[imText1]The National Human Rights Commission of Korea today began the work of improving the human rights status of the North Korean people with the opening of the North Korean Human Rights Violations Center and North Korea Human Rights Depository.
Hitherto, the work of recording and investigating human rights violations by the North Korean regime has been done by NGOs such as DB Center; this is the first time the government has made a substantial, concrete effort to play a role in issues pertaining to North Korean human rights violations.
The materials taken in by the center are expected to be recorded and stored, and used for education in South Korea.
The head of the Special Committee on North Korean Human Rights, Kim Tae Hun told a briefing today, “The state of human rights in North Korea is the worst in the world,” adding, “We will record and preserve the state of North Korea’s human rights to bring it to the level of South Koreas or other countries which meet the standard for universal human rights.”
“Human rights violations are a systematic problem of the Suryeong dictatorship. In a situation where intervention is impossible, I believe the best thing to do is to use the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Law to systematically collect and record (the reality of North Korea’s human rights violations).
Following this morning’s opening ceremony; the first 21 cases of North Korean human rights violations were officially accepted.
Former chairman of the North Korean Human Rights Subcommittee of the Korean Bar Association Lee Jae Won explained, “The petitions received today are being filed against Kim Jong Il. They contain very varied cases of infringements of the human rights of the North Korean people, including the murder of a newborn baby by a security guard in a prison camp.”
Among the records taken in, one defector, Kim wrote, “I got inflamed joints from being chased around in China, and suffered the kind of unthinkable humiliation a human should not suffer.” The pain, Kim added, “was so bad I couldn’t sleep.”
Another, Park reported, “I was repatriated after defecting to China and got sent to prison. Food was insufficient and I had to do forced labor, so I caught frogs and lizards and picked grass from the fields, and ate it. As a result, I got worms and my skin began to rot. I’ve had treatment 19 times since I came to South Korea, but still I can’t sleep.”
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