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| Korea |
| THE NORTH KOREAN GULAG |
| 2003-04-30 |
| I'm amazed at how little the South Korean's openly and honestly discuss the horrific regime of the North Soon Ok Lee, who defected from North Korean in 1994, was held prisoner in the Kaechon prison camp from 1987 to 1992. In testimony scheduled for delivery today before the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights, she will lay out in gruesome detail the horrors of life in the camps, among them beatings, torture, human biological testing, forced abortions, infanticide, and endless hours of hard labor. The hearing at the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights signals the opening of a second front in the case against Kim Jong Il’s dictatorial regime. The "axis of evil" nation has acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons, making it a serious security threat. However, there has been comparatively little attention paid to the country’s human rights violations. "The crimes against humanity that have been perpetuating in North Korea for decades have destroyed the humanity and personalities of all North Koreans. The personality cult of the leaders, the father and son, was the norm that came to replace respect for humanity," Ms. Lee’s testimony says. "To achieve this purpose, the North Korean leadership operates secret concentration camps and prisons for political prisoners in at least 12 locations. Their goal is to eliminate all forms of opposition. Over 200,000 innocent victims, including women and children, are detained there for life without a judicial process." "I experienced a living hell there during the seven years that I was there. The ordeal at that time was to such an extent that even today I am not sure whether I am alive or merely dreaming," says Ms. Lee’s testimony, an advance copy of which was obtained by The New York Sun. Perhaps the most dramatic part of her account involves the treatment of pregnant women. They "were unconditionally forced to abort because the unborn baby was also considered a criminal by law," Ms. Lee’s testimony says. "Women in their 8th or 9th month of pregnancy had salt solutions injected into their wombs to induce abortion," her testimony says. "In spite of these brutal efforts, some babies were born alive, in which case the prison guards mercilessly killed the infants by squeezing their necks in front of their mothers. The dead babies were taken away for biological tests. If a mother pleaded for the life of her baby, she was publicly executed under the charge of ‘impure ideology.’" According to Ms. Lee, the 6,000 prisoners at the Kaechon prison "were treated as being lower than beasts." Of that number, 2,000 or so were housewives, she says, arrested for trying to find food after the regime discontinued rations. Prisoners worked 16 to 18 hour days, slept three to four hours, and were only allowed to use the toilet three times a day at fixed times. "Our cells were about 6 by 5 meters and contained 80 to 90 prisoners per cell. The cells were so crowded that the prisoners slept with the feet of the next prisoner right under their noses," she says. (con't see link) |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #7 "Hello TM - with your knowledge of Korea, how do you explain the SK mindset? I find it quite confounding. As I understand it, President Roh made his name on human rights and the SK people consider NK their kin. How can they ignore the situation in the North? Posted by: Anonymous 4/30/2003 3:43:41 PM" That's a bit complex, Anon, but the simple explanation can be summed up thusly - Koreans, North AND South, tend to get caught up in the racial issue. If you think that some black Americans have a "It's us against the Honkey" mindset, then you've never encountered Asian racial prejudice. It's REALLY bad. No matter how insanely Jongy-boy behaves, Many South Koreans still desperately hold on to the belief that "We're all Koreans here, and it's us against the world. Particularly Japan and China!" (There are still Koreans alive today who lived through the Japanese occupation of Korea, and if you even mention Japan, the hatred in their faces for the Japanese is hot enough to light your cigar by.) It's the same tribalism that Africa suffers under, just on a larger scale. Ed Becerra |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2003-04-30 17:16:21 |
| #6 The sick thing about Norbert Vollertsen is that the Kim Dae-jung Administration attempted to bully him into remaining silent. He's a bit of a strange character, to be sure. But at least he's doing something, and he pulls no punches. |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-04-30 16:53:51 |
| #5 I wish I could give you a good explanation, but most of us expats are just as confounded as you are. Part of it has to do with post-war South Korean history; the military dictators who ruled SK for most of the 60s, 70s, and 80s really pushed the anti-North Korea propaganda, so when the dictators were discredited, in the minds of some people, so was the propaganda. In point of fact, for many human rights activists like Roh, their primary axe to grind is with the United States (which "backed" the military dictators), not the DPRK. Another thing is that despite the nationalist "we are one people" bullsh*t that you hear so often from people here, the truth is that for many South Koreans, the DPRK might as well be Mars. In fact, the only time those feelings of brotherhood really come out is when a third country is involved - usually the US or Japan. Lastly, it should be said that a lot of people here really ARE concerned about the human rights situation in North Korea; generally speaking, the media was furious at Noh for deciding to sit the UN vote out. There are a lot of other factors behind why South Koreans do not appear overly concerned about the suffering their northern kin must endure, but it's a long discussion and I'm not sure if it would make the "SK mindset" any more intelligible. Heck, even I spend much of my time wondering, "What the f*ck?" Last note: This kind of hypocricy is hardly limited to the Korean Left; the Western Left was strangely silent over human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, while at the same time very vocal about abuses in Chile and South Africa. Hey, what can you do? |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-04-30 16:50:23 |
| #4 Thing is, this info isn't new. I just pulled Soon Ok Lee's prison memoirs (Eyes of the Tailless Animals) off my bookshelf. Copyright date of 1999, originally published in Korean in 1996. She already testified before the Senate Judiciary committee in June 2002 (http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=292). Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who spent 16 months in North Korea gathering evidence of horrific abuses (http://www.washtimes.com/world/20021206-53444593.htm), has been speaking out for a few years, but your average American knows nothing about it. Perhaps the human rights situation in North Korea will begin to get more play in the press, and people will take notice, but I'm skeptical. So far, the only people who seem to notice are the small group who follow these things closely. |
| Posted by: Kathy 2003-04-30 16:23:10 |
| #3 Hello TM - with your knowledge of Korea, how do you explain the SK mindset? I find it quite confounding. As I understand it, President Roh made his name on human rights and the SK people consider NK their kin. How can they ignore the situation in the North? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-30 15:43:41 |
| #2 Since the Kim Dae-jung Administration, there has actually been muzzle put on the press reporting negative stories about North Korea. Strangely enough, stories negatively depicting the American military presence in South Korea seemed to be OK until very recently. Coincidently, when the UN Human Rights Commission censured North Korea last week, did anyone notice which country was NOT in attendance? That's right - it was South Korea. Even South Korea's national human rights commission, which somehow managed to find it in their hearts to criticize American "human rights violations" in Iraq, refused to condemn North Korea's human rights situation. I sh*t you not; when the head of the commission was asked by lawmakers which country had a worse human rights situation, North or South Korea, the guy claimed he didn't have enough data to answer. After unification, there are going to be a lot of Korean leftists asking themselves some very uncomfortable questions. |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-04-30 15:11:58 |
| #1 Now that this testimony's come out I'm sure the UN will be all over this issue,and quick too. Or maybe the EU Rapid Reaction Force. |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-04-30 14:44:42 |