By The Washington Post had a great article this week in regards to North Korea’s system of concentration camps. What stood out the most to me was how the US government and even North Korean human rights groups are determined to ignore the worst human rights violation of our time:
Images and accounts of the North Korean gulag become sharper, more harrowing and more accessible with each passing year.
A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps: Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins. (…………..)
“We have this system of slavery right under our nose,” said An Myeong Chul, a camp guard who defected to South Korea. “Human rights groups can’t stop it. South Korea can’t stop it. The United States will have to take up this issue at the negotiating table.”
But the camps have not been discussed in meetings between U.S. diplomats and North Korean officials. By exploding nuclear bombs, launching missiles and cultivating a reputation for hair-trigger belligerence, the government of Kim Jong Il has created a permanent security flash point on the Korean Peninsula — and effectively shoved the issue of human rights off the negotiating table. [Washington Post]
Has it occurred to these people that part of the reason the North Koreans continue to be belligerent is so people continue to focus exclusively on the security issue? What is really disappointing is the most prominent North Korean human rights group has joined in with this logic:
Containing that crisis has monopolized the Obama administration’s dealings with North Korea. The camps, for the time being, are a non-issue. “Unfortunately, until we get a handle on the security threat, we can’t afford to deal with human rights,” said Peter Beck, a former executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
Maybe because of statements like this is the reason why Mr. Beck is a former executive director of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea because what use is a human rights group that doesn’t want to promote human rights? If this is what the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea believes, it makes them about as worthless as Amnesty International in regards to the North Korean human rights situation. Make sure to read One Free Korea’s take on this.
By the way make sure to check out the great interactive map of North Korea’s five major gulags that was made possible by the work of prominent K-bloggers NK Econ Watch and One Free Korea.
7:06 pm on July 22nd, 2009 1
Probably because we have to make a decision.
1) Do nothing
2) Invade, costing South Korea millions dead (I believe a USFK estimate on casualties sustained in the event of a full scale North Korean barrage on Seoul could lead up to about 1 million civilian deaths in the opening 24 hours alone) and the destruction of the 13th largest economy in the world, risking a war with China etc etc.
That's probably why.
The last thing South Koreans want is an actual war in the Peninsula and reports regarding death camps in North Korea will serve no other purpose other then starting a war.
If you ask me, if a solution to the North Korean barrage on Seoul can be found, destroying the North Korean government and liberating those people in those camps will be the right thing to do.
However, I am not for unification, if only for the sake of the North Koreans who will be treated like utter garbage in South Korea, since we know what a tolerant and kind bunch Koreans are. That sort of thing would lead to a sort of division that will make any war for unification irrelevant.
Let's just hope the Chinese don't end up getting North Korea or attaining North Korea as a satellite/vassal state (which is a very likely demand that they will make).
9:07 pm on July 22nd, 2009 2
This isn't what the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea believes. Peter Beck was forced out over views like this. I know the people involved and like them all personally, but Peter just did not belong in that job.
9:19 pm on July 22nd, 2009 3
Good to hear that he got removed.
That guy didn't belong in any sort of position of influence over this region. The guy didn't care about anything other than his own power gains and didn't even do a very good job of hiding the fact either.
I guess you read the ICG report on the North Koreans journeys in escaping North Korea. Let's just hope the North Koreans and the Chinese already knew everything they wrote on that report.
But unfortunately, no level of embargo or any other sanction against North Korea is going to work in ending this unless the idea is to starve every last man, woman and child in North Korea to death including Kim Jong-il himself.