Satellite photographs reveal North Korea’s crimes against humanity - The Washington Post
Satellite photographs reveal North Korea’s crimes against humanity
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Korean Central News Agency/Reuters)
By Editorial Board November 5 at 7:44 PM
SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHY has become an invaluable tool in the cause of human rights. David Hawk and Amanda Mortwedt Oh of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea used it to prepare a report providing unsettling details about a parallel set of prison camps in North Korea that exist along with the political camps exposed earlier. These are places with “gated high walls and barbed wire fences, guard towers, dormitories, and workshops or mines,” further evidence that North Korea’s leaders have carried out crimes against humanity.
Previously, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry reported in 2014 on a chain of penal camps in North Korea operated by the Ministry of State Security, or secret police. These political or concentration camps are hidden and extrajudicial, and people can be held incommunicado for life. Family members are held there also. The camps are used to “preemptively purge, punish, and remove from North Korean society” those whom the regime fears might challenge their rule or their ideology, Mr. Hawk says.
The new report fleshes out details of a second chain of punishment camps, run by the Ministry of People’s Security, in which prisoners serve fixed terms and are not held incommunicado, and their families are not incarcerated. These camps hold those accused of regular crimes, such as murder, assault and theft, but Mr. Hawk points out they also hold prisoners accused of political “crimes” set by the state. They include taking part in unauthorized gatherings; criticizing the state or even expressing dissatisfaction privately; possessing “decadent” drawings, written materials, periodicals, music, movies or videos; and “foul, hostile, or superstitious activities.” According to Mr. Hawk, the nation’s criminal code has provisions that could get someone thrown into these camps for failing to follow state agency instructions, spreading rumors “that may lead to the distrust of the state or its agencies” and “not rightly selecting winning athletes for important competitions.” In other words, pick the wrong team goalie, and you’re off to jail.
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Prisoners in this parallel gulag suffer the deprivations of the other concentration camps, including starvation, forced labor and brutal conditions that lead to large numbers of deaths. It is not known precisely how many prisoners the camps hold — satellite imagery shows them in almost every province — but the U.N. report had suggested 70,000 or more. Mr. Hawk says they have sometimes been called reeducation camps, but that is a terrible misnomer; what’s going on is far more severe than just brainwashing sessions.
The Nazi concentration camps shocked the world. If such a horror is discovered today, shouldn’t it prompt a response? Mr. Hawk has laid out the evidence of atrocity. So did the U.N. commission three years ago. North Korea is not only a testbed of nuclear weapons and missiles. It is also a black hole of human souls. That is another reason not to turn a blind eye to Kim Jong Un and his barbarous rule.
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len1
9:30 AM GMT+1030 [Edited]
There are no good options. N K has thousands of artillery tubes aimed at dense population centers in S K. There would be tens of thousands of deaths in the first few hours of armed conflict. N K is not suicidal and would never risk a nuclear exchange that would destroy them. We have a stale mate. Unless the regime crumbles internally it is what it is. Live with it.
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kitchen dragon
9:35 AM GMT+1030
"N K is not suicidal and would never risk a nuclear exchange that would destroy them."
So their nuclear weapons program is just so they have that option? Right.
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Boraxo
8:49 AM GMT+1030
This has been reported for years - the book Escape from Camp 14 provides all you need to know about the thousands of people held in nazi-style campe. But Western leaders have been to timid to confront Rocket Man much less punish the regime for its crimes against humanity. I think that is about to change soon.
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Honniker
12:51 PM GMT+1030
It's propaganda. He changes his story after his lies are revealed.
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Bob Hanson
7:40 AM GMT+1030
Don't you just know that our Mango Mussolini would love to establish here the same government in NK? He said there's just so many things he'd like to do, except, you know, for those stupid laws.
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g3ntry
7:34 AM GMT+1030
I'd love to do something about North Korea as long as it didn't involve the use of nuclear weapons and millions of deaths.
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Historys verdict has arrived
7:33 AM GMT+1030
I miss the good old days when Bush pointed out N. Korea was part of evil in this world, and liberals mindlessly screeched their anger at Bush because of it.
On a different note: How about the N. Koreans reneging on Bill Clinton's nuclear deal?
On another note: How about the N. Koreans building ICMBs? Remember when Bush said he was going to build a missile defense system and liberals mindlessly screeched their anger at him because of it?
Liberals should just remain in Hollywood making movies and abusing people. They should never, ever, be trusted with anything serious.
