First, your future depends on whether or not you cry at a leader's funeral, and, if your future is imprisonment, for not crying, you then face this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9178798/North-Korean-inmates-describe-atrocities
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9178798/North-Korean-inmates-describe-atrocities
I hate to play devils advocate, but what sort of 'crimes' land North Korean citizens in these camps? Is it solely a lack of overt support for the national leadership? This wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoeryong_concentration_camp) lists "people who criticized the government,[15] people deemed politically unreliable (such as South Korean prisoners of war, Christians, returnees from Japan)[16] or purged senior party members" among camp detainees, but this is only with regards to the one prison camp, which I doubt is specifically discussed in the article. I'm also concerned that the position of the article is largely based Kirby's comments to reporters which compare Korea and Nazi Germany and thus the article contains more emotional appeal and speculation that hard evidence. I'm not disputing the unethical detention of North Koreans, but this article may present a skewed or inflated perspective.
ReplyDeleteMost of the evidence suggests that people sent to prison and labor camps in NK are for political offenses, but these are defined quite broadly (e.g., being related to people who have been convicted of other political crimes may count as one). The Gulag in Stalin's time operated similarly, though it sometimes mixed common criminals with political offenders in some camps; I'm sure there are some NK camps like that.
DeleteWhat I think is sad is this has been known for years, why is it only now that it has been taken to the UN? They also have a 3 generation rule where if you are related to someone who is committed a crime you can be sent to one of the labour camps too (although I do not think this is for all the time). Some of the crimes that they are sent for would never be deemed crimes anywhere else in the world, I read of one account where a woman was arrested for selling cookies. Some people are sent there on false accusations too such as in the book "Eyes of the Tailless Animals" by Soon Ok Lee. In this she is accused of bribery when in fact she was only accused of this because she would not do what people above her wanted her to do even though it went against the rules she was meant to be following.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound like it is as bad as the concentration camps during the War, they don't have gas chambers for starts but some of the treatment is pretty horrendous and they are barely given any food to eat while they are expected to do hard labour.
I also think it is sad that these kind of accounts never get much publicity yet when North Korea threatens America that got heaps of attention. It seems like the only time people think about North Korea is when they are being a nuisance but if they keep quiet the rest of the world just ignores what the government is doing to it's people.