Category Archives: Human Rights Abuses
Abandoned Children in China
Many Problems Confront Children of North Korean Mothers and Chinese Fathers
The international community has grown uncomfortably aware, over the past decade, of the many problems confronting North Korean defectors. The most urgent of these include capture by Chinese police and forced repatriation, as well as the need to find a way to a safe third country such as South Korea for resettlement.
Photos from International Symposium in Tokyo
Speakers included LFNKR’s Kato Hiroshi (right) and beside him, Diet member Masaharu Nakagawa
During the International Symposium on North Korean Human Rights held in Tokyo December 10th through 16th, our organization, LFNKR, hosted two of the events.
International Symposium on North Korean Human Rights
Public Awareness Week
In June 2006, the North Korean Human Rights Law was established in Japan. This law specifies December 10-16 as the North Korean Human Rights Week and resolves that both governmental and regional institutions shall put forth efforts to increase public awareness of human rights violations by North Korea.
Chinese Border Guards Videotaped Shooting Religious Pilgrims
China Still Violating Basic Human Rights
As a citizen’s group deeply involved in human rights, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) has long called for more rapid improvement of human rights in China.
At the end of September, for example, Chinese border guards were videotaped firing upon a group of Tibetan pilgrims, including nuns and juvenile priests. At least two of the pilgrims were killed, prompting growing criticism of China by the international community.
Open Letter to Ban Ki-moon
Faxed to ROK Permanent Mission at United Nations
October 19, 2006
His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Secretary General-Designate and
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Republic of Korea
c/o The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations
335 East 45th Street
New York, New York 10017
Dear Foreign Minister Ban:
We, the undersigned, are gravely concerned for the human rights of the North Korean people, and we have also been following the news of your selection to be the next United Nations Secretary General with great interest. Allegations that the North Korean government has engaged in large-scale crimes against humanity will be among the U.N.’s great moral challenges in the coming years, and the institution’s moral authority will depend on how it responds to those challenges.
Family of Jailed Humanitarian Worker Struggling
Kim Bong Soon’s Letter
Hello, I am Kim Bong Soon, the wife of Choi Yong-hun.
My husband was arrested by the Chinese police in January 2003 for helping North Korean refugees and was sent to prison for 5 years. Today, he remains confined in the Weifang Prison, Shandong Province, China after serving 46 months of a 60-month sentence. He suffers from worsening chronic diabetes, hypertension, and asthma because of the poor living conditions in the prison.
Video Reveals Prisoner Beating
Guard beats female prisoner
On September 25, Free North Korea Broadcasting, a South Korean NGO, released footage of a female North Korean defector being beaten and kicked during interrogation on Aug. 17 at a guard post on the China-Korean border. The footage was widely reported by the media the next day, including newspapers and television broadcasters in Japan and South Korea.
UN Working Group Calls Arrest Arbitrary
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a report on May 27, 2005 calling China’s detention of Choi Yong Hun “arbitrary.” This term means he is in prison without just cause. Further, his detention is “in contravention of the provisions of article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” according to the report, and the Group called upon China to rectify the situation.