[imText1]Testimonies of North Korean defectors and the screening of a recent public execution that took place in Huiryeong are to be included in the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights, which opens this Thursday, March 31. A strong international call for the improvement of human rights in North Korea is expected.
Kim Young Soon, (69, female) and Kim Tae Jin (49, male), former prisoners of the #15 Yoduk Detention Camp in North Korea, will be testifying to the UN Commission on Human Rights as to the reality of detention camp life.
Each testimony will last approximately ten minutes. Kim Young Soon will be testifying on how she was taken to the detention camp without a trial and Kim Tae Jin’s testimony will be on cruel treatments and human rights abuses that take place in the detention camp.
The testifiers are scheduled to take an eleven day trip to London and Brussels to meet with the British government officials and EU representatives and to give testimonies on the North Korea human rights situation.
Screening of the Video on Public Execution, List of 600 Names of the Prisoners Circulated
In an interview with The DailyNK, Ms. Kim, who will be departing on the 29th, said, “I hope the fact that the Kim Jong Il regime must be replaced in order for the human rights problem in North Korea to be solved will be well taken, and my wish that North Koreans can be accepted warmly not only in South Korea but in the international society can be shared at the UN.”
“That Human rights abuses are practiced by the North Korean government is a reality that takes place all the time across North Korea. As a person who lived in North Korea, I would like to testify as to this realty to the whole world.”
Apart from the two defectors’ testimonies, other concrete evidence of North Korean human rights violations will be provided, such as the screening of the video clip of the Huiryeong public execution dubbed in English on March 31 and a name list of the prisoners who “disappeared” after they were taken to the prisoner detention camps.
Furthermore, the North Korean human rights problem will be discussed in a broad perspective, where the UN special rapporteur, Vitat Muntabhorn, will be reporting on his North Korean human rights investigation that he conducted for one year. Also, Bill Rammell, the United Kingdom Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, will give a speech on North Korean human rights improvement.
The North Korean testifiers, Kim Young Soon and Kim Tae Jin, were invited by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Freedom House.
The following is Ms. Kim Young Soon’s testimony as it will be presented at the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights;
I was born on May 26, 1937, in Shenyang, China. My family went back to North Korea via Beijing. Though both of my parents are from South Korea, because my older brother was a communist, we went to North Korea.
After graduating from the Department of Dance, Pyongyang University of Arts. I joined the army in August 1955, and I was assigned to a military band in the North Korean People’s Army. I worked at a shop for foreign travelers after I was discharged from the military in 1968.
In October of 1970, while working at the shop, I was taken away to Yodok Political Prison Camp No. 15. I was ordered to pack and dragged to Yodok immediately, without any trial or sentence. I was first taken to a National Security Agency investigation room and was interrogated for 2 months. Then I worked for 5 years in Labor Division No. 3. In 1975, I was relocated from Guup-ri (Revolutionizing Zone) to Yongyong-ri (Total Control Zone) and appointed to lead Labor Division No. 7, where I spent 3 years doing forced farming.
Yongpyong-ri Total Control Zone is a completely closed off area. Land owners, former police officers during Japan’s occupation of Korea, wealthy farmers, family members of those who crossed the border to South Korea, Christian pastors, and missionaries had been placed there. Because those who were originally placed in Yongpyong-ri had been executed, only their wives and children were living there.
Marriage was not permitted and no rations were distributed. Therefore, people there were left to their own devices in order to survive. Those who were despised and alienated by other detainees within Yodok Camp were placed in Yongpyong-ri. Over 60% of the prisoners in Yongpyong-ri were victims of guilt-by-association. In other words, they are there simply because they are family members of landowners, Japanese collaborators, missionaries, etc. When someone dies in prison, his or her body is immediately disposed of without a funeral. Instead of a casket, the body is wrapped in a straw mat and simply dumped away. I was released because I had originally been placed to Gunub-ri and re-assigned to Yongpyong-ri. However, all of those who were originally placed in Yongpyong-ri Total Control Zone are condemned for life, with no chance of release.
