Alliance

Tony Blair is due in Seoul tomorrow for the third Asia-Europe summit. There, he will find South Koreans proud of their President's Nobel Peace Prize for recent overtures made to North Korea. What he won't be told about is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions skulking behind the two Koreas' celebrated détente.

An estimated three million people have died in North Korea since 1995, through a famine largely due to North Korea's obsolete Stalinist policies. No one there can protest - one in a hundred North Koreans are believed to be in a prison camp for offences as trivial as sitting on a newspaper photo of their leader.

Few outsiders know about these horrors. Ruled with an iron fist by Kim Jong-il - a dictator who makes Ceausescu look wet - North Korea has sealed itself off. Foreign journalists are banned, access to the outside world forbidden. US satellite images of North Korea's nuclear programme, snatched photos from aid agencies and, of course, voluminous state propaganda - these are the only pictures we've had of the world's most secret state.

But through a network of undercover cameramen, we've managed to get behind the censorship. Ahn Chol, a North Korean who lost both his parents to the famine, escaped to neighbouring China two years ago. Risking execution, he has ventured back into North Korea to secretly film what's really going on there.

His footage is shocking. Starving children, languishing on the streets. Orphans thrown into asylums and left to die. International aid being sold on the black market as emaciated children, ignored by adults, pick in the mud for a single grain of rice.

To the North Korean regime, orphans don't exist. They're deliberately denied food or medical attention. An estimated 200,000 children are thought to be on this scrap-heap, despite the massive amounts of aid North Korea receives from the international community - more food aid per capita than almost any other country. "The international aid is channelled to the military", says Ahn Chol. "The people are helpless."

Just over the border in China, we found a large population of North Korean refugees living in hiding. Officially, they don't exist either - no one ever leaves the Worker's Paradise. They could be shot as they swim across the heavily patrolled Tumen River, driven by hunger. But Gil Su, a 14-year-old who risked the treacherous journey, says it was better than dying of starvation. He's now an illegal alien in hiding, desperate to avoid the Chinese police who try to deport the refugees back to North Korea and certain punishment.

Shut in a small room with 14 other members of his family, Gil Su has become the Anne Frank of North Korea, drawing and annotating 120 pictures of everyday life over the last three years. Public executions. People eating anything to survive. A family so racked with hunger they kill themselves with rat poison because they can bear it no longer. Picture after picture. Horror after horror...

A man at a market stall, selling what looks like pork or beef. "Man selling human flesh at a farmers' market in Hoeroung", writes Gil Su. "There are many cases of killing people and eating the flesh", one man attests. All the refugees we interviewed know about cannibalism. "If you bought human flesh without knowing it, it was all right", a teenage orphan recounts. "Of course, it was sold in secret, sold as pork. You eat it without knowing it's human flesh. You're so hungry, you just eat it."

You'd think the regime would direct all its collective farms to grow food. But one farmer tells us he was ordered by the state to stop growing food and grow opium instead. It would be processed into heroin and sold abroad. The proceeds wouldn't go to feed the starving people, claims a US report, but to arm the military.

We thought we'd heard the worst until we interviewed prison camp survivors. Eyewitnesses attest to the existence of 12 camps - total population 200,000. Former prison guard Ahn Myong Chul says whole families are incarcerated, children beaten and forced to do hard labour, and women sexually abused and killed in the most horrific ways.

Kang Chul-hwan was sent to a camp when he was nine because of something his grandfather was rumoured to have uttered against the then leader. He says he had to work in a gold mine, and that many children died this way. He saw prisoner executions in his family camp. "You saw it so often you got used to it. It was like seeing a dog beaten."

Imprisoning whole families for something a father, husband or son may have said against the state, however trivial, is how the regime controls dissent. "There hasn't been a single demonstration in North Korea for the last 50 years," says Kang. "Who would dare dissent if you know your family will be taken away?"

North Korean human rights aren't on the agenda at the Asia-Europe summit. "The main problem is to keep this regime quiet and avoid any military or diplomatic difficulties", says Jean Fabrice Pietri of Action Against Hunger, a charity which, like Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières, has pulled out of North Korea. "Everybody is afraid of this regime."

"Three million people have died since Kim Jong-il came to power," says one refugee. "It's a war without sound. Because you die of hunger."

