Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/NorthKorea.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the DPRK. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Democratic People's Republic of Korea U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/north-korea/
[accessed 29 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The penal code
prohibits torture or inhuman treatment, but many sources reported these
practices continued. Numerous defector accounts and NGO reports described the
use of torture by authorities in several detention facilities. Methods of
torture and other abuse reportedly included severe beatings; electric shock;
prolonged periods of exposure to the elements; humiliations such as public
nakedness; confinement for up to several weeks in small “punishment cells” in
which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down; being forced to
kneel or sit immobilized for long periods; being hung by the wrists; water
torture; and being forced to stand up and sit down to the point of collapse,
including “pumps,” or being forced to repeatedly squat and stand up with
their hands behind their back. Defectors continued
to report many prisoners died from torture, disease, starvation, exposure to
the elements, or a combination of these causes. Detainees in re-education
through labor camps reported the state forced them to perform difficult
physical labor under harsh conditions (see section 7.b.). A report released
on July 28 from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) catalogued numerous allegations of beatings, torture, and sexual
violations against women who were forcibly repatriated after seeking to flee
the country to find work, usually in neighboring China. KINU’s white paper
for 2019 reported that children repatriated from China underwent torture,
verbal abuse, and violence including beatings, hard labor, and hunger. Impunity for acts
of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by
members of the security forces was endemic. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Nutrition, hygiene,
and the medical situation inside prison camps were dire, according to KINU’s
2019 white paper. There were no statistics for deaths in custody, but
defectors reported deaths were commonplace as the result of summary
executions, torture, lack of adequate medical care, and starvation. The 2014
UN Commission of Inquiry (UNCOI) report cited an “extremely high rate of
deaths in custody,” due to starvation and neglect, arduous forced labor,
disease, and executions. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/north-korea/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Documented North
Korean human rights violations include widespread torture, public executions,
forced labor by detainees, and death sentences for political offenses. Defectors who seek
safe haven in third countries are sometimes returned, and are subject to
torture and disproportionate punishment if their bids to escape are
unsuccessful. North Korean escapees who travel to China are considered
economic migrants and are turned back, where they are subject to torture,
harsh imprisonment, or execution. North
Korea Survivor Tells Of Starvation, Torture: ‘You Cannot Imagine What Life
Without Freedom Is Like’ Juliana Knot, The
federalist, 12 July 2018 [accessed 13 July
2018] She started asking
around and found a man Jo’s father had been imprisoned with. According to his
roommate, the guards beat Jo’s father every night until he passed out, and
his face was covered with blood. He died as a result of the torture and
malnutrition Please
don't forget: In North Korea, executions, torture, and starvation are part of
daily life Jeva Lange, The Week, 12
June 2018 [accessed 12 June
2018] The U.S. State
Department estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are
held in prison camps "under horrific conditions" in North Korea
today. "Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners" are believed
to have died in such camps over the past half-century. [New York Daily News] In 2014, the United
Nations Commission of Inquiry identified "systematic, widespread, and
gross human rights violations" in North Korea, including
"extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced
abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious,
racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced
disappearance of persons, and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged
starvation." [Human Rights Watch]. Parents
sue Pyongyang over torture and death of detainee Otto Warmbier Associated Press AP,
Washington, 27 April 2018 www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/27/asia-pacific/crime-legal-asia-pacific/parents-sue-pyongyang-torture-death-detainee-otto-warmbier/#.WuOV_Jdrxko [accessed 27 April
2018] Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia,
was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a
propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He
died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain
damage. It says that after
his arrest, Warmbier, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was
pressured to make a televised confession and then convicted of subversion
after a one-hour trial. He was denied communication with his family by any
means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had
been in that condition for one year. The lawsuit says
that when Warmbier returned, his parents “were
stunned to see his condition. Otto was blind and deaf. He had a shaved head,
a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and
was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him.” His once
straight teeth were misaligned and he had an unexplained, scarred wound on
his left foot. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] NORTH KOREA TORTURE AND INHUMANE
TREATMENT
- People arrested in North Korea are routinely tortured by officials in the
course of interrogations. Common forms of torture include kicking and
slapping, beatings with iron rods or sticks, being forced to remain in stress
positions for hours, sleep deprivation, and, for female detainees, sexual
abuse and rape. For less serious crimes, suspects endure abuse until they can
pay bribes for better treatment or release, while for more serious offenses, torture is used to extract confessions. Former inmates claim
executions, torture common in North Korea's prisons Reuters, 20 August
2013 [accessed 20 Aug
2013] Harrowing accounts
from defectors now living in South Korea related how guards chopped off a
man's finger, forced inmates to eat frogs and a mother to kill her own baby. "I had no idea
at all ... I thought my whole hand was going to be cut off at the wrist, so I
felt thankful and grateful that only my finger was cut off," said Shin
Dong-hyuk, punished for dropping a sewing machine. Born in a prison
called Camp 14 and forced to watch the execution of his mother and brother
