Wednesday, March 21, 2007

North Korea torture report

The Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights conducted an in-depth investigation with 20 defectors (9 male, 11 female) over a period of 7 months on torture methods used by North Korea’s national bureau, [and issued a] report, titled “North Korea: Republic of Torture” on the 13th.

This report claims that North Korean authorities enforce beatings, assault and confinement in order to get the prisoners to confess. [Additionally] rations are not distributed in the prisons and so prisoners inevitably meet tortured deaths in a malnourished state. The report highlights detainees being sent to the “basement” where their arms and legs are twisted behind their backs. The person is then positioned to hang in mid-air for long hours; this known as the notorious “pigeon torture.”

The report continued, “Since 2000, women have been subject to inhumane exploitation on a daily basis… Female detainees are stripped of their clothing and made to sit, then stand repeatedly in their naked state.”

The Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights will also issue the report in English, and at the end of this month present it to Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in the North Korea.

[Excerpt of an article by Kim Yong Hun, The Daily NK]

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