Latest news with #Salmón
Yomiuri Shimbun
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
North Korean Defectors Urge the UN to Hold the Country's Leader Accountable for Rights Abuses
Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks with North Korean officers after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 9, 2025, during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the World War II. UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country's leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother's religious beliefs, fled the North during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly that three of her friends were executed — two for watching South Korean TV dramas. At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea, described the plight of North Koreans who U.N. special investigator Elizabeth Salmón said have been living in 'absolute isolation' since the pandemic began in early 2020. Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Salmón said North Korea's closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions. In another rights issue, she said, the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine has raised concerns about 'the poor human rights conditions of its soldiers while in service, and the government's widespread exploitation of its own people.' The North's 'extreme militarization' enables it to keep the population under surveillance and it exploits the work force through a state-controlled system that finances its expanding nuclear program and military ventures, Salmón said. North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the allegations that his country violates human rights 'a burlesque of intrigue and fabrication' and insisted that tens of millions of North Koreans enjoy human rights under the country's socialist system. He accused the West of being the bigger violator, through racial discrimination, human trafficking and sexual slavery. But the two defectors and human rights defenders detailed numerous abuses. Kim, who said her father died of starvation, told U.N. diplomats that after making it to China across the Tumen River the first time, she, her mother and sister were sold for the equivalent of less than $300 to a Chinese man. Three years later, they were arrested and sent back to the North. In 2002, they escaped again across the river. Kang, who was banished to the countryside as a 5-year-old because of her grandmother's religious beliefs, said she became the owner of a 10-meter (33-foot) wooden fishing boat and escaped on it in October 2023 with her mother and aunt. She said she was lucky to have access to information about the outside world and to have been given a USB with South Korean TV dramas, which she said she found 'so refreshing and more credible than North Korea state propaganda,' though she knew being caught could mean death. 'Three of my friends were executed, two of them in public for distributing South Korean dramas,' Kang said. 'One of them was only 19 years old. … It was as if they were guilty of heinous crimes.' She expressed hope that her speech would 'awaken the North Korean people' and help them 'to point in the direction of freedom.' Kim accused North Korea of sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine without them knowing where they were going and using them as cannon fodder to make money. 'This is a new and unacceptable form of human trafficking,' she said. Kim called for the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, to be investigated and held accountable by the International Criminal Court. Addressing the world's nations, she said: 'Silence is complicity. Stand firm against the regime's systematic atrocities.' Sean Chung, head of Han Voice, who spoke on behalf of a global coalition of 28 civil society organizations, called on China and all other countries to end forced repatriations to North Korea. He called on U.N. member nations to urge the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and to impose and enforce sanctions on 'every official and entity credibly found to be responsible for North Korea's atrocity crimes.'
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
‘Silence Is Complicity,' Warns Activist Who Fled DPR Korea
20 May 2025 When they eventually did, her mother said to her, 'If you are going to die anyway, better to be shot crossing the two-mile border than starve here.' Shortly thereafter they fled from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea. Ms. Kim gave testimony to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday during a meeting convened to discuss human rights abuses and violations in DPRK: 'The human rights situation in the country has been of grave concern for years, and, in many respects, is deteriorating,' Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, told delegates. The representative from DPRK denounced the meeting, insisting that the information presented was a 'fabrication.' Wide-ranging abuses North Koreans have been forced to exist in 'absolute isolation' for many years, according to UN Special Rapporteur on human rights for the country, Elizabeth Salmón. The independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert said this isolation has exacerbated the impact of multiple rights violations which include forced labour systems, infringement on freedom of expression and movement, torture and the forced disappearance of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The DPRK has also denied entry to humanitarian aid despite UN data which suggests that it is desperately needed – 11.8 million people, or 45 per cent of the population, are estimated to be undernourished and more than half the population lacks adequate sanitation. Instead of social services, Pyongyang has prioritized militarisation, exacerbating human rights violations, said the Special Rapporteur. 'As the DPRK expands its extreme militarization policies, it exacerbates the extensive reliance on forced labour and quota systems, showing how peace, security and human rights are strongly interrelated,' Ms. Salmón said. 'Please do not turn away' Ms. Kim pleaded with delegates and UN officials to take action. ' Please do not turn away from the innocent lives being lost in North Korea and elsewhere. Silence is complicity,' she said. Ms. Kehris noted that the international community has taken many steps in past decades to address ongoing human rights abuses in the DPRK but that these actions have failed to change the status quo. 'Given the gravity and scale of the violations, and inability or unwillingness of the [DPRK] to pursue accountability, international accountability options must be considered, including referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court, ' she said. Despite such challenges, the senior official did note that Pyongyang has shown 'increased willingness' to engage with her office, OHCHR. In September, OHCHR is due to present a report to the Human Rights Council which will make new proposals on improving the situation. In her remarks, Ms. Salmón insisted that long-term accountability for the DPRK must go hand in hand with peace. 'Peace is a foundation for human rights. Human rights cannot thrive without peace. In this rapidly developing political climate, we must act together to prevent geopolitical tensions from destabilizing the Korean Peninsula,' she said. Hope for the future It has been more than 25 years since Ms. Kim fled: ' One day, I hope to return to North Korea, hand in hand with my daughters, to show them a North Korea not defined by control and fear but filled with freedom and hope, ' she said.