My husband, Lee Dong Myeong, born on March 6, 1936, worked for an encyclopedia publisher. In 1970, he was sent to a political prison for life and to this day I do not know what crime he had been charged with, nor whether or not he is alive.
Within 6 months of my imprisonment in Yodok Political Prison Camp, my father died of malnutrition. Two years later, my mother died of malnutrition and edema. At the age of 11, my son died on his way home from school. He drowned in a whirlpool while crossing a river, where there was no bridge. In 1988, my 23-year-old son was shot to death as he was trying to escape from a prison camp, after 5 years of imprisonment for defecting to China.
As for me, I fell off a mulberry tree on my way to work and broke my collarbone, but I had to go to work without any treatment. Even with intense pain, one is still supposed to go to work and suffer the pain there. In addition, I had to run 4-6 km every day to go to work. As a result, my liver swelled by about 5cm due to overwork. However, I could not get it looked at, not to mention have it treated. Since my imprisonment at Yodok Camp, I did not menstruate for 3 years, because of all the mental and physical stress. This was not uncommon among North Korean women.
In the past, people had to labor under the threat of gun and sword, but now people are forced to labor under the control of brutal guards. Every action of every individual and all the matters are reported. Therefore, one who commits any infraction is sent to solitary confinement within the public office building of camp no. 15. Those who are sent there never come out alive.
There is no set process or criteria for sending prisoners to solitary confinement. Offenders are either arrested on the spot, taken from a criticism session, or are suddenly whisked away from their homes. They disappear without leaving any trace, and are considered “missing”.
During my time in Yodok Camp, about 3-4% of prisoners disappeared to the confinement center. The rest died of disease, and the majority died from diseases caused by malnutrition, such as Palagra, caused by vitamin D deficiency. Because hairless baby rat s found in the womb of its mother is the best-known treatment for malnutrition among children, even rats were hard to find, as they are sought after and considered valuable.
In the case of groups assigned to farming (field laborers consisting of 8-9 individuals, or 3-4 families), if there appeared to be even the slightest irregularity in rice seedbeds, the person was labeled as having committed reactionary spy activities and taken to the confinement center. A large number of people were handled this way. Because informants are always lurking, prisoners are easily caught and must therefore take utmost precautions even when they are among fellow prisoners. Even trivial offenses will get one branded as an anti-revolutionary.
Criticism sessions are constantly being held: Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and year-end criticism sessions. We would often end up dozing off in these sessions because that is held after a long day of hard work. If, however, we caught dozing off, we were forced to hit one another and run outside.
While I was there, 2 people made attempts to escape and were publicly executed. Anyone with a protruding stomach loses it within 15 days of entering the prison camp, their faces turn to the color of dirt, and they lose control of their bodies. If the work of the prisoners is not satisfactory, prisoners of the responsible group are forced to slap and bite each other.
At Political Prison Camp No. 15, there is a separate camp for the mentally ill, Camp No. 17, located to the right of the main entrance. Among those mentally ill, anyone who spoke about Kim Il Sung or Kim Jung Il were taken to this camp, where the mentally ill would eventually be killed. People died there nearly every day.
There is a school in the prison camp but it by no means offers a proper formal education. Teachers are National Security agents (essentially policemen). The students do nothing more than raise rabbits. If children fail to fulfill their quota for collecting rabbit feed for the day, they are punished and do not get to go home.
Reasons for imprisonment in Yodok Camp are various: For saying there’s a lump on the neck of Kim Il Sung, breaking a plaster figure of Kim Jong Il, damaging a portrait of Kim Il Sung, papering the floor with a newspaper carrying the photos of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, talking about Sung Hae Rim and Kim Jong Nam, the second wife of Kim Jong Il and her son, listening to South Korean broadcasts, saying there are not enough goods in the shops, etc.
