Violations of the right to life rising again in N. Korea: private group

By Yonhap

Published : Aug. 29, 2018 - 16:47

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Infringements on the right to life have been on the rise in North Korea since 2010, a private group monitoring the North's human rights record said Wednesday.

According to the Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), the portion of infringement of the right to life, such as executions and violence or deaths in prison, rose to 13.3 percent of the North's total human rights violations in the years after 2010 from 6.2 percent in the 2000s.

The NKDB said it compiled the data after analyzing the database of human rights violations in North Korea. The center has collected information on the North's rights violations through interviews with defectors, with its database now listing 71,473 cases of 16 types.

(Yonhap)

The substantial increase in infringements on North Koreans' right to life over the past eight years came after its share of all rights violations fell from 20.5 percent in the 1990s to 7.1 percent in the 2000s.

Regarding the reason for the increase, the center said, "The number of secret executions and other violations of the right to life may have increased in North Korea due to the regime's bid to strengthen stability, social order and public security."

In addition, the number of violations of the rights of defendants and detainees also jumped to 8 percent in the post-2010 years from 4.7 percent in the 2000s, the NKDB noted.

"It seems that since the beginning of the Kim Jong-un era, the penalties for repatriated defectors got much tougher and the overall environment in prisons worsened," said the center. (Yonhap)

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Violations of the right to life rising again in N. Korea: private group

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