Prisoners in “kyohwaso” (re-education camps) are conscripted to lives of hard labor with no pay in inhuman living conditions.
Some of the world’s worst human rights violations take place in North Korea.
Estimates say between 80,000 and 120,000 individuals are inhumanely detained in North Korea’s six known, operational political prison camps.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry report on human rights revealed that the North Korean regime regularly committed crimes against humanity, including extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape and forced abortions.
To highlight these serious abuses, Heritage hosted a panel discussion on Oct. 29 with experts Jung Pak of the Brookings Institution, Dan Aum of the National Bureau of Asian Research, and Greg Scarlatoiu of the Committee on Human Rights in North Korea to examine ways to integrate human rights into U. S. negotiations with North Korea.
The purpose of the discussion was to demonstrate that advancing human rights in North Korea and making progress in nuclear negotiations are not mutually exclusive propositions.
Improving human rights in North Korea is directly related to advancing U. S. national security objectives.
In spite of this, human rights issues played little to no role in negotiations with North Korea at the Singapore summit in June.
“Human rights abuse, along with nuclear capabilities, constitute the two pillars that keep the North Korean regime functioning,” Pak said at the Heritage event.
