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Sixty-three North Korean defectors out of 100 interviewed by the Korean Bar Association recall finding life in the North ¡°inhuman.¡±
Fifty-one of the respondents interviewed between February and April testified that they had seen or heard about people starving to death where they lived, according to the KBA's 2008 White Paper on North Korean Human Rights Conditions. Sixty-seven said they never received rations of food or materials allegedly delivered by the international community, including the UN, foreign countries or South Korea.
The most egregious human rights violation according to 23 respondents was suppression of freedom of speech. This was followed threat to survival (12 respondents), restrictions of freedom of movement (11), discrimination (5), surveillance (3), guilt by association (3), and public executions (2).
According to the white paper, about 300,000 North Korean residents are being detained in 15 political prison camps throughout North Korea. Dissidents, attempted defectors, and families of repatriated Korean-Japanese people are detained at the Yoduk concentration camp, a ¡°re-education." More serious dissidents such as Japanese collaborators, religious people and ¡°capitalists¡± are reportedly held for life in a completely controlled area.
North Korean women are targets of human trafficking. Women between 20 and 24 are sold to China and other areas for 7,000 yuan (approximately W1.3 million) each. Those aged 25 to 30 are sold for 5,000 yuan (W940,000) and those 30 or older are sold for 3,000 yuan (W560,000), the paper said. The KBA's white paper was second of its kind since 2006.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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