The constitution also states that the accused has the right to a defense, and when the government held trials, they reportedly assigned lawyers. Some reports noted a distinction between those accused of political, as opposed to nonpolitical, crimes and claimed that the government offered trials and lawyers only to the latter. Some defectors testified that the MSS also conducted trials.
There was no indication that independent, nongovernmental defense lawyers existed. According to the Hidden Gulag report, most inmates were sent to prison camps without trial, without knowing the charges against them, and without having legal counsel.
There were no indications authorities respected the presumption of innocence. While the total number of political prisoners and detainees remained unknown, the KINU white paper reported the state detained between 80, and , in the kwanliso. Guards held political prisoners separately from other detainees. NGOs and media reported political prisoners were subject to harsher punishments and fewer protections than other prisoners and detainees. The government considered critics of the regime to be political criminals.
The government did not permit access to persons by international humanitarian organizations or religious organizations resident in China. The state shall fairly investigate and deal with complaints and petitions as fixed by law. Reports noted government officials did not respect these rights. Individuals and organizations do not have the ability to appeal adverse domestic decisions to regional human rights bodies.
The constitution provides for the inviolability of person and residence and the privacy of correspondence; however, the government did not respect these provisions. The regime subjected its citizens to rigid controls. The regime reportedly relied upon a massive, multilevel system of informants to identify those it sees as critics.
Authorities sometimes subjected entire communities to security checks, entering homes without judicial authorization. The government appeared to monitor correspondence, telephone conversations, emails, text messages, and other digital communications.
Private telephone lines operated on a system that precluded making or receiving international calls; international telephone lines were available only under restricted circumstances. A survey conducted by InterMedia found that 28 percent of respondents recent defectors and North Korean businesspersons in China had owned a domestic cell phone in North Korea. Citizens must go through a lengthy bureaucratic process to obtain a mobile phone legally, and authorities strictly monitored mobile phone use.
Additionally, 14 percent of defectors reported owning a Chinese mobile phone. The MSS reportedly engaged in real-time surveillance of mobile phone communications. Authorities arrested those caught using such cell phones with Chinese SIM cards and required violators to pay a fine or face charges of espionage or other crimes with harsh punishments, including lengthy prison terms.
In December the government reportedly temporarily shut down landline telephone services nationwide in order to change its phone number system. The move was allegedly made after an internal telephone directory, containing both government and private numbers, was smuggled out of North Korea. Numerous reports noted authorities practiced collective punishment. The state imprisoned entire families, including children, when one member of the family was accused of a crime.
Collective punishment reportedly can extend to three generations. The constitution provides for freedom of expression, including for the press, but the government prohibited the exercise of these rights. Freedom of Expression : There were numerous instances of persons interrogated or arrested for saying something construed as negative towards the government. The constitution provides for the right to petition, but the government did not respect this right.
Press and Media Freedom : The government sought to control virtually all information; independent media does not exist. The government tightly controlled print media, broadcast media, book publishing, and online media through the Propaganda and Agitation Department. Within the department, the Publication and Broadcasting Department controls all media content, including content used on television, in newspapers, and on the radio.
The government carefully managed visits by foreigners, especially journalists. More than foreign journalists visited the DPRK in September to report on celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, but the government strictly limited their access.
Violence and Harassment : Domestic journalists had no freedom to investigate stories or report freely. During visits by foreign leaders, authorities permitted groups of foreign journalists to accompany official delegations and file reports.
In all cases, the state strictly monitored journalists. Government officials generally prevented journalists from talking to officials or to persons on the street. Censorship or Content Restrictions : Strict enforcement of domestic media censorship continued, with no toleration for deviation from the official government line.
The government prohibited listening to foreign media broadcasts except by the political elite, and violators were subjected to severe punishment.
Radios and television sets, unless altered, are set to receive only domestic programming; officials similarly altered radios obtained from abroad. Elite citizens and facilities for foreigners, such as hotels, had access to international television broadcasts via satellite.
The government continued attempts to jam all foreign radio broadcasts. Officials imprisoned and punished citizens for listening to foreign radio or watching foreign television broadcasts and, in some cases, for simply owning radio or television sets able to receive nongovernment broadcasts. Internet access for citizens was limited to high-ranking officials and other designated elites, including selected university students.
