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Human Rights Violations In North Korea

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“At the end of the Second World War so many people said, ‘If only we had known, if only we had known the wrongs that were done in the countries of the hostile forces’…there will be no excusing the failure of action because we didn’t know–we do know”(Weber), said Micheal Kirby, the chairman of the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea . Micheal Kirby raises the question, what do we, as humans and as members of a nation, owe to other humans wronged in their own nation? Since the Holocaust, humans have promised that “never again” will the heinous acts committed in the Holocaust occur, yet humanity has failed to keep its promise since the same heinous acts against humanity continue have occurred …show more content…
Human Rights abuses in North Korea are permitted on a both a domestic and international level because of North Korea's isolation from other countries, the Great Leaders control over the North Koreans, the UN Security Council’s lack of effort, and Russia and China's support for North Korea.
First, human rights abuses in North Korea include heinous prison conditions, starvation, sexual assault, and forced disappearances, over all resulting in Crimes Against Humanity as declared by the UN Human Rights Council ("North Korea: UN Commission Documents Wide-Ranging and Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity, Urges Referral to ICC."). These human rights abuses occur as a result of the unfair and abusive leadership of North Korea. Although denied by North Korea, satellite images prove political concentrations camps (Marszal), in which political prisoners are inhumanely treated. People are sent to the concentration camps as a result of, “threats to the regime, no matter how minor or unfounded, [include]: hints of dissatisfaction, ungratefulness, individuality, or the non-reporting of family or neighbors exhibiting signs of defection” (North Korea Now). Rather than sending solely the guilty to the concentration camps, the North Korean government sends the guilty and their entire family on the basis …show more content…
The government’s complete control over the media results in complete control by the state. All over North Korea, “loudspeakers hard-wired into every house to distribute government news and information to crude and sophisticate methods of eavesdropping”(Weber), and if the government overhears information against North Korea, it can result time in prison (Amnesty International USA). In each home, “pictures of Kim Jong Il, alongside pictures of his father, Kim Il Sung, appear in households, schools, and public arenas. The images present the dictators as gods to be worshiped. Many commodities and internally published materials also bare Kim Jong Il’s image, reminding North Koreans that their leader is supreme and always watching. The mistreatment, tampering, or discarding of any papers or objects that bare Kim Jong Il’s photograph or name are criminalized and punished”(North Korea Now). Kim Jong-Il uses mandatory military to control the able youth body with, “propagandized military training, which further indoctrinates fear of state surveillance, discourages the most active and able-bodied members of North Korea’s population (15-30 year-old men and women) from organizing, mobilizing, dissenting, resisting, and revolting”(North Korea Now). The North Korean government brainwashes North Koreans from an early stage, allowing crimes against humanity to occur. Children in the North

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