British Minister Condemns North Korea’s Human Rights Record
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North Korea may have the worst human rights record in the world, a British minister said at a UN conference today.
The long record of human rights abuses, includes abductions, arbitrary detention and extensive use of torture and the death penalty, said Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell in Geneva.
“Arguably, North Korea has the worst human rights record of any country, anywhere in the world,” he said on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.
“This session has been extremely important, and it’s part of an ongoing process, to shine a spotlight on North Korea in terms of its human rights record,” Mr Rammell said.
Kim Tae Jin, a North Korean who was imprisoned by the government before defecting in 1997, told the commission that “there is absolutely no freedom in North Korea.”
“In a political prison camp in North Korea, one must forget that he or she is a human being,” said Kim, who spent five years in a camp and endured eight months of torture and interrogation.
“There were numerous people who spent 20 to 30 years in the prison camp simply because of some ludicrous crime their grandfather allegedly committed,” said Kim.
Mr Rammell said that the European Union will sponsor a resolution at the commission to condemn North Korea’s record of abuses, adding that he expects it to be passed by a large majority.
