[imText1]Korea Institute for National Unification revealed in the “2007 North Korean Human Rights Report” published on the 14th that “North Korea, through creating an atmosphere of fear, routinely carries out public executions to preserve societal order and this is presently continuing.
The report maintained, “However, after year 2000, with the mitigation of financial difficulties, the frequency of the public executions seem to be decreasing and with toughtened criticisms from international society, it is being carried out quarterly rather than once a month per region.”
It pointed out, “While the frequency of public executions have decreased regarding acts of larceny post the financial crisis, public executions for crimes of murder, which have increased swiftly since then, are continuing. After 2000, the punishment of acts regarding information distribution, cell phone usage, sales of videos and placards to South Korea, or circulating outside information has been increasing.”
◆ Anti-humane regulation…preserving the “guilt-by-association system” = Further, the report added, “Acts of larceny of national properties such as intelligence communication lines and cables are swiftly dealt with through public executions. Especially the international society toughly presented the issue of human trafficking, public executions for sex trafficking have been speedily being carried out as well.”
In addition to this, the report pointed out, “In every kind of detention facilities, there are many cases of death by assault or acts of cruelty and even instances of deaths from malnutrition due to the situation of inadequate provisions.”
“With the increase of the jobless due to the financial crisis, the labor training unit was established as a means of immediate punishment. Due to the usage of these units, the cases of North Korean citizens being oppressed by forced labor are surging,” explained the report.
Further, it emphasized, “By implementing the family guilt-by-association system regarding political crimes, it is still preserving an anti-humane regulation system that is repressing the will of striking mutinies against and rising up against the North Korean system.”
The report also revealed, “In North Korea, history and freedom of expression are being repressed by infiltrating jobs, schools, and residential areas by secret intelligence personnel to observe one’s every action. In North Korea, political crime is not organized acts of resistance, but in most cases are slanders or complaints against the two leaders, Kim Il Sung or Kim Jung Il, or against socialism.”
◆ External Information Regulation…Secret cameras = “When one travels by train, he or she needs a travel pass due to the inspection of security guards, but the actual meaning of travel passes have become defunct, especially if one travels by land or via alternative means of transportation,” the report added.
The report revealed, “Restraints against the freedom of the media, publishers, associations, and meetings have not fundamentally changed. Regulations regarding handphones and external information have toughtened, but acts of secretly installations of cameras are increasing. Recently at the jangmadang (market), testimonies regarding foreign books which are being distributed through ties have been introduced.”
The reported evaluated, “North Korea’s agricultural production is recovering incrementally. In the years 2006 and 2007, resolving the food issue has been established as each nation’s main issue, but whether or not an increased trend of agricultural production can mitigate the citizen’s food shortage crisis remains a question.”
The report expressed, “After the food shortage, despite the fact that the role of leaders of families have diminished related to the maintenance of family livelihoods and that women have played the family lead role, the sacred division of labor and fixations are becoming more rigid against the backdrop of traditional paternalistic mindsets.”
It also explained, “In North Korean society where the perspective of predominance of males over females and paternalistic mindset is prevailing, sex violence against women has become a norm and women themselves have been known to dilute problematizing this issue.
◆ Escaping from the watch guards…border regulation strengthened = “Violence against North Korean women, due to the worsening of the financial crisis and the food shortage, has been known to worsen after women have taken on the family responsibility. In contrast to before, when violence accompanied accession to the party or improvement of labor conditions as baits, there are many examples of violence by jangmadang security guards, rail security guards, and soldiers who women can run into on the streets.”
Regarding the size of defectors, it analyzed, “With the mitigation of the food shortage due to the aid of international society, the size of defectors seems to have decreased, while simultaneously showing the tendency of slowdown of new defections, with toughened inspections in China and North Korea.”
It added, “In December 2006, a large-scale search for missing persons was carried out, along with toughening of border control, to prevent additional incidents of defections. With incidents of defection of border control units and desertion of camps, the business of capture by the National Security Agency’s Border Patrol Headquarters has become toughened.”
Moreover, it revealed, “When criticism from international society was introduced regarding the North Korean authorities persuading women, forcibly repatriated after getting pregnant in China, to get abortions and leaving infants alone to die at the time of birth, births became permitted in a portion of the regions and babies handed over to the Chinese males’ families.”
