Impact and UN`s Action in North Korea on Human Rights Violations
North Korea is a newly formed country founded in 9th September 1948 and not a country that has been around as long as other countries in the world. The devastating Korean War which led to many deaths eventually formed two diverse countries run by completely separate governments. It began with the conflict of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) against the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in which nearly 2.5 million people lost their lives. After these harsh events had passed and the country divided itself, Kim II Sung became the leader of the North Korean communist regime, he ruled the country till his death in 1994 and earned the title of the “Great Leader” of the Korean people.
After Kim’s death, 3 generations of successful transitions of power of the Kim family have withheld power overruling over North Korea. And as of most recently Kim Jung Un. The image that Kim Jung Un has portrayed globally has had a massive impact at the way the world globally perceives North Korea. North Korea is a powerful country that has one of the world’s largest conventional military forces.
The United Nations is an international organization that was ‘founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security’. They carry out many actions in trying to help make the world a better place for everyone to live in, they protect and promote human rights globally through 80 treaties/declarations. They try to make sure that the living conditions in all countries are fit to enable individuals to survive and promote equality. Any countries that may lack these are encouraged to allow the help of the UN to make their country a better place. ‘The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security’ and whenever there the Security Council finds the need for an action to be taken, a vote is held and the members of the UN all get one vote to whether or not the decision should be done or not.
In order to obtain their goal, the UN set up a program R2P (Responsibility to protect). “It seeks to narrow the gap between Member States’ pre-existing obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and the reality faced by populations at risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”. All the members in this program share a collective responsibility to encourage and help each other uphold this commitment and make the world a more peaceful and better place to live in. This program encourages all the states in the world to join as the “R2P has evolved into an international ethical norm which constitutes a standard for appropriate behavior for states individually and for the international community collectively”, therefore it has become a way of living and behaving morally and ethically, which makes it crucial for all countries to adopt, including North Korea.
Within North Korea, many of their own ‘Democratic’ laws are followed however international and global laws such as Human Rights are ignored widely by North Korea. ‘North Korea commits massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity’. The government abuses their power in several ways to obtain and maintain a prestigious and dominating image. This is shown through their heavy use of “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment”, this extreme behavior that the North Korean government uses should be seriously dealt with by the UN as it is unethical to treat a single person like that, let alone a whole nation. Therefore from this perspective, the UN should take a certain amount of power over how the government in North Korea should be run in order to protect the innocent citizens.
The UN General Assembly passed a human rights resolution against North Korea for rights abuses in various categories because of their immoral activities and their unethical government behavior. Although North Korea is a country of its own and run by their own “diplomatic” government, the UN does see many ways in which their behavior is unacceptable and alerting, therefore cannot be left unattended. This leads them to feel obliged to take some sort of action in achieving an ethical and moral country, that doesn’t go against their people but stands with them. North Korea has always served as a diplomatic country that mainly focuses on government power over the needs of their people; it is quite ironic that North Korea claims to be “diplomatic” as this defines in ‘acting in a way that does not cause offence’, and the country causing the most major offenses in the world is North Korea, this shows how they are living and hiding behind a lie each day and making their people do the same too.
Although most people would focus on the denuclearisation of North Korea, it is vital to take into account the treatment of the citizens within the country too because human rights could be defined legally as individual freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution, which from all of the above, North Korea do in their own country as “North Korea ranks third for meting out the death penalty, behind China and Iran, according to Amnesty International's death penalty statistics. 60 people were executed there in 2010” and “North Korea scored 19.4 on the 2010 Global Hunger Index, a level classed as alarming by the International Food Policy Research Institute”. This shows that their ignored behaviors is putting many citizens at risk every day.
The North Korean government has committed many immoral actions toward their people and do not establish the basis of human life such as, taking care of their people, e.g. providing sufficient food for survival. The civilian population in North Korea are at risk of unfair treatment throughout their lives even if they are innocent, but even just having the knowledge of anything outside of their limited education could lead to a devastating death which completely goes against what human rights is defined as. So in this case the UN acts as a protective shield against the civilian population so that the perpetrators cannot act arbitrarily in treating the civilian population.
Conversely, there have been certain observations suggesting that North Korean human rights issues, including the defector problem, might instigate a regime change in North Korea. This means that if the UN interfere it could make the situation in North Korea worse than it already is for the innocent civilians whom have been wronged their entire lives. Also, the North Korean government has authority and power within its country to make decisions about how it should be run as it is ranked 18 out of 136 countries in the 2018 Military Strength Ranking, therefore the rulings cannot be interfered with by external forces e.g. like the UN because they are their own government who have power over how the country should be run.
The government plays a massive role in relation to the country’s laws and rules, they have the power to decide how their people should live with no explanation given to them as to why they should do so because if they question the government it could risk the lives of themselves and their families. Therefore, it may be difficult for the UN to resort to a direct change in North Korea as not only is the government really powerful but they do possess one of the world’s most destructive mass destruction and deadly weapons to harm mankind. Kim Jong-un believes that nuclear weapons are his guarantee of regime survival, therefore because of his nuclear power and his government authority, it will be difficult and almost impossible to stop the unethical human violations as the UN will need to tackle North Korea’s nuclear capabilities first. As a result, there are many factors to be taken into consideration if the UN is going to take any actions against North Korea as they have to be prepared for the impact it may have on the innocent civilians too, as well as the rest of the world. Whether their action may be successful or not, all depends on the North Koreans government’s participation or rejection.
