► North Korean human rights abuses continue to pose a serious international challenge.

► Behind the distractions of denuclearization and the luxurious life or funny hairstyle of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean human rights issue has been less consistently prioritized. The truth is that the regime’s appalling human rights record is often ignored or used as a negotiation tool.

► Historically, priority has been given to nuclear disarmament over the infringement of human rights when dealing with North Korea. However, North Korea certainly would not be anywhere near their current level of nuclear capability if its people realized the truth of the Regime’s abuse of their basic human rights.

 

 

North Korean human rights abuses continue to pose a serious international challenge. Behind the distractions of denuclearization and the luxurious life or funny hairstyle of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean human rights issue has been less consistently prioritized. The truth is that the regime’s appalling human rights record is often ignored or used as a negotiation tool. However, as a North Korean defector who experienced the most oppressive regime in the modern world, I urge the international society to recognize the importance of the violations against the North Korean people by the Kim regime, whether or not out of humanity or morality, but out of own self-interest. It is because solving the human rights issue in North Korea is directly tied to the safety and order of the region.

 

Human rights abuses under Kim Jong-un regime

 

In 2011, 28-years-old Kim Jong-un succeeded to the throne in North Korea. He had almost no record in North Korea prior to 2009. His presence had been known to the public starting from 2009 with a song, “Footprint”, which is a propaganda song for him. I was a foreign exchange college student in China in 2011; therefore, I was able to access the information that he studied abroad in Switzerland when he was young. This piece of information was enough to get me and many friends of mine excited about the future of North Korea, without knowing nothing else about Kim Jong-un. I vividly remember the exciting voice of my friend Jang Tae-ryong, son of the former North Korean ambassador to Malaysia, when he talked about “Our New Leader.” His family was relatives of Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Sung-taek, thus later, they were also purged right after Kim executed his uncle Jang in December 2013.

 

Many North Korean people expected that the young leader would be different from his grandfather Kim Il-sung and his father Kim Jong-il and he would make some positive changes in North Korea. The young leader who once experienced freedom and democracy did not make any changes in his policy but prioritized his permanent power over the freedom and human rights of his 25 million people.

 

Today, the conditions in North Korea have gotten worse than ever. North Koreans are suffering from the purposeful deprivation by their own government and the systemic human rights crackdowns of the Kim Jong-un regime. Despite having spent an estimated $4.75 billion (25% of its GDP in 2021) on its military and nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un still declared that the country would start a new and harder ‘Arduous March’ in his April 8th, 2021, speech to a conference of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, suggesting that another deadly country wide famine is possible. This was a reversal of his promise to the public at the beginning of his reign, "I will no longer have my people tighten their belts." Furthermore, people are being executed with anti-aircraft guns in North Korea, and more than 150,000 North Koreans, including infants and old man remain in political prison camps. Since the Kim family ruled North Korea over the past 70 years, there have been numerous inhumane atrocities, but Kim Jong-un's bizarre atrocities of killing people with an antiaircraft machine gun that shoots down airplanes aroused great fear and anger in North Koreans. Imagine seeing, right in front of your eyes, the person you once knew or worked with for decades disappears without a trace and blood splattered everywhere!

 

Today in North Korea, the only North Korean who enjoys any freedom and rights is Kim Jong-un himself. He points a gun at his people, exploits and sacrifices them to maintain his power and enjoy a luxurious life. The world should be easily convinced with the facts by checking out symbolic and historical incidents in his reign such as execution of his uncle Jang Seong-taek and the assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong-nam at the Malaysian airport. Also, the fact that people would never find anyone fatter than Kim Jong-un in North Korea (normally in North Korea’s media) tells a lot more than what he says.

 

(According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021, more than 40% of North Korean’s total population suffered from malnutrition between 2018 and 2020.)

 

The reason why North Korea human rights is the key

 

Since the Kim family took power in North Korea, the government has strictly restricted consuming content outside of the country and employed aggressive propaganda to instill values and ideals aligned solely with the interests of the Kim regime.

 

North Korea is still the only country in the world where the Internet is banned. As the number of Internet users in North Korea has increased in recent years, some outsiders speculate that certain elites in North Korea are able to access the Internet freely, but as far as I know, the number of elites who can access the Internet is extremely rare. Most people who can access the Internet inside North Korea are foreigners visiting North Korea for business purposes or hackers trained by the North Korean authorities.

 

In the last 20 years, despite North Korea’s extreme socio-political and economic isolation from the rest of the world, pirated South Korean TV shows have played a pivotal role in causing more and more ordinary citizens to question life under the Kim regime. Nevertheless, the majority of North Koreans still do not fully comprehend the extent of their systemic injustice and oppression.

 

North Korea has been able to build nuclear weaponry while thousands of people starve to death with no resistance from the public. Because the majority of North Koreans have never learned about the concept of human rights, they do not understand that their human rights are violated, and it is a challenging concept to learn with limited access to information. North Korea certainly would not be anywhere near their current level of nuclear capability if the regime did not chronically deprive its population of resources and engage in other systematic abuses of human rights.

 

North Korea fired more than 79 missiles (38 times were missile tests) from January to November 2022, which was the highest number in North Korean history. What we need to be concerned about is that the missiles and nuclear weapons are evolving both in numbers and their capabilities. According to various military experts, the types of missiles have diversified significantly, their launch times have been shortened, and missiles, and nuclear weapons are becoming smaller. The advanced North Korean missiles and nuclear weapons can pose a threat not only to South Korea, Japan, and the United States, but to the entire world eventually. It is an open fact inside North Korea that there are intentions and attempts by the Kim regime to sell missiles and nuclear weapons to terrorists and anarchists around the world.

 

Historically, priority has been given to nuclear disarmament over the infringement of human rights when dealing with North Korea. However, North Korea certainly would not be anywhere near their current level of nuclear capability if its people realized the truth of the Regime’s abuse of their basic human rights. In this regard, an effort to educate, inspire critical thinking, and inform the North Korean people about the outside world and their human rights is much more valuable and effective in causing a long-lasting positive change for North Korean issues and eliminating the root cause of the threat to the security and order of the region. Waking its people up to their situation and the lies surrounding them will likely help solve the issue itself.