SPECIAL ENVOY ROBERT KING: Thank you Chairman Corker, Members of the Committee:
I appreciate the invitation to testify on U.S. policy on human rights in North Korea with my colleague
Ambassador Sung Kim. This is an issue on which there is broad consensus, and bipartisan agreement.
Both Congress and the Administration are united in our efforts to press North Korea to improve its
deplorable human rights record. The D.P.R.K. remains a totalitarian state, denies freedoms
of expression, religion, peaceful assembly, association, and movement, as well as worker rights.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans endure deplorable conditions in political prison camps,
where government officials commit systematic and widespread human rights violations
including extrajudicial killing, forced labor, torture, prolonged arbitrary detention,
rape, forced abortions, and other sexual violence.
Mr. Chairman, since the release of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea
in February 2014, we have made significant progress in our efforts to focus international attention and pressure
on North Korea. The UN Commission of Inquiry report concluded that “systematic, widespread, and
gross human rights violations” have been and are being committed by North Korea and its officials.
The report found "a number of long-standing and ongoing patterns of systematic and widespread
violations . . . which meet the high threshold required for proof of crimes against humanity
in international law."
One of the most powerful elements of this report was the detailed testimony of North Korea
refugees sharing first-hand accounts of abuse and violence that they suffered
in their horrific experience fleeing their homeland.
This report was considered by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva a year ago September.
During the high level session of the General Assembly Secretary Kerry hosted a meeting on this issue
with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan, Australia and other countries. And last Fall
the UN General Assembly considered a resolution which welcomed the Commission of Inquiry Report
criticized North Korea and referred the report to the Security Council, urging the Council to consider
holding to a account those North Korean officials responsible for human rights violations
including through consideration of referral to the appropriate international criminal justice mechanism.
In December last year the Security Council held a serious three-hour discussion of North Korea's
human rights and placed the issue on the Council's agenda.
At the recommendation of the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights
has established a field office to strengthen monitoring and documentation of human rights in the D.P.R.K.
and to support the work of the Special Rapporteur on North Korea Human Rights.
At the request of the High Commissioner’s office, South Korea has agreed to host this field office.
And the office was officially opened in June.
All of these activities over the past year, year and a half, the United States had played a leading role in
gathering support and putting pressure on North Korea.
As I participated in these activities at various UN bodies over the past year, two things have struck me.
First, North Korea is feeling the international pressure for its human rights abuses. North Korean rhetoric
decrying what it calls “the human rights racket” has become more frequent and more strident.
After the Commission of Inquiry report was released, the North Koreans condemned the Commission
and issued its own fictitious “reports” on human rights in the United States and South Korea. The North sent its
foreign minister to the high level session of the UN General Assembly in September 2014, the first time
in 14 years the North Korean foreign minister attended that session. He was there again this fall.
I think this very clearly indicates the North Koreans are feeling the pressure, they're uncomfortable,
and they're trying to push back.
Second, with a growing number of countries condemning North Korea’s human rights violations,
the D.P.R.K. has few supporters left. The vote for the General Assembly resolution critical of the North and
endorsing the Commission of Inquiry report was adopted by a vote of 116 countries in favor, 20 opposed,
with 53 abstentions. Only a handful of countries supported the D.P.R.K. and those countries were
the “Who’s Who” of the world’s worst human rights violators.
As I look back over what has taken place over the past year to focus attention on the human rights abuses
in North Korea, I am reminded of Commission of Inquiry Chair Michael Kirby’s statement when he presented
the Commission’s report. With the body of evidence detailing North Korean human rights atrocities
that's now available, no country can honestly say we did not know.
Mr. Chairman I would like to add a couple of words about another critical issue related to human rights
in North Korea. In the North, our effort to increase access to information in the D.P.R.K. is one of the
most important things that we are doing. In the North, it is illegal to own a radio that can be tuned.
The only legal radio or television sets that are legal are those pre-set to state-controlled information channels.
Despite this obstacle, the latest Broadcasting Board of Governors study of North Korean refugees and travelers
found that 30 percent of North Koreans listened to foreign radio broadcasts inside North Korea.
Foreign entertainment videos are watched by far larger numbers — 90 percent have seen South Korean dramas
(soap operas) inside North Korea. According to published reports, over two million cell phones
now permit North Koreans to communicate with each other on a domestic network. The system does not
permit international telephone calls but those cell phones do allow people to communicate quickly
within the country.
Given the closed nature of North Korean society, radio remains the most important, effective means
of sharing information about the outside world with residents of North Korea. The United States is a
strong supporter of independent broadcasting to North Korea. Thank you for the Congressional support for
Radio Free Asia (RFA), Voice of America (VOA), and other independent broadcasters. These efforts are
vital in breaking down the information barriers that the government has placed on its own people.
Thank you Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to appear today.