whom he turned in for his own survival, Shin is North Korea's best-known
defector and camp survivor. He said he believed the U.N. panel was the only
way to improve human rights in the isolated and impoverished state. Hell Holes:
Torture, starvation and murder the norm at world’s worst gulags Perry Chiaramonte,
Fox News, 1 March 2013 [accessed 2 March
2013] CAMP 22 AND THE
NORTH KOREAN GULAG SYSTEM - Also known as Hoeryong concentration camp, and part of
a large system of prison camps throughout the communist dictatorship, Camp 22
is an 87-square-mile penal colony located in the North Hamgyong province
colony where most of the prisoners are people accused of criticizing the
government. Inmates, most of whom
are serving life sentences, face harsh and often lethal conditions. According
to the testimony of a former guard from Camp22, prisoners live in bunk houses
with 100 people per room and some 30 percent bear the markings of torture and
beatings -- torn ears, gouged eyes and faces covered with scars. Prisoners are
forced to stand on their toes in tanks filled with water up to their noses
for 24 hours, stripped and hanged upside-down while being beaten or given the
infamous "pigeon torture” -- where both hands are chained to a wall at a
height of 2 feet, forcing them to crouch for hours at a time. Tiny rations of
watery corn porridge leave inmates on the brink of starvation, and many hunt
rats, snakes and frogs for protein. Some even take the drastic measure of
searching through animal dung for undigested seeds to eat. Beatings are
handed out daily for offenses as simple as not bowing down in respect to the
guards fast enough. Prisoners are used as practice targets during martial
arts training. Guards routinely rape female inmates. “The conditions are
brutal,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asian Division of Human
Rights Watch, told FoxNews.com. “These people are constantly hungry and
constantly scavenging.” At Camp 22 and most
other prisons in North Korea, getting locked up means a death sentence. “It’s considered a
one-way ticket," Robertson said. "They send you there to work you
to death.” Kang Cheol Hwan was
the rare exception. Imprisoned at Camp 14 for a decade beginning at age 9,
his crime was being the grandson of a man who allegedly criticized the
government. Human Rights in
North Korea Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/node/104391 [accessed 6 February
2013] Kim Jong-Un’s
succession as North Korea’s supreme leader after the death of his father, Kim
Jong-Il, has had no positive impact on the country’s dire human rights
record. More than 200,000 North Koreans, including children, are imprisoned
in camps where many perish from forced labor, inadequate food, and abuse by
guards. Arbitrary arrest, lack of due process, and torture are pervasive
problems. There is no independent media, functioning civil society, or
religious freedom. Government policies have continually subjected North Koreans
to food shortages and famine. Human Rights Watch is pressing for a UN
commission of inquiry to investigate possible crimes against humanity in
North Korea. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 ARBITRARY ARRESTS
AND DETENTION
- Hundreds of thousands remained arbitrarily detained, or held for
indeterminate periods without charge or trial in political prison camps and
other detention facilities. Detainees faced systematic and sustained violations
of their human rights, including extrajudicial executions and long hours of
forced hard labour with no rest days. Torture and
other ill-treatment appeared to be widespread in prison camps. Many detainees
died due to forced labour in perilous conditions,
including inadequate access to food or medical care. In October, there
were reports that Political Prison Camp 22 in Hoeryong,
North Hamkyung province, had been closed. It was
not clear when the prison camp closed and where the prisoners, estimated at
between 20,000 and 50,000, had been transferred. The camp, one of five of its
kind, was a total control zone where inmates were held for life, without
reprieve. Many of those held in political prison camps had not committed any
crime, but were related to those deemed hostile to the regime and were held
as a form of collective punishment. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/north-korea [accessed 6 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] North Korea does
not have an independent judiciary. The UN General Assembly has recognized and
condemned severe DPRK human rights violations including the use of torture,
public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, and forced labor;
the absence of due process and the rule of law; death sentences for political
offenses; and a large number of prison camps. The regime subjects thousands
of political prisoners to brutal conditions, and collective or familial
punishment for suspected dissent by an individual is also a common practice. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61612.htm [accessed 6 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61612.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The penal code
prohibits torture or inhumane treatment; however, many sources continued to
confirm its practice. According to a 2003 report by the US Committee for
Human Rights in North Korea (USCHRNK), torture was "routine" and
"severe." Methods of torture reportedly included severe beatings,
electric shock, prolonged periods of exposure, humiliations such as public
nakedness, confinement for up to several weeks in small "punishment
cells" in which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down, being
forced to kneel or sit immobilized for long periods, being hung by one's
wrists, being forced to stand up and sit down to the point of collapse, and
forcing mothers recently repatriated from China to watch the infanticide of
their newborn infants. Defectors continued to report that many prisoners died
from torture, disease, starvation, exposure, or a combination of these
causes. In September a
refugee reported that she lost the use of her feet due to severe beatings she
received by North Korean police for attempting to leave the country. In 2003 Kim Yong, a
former police lieutenant colonel, told USCHRNK that as an inmate in a
political prison camp in the 1990s, he had been forced to kneel for long periods
with a steel bar placed between his knees and calves, suspended by his
handcuffed wrists, and submerged in waist‑deep cold water for extended
periods. Over the years
there have been unconfirmed reports from a few defectors alleging the testing
on human subjects of a variety of chemical and biological agents up through
the early 1990s. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- DPRK (North
Korea )", http://gvnet.com/torture/NorthKorea.htm, [accessed
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