Failure to Protect: a Call for the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ea U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Kor Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1986) , Former Prime Minister of Norway , Former President of the Czech Republic , el áclav Hav Act in North Korea he Honorable V Failure to Protect Failure A Call for the UN Security Council to T Honorable Kjell Magne Bondevik The Boston University Professor Elie Wiesel, Failure to Protect A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea DLA Piper US LLP 409334_DLA_NK_CVR 10/19/06 10:35 AM Page 1 409334_DLA_NK_CVR_v2 10/23/06 10:08 AM Page 2 DLA Piper LLP is a global law firm with over 3,200 lawyers in 62 offices and 24 countries around the world. We provide legal assistance to our clients in an extensive range of practice areas including corporate and finance, legislative and regulatory, general business litigation, and strategic counseling on international matters. DLA Piper has created a nonprofit entity to support major international pro bono projects. The initiative, named New Perimeter, has been established as a nonprofit subsidiary of DLA Piper dedicated exclusively to international pro bono work. In the first year of the program alone, the firm committed 13,000 attorney hours at a value of over $5 million, which expanded the firm’s aggregate U.S. pro bono commitment in 2005 to approximately 80,000 hours or an aggregate value of $23 million. U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is an independent, nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C. Created in 2001, the Committee was established to conduct independent research on human rights abuses in North Korea, and to disseminate its findings. It is not affiliated with the U.S. government. Acknowledgements President Havel, Prime Minister Bondevik, and Professor Wiesel would like to thank DLA Piper for its pro bono assistance in preparing, publishing, and disseminating this report. In particular, special thanks are due to attorneys Anthony Ashton, Elizabeth J. Brown Fore, Ann DePriester, Jared Genser, Ellen S. Ginsberg, Matt James, Sheldon Krantz, Anthony Lehman, C. Dylan Sanders, Michael S. Tracy, and Gina Vetere; former summer associates Catherine Campbell, Katrina Emmons, Kristen Leanderson, Alexandra Marzelli, and Colin Parent; former summer clerk Jennifer Harkin; and staff Lynn Bryant, Margot Finn, Ted Loud, Jennifer Maginnis, Melissa McGinn, and Marion Nowak. Special thanks are also due to Debra Liang-Fenton with the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Numerous legal and North Korea experts privately provided invaluable assistance to this project and informed the content. For their many important contributions, DLA Piper and the Committee are very grateful. For more information about this report, please contact: Jared Genser, Esq. Debra Liang-Fenton DLA Piper US LLP U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Cover Photo 1200 Nineteenth Street, NW 1025 F Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036-2412 Washington, DC 20004-1409 Caption: An unidentified 71-year-old woman carries last year’s dried +1 (202) 861-6436 direct +1 (202) 378-9579 direct cabbage leaves in Anju, North Korea, April 5, 1997 [email protected] [email protected] Photo: Associated Press. Licensed for use. www.dlapiper.com www.hrnk.org 409334_DLA_KoreaBook_v6 10/20/06 12:13 PM Page A Failure to Protect: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea Report Commissioned By: The Honorable Václav Havel, Former President of the Czech Republic The Honorable Kjell Magne Bondevik, Former Prime Minister of Norway Professor Elie Wiesel, Boston University Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1986) Prepared By: U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea October 30, 2006 Copyright © 2006 DLA Piper US LLP and U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. All rights reserved. 409334_DLA_KoreaBook_v6 10/20/06 9:09 AM Page C Foreword Although in recent weeks the international focus has been on North Korea’s nuclear weapons test, the situation in that country is also one of the most egregious human rights and humanitarian disasters in the world today. Yet sadly, because North Korea is also one of the most closed societies on Earth, information about the situation there has only trickled out over time. With the unanimous adoption by the UN Security Council of the doctrine that each state has a “responsibility to protect” its own citizens from the most egregious of human rights abuses, a new instrument for international diplomacy has emerged. While states retain sovereignty to control their own territory, if they fail to protect their own citizens from severe human rights abuses, the international community now has an obligation to intervene through regional bodies and the United Nations, up to and including the Security Council. In this context, we commissioned the global law firm DLA Piper LLP to work with the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea in preparing an objective and definitive report on the failure of the North Korean government to exercise its responsibility to protect its own people. The evidence and analysis contained in this report is deeply disturbing. Indeed, it is clear that Kim Jong Il and the North Korean government are actively committing crimes against humanity. North Korea allowed as many as one million, and possibly many more, of its own people to die during the famine in the 1990s. Hunger and starvation remain a persistent problem, with over 37 percent of children in North Korea chronically malnourished. Furthermore, North Korea imprisons upwards of 200,000 people in its modern-day gulag, and it is estimated more than 400,000 have died in that system over 30 years. It is on this basis that we strongly urge the UN Security Council to take up the situation of North Korea. Protecting the people of North Korea requires nothing less. Václav Havel Kjell Magne Bondevik Former President of the Czech Republic Former Prime Minister of Norway Professor Elie Wiesel, Boston University Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1986) 409334_DLA_KoreaBook_v5 10/19/06 5:32 PM Page E Table of Contents Approach Map of North Korea Table of Acronyms Executive Summary ........................................................................................i I. Background on the Situation in North Korea..............................................1 A. Historical Context of International Concern over the Korean Peninsula ......................................................................................1 B. Economic Development............................................................................6 C. Economic and Social Indicators................................................................9 II. The Crisis ................................................................................................10 A. Major Human Rights Concerns..............................................................10 1. Food Policy and Famine ........................................................................12 2. Treatment of Political Prisoners ..............................................................30 3. Abduction of Foreigners ........................................................................42 B. Transnational Effects of the Crisis in North Korea ..................................48 1. Weapons of Mass Destruction................................................................48 2. Refugee Outflows ..................................................................................58 3. Drug Trafficking ....................................................................................62 4. Money Counterfeiting and Laundering..................................................65 C. The International Response ....................................................................68 1. The Six-Party Talks ................................................................................68 2. The United Nations ..............................................................................70 3. South Korea: Development of the Sunshine Policy ................................76 4. United States of America........................................................................80 III. North Korea and the UN Security Council ............................................83 A. Violation of the Responsibility to Protect................................................83 B. “Non-Traditional” Threat to the Peace....................................................94 Recommendations ......................................................................................100 Appendix I: Background, Duties, and Operations of UN Security Council......................................................................101 Appendix II: The New “Responsibility to Protect” Doctrine under International Law ..................................................................109 Appendix III: Crimes Against Humanity ....................................................119 Appendix IV: Lessons from Past Security Council Interventions ................134 409334_DLA_KoreaBook_v6 10/20/06 8:55 AM Page G Approach The intent of this report is to apply a new doctrine of international law – the responsibility of all states to protect their own citizens from the most egregious of human rights abuses – to the situation in North Korea. Based on a comprehensive review of published information and first-hand interviews, this report concludes that North Korea has violated its responsibility to protect its own citizens from crimes against humanity being committed in the country,