? She had left without state permission, which is considered an act of treason. “I went to China because I had no food at home. But I had to live in hiding there, so I tried to go to South Korea,” she said. “I was caught. The Chinese police took all the money I saved. They beat and kicked me.
Finally, Ms. Sok tells us that the North Korean regime has intensified the brutality of those whom China repatriates to the North:
When I was sent back to North Korea, things got even worse. They made me strip, and a doctor searched my vagina to see if I hid any money they could confiscate. They treated me like an animal, because they considered me a traitor.” After serving a prison sentence, she escaped to China again in September.
A 42-year-old woman from Haeju said she was deported from China in December 2003 and served 18 months in a North Korean labor camp. “Every day, I saw someone dying. We were given a fistful of powdered corn stalk, three times a day, and people had trouble digesting it. Many people died after having diarrhea for a week,” she said. “They left patients in the hallway outside toilets. So many people died, they wrapped bodies in plastic sheets and buried them in a mountain.”
Often in the past, North Korea had been relatively lenient to some of its nationals who were sent back: traders, those who had crossed just to get food, and those who had no contact with South Koreans, Westerners, Japanese, or missionaries (those who had contact with those latter groups were generally as good as dead, either quickly or slowly). That deplorable situation is changing for the worse as North Korea tries to restore control over the border, a matter of survival for Kim Jong Il’s rule.
While China deserves criticism, remember that the main villain is North Korea and the second villian is South Korea. These evil actions are caused by Pyongyang, and the Republic of Korea does nothing to rescue her citizens in the northern half of her peninsula.
Dan, Absolutely none of this could possibly happen if China weren’t playing enforcer. If China were not in blatant violation of a Refugee Convention is once signed, at least for those North Koreans fortunate enough to escape from the North, there would be safety. Instead, they can look forward to homelessness, sexual slavery, life as fugitives, and being led back across the border by wires pierced through their wrists.
If China were not in blatant violation of a Refugee Convention is once signed, at least for those North Koreans fortunate enough to escape from the North, there would be safety.
I agree. But ultimately, these people are foreigners to China. They are citizens of Korea — and as long as South Korea claims the north, and as long as American lives are risked to defend that claim, Seoul cannot escape responsibility.
What it is planted today will be reap tomorrow. Time will come that all the sufferings will change into bed of roses. And those enjoying will be sleeping on the thorns of roses. God is not sleeping. Do what you can and God will do the rest.
Everyone looks at this problem as a regional problem, but it is not.
You are right S. Korea as alot of responsibilities to the North Korean people but it also has even a greater resposibility to those living in South Korea. What would you have S.Korea do? Invade the North! How would that help? It would almost kill over a million people in the south not to count the millions in the North.
Are people so ignorant that this problem is just between the South and North!
The world is compose of 2-3 major players, if they don’t act on then no one can. The best solution is a third party organise a hit and hide policy and take out the leadership of the North so that it can be filled with new leadership which could be aided by the South.
Words are nothing to the North! And they get what they want!
Bush said No money and Nukes not linked but it was!
With that kind of signal no wonder the north is doing what ever it wants!
Who ever suggested invading the North? Not me, that’s for sure.
Mouse over the pictures on top of the narrow columns and check the links. I advocate attacking the regime economically while subverting it politically.
I live in South Korea and can’t even figure out how South Korea is responsible for North Korea’s consequential problems. South KOrea didn’t make the North’s decision of oppression and and violations of Human Rights. Take a deep look at the history. The last time Korea Enjoyed perfect peace is back when the Korean Alphabet was established. The South Koreans do not want to kill their fellow Koreans just like the West Germans did not want to Kill the East Germans. Putting Political pressure on the North will allow them to concede some of their strongholds that they may have. I think the USA has some very important negotiating to do. Bush could redeem himself in this one act of intelligence. Let’s see if he can pull this one off.. Korea wants to be unified. There is a great future for KOrea if they can take advantage of this opportunity.