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Book em_Dano
10:24 AM GMT+1030
Like civil rights...end of child labor...women's right to vote...40 hour work week...GI Bill...NATO..Medicare, Medicaid...Social Security, FDIC, minimum wage, unemployment insurance. You're absolutely right..we can't be trusted.
But we can be trusted to standing up to demented dotards and their goober followers who are actively conspiring with Russia to destroy our democracy.
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Bruce Mendel
7:02 AM GMT+1030 [Edited]
Trump and Un are just flip sides of the same coin.
Un is simply Trump that got all the things he wanted when in power, and he took them to their logical extremes.
And I think we all know, and Trump has made clear in his public statements, that he longs for the absolute power wielded by Un.
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Rep Schifftless
6:56 AM GMT+1030
Perhaps if we sent a few hundred thousand of our liberals to work (for free) in the NK reeducation camps they would like us more.
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Fascist_fighter
7:04 AM GMT+1030
Spoken like a true Nazi.
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domer
6:48 AM GMT+1030
How about bush wars costing trillions and killing
millions? Is this a crime? trump and bush, birds of
a feather.
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Wildthing1
6:10 AM GMT+1030
Well the UN has mentioned our prisons occasionally too. But really they are afraid to mention our unprovoked invasion of Iraq for fears of imminent attack!
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Wildthing1
6:10 AM GMT+1030
Well the UN has mentioned our prisons occasionally too. But really they are afraid to mention our unprovoked invasion of Iraq for fears of imminent attack!
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woodstocktim
5:46 AM GMT+1030
No one, not even the editorial board of this paper, can argue that the North Korean dictator is anything other than a brutal, maniacal, tyrant. Other than stating the obvious, they offer no suggestion for just how to deal with this beast. Presumably, the editorial board is laying low, waiting for the Trump administration to act and then find fault with their response. So predictable.
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ccllmm57
9:26 AM GMT+1030
Please, enlighten us with your facile, obvious solution
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SHDeerfield
4:23 AM GMT+1030
This article is an obvious plant trying to seed public opinion leading to an invasion. As atrocious as the human rights violations may be, this should be addressed in the UN. Frankly, so should the nuclear issue. North Korea constitutes a problem to the world, we should not be drawn in alone.
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SKYDIVER
3:48 AM GMT+1030
I agree that these crimes against humanity are terrible. HOWEVER, by far the biggest problem - and arguably the only true problem - for Americans is the threat of a nuclear attack on the U.S. That is real, may be imminent, and would affect every American, directly or indirectly.
We should speak out about NK's crimes against humanity, but it would be inappropriate for us to intervene militarily to address this problem. George W. Bush intervened in the sovereign country of Iraq, with no provocation against America and in an attempt to turn Iraq into democracy. He/we had no right to interfere in a civil war in a sovereign, and we similarly have no right to forcefully intervene in NK to resolve their internal problem. We may, however, need military intervention to eliminate the nuclear threat.
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agkcrbs
4:04 AM GMT+1030
Narrow. Why can one country (yours) indefinitely pose that "true problem" of possibly imminent nuclear attack to all others, but if another country (your tiny enemy) does so, it's an existential, intolerable threat? That's not how logic flows. The only credible way to declaw nuclear enemies is to simultaneously disarm oneself. Begin to holster your nukes first, America, then ask your target to put down its. (...Or, the easier choice, just be happy mutually armed.)
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Fascist_fighter
7:07 AM GMT+1030
Thank you for your input, comrade.
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woodstocktim
5:50 AM GMT+1030
Yes, of course we will need to intervene before the little pudgy lunatic in n korea acts. The question is...when? Do we wait for him to launch an attack against s korea or the us, or opt for a preemptive strike? The good news for all you liberals, is that whichever way the trump administration goes, you and your mainstream media friends can find fault with what they do.
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Juxtapoz
3:37 AM GMT+1030
A military assault on NK would be an unpredictable mess and unlike Iraq, there would be NO option to withdraw. Try to think of how the US would react if say, China launched an all-out invasion of Israel. Setting aside the chaos that follows the USA going to war with a nation that’s holding over a trillion in US debt, and is also a MAJOR hub of US manufacturing, and ponder what happens to the South Koreans caught between NK and the US.
So given the above, what EXACTLY does the ed board of WaPo want to do? Everyone loves saying we need to deal with NK, but offering smart options? Not so much.
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byxnet
3:15 AM GMT+1030
Recently the editorial board has been aghast at the saber rattling with NK, but this piece seems to advocate action.
What do you propose?
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