Attention is once again turning to human rights conditions in North Korea, as the United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution against human rights abuses in North Korea and a domestic bill on North Korean human rights is awaiting parliamentary approval in April. On March 24, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution expressing concerns about the human rights situation in North Korea and calling for improvement on this front. The resolution was passed during the 16th session of the 47-member council, with 30 countries lining up in support. The resolution expressed worries about severe human rights violations in North Korea, including torture in concentration camps, and urged the North to secure transparency in delivering international humanitarian food aid and other goods to North Korean people in need. According to Yun Yeo-sang, director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, the resolution itself is not legally-binding but it’s notable that an increasing number of countries are voting in favor of the U.N. resolution that has been adopted every year.

The U.N. resolution urges certain countries to take necessary measures to improve their human rights record, but it has no legal binding force. The U.N. resolution on North Korean human rights has been adopted each year since 2003. It enumerates concentration camps in North Korea, the acute food shortages in the impoverished nation, the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors and various human rights abuses in the reclusive nation. Since 2008, South Korea has jointly proposed the draft resolution led by the European Union. The number of countries casting a yes vote to the resolution is increasing year after year, proof that the dire human rights conditions in North Korea has grabbed the attention of many countries around the world. The worldwide interest and participation in this issue and the international voice calling for improvement in the human rights situation in the communist nation are putting strong pressure on North Korea.

In response, North Korea has lashed out at the adoption of the U.N. resolution on North Korean human rights, calling it a political exploitation of human rights and the extreme example of double standards. The North argues that the more the hostile forces slander the regime, the more the nation is proud of its own ideology and system and will maintain its military-first politics for the sake of independence. However, experts are concerned about the widespread human rights abuses in North Korea, which are growing ever more serious.

When it comes to human rights abuses, North Korea is described as something like a department store, meaning every kind of human rights infringements reported in nearly every country on the globe have occurred in North Korea. It’s hard to pinpoint which area is most serious, because of the organized, systematic and prevalent human rights violations in the country. The international community is deeply concerned in concentration camps, among other violations. North Korea does not acknowledge the existence of such places, but roughly 200-thousand political prisoners are currently known to languish in gulags in the communist country. This is perhaps the highest rate of political prisoners in proportion to population in the world. North Korea’s human rights abuses, which continue to this day, are among the worst in world human rights history.

Experts also note the human rights conditions of North Korean children. Many children in North Korea are not provided with sufficient nutrition as the nation has had difficulty in supplying food to daycare centers and preschools since the food shortage in the late 1990s. Many parents have starved to death or cannot look after their kids properly, so the children are vulnerable to health risks and cannot receive a normal education. As North Korea’s dismal human rights situation comes to light, controversy over the legislation of a law on North Korean human rights is surfacing again in South Korea.

A bill on North Korean human rights was presented in the 17th National Assembly but the parliament has yet to pass the bill through. The initial draft of the bill contained various issues, including the human rights situation within North Korea and the need for establishing relevant systems and facilities in South Korea. But the bill pending in the National Assembly deleted some parts that could influence North Korean society. Rather, it focuses more on ways to institutionalize and systematize South Korean movements aimed at improving human rights across the border, such as the launch of a North Korean human rights foundation and the operation of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. In other words, the bill refrains from provoking North Korea but mainly calls for creating a more favorable environment for promoting North Korean human rights here in South Korea.

However, there is a division of opinions between those who approve and disapprove the enactment of a North Korean human rights law. The ruling party seeks to pass the law, citing that the U.S. and Japan have already passed similar laws and that South Korea, as a country that’s directly involved, is responsible for the serious human rights situation just across the border. The opposition camps, on the other hand, are opposed to the move, questioning the efficiency of the bill. They also argue that it could cause inter-Korean conflict. Many spectators are wondering whether the bill will pass the National Assembly in April. Here again is Mr. Yun.

