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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/NorthKorea.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Refugee Orphan: North Koreans Must Live on
in Hope Kim So Yeol,
Daily NK, 2008-09-29 www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02500&num=4115 [accessed 28 June 2011] [The following is
the interview with Park] CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE
LIVING CONDITIONS IN YOUR HOMETOWN? - “Since I was born, the food situation in
North Korea has been in dire straits. From 1997, the situation became more
severe. Since 1994, when I was 10, I started selling in the market, indeed
there were many young children who traveled to other regions to make a
living. I would take the train from Suncheon, South
Pyongan Province to Kimchaek,
North Hamkyung Province and sell goods. I was an
‘itinerant merchant.’ I would bring an
empty bag from home, buy notebooks in Suncheon, go
back to Kimchaek and sell them there, then buy
cheap salt in Kimchaek, and sell it in Suncheon. A bag full of salt weighed approximately
15kg. Whenever I rode the train, there
were 6 or 7 other children in the same car who were also selling goods. On
unlucky days, we would have to climb on to the roof of the train and ride
that way. Some children died from falling or from being electrocuted.” WERE THERE MANY SUCH
CHILDREN IN NORTH KOREA AT THE TIME? - “There were a lot of street children (kotjebi) that had to get by without any help. There would
be a black crowd of them at every station. They were really black because not
only were the school uniforms at that time black, but the children could not
wash themselves.” In Suncheon station alone, the number of children always
exceeded 100. The street children organized themselves into groups of two or
three and would steal food from people at the station, but others ended up
starving to death or had to wait for someone to give them food.” ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
- Democratic People’s www.unicef.org/infobycountry/korea.html [accessed 23 June 2011] Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61612.htm [accessed 14 December 2010] CHILDREN
- The
state provides 11 years of free compulsory education for all children.
However, in the past some children were denied educational opportunities and
subjected to punishments and disadvantages as a result of the loyalty
classification system and the principle of "collective retribution"
for the transgressions of family members. Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 4
June 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/korea2004.html [accessed 14 December 2010] [58] The Committee
is concerned that, according to the State party information, there are some
children from the Democratic People’s Committee
on Rights of Child Considers Report of Democratic People's Republic of [Article headline is mislabeled United Nations Press Release, 1 June 2004 www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/msg00294.html [accessed 24 July 2011] The situation of
street children was a new phenomenon in the country, the delegation said.
Many of the children came from mountainous regions after having escaped from
their families. Those street children were taken care of by the State and
were sent to institutions where they could get vocational training. Refugee Orphan: North Koreans Must Live on
in Hope Kim So Yeol,
Daily NK, 2008-09-29 www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02500&num=4115 [accessed 28 June 2011] [The following is
the interview with Park] CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE
LIVING CONDITIONS IN YOUR HOMETOWN? - “Since I was born, the food situation in
North Korea has been in dire straits. From 1997, the situation became more
severe. Since 1994, when I was 10, I started selling in the market, indeed
there were many young children who traveled to other regions to make a
living. I would take the train from Suncheon, South
Pyongan Province to Kimchaek,
North Hamkyung Province and sell goods. I was an
‘itinerant merchant.’ I would bring an
empty bag from home, buy notebooks in Suncheon, go
back to Kimchaek and sell them there, then buy
cheap salt in Kimchaek, and sell it in Suncheon. A bag full of salt weighed approximately
15kg. Whenever I rode the train, there
were 6 or 7 other children in the same car who were also selling goods. On
unlucky days, we would have to climb on to the roof of the train and ride
that way. Some children died from falling or from being electrocuted.” WERE THERE MANY SUCH
CHILDREN IN Chinese Websites Expose inside Photos of Han Young Jin, Daily NK, 2006-08-24 www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=1020 [accessed 28 June 2011] Recently, inside
photos of melancholic North Korean people and starving street children are
rampantly spreading throughout hundreds of Chinese internet sites including
sonic BBS, sina.com and sinotrip. Street kids at Jangmadang live by begging and eating food scraps. In
order to remove street children, on September 27th 2001, Kim Jong Il directed
street children be accommodated at ‘9.27 institution.’ However, the
institution was uniformly controlled by local authorities and as a result was
ultimately established as a national women’s inn. Although world food
organizations of each country assist with food rations, supplies must surpass
regulations. Food assistance that should be distributed to the people is
being sold at Jangmadang. Action Against Hunger Stops Its Activities
In Action Against Hunger, 10 Mar 2000 [accessed 28 June 2011] 3/ Most of the malnutrition
cases witnessed by our team was amongst children
with no access to any facilities. Those who were especially hard hit were the
« street children », many of whom were between 3 and 4 years old, and found
wandering alone, while visibly very weak and fighting to collect food. Japanese
TV Airs Interview with NK Foster Children Life Funds for North Korean Refugees
LFNKR, 2002 www.northkoreanrefugees.com/fosterkids1.htm [accessed 28 June 2011] "A boy, about
15, lies dead on the street. All his belongings are gone." So begins the
documentary. But not all street
children die in Prison Video from One Free freekorea.us/2005/01/15/prison-video-from-north-korea/ [accessed 28 June 2011] … another file, entitled Documentary: "Children of the Closed
State" Azgar Ishkildin,
Prima News Agency, 2.8.2001 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] They pick up grains
of rice and kernels of corn and suck on discarded fish bones. Around them,
Western humanitarian aid is bought and sold-American corn, wheat from the Red
Cross, rice. The price for the wheat, written on a piece of cardboard, is 80
won per kilogram. That is the average monthly wage of a North Korean worker.
Most of the customers are members of the military. Protection Project Report - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/nk.doc [accessed 2009] Street children
from North
Koreans Starved Of Right To Food Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service News Agency
IPS, www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FA22Dg01.html [accessed 28 June 2011] The lack of access
to food has had the greatest impact on children, because of both malnutrition
and the loss of parents who have died of malnutrition or related illness.
Unconfirmed reports have said hundreds of orphans are now living in
institutions or have become street children, without access to food aid or
state protection. 2005 Annual Report for Amnesty International At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] NORTH KOREAN
ASYLUM-SEEKERS IN All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children – DPRK ( |
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