The Hill
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
North Korean defectors urge the UN to hold the country's leader accountable for rights abuses
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country's leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother's religious beliefs, fled the North during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly that three of her friends were executed — two for watching South Korean TV dramas. At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea, described the plight of North Koreans who U.N. special investigator Elizabeth Salmón said have been living in 'absolute isolation' since the pandemic began in early 2020. Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Salmón said North Korea's closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions. In another rights issue, she said, the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine has raised concerns about 'the poor human rights conditions of its soldiers while in service, and the government's widespread exploitation of its own people.' The North's 'extreme militarization' enables it to keep the population under surveillance and it exploits the work force through a state-controlled system that finances its expanding nuclear program and military ventures, Salmón said. North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the allegations that his country violates human rights 'a burlesque of intrigue and fabrication' and insisted that tens of millions of North Koreans enjoy human rights under the country's socialist system. He accused the West of being the bigger violator, through racial discrimination, human trafficking and sexual slavery. But the two defectors and human rights defenders detailed numerous abuses. Kim, who said her father died of starvation, told U.N. diplomats that after making it to China across the Tumen River the first time, she, her mother and sister were sold for the equivalent of less than $300 to a Chinese man. Three years later, they were arrested and sent back to the North. In 2002, they escaped again across the river. Kang, who was banished to the countryside as a 5-year-old because of her grandmother's religious beliefs, said she became the owner of a 10-meter (33-foot) wooden fishing boat and escaped on it in October 2023 with her mother and aunt. She said she was lucky to have access to information about the outside world and to have been given a USB with South Korean TV dramas, which she said she found 'so refreshing and more credible than North Korea state propaganda,' though she knew being caught could mean death. 'Three of my friends were executed, two of them in public for distributing South Korean dramas,' Kang said. 'One of them was only 19 years old. … It was as if they were guilty of heinous crimes.' She expressed hope that her speech would 'awaken the North Korean people' and help them 'to point in the direction of freedom.' Kim accused North Korea of sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine without them knowing where they were going and using them as cannon fodder to make money. 'This is a new and unacceptable form of human trafficking,' she said. Kim called for the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, to be investigated and held accountable by the International Criminal Court. Addressing the world's nations, she said: 'Silence is complicity. Stand firm against the regime's systematic atrocities.' Sean Chung, head of Han Voice, who spoke on behalf of a global coalition of 28 civil society organizations, called on China and all other countries to end forced repatriations to North Korea. He called on U.N. member nations to urge the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and to impose and enforce sanctions on 'every official and entity credibly found to be responsible for North Korea's atrocity crimes.'