The North Korean civilians are very vulnerable to unfair treatment because “The government continued to generate fearful obedience from citizens”. Therefore to maintain the Korean regime, the government oppresses the citizens so that they do not withhold any power to make a change or have a voice in decision-making. Not only do the citizens live their lives soundlessly but in fear too because they have to live in order to please others because the government holds ‘Forced Confessions’. The forced confessions are held weekly and involve children from an early age and they “take turns standing up and showing how they were living in accordance with the teachings of the Kim philosophy. They are also expected to describe the failings of at least one of their peers in the same group. Until they identify someone for criticism, they are not allowed to stand down”, this not only violates the citizen's freedom but also ruins relationships by invading their peers’ privacy however North Korea easily gets away with this, which is resorting to the UN is the last hope as the citizens cannot stand up for themselves anymore.
The citizens also make sure they abide by the regulations all throughout their lives if they fail to do so, they could be faced by one of the country’s most brutal laws, ‘three generations of punishment’ rule. The “three generations of punishments” rule means that “If one person is convicted of a serious crime and sent to a prison camp their immediate family can also be sent with them. Then the next two generations born in the camps can also remain there”. This means that the citizens cannot do anything to stand up for themselves in fear of their family being punished too, therefore the only way they can achieve freedom is if the UN is able to persuade the government to change their ways.
North Korea is failing to protect their own country and Fenton claims that ‘today there is no reason for anyone to starve as a result of weather conditions, food shortages, or even failures in distribution’, showing that the North Korean government has no excuse for the deaths of people caused due to starvation but “Because of the country’s secretive nature, no one is sure exactly how many people died, but estimates ranged widely from a few hundred thousand to three million”, rather its caused by their ignorance and greed. In the 1996 World Food Summit 185 countries, including representatives from the governments of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the DPRK or North Korea), they all agreed to 'the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free of hunger”. However, this completely contradicts with North Korea’s actions that are carried out in their country today. Although they have signed the contract for the World Food Summit, they are going against it- so legally they should be abiding by the rules, hence, for not doing so, does give the UN authority to take some legal action.
North Korea is a member state of the UN system, therefore means they should abide by the rulings, however, they have ratified most of the key UN protocols relating to human rights. Despite this, the UN still urges North Korea to still set forth these protocols, but North Korea ignored these requests resulting in the UN now having an obligation to establish a strategy of human rights engagement with North Korea, as they only focus on and prioritize security issues, such as nuclear tests, missile launches, etc. but their people are mistreated to satisfy the government’s greed and for them to empower an intimidating image worldwide.
The North Korean regime hides behind lies each day and their constant false facts have almost become a reality for them and they force this onto the civilians too. ‘The North Korean regime refuses to acknowledge the existence of political prison camps and even claims that there are no human rights issues inside the country, and does not allow any kind of human rights monitors into the country’. This not only puts the UN in a difficult position due to the fact that North Korea are claiming they have no problems or issues but also is problematic as the citizens in North Korea are too manipulated into believing that they don’t require any assistance due to the high use of propaganda either. However, the UN and the world know these issues are not meant to be taken lightly but instead some sort of drastic action must be taken to help the citizens.
North Korea’s harsh punishments for crimes committed by citizens are seen as extreme and unjust. The punishments are not proportionate to the level of the crimes and this leaves the citizens to live in fear as they may be imprisoned for things that can be seen as ‘normal’ elsewhere in the world. Not only do they live with that fear they also live in terror as they could be imprisoned at any time for a crime that they may have not even committed nor intended to have committed. North Korea terrorizes its own population. Those who are assumed to be disloyal to the regime are arrested, imprisoned, tortured, starved, and executed. Living in fear every day isn’t something anyone should go through, let alone a whole nation, therefore it’s the UN’s duty to bring justice and help the citizens live in an environment where they won’t be wrongfully accused. The UN passed some resolutions to encourage the country to respect the fundamental human rights of citizens, but North Korea rejected them and claimed they were fabricated and politically motivated. Due to North Korea not admitting to their crimes and unlawful behavior the UN can take a further step as they first gave a warning then suggested and encouraged some improvements but (still in denial) North Korea must expect the UN to do something to help improve living conditions.
Although North Korea’s actions are quite disturbing and many people may question why the world just doesn’t get together to defeat the government, Hilpert and Krumbein highlight 3 reasons why these issues are largely ignored worldwide. Firstly, they outline that North Korea's professional control of information and images seems to be working effectively. This means that it can be very hard and difficult to obtain any solid proof or evidence of North Korea directly disregarding human rights as the country remains very contained and reserved and ensure there is no breach of information, therefore making it difficult for the UN to initially interfere as they may not have solid proof; secondly, North Korea is a peripheral, far away and culturally strange place, markedly distinct from Europe's own familiar real-life situation. This shows that the way of living and living standards are quite different to the rest of the world. Hence, making it difficult to understand their culture as the way that the country may function may be due to the country’s culture and traditions, which are vital to an individual’s identity. But we cannot be sure of this either as we have no depth information about the country; thirdly, for Europe's foreign policy actors priority objectives were always the prevention of nuclear armament and the promotion of détente in the Korean peninsula. This portrays how the UN doesn’t want to cause the communication they already have with North Korea to become a strained relationship as in response North Korea may retaliate and react abruptly with their powerful nuclear weapons.