According to media reports, in July satellite imagery showed the completion of a new Internet Communication Bureau headquarters in Pyongyang. Media speculated that the bureau would be responsible for managing internet traffic between North Korea and the global internet.
Government employees sometimes had closely monitored access to the internet and had limited, closely monitored access to email accounts. Media and civil society continued to report extensive cyber hacking by North Korea, particularly by North Koreans overseas. The government restricted academic freedom and controlled artistic works. Curriculum was highly controlled by the state.
The government severely restricted academic travel. The state carried out systematic indoctrination through the mass media, schools, and worker and neighborhood associations. Indoctrination continued to involve mass marches, rallies, and staged performances, sometimes including hundreds of thousands of persons. The government continued its attempt to limit foreign influence on its citizens. Listening to foreign radio and watching foreign films are illegal.
Individuals accused of viewing or possessing foreign films were reportedly subjected to imprisonment and possibly execution. According to the KINU white paper, a survey revealed that defectors witnessed proclamations posted indicating that that those caught watching South Korean movies or listening to South Korean music would be sentenced to death, in accordance with instructions announced by the regime in According to the KINU white paper, the number of people executed for watching or distributing South Korean video content increased during the last few years.
Based on defector interviews conducted in , InterMedia estimated as many as 29 percent of defectors listened to foreign radio broadcasts while inside North Korea and that approximately 92 percent of defectors interviewed had seen foreign DVDs in North Korea. The government intensified its focus on preventing the import of South Korean popular culture, especially television dramas.
According to media and NGO reports, in enforcing restrictions on foreign films, authorities authorized police to search homes for contraband DVDs. This system makes it impossible to view foreign media on the phones. While the constitution provides for freedom of peaceful assembly, the government did not respect this provision and continued to prohibit public meetings not previously authorized and not under government control.
The constitution provides for freedom of association, but the government failed to respect this provision. There were no known organizations other than those created by the government.
Professional associations existed primarily to facilitate government monitoring and control over organization members. The government continued to control internal travel carefully. The government did not cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees, forcibly returned refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, or other persons.
In-country Movement : The government continued to restrict freedom of movement for those lawfully within the state. Under the law, individuals who violate travel regulations were subject to warnings, fines, or forced labor. Only members of a very small elite class and those with access to remittances from overseas reportedly had access to personal vehicles. A lack of infrastructure hampered movement, as did security checkpoints on main roads at entry and exit points from every town.
The KINU White Paper reported that individuals were able to move more freely within their own province as the use of bribery as a means to avoid punishment became more widespread.
The government strictly controlled permission to reside in, or even to enter, Pyongyang, where food availability, housing, health, and general living conditions were much better than in the rest of the country. Foreign officials visiting the country observed checkpoints on the highway leading into Pyongyang.
Foreign Travel : The government also restricted foreign travel. The government limited issuance of exit visas for foreign travel to officials and trusted businesspersons, artists, athletes, academics, and workers. Short-term exit papers were available on a very limited basis for some residents to visit with relatives, undertake short-term work opportunities, or to engage in small-scale trade. Exile : The government reportedly forced the internal exile of some citizens.
In the past, it forcibly resettled tens of thousands of persons from Pyongyang to the countryside. Sometimes this occurred as punishment for offenses and included those judged to be politically unreliable based on the social status of their family members. Refoulement : The government did not allow emigration, and reports stated that it continued to increase its severe, tight security on the border, dramatically limiting the flow of persons crossing into China without required permits.
NGOs reported strict patrols and surveillance of residents of border areas and a crackdown on border guards who may have been aiding border crossers in return for bribes. The government maintained orders to shoot to kill those attempting to leave without official permission.
The law criminalizes defection and attempted defection. Many would-be refugees returned involuntarily from foreign states received imprisonment under harsh conditions. Some sources indicated authorities reserved particularly harsh treatment for those who had extensive contact with foreigners, including those with family members resettled in South Korea. Media reported in April that Kim Jong Un ordered government agencies to exert greater pressure on family members of defectors in order to encourage them to return home.
Defectors reported family members back in North Korea contacting them and urging their return, apparently under pressure from North Korean officials. Access to Asylum : The law does not provide for granting asylum or refugee status, and the government has not established a system for providing protection for refugees.
