|
|
North Korea’s human rights: What's not being talked about
After decades in the political wilderness, North Korea has spent the past year in a flurry of diplomatic activity.
But talks with the US, China and South Korea have so far focused entirely on trade and denuclearisation. North Korea's woeful human rights record is one topic that is yet to come up - and it's likely to remain that way.
The UN says North Koreans live under "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations". Here are just some of the issues:
Total government control
Isolated from the rest of the world, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family for three generations, and its citizens are required to show complete devotion to the family and its current leader, Kim Jong-un.
The state controls everything, and actively spies on its citizens using a vast surveillance and informer network.
The economy is also strictly controlled and the government funnels money into its nuclear and missile programme despite widespread shortages of food, fuel and other basic necessities.
Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the BBC that North Korea has only been able to develop an expensive nuclear programme because it is a totalitarian state, and it's done so by "taking food out of the stomachs of hungry North Koreans".
Read More : สล็อตpg |
