{"id":225540,"date":"2019-08-02T23:33:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-03T03:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=225540"},"modified":"2019-08-02T23:33:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T03:33:15","slug":"un-report-north-korean-prisoners-killed-for-escape-attempts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/02\/un-report-north-korean-prisoners-killed-for-escape-attempts\/","title":{"rendered":"UN report: North Korean prisoners killed for escape attempts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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According to Guterres, \u201cformer detainees report extremely unsanitary conditions, and insufficient food causing malnourishment, illness, and occasionally also death of other detainees.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: @antonioguterres\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in a new report on North Korea’s grim human rights record that prisoners who tried to escape or steal have reportedly been publicly executed, and detainees have been subject to sexual violence and severely beaten with clubs and metal rods.<\/p>\n

The report to the General Assembly, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, said guards make detainees undress and repeatedly subject them to body searches for money and concealed items. They are interrogated, sometimes for up to a month or longer, and their cells are so overcrowded they can’t lie down, it said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said the U.N. human rights office received and analyzed accounts of North Koreans who had experienced detention, the vast majority of them women who escaped initially to China. Between September and May, he said, the office interviewed more than 330 individuals who left the country.<\/p>\n

The former detainees alleged \u201cgross violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of the person\u201d perpetrated by security officers, Guterres said.<\/p>\n

North Korea has repeatedly said it does not violate human rights. In May, the country’s ambassador in Geneva, Han Tae Song, said the government made a \u201cdevoted effort for the good of the people\u201d and \u201chuman rights violations, in whatever form, are intolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

But North Korea has refused to give visas to U.N. human rights officials, except once in 2017 to an investigator who was looking into conditions for the disabled.<\/p>\n

According to Guterres, \u201cformer detainees report extremely unsanitary conditions, and insufficient food causing malnourishment, illness, and occasionally also death of other detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reports received by the human rights office \u201cinclude cases of sexual violence by prison officials against female detainees, including during invasive body searches,\u201d the U.N. chief said. And some guards make detainees sit or kneel all day, \u201callowing them to stretch their limbs for two minutes every hour, or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres said \u201cmoving without permission can result in personal or collective physical punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

During pre-trial periods, detainees are provided no access to lawyers, and \u201caccounts reveal that detainees are simply informed of their prison sentences at the end of the investigation, particularly in cases where the accused is sentenced to up to six months in a short-term labour camp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When trials do take place, Guterres said, detainees can’t choose their defence counsel, lawyers present no defence, and there are no acquittals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalnourishment is widespread, with multiple reports of deaths as a result of starvation,\u201d Guterres said. \u201cIllnesses such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, typhoid, and pleurisy are reported rife in the prison, and little or no medical care is provided.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said \u201cnumerous interviewees reported severe beatings by prison guards, some resulting in the death of prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prisoners are forced to work long hours, he added, accidents are frequent, \u201cand there are multiple reports of prisoners dying as a result of work-related accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are reports of public executions of prisoners who tried to escape, steal, or committed other offences while detained,\u201d Guterres said. \u201cThere are also reports of prisoners placed in solitary confinement ultimately resulting in death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said arrests, beatings, forced labour, executions and other abuses perpetrated in detention centres and prisons by officers from the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of People’s Security \u201cappear to be carried out in a widespread and systematic manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people in political prisons, ordinary prisons, and detention facilities are all subject to forced labour \u201cin dangerous conditions, without adequate food, access to medical care and living conditions that meetinternational\u00a0standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres said accounts documented by the U.N. human rights office also reveal \u201cthe prevalence of corruption\u201d in North Korea’s penal system.<\/p>\n

\u201cBribes can be paid to avoid arrest and detention, to mitigate or avoid prison sentences, to avoid beatings, to ameliorate the harshness of the forced labour required, and to secure family visits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in a new report on North Korea’s grim human rights record that prisoners who tried to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":215212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225541,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225540\/revisions\/225541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}