Prisons: Human Rights Violations In North Korea

North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, made North Korea a harsh and brutal place to live. He has made many rules for North Korea, but if someone doesn’t follow they capture them, the government officials/ agents put a board behind you and make you sit down. If they pushed on you, you would collapse, and you would hear your kneecaps

North Korea’s prison camps are extremely horrifying. A decade later after World War l, North Korea established its own system of prison camps (Szoldra). As same as concentration camps, prisoners were inhumanly punished. Since then, prison conditions in North Korea are horrendous and not tolerated by prisoners as well as their family members and society. North Korea’s prison systems not only frightened the prisoners, but the society as well. Because of the issues generated by North Korea’s horrifying prison conditions have not only been serious problems in history but also today, this issue is being resolve by the collaboration of society.

revealed frightening similarities in the structure and nature of the camps to those of North Korean

Over 400,000 North Korean citizens have died from the torture of concentration camps, and more than 200,000 are still being held there to this day. Every day, North Korean prisoners are being beaten and abused, only a few of the many unthinkable tortures inflicted on them. William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, believes that the defects of society can be traced back to the defects of human nature. However, in contrast to Golding’s statement, countries like North Korea demonstrate that the torture in concentration camps can be traced back to defects in the government, depending on the circumstance.

Camp 22 is one of many concentration camps in North Korea, also know as Hoeryong camp. Camp 22 is one of the worst prisons in the world. 15,000 to 200,00 people are in-prisoned every year, a lot of those people have never committed a crime in their lives. People in North Korea get imprisoned for things their grandparents or parents would have done, resulting with three generations in jail for up to 10 years or life sentences. The conditions in Camp 22 are hash and indescribable, and the death rate is extremely high of about 1,500, up to 2000 prisoners die every single year in Camp 22. Prisoners die from starvation, illnesses and poor work conditions, resulting in being shot or beaten to death. Prisoners in Camp 22 are forced to perform agricultural, mining and factory labor until the day they die or, until they are released. Those who decide not to abide by the extremely harsh rules are punished by rape, starvation, torture, mutilation, and death, which also could extend to their entire family within and out side the camp.

Imagine life on the brink of death and being completely isolated from the outside world. Your surroundings are filled with the scent of rotting corpse and the image of walking skeletons with deformities due to scarce supply of food and countless beatings, torture, and even executions. What I am describing here is the reality for the prisoners in the concentration camps of North Korea. This is a clear violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights because these prisoners are subjugated under these harsh treatments by the government of North Korea. One living example of the brutal treatment endured in these camps is about a survivor of the camps whose name is Shin Dong-hyuk.

The government can easily become blinded by money and ignorance. The people should be the ones creating the rules and laws for which they need to abide by. While the government officials are of a higher power, which is a reason that is used to support why the government should be making the regulations, this can blind said officials from reality. They can become only concerned for what the nation itself is, rather than what the people are, without realizing that what makes up a nation is the people. Without the people, there would not be a nation. Only a foundation of what could be. When citizens are forced into submission by the government, they become unhappy. A prime example of this is in “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea”.

The book Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden, follows the early life of Shin Dong-hyuk, the main character, as he grows up in a North Korean labor camp, Camp 14. The Kim dynasty was in control of North Korea during Shin’s time in the labor camp, and remains in control today. The Kim family runs a communist government and kept control by creating labor camps for those who attempted to fight the government system. The novel goes into detail about Shin’s childhood, his young adulthood, his escape and how he had to adapt after escaping. Blaine Harden convincingly argues that North Korean government is extremely hazardous to its inhabitants. The book highlights the dangers that people face, having to live in the labor camps and the perils of

To the North Koreans, their leader is like their God, everything he does or says is correct, “[they] will do as the party tells [them], [they] will die for the general, [and they] have nothing to envy” (Demick, 242) the world. The Workers Party has reinvented history and erected myths for the benefit of controlling the population (123). They keep the bad truths away from their citizens and manipulate all information given to the public. The people who realize the truth about their country, try to escape and go to South Korea. Many fail to escape, and end up in labor camps, where they are ill-fed and later

Two dictators with bias opinions, both ran a country under communism and discriminated religions while other were petrified to speak up, therefore living in fear of what could happen to them. Sarah’s family, as well as many others were arrested and taken to a concentration and labor camp in France during the Holocaust. A similar action, but with slightly less extremity is taking place in North Korea at the moment, as Christians are forced to hide their religious beliefs as,” The North Korean regime has continued to position itself as one of the world’s worst persecutors of the religious, torturing and killing people who practice their faith”.   The religious discrimination in North Korea resembles much like the early years of the Holocaust  because, “The Commission has received reports that officials have arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes executed North Korean citizens who are found to have ties with overseas Christian evangelical groups operating across the border in China, as well as those who engage in unauthorized religious activities such as public religious expression and persuasion” (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom).

The memoir Escape from Camp by Blaine Harden is a riveting life story about a young man named Shin who was born inside Camp 14. Camp 14 was one of five sprawling political prisons in the mountains of North Korea. In some camps there could be as many as 200,000 people who were either captured or born and raised in the camps. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence. He saw his mother and brother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. They were entitled to beatings daily for having to “pay for the sins” that their parents committed. All thoughts of escaping were diminished by the constant fear of starvation. North Korea was taking in billions of dollars worth of food to

North Korea is currently imprisoning its own people as political prisoners who did not commit any crime. North Koreans were “imprisoned for watching soap operas, trying to find food for their families, traveling without permission or having family members

Countries under the rule of a dictator, or a tyrant leader are another obstacle towards a set of universal human rights. North Korea is an example of one of these countries, being condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Council for its “systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations” (Human Rights Watch, 2016b). These violations have arisen from the leadership of Kim Jong-Un, who has continued to restrict freedom of movement, speech, and association, as well as other basic human rights in North Korea (Human Rights Watch, 2016b). Any person that does speak out against Jong-Un’s cruelty is arrested and taken to a political prison, where they are forced to carry out back breaking labour (Human Rights Watch, 2016b). Since dictators like Kim Jong-Un have complete control of a country, they have no obligation to enact a set of incontrovertible human rights as it does not fit their agenda, severely restricting the ability of human rights to be universal. The cultural differences in non-western countries such as Saudi Arabia, and the rule of dictators like that of Kim Jong-Un prevent an incontrovertible and permanently valid set of human rights from being

North Korean citizens are the most oppressed people in the world. The people there have no basic radio communications, they are blocked from most internet and television and most foreign journalists are not allowed in the country. The government is also technically not a communist country, it is in fact a

Hyeonseo Lee gave a presentation on TED Talk entitled, “My Escape from North Korea”, summarizing about her life in North Korea. She was born and raised there and sing patriotic songs. All the history books told her that North Korea was the best country in the world. As she got older, a famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990’s. Although, she never experienced starvation, she witnessed the events first hand. This was the pushing point for Hyeonseo, who decided to leave North Korea. Due to China and North Korea’s stringent border policies and the Chinese government immigration policy, the life of a North Korean refugee is challenging and extremely risky. They risk being deported back to the very country that they escaped from. There are reports and stories about the violation of human rights and labor camps in North Korea. She would live in China for ten years before moving to South Korea. Hyeonseo was forced to help her family escape from North Korea. The regime caught Hyeonseo for sending money to her family. Lee’s family to be relocated by the order of the North Korean government. She needed to smuggle them through China to a South Korean embassy in Laos. Unfortunately, Hyeonseo Lee’s story won’t be the last we hear about the abysmal conditions in North Korea. There are, potentially millions more, stories detailing the humanitarian disaster in the country and we must take steps to prepare for the eventual collapse of the country.