The government did not grant refugee status or asylum. The government had no known policy or provision for refugees or asylees and did not participate in international refugee fora. These elections were neither free nor fair. The government openly monitored voting, resulting in a reported percent participation rate and percent approval of the preselected government candidates.
Local elections on July were likewise neither free nor fair. The government reported a Participation of Women and Minorities : As of women constituted approximately 3. Verifiable information was not available on whether criminal penalties for official corruption were actually applied.
While international organizations widely reported senior officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity, in Kim Jong Un presided over a rare high-level government meeting to address rampant corruption by authorities. While corruption was reportedly widespread in all parts of the economy and society and endemic in the security forces, this meeting was rare in publicly acknowledging and criticizing these practices. Specifically it addressed the practice of senior officials who sought privileges, misused authority, abused power, and manifested bureaucratism in the party.
Additionally, reports of diversion of food to the military and government officials and bribery were indicative of corruption in the government and security forces. Multiple ministries and party offices were responsible for handling issues of corruption. Financial Disclosure : Information was not publicly available on whether the state subjects public officials to financial disclosure laws and whether a government agency is responsible for combating corruption.
There were no independent domestic organizations to monitor human rights conditions or comment on the status of such rights. The international NGO community and numerous international experts continued to testify to the grave human rights situation in the country. The government decried international statements regarding human rights abuses in the country as politically motivated interference in internal affairs.
Japanese rule ends in , when U. By then, Korea is the second-most industrialized nation in Asia after Japan. During this period, Kim Il-sung, the future leader of North Korea, emerges as a prominent guerrilla fighter in the colonial resistance movement. The Soviet Union and United States agree to temporarily split postwar control of the peninsula until an independent and unified Korean government can be established. The Soviets occupy everything north of the 38th parallel.
But as tensions grow between the two nations, efforts to forge a unified Korean government fall apart. By August , the pro-U. Both leaders assert jurisdiction over the entire Korean peninsula and its people. The U. Three years of intense fighting result in vast physical destruction and as many as 3 million casualties, including roughly 35, Americans.
In , both sides sign an armistice with a cease-fire line -- the demilitarized zone DMZ — into approximately equal-sized territories. The now-heavily fortified border is in roughly the same position -- on the 38 th parallel -- almost exactly where it was before the war started.
The armistice is intended as a temporary measure, but a formal peace treaty ending the war is never actually signed which means the war never technically ended. It implements Juche, an ideology of self-reliance promoting Korean autonomy. The country institutes a command economy, a system in which the government, rather than the free market, determines production. Land and agriculture are collectivized under state control.
The regime rebuilds Pyongyang as a socialist capital, erecting numerous monuments to Kim Il-sung as part of a sweeping effort to build a cult of personality. It also takes over control of the media, restricts international travel and squashes any form of opposition, forcing dissenters into harsh prison camps. With major backing from the Soviet Union during the postwar reconstruction period, North Korea invests in mineral extraction and other heavy industries, rapidly developing its civilian and military economy at a rate that initially appears to outpace its rival to the south.
For a time, urbanization continues to increase, as does school enrollment and infrastructure development. But huge inequalities begin to surface, as the regime implements the songbun system that divides the population is divided into different social classes according to perceived loyalty. North Korea country profile. BBC News. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. North and South Korea have been divided for more than 70 years, ever since the Korean Peninsula became an unexpected casualty of the escalating Cold War between two rival superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States.
A Unified Korea For centuries before the division, the The division of Korea is a legacy of the Cold War. Japan annexed the Korean peninsula in , and the country spent the next 35 years under Japanese military rule. For nearly seven decades, the Kim family dynasty has warned the North Korean people that the United States is a murderous superpower bent upon their annihilation—and their only chance of survival is readiness for an American attack.
This policy of paranoia without end has driven President Bill Clinton took the podium on October 18, , with aspeech that reads like a sigh of relief—the announcement of a landmark nuclear agreement between the United States and North Korea.
But during the mid s, it was filled with something else The January capture of the U. Pueblo during a spy mission in international waters cost the life of one American sailor and began a grueling month imprisonment for the other 82 Americans aboard. While the Pueblo crew was remembered for their bravery and defiance, One of the original 13 colonies, North Carolina was the first state to instruct its delegates to vote for independence from the British crown during the Continental Congress.
Following the Revolutionary War, North Carolina developed an extensive slave plantation system and
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