San Francisco Chronicle
21-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
North Korean defectors urge the UN to hold the country's leader accountable for rights abuses
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country's leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother's religious beliefs, fled the North during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly that three of her friends were executed — two for watching South Korean TV dramas. At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea, described the plight of North Koreans who U.N. special investigator Elizabeth Salmón said have been living in 'absolute isolation' since the pandemic began in early 2020. Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Salmón said North Korea's closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions. In another rights issue, she said, the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine has raised concerns about 'the poor human rights conditions of its soldiers while in service, and the government's widespread exploitation of its own people.' The North's 'extreme militarization' enables it to keep the population under surveillance and it exploits the work force through a state-controlled system that finances its expanding nuclear program and military ventures, Salmón said. North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the allegations that his country violates human rights 'a burlesque of intrigue and fabrication" and insisted that tens of millions of North Koreans enjoy human rights under the country's socialist system. He accused the West of being the bigger violator, through racial discrimination, human trafficking and sexual slavery. But the two defectors and human rights defenders detailed numerous abuses. Kim, who said her father died of starvation, told U.N. diplomats that after making it to China across the Tumen River the first time, she, her mother and sister were sold for the equivalent of less than $300 to a Chinese man. Three years later, they were arrested and sent back to the North. In 2002, they escaped again across the river. Kang, who was banished to the countryside as a 5-year-old because of her grandmother's religious beliefs, said she became the owner of a 10-meter (33-foot) wooden fishing boat and escaped on it in October 2023 with her mother and aunt. She said she was lucky to have access to information about the outside world and to have been given a USB with South Korean TV dramas, which she said she found 'so refreshing and more credible than North Korea state propaganda,' though she knew being caught could mean death. 'Three of my friends were executed, two of them in public for distributing South Korean dramas,' Kang said. 'One of them was only 19 years old. … It was as if they were guilty of heinous crimes.' She expressed hope that her speech would 'awaken the North Korean people' and help them 'to point in the direction of freedom.' Kim accused North Korea of sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine without them knowing where they were going and using them as cannon fodder to make money. 'This is a new and unacceptable form of human trafficking,' she said. Kim called for the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, to be investigated and held accountable by the International Criminal Court. Addressing the world's nations, she said: 'Silence is complicity. Stand firm against the regime's systematic atrocities.' Sean Chung, head of Han Voice, who spoke on behalf of a global coalition of 28 civil society organizations, called on China and all other countries to end forced repatriations to North Korea. He called on U.N. member nations to urge the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and to impose and enforce sanctions on 'every official and entity credibly found to be responsible for North Korea's atrocity crimes.'
21-05-2025
- Politics
North Korean defectors urge the UN to hold the country's leader accountable for rights abuses
UNITED NATIONS -- Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country's leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother's religious beliefs, fled the North during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly that three of her friends were executed — two for watching South Korean TV dramas. At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea, described the plight of North Koreans who U.N. special investigator Elizabeth Salmón said have been living in 'absolute isolation' since the pandemic began in early 2020. Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Salmón said North Korea's closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions. In another rights issue, she said, the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine has raised concerns about 'the poor human rights conditions of its soldiers while in service, and the government's widespread exploitation of its own people.' The North's 'extreme militarization' enables it to keep the population under surveillance and it exploits the work force through a state-controlled system that finances its expanding nuclear program and military ventures, Salmón said. North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the allegations that his country violates human rights 'a burlesque of intrigue and fabrication" and insisted that tens of millions of North Koreans enjoy human rights under the country's socialist system. He accused the West of being the bigger violator, through racial discrimination, human trafficking and sexual slavery. But the two defectors and human rights defenders detailed numerous abuses. Kim, who said her father died of starvation, told U.N. diplomats that after making it to China across the Tumen River the first time, she, her mother and sister were sold for the equivalent of less than $300 to a Chinese man. Three years later, they were arrested and sent back to the North. In 2002, they escaped again across the river. Kang, who was banished to the countryside as a 5-year-old because of her grandmother's religious beliefs, said she became the owner of a 10-meter (33-foot) wooden fishing boat and escaped on it in October 2023 with her mother and aunt. She said she was lucky to have access to information about the outside world and to have been given a USB with South Korean TV dramas, which she said she found 'so refreshing and more credible than North Korea state propaganda,' though she knew being caught could mean death. 'Three of my friends were executed, two of them in public for distributing South Korean dramas,' Kang said. 'One of them was only 19 years old. … It was as if they were guilty of heinous crimes.' She expressed hope that her speech would 'awaken the North Korean people' and help them 'to point in the direction of freedom.' Kim accused North Korea of sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine without them knowing where they were going and using them as cannon fodder to make money. 'This is a new and unacceptable form of human trafficking,' she said. Kim called for the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, to be investigated and held accountable by the International Criminal Court. Addressing the world's nations, she said: 'Silence is complicity. Stand firm against the regime's systematic atrocities.' Sean Chung, head of Han Voice, who spoke on behalf of a global coalition of 28 civil society organizations, called on China and all other countries to end forced repatriations to North Korea. He called on U.N. member nations to urge the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and to impose and enforce sanctions on 'every official and entity credibly found to be responsible for North Korea's atrocity crimes.'