Fate of Abducted, Captured South Koreans Uncertain

By Kathryn Tolbert and Joohee Cho
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday , August 21, 2000 ; A12

SEOUL—On Dec. 11, 1969, a successful South Korean restaurant owner was flying to Seoul from the eastern city of Kangnung, where he had gone to visit a sick employee. He never made it home. A North Korean agent hijacked the plane, forcing it to land in the North. Of the 51 people on board the Korean Air Lines turboprop, only 39 were repatriated. North Korea has for more than two decades refused without explanation to return Chang Ji Young, four crew members and seven other passengers.

Some families separated during the Korean War were reunited for four days last week, and South Korea plans to return 62 former North Korean spies on Sept. 2--all part of President Kim Dae Jung’s “sunshine policy” of engaging North Korea, and the first tangible results of his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

But for Chang’s family and the families of about 450 other people—most of them fishermen—who were abducted or captured by North Korea after the war ended in 1953, the reunions in Seoul and Pyongyang were a painful reminder that they have been left out.

Lee Soon Nam, Chang Ji Young’s wife, cried day and night watching the live coverage of the reunions, according to her son, Chang Il Suk, 34. “She became pessimistic again and couldn’t stop crying,” the son said. “I think all the pain she kept deep inside suddenly burst out in the past two days. She couldn’t eat and on Saturday was taken to the hospital, dehydrated.”

Choi Woo Young stood outside the Seoul hotel where North Korean visitors were staying, holding a photo of her father, a fisherman who was on the boat Dong Jin 27 when it was captured by the North Koreans on Jan. 15, 1987. “I don’t understand why South Korea is sending back the ex-prisoners who were spies, but my father, who is an ordinary citizen, cannot come home,” she said. “What is the purpose of the sunshine policy? It is to shine sun on people who have been hurt [by the division of the country]. So how come not on people like us?” Choi formed a group of families of those abducted to try to pressure the government.

Unification Minister Park Jae Kyu had to apologize for saying in June that technically there were no South Korean political prisoners in North Korea, and pledged to strive for the return of the hundreds of South Koreans believed to be held in the North. President Kim Dae Jung included in a speech last year a reminder to Pyongyang “that there are many South Korean military and civilian prisoners in the North longing to return home.” Choi is afraid for her father because she heard last year that he was in a camp for political prisoners, living in harsh conditions without adequate food. But North Korea insists that no one is being held against his will and that South Koreans in the North are living a good life.

Chang Il Suk said he heard through unofficial channels that his father, the restaurateur, was living well. “If that’s so, I did not want to make a big scene, so I was waiting for the right time. I think this is the right time. After the summit, I realized that Kim Jong Il is not a devil or bad guy as I’ve been taught,” Chang said. “I was excited that North Korea after all was a place where human beings live, so that gave me hope.”

South Koreans who returned from the reunions in Pyongyang spoke of a clean city with erratic electricity. They said relatives were cautious in giving out information, and praised Kim Jong Il at every opportunity. “My daughter wouldn’t tell me what her occupation is, but just repeatedly said not to worry and that she is living well, without worries,” said Noh Bum Suk, 76. Another man said that when his private meeting with his brothers began, they started whispering, afraid of wiretaps.

“I think North Korea has opened a lot. My sisters also confirmed that things have changed there,” said Chang Jung Hee. “But whenever we were sitting at a table and a North Korean reporter put a microphone in front of them, they kept saying the usual thing about ‘the great general,’ and they were seeking my approval. I just said, ‘Yes I agree this is all thanks to your great general, but also to President Kim Dae Jung as well.’ Overall I was afraid of saying anything. It was scary.”

Chang was shivering as she waited for her baggage at the Seoul airport on Friday, wearing only a thin top. “I gave all my clothes to my sisters,” she said. In their goodbyes on Friday, the mostly elderly Koreans selected for the reunions were crying out to each other that they’d meet again “after reunification.” But unless a regular meeting site is established that can be used freely, most will not see each other again. There are too many others waiting for a first meeting.

“I will come back again, without fail,” Kim Ok Bae told her 87-year-old mother before leaving Seoul. Her mother cried back to her, “But when? After I die?” The divided families spoke of a new kind of pain following the reunions.

Lee Jee Yeon, 52, a television and radio personality was reunited last week with her brother, Lee Rae Song. “When I didn’t have any news about him, that hurt. But knowing that he’s alive and fine but he can’t be with us, this hurts almost even more,” she said. “The things that I wanted to ask him but forgot to keep popping into my mind. There were so many. I look at the telephone and I think, I can call anywhere in the world, but why not to him?” She videotaped her brother singing the songs they sang as children. “My sister’s husband called me this morning and said she has been listening to the tape and not eating or sleeping. All she does is cry, listening to the tape.”

