UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 North Korea is increasing its repression of human rights and people are becoming more desperate and reportedly starving in parts of the country as the economic situation worsens, the U.N. rights chief said Thursday.
Volker T眉rk told of the U.N. Security Council since 2017 on North Korean human rights that in the past its people have endured periods of severe economic difficulty and repression, but 鈥渃urrently they appear to be suffering both.鈥
鈥淎ccording to our information, people are becoming increasingly desperate as informal markets and other coping mechanisms are dismantled, while their fear of state surveillance, arrest, interrogation and detention has increased,鈥 he said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un closed the borders of his northeast Asian nation to contain COVID-19. But as the pandemic has waned, T眉rk said the government鈥檚 restrictions have grown even more extensive, with guards authorized to shoot any unauthorized person approaching the border and with almost all foreigners, including U.N. staff, still barred from the country.
As examples of the increasing repression of human rights, he said, anyone found viewing 鈥渞eactionary ideology and culture鈥 鈥 which means information from abroad, especially from South Korea 鈥 may now face five to 15 years in prison. And those who distribute such material face life imprisonment or even the death penalty, he said.
On the economic front, T眉rk said, the government has largely shut down markets and other private means of generating income and increasingly criminalized such activity.
鈥淭his sharply constrains people鈥檚 ability to provide for themselves and their families,鈥 he said. 鈥淕iven the limits of state-run economic institutions, many people appear to be facing extreme hunger as well as acute shortages of medication.鈥
T眉rk said many human rights violations stem directly from, or support, the militarization of the country.
鈥淔or example, the widespread use of forced labor 鈥 including labor in political prison camps, forced use of school children to collect harvests, the requirement for families to undertake labor and provide a quota of goods to the government, and confiscation of wages from overseas workers 鈥 all support the military apparatus of the state and its ability to build weapons,鈥 the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said.
Elizabeth Salm贸n, the U.N. special investigator on human rights in North Korea, echoed T眉rk: 鈥淪ome people are starving. Others have died due to a combination of malnutrition, diseases and lack of access to health care.鈥
The United States and North Korea, which fought during the 1950-53 Korean War, are still technically at war since that conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Salm贸n said the frozen conflict is being used to justify the continued militarization.
North Korea鈥檚 鈥淢ilitary First鈥 policy reduces resources for the people, Salm贸n said, and the country鈥檚 leaders demand that they tighten their belts so the money can be used for the .
The Security Council took no action, but afterward U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who chaired the meeting, read a statement on behalf of 52 countries while flanked by many of their ambassadors.
The statement said the North Korean government commits 鈥渁cts of cruelty and repression鈥 at home and abroad which are 鈥渋nextricably linked with the DPRK鈥檚 weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile advancements in violation of Security Council resolutions.鈥 The Democratic People鈥檚 Republic of Korea is the official name.
The countries called on all 193 U.N. member nations to raise awareness of the links between the human rights situation in North Korea and international peace and security, 鈥渁nd to hold the DPRK government accountable.鈥
on Tuesday denounced U.S. plans for the council meeting as 鈥渄espicable,鈥 saying it was only aimed at achieving Washington鈥檚 geopolitical ambitions.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong a 鈥渄eclining鈥 power and said if the council dealt with any country鈥檚 human rights, the U.S. should be the first 鈥渁s it is the anti-people empire of evils, totally depraved due to all sorts of social evils.鈥
China and Russia, both allies of North Korea, opposed the meeting, saying its human rights situation doesn鈥檛 pose a threat to international peace and security.
China鈥檚 deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang said pushing the council to consider human rights at a time when confrontation has intensified on the Korean Peninsula will escalate the situation.
鈥淚t is irresponsible, unconstructive and an abuse of the council鈥檚 power,鈥 he said. He urged the council instead to take 鈥減ractical actions to respond to reasonable concerns of the DPRK鈥 and create conditions for a resumption of talks.
Russia鈥檚 deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky called the meeting 鈥減ropaganda鈥 and 鈥渁 cynical and hypocritical attempt by the U.S. and its allies to advance their own political agenda to step up pressure on Pyongyang.鈥
He dismissed Western attempts to link North Korea's human rights situation to peace and security as 鈥渁bsolutely artificial.鈥
But Thomas-Greenfield said Pyongyang's 鈥渨ar machine,鈥 which is 鈥減owered by repression and cruelty,鈥 is undeniably a matter of international peace and security. She said that is why the U.S., Japan and Albania requested Thursday's long-overdue meeting.
