Filed Under: Events, Human Rights, Immigration, North Korea, Refugees

“The White Paper on North Korean Human Rights”

On October 8, 2009, the US-Korea Institute at SAIS and the National Endowment for Democracy co-sponsored a seminar on the status of human rights violations in North Korea, featuring Dr. Yoon Yeo-sang, President, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB); and Mr. Kim Sang-hun, Chairman, Board of Directors, NKDB.

In this seminar, Dr. Yoon and Mr. Kim discussed the findings of the 2009 Annual White Paper published by the North Korean Human Rights Archive, and distributed through the North Korean Human Rights Database Center (NKDB).

Offering commentary on the White Paper form and function were Sophie Richardson, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, and Liz Ševcenko, founding director of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Kim Sang-hun opened the event by introducing the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) and its purpose of compiling information on human rights violations in a database so that information on human rights abuses in North Korea can be efficiently accessed whenever it is needed. Mr. Kim explained that, through first-hand testimony and interviews with defectors, NKDB has been able to uncover more clearly the harsh realities faced by North Korean citizens, despite the limited information available from that isolated country. By bringing this data together in one place, NKDB seeks to raise international awareness of human rights conditions in North Korea, and has welcomed further initiatives and partnerships that could aid the organization in proceeding with this mission.

Dr. Yoon Yeo-sang followed Dr. Kim, taking an in-depth look at the NKDB White Paper, and emphasizing the report’s objectivity as its distinguishing characteristic. The White Paper builds off of nearly 2,000 interviews with refugees, though Dr. Yoon clarified that only a portion of them could be included in this year’s report due to a lack of staff available to analyze the large amount of data now available. He explained that the database is divided into many categories, along with subcategories that outline the type of human rights violations and break down the incidents by the area or region where they occurred. Dr. Yoon highlighted the five types of data that the NKDB collects: interviews with defectors, published print materials, internet sources, photographic and video evidence, and the instruments used for torture. He concluded that human rights violations in North Korea are very severe and that his hope is to make North Korea “a museum,” when human rights violations will one day be something of the past.

To supplement the work presented in the White Paper, Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch presented recommendations on how the information in the NKDB report and database can be used effectively: informing policymakers, engaging the United Nations, and making legal cases against North Korea in the future. Richardson underscored the importance of making efforts to document human rights violations in North Korea as a key element in reminding government officials that people on the outside will continue to fight to bring to justice the perpetrators of these human rights violations.

Next, Liz Sevcenko of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience discussed examples of sites throughout the world that have used histories and data of human rights violations in creative ways to encourage people to actively work to end human rights violations and to ensure that they never happen again. Sevcenko described how the data from the White Paper could be used, providing examples like the Memoria Abierta memorial in Argentina, the District Six Museum in South Africa, and the Liberation War Museum in Bangladesh. Based on the Coalition’s 200 partner sites throughout the world, which work together to raise awareness of histories of human rights abuses, Sevcenko expressed a great deal of hope in NKDB’s ability to inform the public about the violations occurring in North Korea.

Download event transcript here.

The purpose of the White Paper is to provide objective, systematically researched and analyzed data on human rights violations in North Korea. The lack of objective data on human rights conditions in North Korea, combined with an increasing demand from the international community for such data, makes the publication of this white paper a necessity. Data in the White Paper includes incidents of North Korean human rights violations during the year of publication as well as data relating to incidents that have occurred throughout the existence of the DPRK.

Download the Executive Summary
Download the full text of the White Paper on North Korean Human Rights 2009

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) was established in 2003 to improve human rights conditions in North Korea. Its work involves a variety of programs and actors. NKDB conducts systematic collection, analysis, verification and archival of data in the form of testimonies and other evidence on human rights violations in North Korea. It constructs and operates the North Korean Human Rights Archives (mainly through maintaining an updated database on cases of human rights violations in North Korea) and provides protection and counseling to victims, particularly while they are adapting to a new environment. NKDB is also developing a team of experts on North Korean human rights in order to enhance its own work and that of other related organizations; and produces a wide range of publications on North Korean human rights, including the annual White Paper and other intermittent publications, as well as on South Korean government policy toward North Korea.

Yoon Yeo-sang is currently the President of the North Korean Human Rights Database Center (NKDB) (since 2003) in Seoul, South Korea and a Visiting Fellow at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS. He is also concurrently a teaching professor at Yeung Nam University, Sogang University, Ewha Womans University and the University of North Korean Studies, where he lectures on North Korean society and politics and North Korean refugee resettlement in South Korea, as well as at Hanawon, the government run resettlement center for North Korean refugees in South Korea (since 1999), where he teaches North Korean refugees how to adjust to South Korean society. He is also a Member of the research and advisory committee for the Association of Supporters for Defecting North Korean Residents, where he develops programs for North Korean refugee transition in South Korean life; and an expert commissioner for the National Reconciliation Committee of the Catholic Archdiocese Assembly, evaluating and monitoring humanitarian aid programs to North Korea.

Dr. Yoon started his work in North Korean human rights as an executive committee member of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (1997-2001). There, he was responsible for the operation and management of the survey on North Korean refugees in Russia and China. After earning a Ph.D. in Politics from Yeung Nam University in 2001, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Science at Chung Nam University (2002-2003). Dr. Yoon is widely published on the subject of North Korean human rights and refugees, and was awarded a Medal of Service from the World League for Freedom and Democracy in 2002.

Kim Sang-hun founded the North Korea Human Rights Database Center (NKDB) in 2003 and is currently the Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mr. Kim’s career started in 1957 as a commercial/cultural assistant at the British Embassy in Seoul. After nearly ten years of service to the Embassy, Mr. Kim spent the next ten years as an area officer for CARE-Korea before beginning a long and distinguished career with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). With the WFP, Mr. Kim served in offices in South Korea, Thailand, Sudan, Lesotho and Guyana, before retiring in 1994. Mr. Kim’s career has demonstrated a passion for defending the rights of some of Korea’s most marginalized populations. From 1995-1997, he worked on issues related to rights for migrant workers in Korea and since 1996, when he founded the Citizen’s Alliance to Help Political Prisoners in North Korea, he has dedicated his efforts to helping North Korean refugees. His service was recognized in 2003, when he was named as one of Time Magazine’s “Asian Heroes.”

Sophie Richardson is the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division and oversees the organization’s work on China. Her book on Chinese foreign policy is forthcoming from Columbia University Press, and she has also published on domestic Chinese political reform, democratization, and human rights in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. She has testified before the European Parliament and the US Senate and House of Representatives. She has provided commentary to the BBC, CNN, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia, the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, and Oberlin College.

Liz Ševcenko is the founding Director of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a network of historic sites that foster public dialogue on pressing human rights and social justice issues. She works with initiatives in more than 40 countries to design programs and practices that reflect on past struggles and inspire citizens to become involved in addressing their contemporary legacies. Before launching the Coalition, she had over ten years of experience developing public history projects designed to catalyze civic dialogue in New York City and around the country. As Vice President for Programs at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, she developed exhibits and educational activities that connect the dramatic stories of the neighborhood’s immigrants past and present. She also developed national and community initiatives to inspire civic dialogue on cultural identity, labor relations, housing, welfare, immigration, and other issues these stories raise. Ms. Sevcenko has a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. in history from New York University.