An international report said that the international community is deeply concerned about North Korea’s human rights violations, so it established a United Nations investigation committee in 2013.
The report stated that the investigation committee assessed that serious human rights violations by North Korea are being committed systematically and on a large scale in six areas, including violations of freedom of thought, expression and religion, discrimination, violations of freedom of residence and movement, the right to food, arbitrary detention and torture, executions, political prison camps, kidnappings and forced disappearances. However, the human rights situation in North Korea has not improved at all.
The report added that the 2023 White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea, which the South Korean government published for the first time publicly based on the testimonies of 508 North Korean defectors between 2017 and 2022, officially confirmed that arbitrary deprivation of life and serious human rights vi
olations by public authority still prevails.
It pointed out that the official meeting of the United Nations Security Council on human rights in North Korea, held on August 17, which resumed for the first time in six years since 2017, was very meaningful, and is expected to be an important opportunity to create new momentum in future discussions on improving human rights in North Korea, partly because there has been a change in the positions of China and Russia. The two countries considered the human rights issue in North Korea to be a political issue and opposed holding the meeting four times in a row from 2014 to 2017. However, this year, as there was no official opposition in either country, an open discussion was held on immediately without a procedural vote.
It continued: The South Korean government, as a direct stakeholder in human rights issues in North Korea, has demonstrated its firm determination not to allow human rights issues in North Korea to be influenced by domestic political decisions. In fa
ct, the primary responsibility for improving the human rights situation in North Korea lies with the South Korean government, which recognizes North Korean residents as South Korean citizens under its constitution. The fact that the political and economic systems are different between South and North Korea, and condoning harm to universal values such as human rights, are two different issues.
It explained that the reason why the human rights issue in North Korea is so serious and deserves special attention is that it cannot be separated from the North Korean nuclear issue, which threatens international peace. In this regard, Hwang Joon-guk, the Korean Ambassador to the United Nations, asserts that ‘the issues of human rights and weapons of mass destruction are intertwined in very real ways. The focus on weapons of mass destruction at the expense of the well-being of its people through the diversion of resources is only possible in a country where all political opposition.’
The international report concluded
by saying that in fact, despite the increasing number of deaths due to malnutrition, disease and lack of medical services due to the prolonged border blockade due to the Corona virus, Kim Jong-un’s regime officially announced the acceleration of nuclear missile development and the preventive use of tactical nuclear weapons in the region and the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021. North Korea conducted as many as 42 missile launches in 2022 alone. This means that North Korea launches missiles every 9 to 10 days. In addition, it was reported that all technical preparations related to the seventh nuclear test have been completed, and all that remains is to make a political decision.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency