On the 14th, it was revealed that the head of NK Watch, Ahn Myung Chol, will present and submit information about 40 prisoners who were forcibly detained in
political prison camps to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [WGAD], the
UN-mandated body of independent human rights experts that investigates cases of
arbitrary arrest and detention that may be in violation of international human
rights law. Chol, a one-time prison guard at Camp 22 in North Hamkyung
Province, fled the country in 1994 to found NK Watch, an organization dedicated
to improving human rights in North Korea.
A press conference was held on the same day
on the “UN Petition Submission on North Korea’s Victims of Forceful
Imprisonment into Political Prison Camps,” where 20 North Korean defectors
participated in in-depth interviews and the final report, “2014 Victims of
Forceful Imprisonment into Political Prison Camps” was presented.
According to the report, while three people
were imprisoned at the Yodok political prison camp in South Hamkyung Province,
it is still not clear where the 37 others were imprisoned. These prisoners were
acquaintances or family members of the defectors who gave testimonies essential to the completion of the report.
Among those who were imprisoned, eight had
attempted to defect, seven expressed discontent with North Korea’s system, one
was guilty by association, one made contact with a Christian, one listened to a
South Korean radio broadcast, and two were convicted under false charges.
While there were 20 men and 20 women
imprisoned, those in the age group between 10 and 39 had the highest number at
16 people. This is due to their disillusionment with the regime’s system and
their attempts to defect. Eight people in their 40s or 50s were also
imprisoned.
At the press conference, one defector gave
a testimony about the imprisonment of her daughter and younger sister.
In the summer of 2007, defector Park Myung
Hee [alias] stated, “We safely crossed the Tumen River, but my younger sister
and my 13-year-old daughter were caught by Chinese public security forces in
Shenyang, China. After bribing them, I found out that my daughter had been
badly beaten to a point where she was lying on the floor.”
“After, my younger sister and daughter were sent to a
political prison camp. I have sent all my money that I earned in South Korea to
the North to have them found, but still haven’t heard anything,” she said, tearing up during her testimony.
“I know that they’ve been sent to political
prison camps, but I live with hope that we’ll be together again. I have kept
myself quiet while in South Korea, afraid that they might die because of me.
But now, believing that the UN will help, I am able to courageously stand here
before you all and tell my story,” she concluded.
This list will be petitioned and submitted
to the WGAD, then conveyed to the North Korean representatives in Geneva. The North Korean representatives must respond within 60 days after
receiving the official document. If they fail to do so within the allotted time, the
petition stating the forced imprisonments will be acknowledged as 100% factual data.
If the UN draws up its annual report
predicated on the WGAD information, it will conduct a Universal Periodic Review
[UPR] and question the North Korean authorities about the human rights situation there.
NK Watch is currently conducting
activities, namely through thorough interviews with defectors, to determine if
the innocent people imprisoned in North Korea’s political prison camps are
still alive as part additional documents to be submitted to the WGAD.
