South Korea has issued an unprecedented report on North Korea’s treatment of its own citizens, signaling Seoul no longer believes that silence on the rights abuses will ease the way for progress on negotiating an end to Pyongyang’s burgeoning nuclear and missile programs.
The Ministry of Unification (MOU), which deals with inter-Korean affairs, issued the report detailing Pyongyang’s human rights abuses based on testimony from more than 500 North Koreans who defected to South Korea between 2017 and 2022.
The report says the North Korean regime denies its people basic rights to fair trial, assembly, expression and movement, among others. The report also says the regime disregards the value of human life by carrying out public executions of minors as well as adults and using people as medical-test subjects.
The more than 400-page report issued March 30 came after Seoul co-sponsored a U.N. draft resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights record submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council on March 21.
The UNHRC adopted this year’s resolution on Tuesday at a meeting in Geneva.
The U.N. has adopted a similar resolution every year since 2003, but under Moon Jae-in, who served as South Korea’s president from 2017 to 2022, Seoul declined to sponsor any of them.
North Korea said on March 19 as this year’s resolution was being debated that human rights violations are “non-existent” in the country. VOA Korean contacted the North Korean mission to the U.N. seeking a response to last week’s South Korean report but received no reply.
Ken Gause, an expert on the North Korean leadership and director of the International Affairs Group, a part of the Strategic Studies division of the U.S.-based CNA Corporation, thinks the public report calling out Pyongyang’s human rights practices will infuriate Pyongyang and lead to increased tensions on the peninsula.
“That [report] basically undermines any chance of inter-Korean dialogue for the foreseeable future,” said Gause. “It definitely does not help the tensions on the peninsula. … If anything, North Korea’s going to accelerate its nuclear program.”
North Korea launched a record number of missiles last year, following up with more tests this year including a March 25-27 test of an underwater nuclear attack drone that the regime called Haeil-1. Pyongyang also unveiled new small nuclear warheads called Hwasan-31s when Kim Jong Un inspected new tactical nuclear weapons on March 27.
A spokesperson for the Unification Ministry told the VOA Korean Service on Tuesday that the defectors cited in the report had agreed to one-on-one interviews with investigators.
The sessions took place at the Settlement Support Center for North Koreans, the secure resettlement camp where defectors are debriefed before embarking on a three-month course on how to navigate life, work and society in a tech-dominated democracy. Known as Hanawon, which translated to House of Unity, the facility occupies two sites — one for men and one for women and children.
The defectors related that Pyongyang categorizes its citizens from a young age to control them under heavy surveillance, according to the report. The youngsters grow up in these groups and are indoctrinated in their groups. Punishment is severe for individuals deemed disloyal to the regime.
The public assessment by the South Korean government headed by President Yoon Suk Yeol is a departure from the past, according to experts.
“It’s been clear, at least to the current administration, that refusing to talk about human rights does not allow for serious engagement with North Korea,” said Robert King, who served as the U.S. special envoy for North Korea’s human rights under the Obama administration.
King said the Moon government “backed away from any criticism of North Korea on its human rights record” because it wanted “to engage with North Korea.” But after five years in office, it “had very little to show” in improving inter-Korean ties.
He said the public criticism of human rights in the report does not suggest the Yoon government is uninterested in dialogue with North Korea.
Yoon reached out to Pyongyang under his “audacious plan” when he unveiled it in August and proposed to offer economic support in exchange for denuclearization. North Korea rejected the offer.
Inter-Korean talks remain stalled despite three summits between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018. In June 2020, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office. Talks with Washington have been stalled since October 2019.
In 2016, South Korea enacted the North Korean Human Rights Act, which mandates the unification minister to draw up an annual report assessing human rights conditions of the North. The Moon government kept the report confidential.
Kwangil Heo, 70, defected to South Korea in 1995 while working as a logger in Russia. He is now chairman of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea in Seoul. On Tuesday, he told VOA Korean, “It would have been good if such a report came out every year” since the enactment of the law in 2016.
He continued, “Human rights issue is the most basic natural rights that must transcend any left and right political ideologies.”
Unlike the Moon administration, Yoon appointed a human rights envoy for North Korea, Lee Shin-hwa, in August.
According to Roberta Cohen, former deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights under the Carter administration, “Both actions mark a refreshing departure from the policies of the Moon administration and herald South Korea’s return to the promotion of human rights internationally and to supporting accountability for those responsible for crimes against humanity in the North.”
Cohen, who is now co-chair emeritus of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, continued that the human rights report by the Yoon administration “is also an effort to reach out to the North Korean people and express solidarity with them.”
She added, “Word may well get into North Korea” that Seoul published the report and “bring hope to some in North Korea that they are not forgotten, and that change may well come in future. North Korean officials might also begin to question their own association with the regime which can lead to some improvement.”
Ungyong Kim, 32, who defected to South Korea in 2011 with her family with the help of a Christian missionary, told VOA Korean on Tuesday that “seeing the South Korean government having interest on North Korea’s human rights and making efforts toward the issue provides comfort.”
Pointing out that the South Korean Constitution recognizes North Korea as part of its territory, she continued, “North Korea’s human rights issue is not only North Korea’s problem but also South Korea’s problem.”
