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Joint Resolution for
Tokyo International Conference of NGOs

Tokyo, August 1, 2005

The participant NGOs demand an immediate halt to the human rights violations in North Korea, a cessation of the repatriation of North Korean refugees by the Chinese government, and the immediate release by North Korea of all abductees.

To: International Parliamentarians’ Coalition for North Korean Refugees and Human Rights

The attached resolution is approved by the undersigned NGOs:

Japan

    •   Life Funds for North Korean Refugees
    •   The Society to Help Returnees to North Korea
    •   Rescue The North Korean People! Urgent Action
        Network (RENK)
    •   Japan Aid Association for North Korean Returnees
    •   Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by
        North Korea
    •   National Association for the Rescue of Japanese
        Kidnapped by North Korea
    •   Commission to Investigate Japanese Disappearances
        Probably
      Related to North Korea

South Korea

    •  Durihana Missionary Foundation
    •  The Commission to Help North Korean Refugees (CNKR)
    •  Coalition of North Korean Refugees’ Human Rights
    •  Coalition of South Korean Families of Abductees

USA

    •  Helping Hands Korea

Myanmar (Burma)

    •  Women’s League of Burma
    •  Kachin Women’s Association
    •  Democracy for Kachin National

On 1 August 2005, the attending NGOs from Japan, South Korea, the United States of America, and Myanmar have resolved to demand an immediate halt to the ongoing inhumanities and grave violations of human rights in North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and the immediate release of all victims abducted by North Korea. The NGOs also express deep concern over the behavior of the government of China (People’s Republic of China), which appears to be collaborating in serious violations of human rights with the government of North Korea.

North Korean refugees flee from starvation in their homeland, but the Chinese government has persistently denied them even the opportunity to apply for the status of refugee. The Chinese government, instead, insists that they are “illegal immigrants” and arrests them as criminals.

The North Korean government classes repatriated North Korean refugees as political criminals and punishes them under their Criminal Code Article 47, clearly demonstrating the current absence of human rights in North Korea.

Furthermore, it has been proven that the North Korean government has repeatedly committed the state crime of directing secret agents to abduct citizens of other countries, including Japan, South Korea and Europe. The North Korean government continues to hold most of these abductees while lying that they are not alive, and supplying false ashes as attempts to document death. They also continue to withhold information on the abductees that could be used to return them to their home countries.

The Chinese government continues the illegal arrest of suffering North Korean refugees and of humanitarian aid workers caught attempting to help those refugees. It has been documented that Chinese authorities return many arrested North Korean refugees. We condemn the behavior of the Chinese government, which stubbornly disregards international practices and the UN Convention on Refugees. This fact dishonors China as a permanent member of United Nations, and as a nation responsible for helping to maintain international peace and order.

Nearly 10,000 North Korean refugees have now been accepted by the South Korean government. The great efforts of the South Korean government deserve our respect. Recently, however, there have been cases where official South Korean agencies abroad have denied protection to North Korean refugees. This recent change by the South Korean government deeply concerns us, since that government is expected to play the leading role in providing protection to these refugees.

Based on the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we, the participant NGOs, have resolved to recommend that all participant parliamentary members actively pursue the following actions:

I. Immediately set up an international mission to survey human rights and urge the North Korean government to accept the mission and permit its survey activities in North Korea. The survey results are to be published internationally in written reports. The survey shall include at least:

  1. Investigation into the actual conditions of concentration camps and gulags, including the lists of the detained people showing the names of the survivors and the deceased.

  2. Investigation into how the North Korean refugees repatriated from China are treated and reintegrated into society in their homeland.

  3. Investigation into the current situation of victims abducted from other countries to North Korea.

  4. Whereabouts and condition of missing former ethnic Koreans in Japan who went to North Korea, as well as Japanese spouses and children who accompanied them.

II. We recommend that the human rights survey mission take the following actions in cooperation with other related international organizations:

  1. To investigate the current condition of all political prisoner camps whose existence has been proven by satellite photographs and the testimony of people who survived those prisoner camps, and to achieve the release of the political prisoners.

  2. To carry out thorough investigation into the distribution of international food aid, and to publish results of the investigation internationally.

III. If the North Korean government refuses to accept the human rights survey mission, then urge the international community to halt its supply of aid to North Korea.

IV. The Chinese government has made itself an accomplice of the regime that suppresses human rights. It has done this by illegally arresting and repatriating North Korean refugees who have fled starvation and oppression in their homeland and also by arresting and detaining humanitarian aid workers who attempt to help those North Korean refugees. The participant parliamentary members are urged to declare that holding the Olympics in China would be contrary to the Olympic spirit if the current human rights conditions in China remain unchanged, and to admonish the Olympic Committee to change the venue of the 2008 Olympics from Beijing to other country.

V. The participant parliamentary members are requested to urge their respective governments to subsidize the survey expenses, and to invite participation by related NGOs in the international human rights survey mission. The parliamentary members are also urged to work with countries bordering North Korea in order to protect the North Koreans who have fled into any of those neighboring countries, so as to halt the repatriation.

VI. The parliamentary members are requested to take leadership roles in preparing legislation that will allow resettlement of North Korean refugees in their countries and establish self-support systems for the refugees.

VII. The parliamentary members are requested to urge the governments of all related countries, including their own, to make every possible effort, including the invoking of economic sanctions, to resolve the abduction issue.