Korean mission in London on anniversary of Korean armistice

CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

July 23 2003

12.30PM FRIDAY JULY 25

NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION, 73 GUNNERSBURY AVENUE, EALING, LONDON W5

JONATHAN AITKEN TO HAND IN LETTER PROTESTING LACK OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF KOREAN ARMISTICE

On the 50th anniversary of the Korean armistice, July 25, Jonathan Aitken will be handing in a letter protesting the lack of basic human rights in North Korea.

The letter will acclaim the peace on the Korean peninsular for 50 years, but will stress the need for respect for life and freedom within North Korea where more than 100,000 people are believed to be held in barbaric prison camps.

The letter will call on the North Korean authorities to release all those who are held in appalling conditions for a range of offences against the state.

At the same time a sheet in both Korean and English reading ‘Respect Human Rights’ and with demands for an end to torture, to close the prison camps, stop executions and stop testing on prisoners, will be handed in.

Jonathan Aitken said: “At a time when we are remembering the suspension of open hostilities in Korea, we also need to remember the immense personal suffering that has continued to take place over the last fifty years in North Korea.

“We want to mark this occasion by handing in a letter calling on the North Koreans to release all those held in appalling conditions inside prison camps.

“Extreme hardship continues under a deeply repressive regime which fails to protect life or liberty. While starvation leaves large swathes of the population in ruins, political oppression destroys innumerable lives, with those confined to the brutal prison camps suffering beyond description. While we celebrate the anniversary of the end of open war, we must not forget the unimaginable suffering that continues to take place to this very day.”

For more information or a picture of the hand-in, please contact CSW on 020 8329 0037 or 0039 or email or visit http://www.csw.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Human rights groups including CSW are deeply concerned about the widespread and systematic human rights violations against North Koreans. There are believed to be more than 100,000 people in prison camps inside North Korea. Among the many violations of basic rights are the systematic use of torture and the use or arbitrary and brutal imprisonment, characterised by violence, extreme deprivation, starvation food rations, intense forced labour, frequent accidents and disfigurement and high death tolls. Further grave sources of injustice are the lack of due process, the regular use of arbitrary and public execution and the punishment of whole families for the crime of one family member.

The severity of the repercussions against individuals and their families mean that North Korea has largely succeeded in silencing reports of the atrocities committed within its borders. Alongside this, the extreme isolation and secrecy of the state has prevented the flow of information out of the country, while restricting freedom for external monitors to enter and assess the country.

A further issue of grave concern is the mistreatment of those North Koreans who have left to go to China and are subsequently repatriated. Cruel treatment awaits many such returnees and those who are deemed to have been in contact with South Koreans and missionaries are subject to especially harsh penalties, such as long term imprisonment or execution. A number of eyewitness accounts report that women who are found to be pregnant by Chinese men are subject to forced abortion where this is possible or, where the pregnancy is more advanced, are kept in detention until they give birth, when their baby is them smothered to death in front of them. The Korean War broke out in the early hours of 25 June 1950, when North Korea launched a surprise attack across the 38th parallel. When an armistice was eventually signed, on 27 July 1953, no-one could have guessed that 50 years later, the two Koreas would remain technically at war.

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