The Korea Herald

지나쌤

No improvement in dire N.K. human rights situation despite global efforts: report

By KH디지털2

Published : April 18, 2016 - 17:17

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North Korea's dismal human rights situation has not improved in recent years, despite global efforts to push Pyongyang to mend its ways, a report showed Monday.

North Korea's human rights records remain dire even after the U.N. Commission of Inquiry unveiled a landmark report in 2014 that accused Pyongyang of systematic violations of human rights, according to the report by a Seoul civic group.

The report said that North Koreans' right to life is threatened, as North Korea has extensively violated human rights, with the state torturing or executing the elite and ordinary people alike.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights unveiled the report after tracking more cases following the publication of the COI documents.

Since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took office in late 2011, he has reportedly ordered the execution of about 100 government and military officials in a bid to beef up his reign of terror. The executions have been seen as a tool used by the relatively young leader to shore up his power base and stamp out any dissent.

"Overall, North Korea's human rights records have not improved even after the COI report came out," Yoon Yeo-sang, chief director of the North Korean Human Rights Archives under the center, said at a press conference. "Public executions on the elite have actually increased under the Kim regime."

Arbitrary arrests and imprisonments accounted for 48.2 percent of about 53,000 cases of human rights violations in the North, which the center has tracked so far, its report showed.

Restrictions imposed on movement ranked second with 13.7 percent, followed by an infringement on the right to life with 11.5 percent, it added.

North Korea has long been labeled as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Pyongyang has bristled at such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.

The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information.

In December, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution for the second consecutive year that calls for referring the North to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations. (Yonhap)