North Koreans do forced labor overseas

Marzuki Darusman, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea revealed the findings of his investigation to the General Assembly and reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

“The near total denial of human rights in the country revolves around…instilling fear within the minds and hearts of the population”, Darusman said.

The second government-level meeting of the NAPCI brought together Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun; Sung Kim, USA special representative for North Korea policy; Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin; Kimihiro Ishikane, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau; and Russian Ambassador-at-Large Grigory Logvinov, among others. And he said that companies hiring North Korean workers “become complicit in an unacceptable system of forced labour”.

“The rationale behind that state-sponsored system appears to be to circumvent United Nations sanctions imposed on the country with a view to earning currencies”, Darusman wrote in a report he presented to the U.N. committee on Thursday.

Total deaths due to tuberculosis in North Korea have declined by 1,700 since 2013, but the disease still persists, and the country now has 110,000 TB patients – or 442 per 100,000, the second-highest in Asia after East Timor.

North Korea’s tuberculosis deaths are declining, but 5,000 North Koreans still die from the disease annually. “I hope China would be in a more constructive position to address this matter within the UN Security Council”, he said.

The tyrant is believed to be constructing a ballistic missile which would be capable of reaching the US.

In addition to the North’s worst drought in a century, Kwon was cited by local news agency Yonhap as claiming that China has also been exporting fewer crops to its long-standing ally.

The fact that this trip was given permission is surprising given North Korea’s record with religious freedom and human rights. A 162-member delegation representing both major umbrella labor unions – including Kim Dong-man, chair of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), and Choi Jong-jin, senior vice chair of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) – arrived in North Korea at 12:30 pm on October 28.

The young North Korean leader is “really going out of his way to establish his leadership” and that is why “we’re seeing so many high-level purges” of high-level North Korean officials, Lee said.