Defectors, activists, supporters call for action to improve NK human rights in UN meeting

Greg Scarlatoiu, president and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights, speaks during a high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting at U.N. headquarters in N.Y., Tuesday, in this photo captured from U.N. Web TV. Yonhap

North Korean escapees, activists and supporters made an emphatic call for global action to enhance the human rights situation in North Korea during a high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday, with a defector delivering a reverberating message: "silence is complicity".

They participated in the rare meeting on Pyongyang's human rights violations, with two defectors sharing accounts of their tribulations in the repressed country. North Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Kim Song bristled at the meeting, repeating claims of a Western plot to "politicize" and "weaponize" human rights issues.

The meeting, the first of its kind at the General Assembly, proceeded in line with last year's North Korean human rights resolution that called for a high-level plenary meeting, featuring testimony by civil society representatives and other experts, to address the human rights abuses in the North.

Participants highlighted a close link between North Korea's human rights and its regime's advancing weapons programs, noting the repressive culture in the country has allowed Pyongyang to forge ahead with its development of nuclear arms and missiles at the expense of people's livelihoods.

"The point I am trying to make here is that North Korea is no longer just a Korean Peninsula threat. DPRK is not longer just a Northeast Asian threat," Greg Scarlatoiu, president and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The DPRK is exporting instability and violence to the Middle East and to Europe, and the root cause of this is the human rights violations that the DPRK perpetrates," he added.

Elizabeth Salmon, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the North, reported deteriorating conditions for North Koreans.

"For over five years, people in the DPRK have been living in absolute isolation. The government's excessive measure, placed under the COVID-19 pandemic, worsened an already dire human rights situation in the country," she said.

"The closure of borders, the limited humanitarian assistance from the U.N. and other organizations and the tight access to information have aggravated the living conditions."

Elizabeth Salmon, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, speaks during a high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting at U.N. headquarters in N.Y., Tuesday, in this photo captured from U.N. Web TV. Yonhap

What's worse, the North has further restricted the right to move, work and express their opinions freely through new laws and stricter punishments, she said.

Salmon stressed that peace and human rights are "strongly interrelated," arguing that North Korea exploits its labor force to finance military programs, while prioritizing military spending has resulted in underinvestment in social welfare.

Drawing keen attention at the meeting were the accounts of two North Korean escapees -- Kim Eun-joo and Kang Gyu-ri.

Kim, along with his mother and older sister, escaped the North, "simply hoping to find something to eat," after she lost her father to starvation, she said. But the life after crossing into China across the border was full or ordeals, she recalled.

"On our first night in China, my sister was kidnapped, sexually abused and left on the roadside. Later, my mother, sister and I, all of us, were sold for only ... less than $300," she said. "This tragedy is not only my family's story. Many others face the same brutal reality under the North Korean regime even today."

Kim Eun-joo, a North Korean escapee, speaks during a high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting at U.N. headquarters in N.Y., Tuesday, in this photo captured from U.N. Web TV. Yonhap

She emphasized that the human rights violations in the North are becoming more "systematic, organized and spread beyond its borders" as she pointed to North Korean soldiers deployed to support Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Young North Korean soldiers are caught up in a new kind of modern-day slavery," she said.

"They have no idea where they are, whom they are fighting against and why, and their lives become a means for the Kim Jong-un regime to make money, while their parents, left behind in North Korea, are forced to endure the unbearable pain of losing their sons as cannon fodder over the foreign battlefield."

She went on to highlight that the North's involvement in Russia's war is not only a "grave human rights violation, but also a serious threat to international peace and security."

Kim called for the international community to take action.

"Silence is complicity," she said. "Restoring human rights in North Korea is not just about helping its people survive. It is about defending global peace and upholding the dignity of all humanity."

Kang also shared her family's ordeal.

Her entire family was sent to the countryside from Pyongyang because her grandmother was a practitioner of folk religion in the country, where she said the only faith allowed is the ideology of juche, or self reliance that backs up the Kim regime. In October 2023, she fled the North on a wooden fishing boat.

Kang claimed that the North's regime used the pandemic to tighten control on its people.

"The COVID-19 lockdown gave them a perfect excuse and opportunity," she said. "As North Korean people were suffering from hyperinflation, economic hardship and widespread hunger, the North Korean authorities used the occasion to eradicate South Korean cultural influence."

Sean Chung, CEO of HanVoice, an advocacy group, also attended the meeting to represent other civil society organizations defending human rights.

He made a series of proposals, including a strong resolution that mandates the creation of a new independent expert body that collects, analyzes and reports on how North Korea's human rights violations intersect with weapons development, global business and supply chains.

"This body should examine credible reports that North Korea's economic model, including systems of forced labor and slavery at home and abroad, is generating substantial revenue, and it should examine how these proceeds, together with gains from illicit activities, such as cryptocurrency theft and other transnational crimes, could be diverted to its military programs," he said.

South Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Hwang Joon-kook said that for long, North Korea's human rights violations have been overshadowed by its nuclear threats.

"But human rights abuse is not a second-tier issue. Rather, North Korea's nuclear issue and human rights situation are deeply interconnected and reflect the true nature of the North Korean regime," he said.

"Their nuclear program is sustained by systemic repression, forced labor, diverted natural resources and total control over its people. If human rights violations stop, nuclear weapons development will also stop."

As anticipated, North Korean Ambassador Kim criticized the meeting, calling on U.N. member states to "categorically" oppose the plot of "ulterior forces" to "politicize and weaponize" human rights while describing the meeting as originating from an "intrigue" and "fabrication."

Kim also lambasted the two North Korean escapees as "the scum of the earth who don't care about their parents and families."