The North Korean human rights issue is a very complex matter. The main force responsible for solving this problem is the North Korean government, which is, in fact, an abuser of its own people. That is why the international community, the Seoul government and South Korean civic society need to divide their respective roles in addressing this issue. The South Korean government should take all these things into consideration and approach the issue in a more comprehensive way because it should continue to engage in dialogue with North Korea and improve inter-Korean ties. The international community, including the U.N., Japan and the United States, needs to deliver a stronger message to North Korea than South Korea. North Korean human rights groups in South Korea, meanwhile, should collect relevant information and stage campaigns against North Korea’s human rights violations. I think the diverse roles from different sectors will help improve the North Korean situation little by little.

International society is deeply concerned about gross violations of human rights in North Korea, wondering how to improve the situation in a pragmatic way. It will be necessary to approach this issue through various channels, including inter-Korean dialogue and the U.N.



[Interview] Defectors Organize Football Club Shouts resound through a playground in Gangbuk District, northern Seoul. Choi Hyeon-jun is lacing up his football shoes again. A smile illuminates the face of this former North Korean defector, who leads a football club called “Free North Korea.” Launched by North Korean defectors with the purpose of overcoming the difficulties of resettling in South Korean society through sports, the football club was registered as an official team of the district’s amateur football association this month.

Hello, I’m Choi Hyeon-jun. About 20-thousand North Korean defectors have entered South Korea, and many of them have a lot of difficulty adjusting to the new environment here. They are under a lot of stress because they experience the gap between different cultures and insist on their North Korean lifestyle. We organized this football club to release the stress through sports, communicate and mingle with South Korean members of football clubs and exchange necessary information with one another.

A total of 50 members, from those in their 20s to 40-somethings, have joined “Free North Korea.” The team’s name is imbued with the North Koreans’ search of freedom. They get together in the district’s playground every Sunday to work on their physical training and learn various football skills, including how to pass. Choi says he faced many difficulties, including financial ones, while managing the club at first because it wasn’t an official team. But he has been able to solve problems gradually thanks to assistance from people around him, and he never loses hope.

Most football clubs here pay money in advance on a six-month or one-year contract for using a soccer field. It has been only two years since I came and I didn’t have enough money to lease a soccer field. It was the Committee for Ten Million Separated Families that helped us out. The group provided us with everything we needed, including 40 soccer uniforms, 40 pairs of football shoes and even stockings. We were glad to realize that this society would not isolate us and that there were people who were willing to welcome and help us. The club members found it greatly helpful not only for their sports activities but also for their resettlement in South Korea.

After joining the district’s amateur football association, the club recently held the first official game with a team of officials of the Gangbuk Football Coalition. Unfortunately, Choi’s team lost 2-0, but the members’ sharp passes and speedy breakthrough were impressive enough to catch attention. Actually, the team has many athletes who were soccer players in North Korea. Coach and player Kim Jeong-cheol, for example, ran on the soccer field when he was in the military in North Korea, and midfielder Lim Tae-hyeon was also a football player in South Hamgyeong Province. Club leader Choi, too, won the championship several times at football and military triathlon competitions while serving in the military for twenty years in North Korea.

The North Korean military sought to intensify the athletic activities of soldiers from the 1980s to the early 1990s. Each regiment, division and corps had its own athletics group. I had opportunities to play soccer and volleyball during my long military life. I also participated in military triathlon in which soldiers run carrying weapons and stop to shoot. In the course of receiving military training, I experienced various other sports activities.

The members of the football club are feeling excited at the thought of playing sports with South Korean citizens and expanding interchanges with other teams. Han Gang-bok, who was a member of the North Korean national ice hockey team, says he is happy to engage in sports activities freely as he wants here in South Korea, unlike in North Korea where he received forced training under the strict ideological principle.

I was a member of the North Korean national youth ice hockey team. Since it is a winter sport, I received training mostly in winter. There is no ice in summer, so the athletes used to play soccer on the field. But sports activities there were quite limited, and the players couldn’t train as much as they wanted. In contrast, even ordinary citizens in South Korea can form sports clubs and play together, which I found exciting. I like it very much.

After sweating and playing sports together, the players become closer with one another. The football club will surely invigorate and give hope to many more newcomers from North Korea and take root as a meaningful venue for promoting harmony between South and North Korean people.