State Dept. Releases Annual Human Rights Report
The State Department has released its 2008 country reports on human rights. The North Korea report is here, and it reflects no improvements in the abysmal state of life, such as it is, in North Korea. It features this litany of arbitrary murders by the state’s agents:
During the year the South Korean nongovernmental research organization North Korean Human Rights Infringement Record Center reported that North Korea carried out 901 public executions in 2007. North Korea also reportedly carried out 56 cases of summary executions with no judicial process.
A South Korean nongovernmental organization (NGO) reported that 15 North Koreans, including 13 women and two men, were shot in front of local residents on February 20 for illegally entering China.
On January 3, Agence France-Presse reported that a South Korean NGO stated North Korean authorities had executed a cooperative farm chief and two colleagues for starting a private farm in December 2007 in Pyongsong City. According to the report, the three were shot 90 times, four others were sentenced to life imprisonment, and the families of those executed were taken to prison camps.
On March 10, railway cargo guards allegedly beat 20 homeless children, killing several. The guards had caught the children stealing from a railway car.
On July 11, security forces shot and killed a South Korean tourist visiting the Mt. Kumgang Tourism Park.
On August 26, a South Korean NGO reported that soldiers beat 20 homeless adults for trying to steal corn from trucks in Hamheung city, South Hamgyoung Province. The report said that one of the individuals was killed, and that the soldiers threw the body into a dumping ground near the station.
On October 8, a South Korean NGO reported that authorities in Hoeryong City, North Hamgyong Province, publicly executed five women accused of trafficking in persons. Family members of the women were not notified until after the execution. According to the report, the families petitioned the government, claiming the women were not granted due process, but the municipal government insisted the executions were carried out legally and did not respond to the petition.
Religious and human rights groups outside the country alleged that some North Koreans who had contact with foreigners across the Chinese border were imprisoned or killed.
There were no new developments in the alleged 2006 death penalty sentence for Son Jong-nam, whose brother reported that Son was still alive as of the spring of 2007.
The language of the 2008 report is generally similar to that of the 2007 report. You can see links to previous reports here.