White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea

White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea By Korea Institute for National Unification, Seoul, Korea: Korea Institute for National Unification, 2006, 324 pp. ISBN 89-8479-352-3 93340.The White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea by the Korea Institute for National Unification not only provides deep insight into the human rights situation of the most isolated country on earth, but also sheds light on life in North Korea from a rather unusual perspective, focusing on the lives of ordinary North Koreans, rather than, like in many other works, on the ruling family or on international politics.The book paints the picture of a state that is firmly built upon a mixture of Soviet-Stalinist political and economic principles and the complete concentration of power in the hands of a ruling family in a regime that is still as repressive and totalitarian as is humanly conceivable. Many of the institutions established in the middle of the last century continue to exist in North Korea, including the songbun caste system with its three main and fifty-one subcastes, the network of concentration camps set up after the Korean War, and a tight system of neighborhood control.During the last decade, the authors argue, there have been some improvements with respect to human rights, some of which might even be interpreted as first cracks in the monolithic structure of the regime or as the beginning of true reforms. The food shortage is by no means over and continues to erode the population's trust and the social control capabilities of the government. The ruling elite has had to accept some new social realities brought about by the economic crisis. As people began to travel around the country in search of food, the regime relaxed travel restrictions to such an extent that traffic checkpoints have become unofficial "bus stops." Sentences for crossing the North Korean-Chinese border have been reduced after the number of border crossers skyrocketed in the late 1990s. The "7.1 measures" of 1 July 2002 have de facto legalized black markets.On the other hand, readers of this book clearly get the impression that the Kim Jong-il clan has found ways to adapt to the economic crisis and has successfully maintained its control over most sectors of society. The regime has tightened social control via the armed forces and the secret police apparatus. Regular prisons called kyohwaso, which had to be closed down during the food crisis, were replaced by more flexible "labor units." Homeless children, who had lost their parents or who had been abandoned, were taken to so-called "9.27 facilities." The regime benefited from a good crop in 2004 and fertilizer aid from South Korea, but it also installed a price and wage system that forced people to take care of buying foodstuffs by themselves. The authors conclude that North Korea might have begun to cautiously introduce Chinese-style reforms, but that it might just as well be attempting to preserve its current political and economic system by all means.A substantial share of the book deals with legal reforms introduced in recent years, mostly due to international pressure, for example, the ratification of the Convention Against Discrimination Against Women and the latest revisions of the penal code and criminal procedure law in 2004. These reforms have brought about a num- ber of improvements, namely, a more precise definition of crimes, a reduction of the number of crimes punishable by death, and the raising of the age limit for the death sentence. These positive developments notwithstanding, the authors provide an abundance of defector testimonies suggesting that severe human rights violations continue to occur, ranging from inhumane prison conditions and beatings to public executions, forced abortions, and the killing of babies born in prisons.Arguably, the greatest flaw in the North Korean judicial system is the distinction between "ordinary" and "political" prisoners. Anti-state crimes are dealt with directly by the State Security Agency, and there are no proper procedures, trials, or opportunities for appeals. …