Lee was the host of a television program in 1983 that helped families in South Korea find relatives who were lost during the war. She said she realized that listening to other people’s stories and personally experiencing it was “like the difference between heaven and earth.” “I thought I knew what it would be like,” she said. “It’s indescribable.”

Dear Friends:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson visited Seoul on August 10^thand 11^th. At a very brief meeting with NGOs she expressed her concern for the precarious situation of North Korean refugees, listened to the NGO representatives with attention and made comments.

Citizens’ Alliance acknowledging the difficulties of gathering concrete evidence of trafficking of NK women, suggested as an alternative, documenting the testimonies of NK defectors in South Korea, especially the people in Hanawon. Hanawon is a government facility, which accommodates NK defectors for three months and conducts orientation programs to prepare them for adjustment in S.Korea. The defectors in Hanawon are, therefore, the most recent entry and thus have the latest information on the situation in the border areas.

Citizens’ Alliance explained how our volunteers, having built friendship through continued contact with defectors, are sometimes able to hear personal accounts of the defector women in Hanawon. Citizens’ Alliance also explained our plans to document this kind of information and asked the High Commissioner to treat such information as important source of evidence when submitted in the future.

Following is an article in the Chosun Ilbo about the High Commissioner’s visit dated August 11^th.

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (North Korea)/PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (China)

Asylum-seekers from North Korea

Some 50 North Korean nationals were reportedly forcibly returned to North Korea by the Chinese authorities on 19 April. Those forcibly returned are at risk of serious human rights violations in North Korea, and Amnesty International fears for their safety.

According to reports received by Amnesty International, the forcible returns took place following serious disturbances on 18 April involving some 80 inmates at Tumen Detention Centre in the northeast province of Jilin. The Centre, believed to be used to detain North Koreans who have entered China illegally, was apparently the scene of protests against poor treatment and return to North Korea. North Koreans are not given an opportunity to lodge asylum claims even though China is a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

The forcible repatriations appear to be part of an operation by the Chinese authorities which began in March this year to stem the tide of asylum-seekers and illegal migrants from neighbouring North Korea, fleeing severe food shortages and even famine. Unconfirmed reports state that about 5,000 North Koreans were forcibly returned in March alone. North Korean asylum-seekers in China are reportedly pursued by the North Korean Public Security Service and sometimes apprehended and forcibly returned to their country where they may face imprisonment and even the death penalty under the North Korean Criminal Law.

The Chinese government continue to deny the UNHCR and other monitors access to the border areas with North Korea in order to assess the situation of North Koreans who are fleeing their country and the conditions inside the detention centres.

Dramatic food shortages in North Korea, reaching famine levels in several regions, have reportedly killed hundreds of thousands of people in the last five years. The famine has also led many more people to leave the country "illegally", often through the long land border with China. North Koreans who reach China illegally are in a highly precarious situation. Some reports say that North Koreans who try to cross the border into China have been ill-treated by police officials as they are taken back to North Korea. While Amnesty International is not in a position to confirm these and other reported human rights violations, the organisation is concerned that in the current desperate situation, human rights violations are likely to occur.

In January this year, seven North Korean refugees, including a 13-year-old boy, were forcibly returned to North Korea by China. All seven were granted refugee status by the UNHCR in Russia but the Russian government forcibly returned them to China. Amnesty International has appealed to the North Korean authorities for information on the whereabouts and legal status of the returnees, but has received no reply.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail letters in English or your own language:

- noting that, as a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, the Chinese government is bound by the internationally-recognised principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from returning refugees against their will to countries where they risk serious human rights violations;

- calling on the Chinese authorities to seek assurances from the North Korean government that the returnees will not be subjected to human rights violations in North Korea;

- urging the Chinese authorities to halt the forcible return of North Koreans and give them access to a fair and satisfactory asylum determination procedure;

- urging them to allow the UNHCR and other independent observers full and unhindered access to the border areas with North Korea and detention centres there.

- appealing to the North Korean government to publicly disclose the identity, whereabouts and legal status of all those who were returned from China on 19 April;

- urging them to take immediate steps to ensure that none of the returnees are at risk of human rights violations, including detention and ill-treatment as prisoners of conscience, or sentenced to death solely for their wish not to return to North Korea;

- calling for greater openness and accountability on human rights by allowing independent access to international human rights monitors.

and to diplomatic representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and of the People's Republic of China accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 15 June 2000.

