Social Injustice in North Korea Kevin Pu P.

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Main social injustice issues in North Korea: lack of freedom, censorship, poverty,
and demanded obedience to the leaders of the country.
1 Causes include dismal harvests resulting from floods and an extremely harsh
winter; economic mismanagement of a monetary devaluation scheme in November
2009 that wiped out many peoples savings and heavily damaged informal food
markets; and the governments blatantly discriminatory food policies that favor the
military, government officials, and other loyal groups.
North Korea still tortures their detainees in extreme inhumane ways. Beating, sleep
deprivation, rape, and being hung from parts of their body occur very often.
There are a number of forced labor camps a citizen may end up in. These camps
are notorious for their living conditions, which are terrible. At times whole families
can be sent to them including grandparents and children. There is very little food
and medical services so there are very high death rates. North Korea does not deny
having these camps.
The government uses feargenerated mainly by threats of forced labor and
public executionsto prevent dissent, and imposes harsh restrictions on freedom
of information, association, assembly, and travel.
2 North Koreas judiciary is neither transparent nor independent. The government
appoints and tightly controls judges, prosecutors, lawyers, court clerks, and even
jury members. In some cases designated as political crimes, suspects are not even
sent through a nominal judicial process; after interrogation they are either executed
or sent to a forced labor camp, often with their entire families.
Since everything is so tightly chosen there is very little chance of you winning in
court most of the time you would die, being sent to a labor camp would almost be
considered lucky.
The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) systematically violates
the rights of its population. The government has ratified four key international
human rights treaties and includes rights protections in its constitution, but does
not allow organized political opposition, free media, functioning civil society, or
religious freedom. Arbitrary arrest, detention, lack of due process, and torture and
ill-treatment of detainees remain serious and pervasive problems. North Korea also
Social Injustice in North Korea Kevin Pu P.5

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practices collective punishment for various anti-state offenses, for which it
enslaves hundreds of thousands of citizens in prison camps, including children.
The government periodically publicly executes citizens for stealing state property,
hoarding food, and other anti-socialist crimes, and maintains policies that have
continually subjected North Koreans to food shortages and famine.






Rights Watch. (n.d.). World Report 2012: North Korea | Human Rights Watch. World Report
2012: North Korea | Human Rights Watch. Retrieved December 8, 2013, from
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-north-korea
Rights Watch. (n.d.). World Report 2013. : North Korea. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/north-korea


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