Dear Friends:

Here is an article published by The Yonhap News Agency in South Korea. Suggestion for action and contact information are included at the end.

Sincerely yours,

Benjamin H. Yoon [email protected]

Representative

UNHCR, begins investigation on repatriation of North Koreans in China

By Jae-sok OH, correspondent, May 2, 2000. (Geneva – Yonhapnews)

The UNHCR confirmed parts of the Washington Post article about the repatriation of North Koreans in China. The UNHCR Office in Beijing has begun an investigation on the incident. A source in the UN Headquarters in Geneva said yesterday: “UNHCR has checked the Washington Post report and the Office in Beijing is planning to conduct an investigation.”

The same source said: “Contrary to the Washington Post report, the conflict between the North Korean refugees and the Chinese guard forces occurred on April 18 and fifty North Koreans were repatriated the next day. The source added: “It appears that among the fifty were North Korean rioters as well as those who had been transported from another detention center.”

Speaking on the UNHCR’s response our source said: “If there are North Koreans among the repatriated who qualify as refugees, some action can be taken against the Chinese government.”

Earlier this year in mid-January, the UNHCR recognized the seven North Koreans who were sent back to China by the Russian government and as refugees as defined in the Refugee Convention. When the PRC government repatriated the seven North Koreans, the UNHCR officially expressed concern. Meanwhile, the PRC government demanded that the UNHCR exercise greater prudence in granting refugee status to North Koreans. The UNHCR and the PRC government have maintained their differences regarding the treatment of North Korean defectors.

1) Contact your foreign affairs ministry to raise this issue with its North Korean counterpart and express concern for the safety of the fifty refugees.

2) Contact people in the media to raise greater concern.

3) Contact the North Korean embassy in your country or other North Korean authorities by telephone/telefax/post and CORDIALLY:

- ask for the whereabouts of the 50 (or 60 according to Washington Post article on April 29) North Koreans who were repatriated by the PRC government after the riot in Tumen.

- urge the DPRK government not to punish/torture/execute the refugees solely for trying to leave the country

- urge the DPRK government to treat the refugees humanely and civilly and not to abuse their basic human rights

Mission permanente de la Republique populaire democratique de Coree aupres de l’Office des Nations Unies

Chemin de Plonjon 1

1207 Geneve

Telephone: +41-22-735-4370

Telecopieur: +41-22-786-0662

Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations

820 Second Avenue, 13^th Floor

New York, N.Y. 10017

Telephone: +1-212-972-3105, 3106, 3128

Telefax: +1-212-972-3154

Dear Friends:

We need to take fresh actions now that sixty North Korean refugees have been repatriated after their staged riot.

According to Washington Post article by John Pomfret, 60 refugees in a detention centre in Tumen, China, were returned to North Korea after their three-day riot (April 16 to April 18) was suppressed. The article also quotes an Asian diplomat as saying that China has increased the number of people forcibly repatriated to North Korea, totaling 1,000 as of now. Pomfret explains: “The Chinese government argues that the North Koreans who come to China are not refugees but economic migrants. . . . .the United Nations and aid agencies counter that the inequitable distribution of international aid in North Korea justifies calling these people refugees."

You can save lives by doing some/all of the following:

1) Contact your foreign affairs ministry to raise this issue with its North Korean counterpart and express concern for the safety of the sixty refugees.

2) Contact the North Korean embassy in your country or other North Korean authorities by telephone/telefax/post and CORDIALLY:

Contact the Chinese embassies in your respective countries and China’s permanent mission to UN to:

Please be cordial in your manner of inquiry and appeal. Here is the contact information you will need:

- Book 2: North Korean Refugees/Defectors (1999) conference book: InnfereKonference was in 1999)

3. Post-conference book: International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees (2000. The conference was in 1999)

1. Interview of seven refugees by a local TV station in Vladivostok (with English subtitles)

2. KBS (Korean Broadcasting System)' "News Today" of Jan. 19 featuring excerpts of documentary coincidentally filmed by a video-journalist before the seven refugees crossed the border to Russia (English translation of the script is available)

Citizens' Alliance to Help Political Prisoners in North Korea

(2000)

Ten North Koreans Seek Asylum on Arrival at Kimpo

In remembrance of the 7 NK refugees

Children Of The Secret State

Fate of Abducted, Captured South Koreans Uncertain

“NK refugee problems to be discussed in UN next month”

Asylum-seekers from North Korea