contents
Hunger, armament mania, persecution: the outgoing UN special rapporteur on North Korea draws a bitter balance.
Argentinian Tomás Ojea Quintana did not have an easy task: he was the UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea for the past six years. Six years in which the human rights situation there has continued to deteriorate. Six years in which the regime has relentlessly poured funds into its nuclear program and recently – in the shadow of the Ukraine war – conducted a record number of missile tests.
His mandate on the UN Human Rights Council will soon end. No wonder that Ojea Quintana drew a bitter balance sheet at a media conference. The worst is the speechlessness. The lack of any communication. North Korea’s self-isolation.
Legend:
Ojea Quintana complains that the self-imposed isolation has made the human rights situation in North Korea even worse.
key stone
Due to the risk of corona, the country has been almost completely sealed off for more than two years. In order to break through this self-erected wall, the world community must offer North Korea corona vaccines on a large scale. Pyongyang could then open its borders again, and the UN could become active again, as could non-governmental organizations and foreign embassies.
That would hopefully get the dialogue going again. That would be in the urgent interest of the North Korean people. Their fate is dramatic.
Legend:
Ojea Quintana criticizes the camps for thousands of political prisoners who constituted a crime against humanity. Dictator Kim Jong-Un needs them to intimidate his people, otherwise his regime would collapse.
key stone
The UN special rapporteur also mentions a new law that makes obtaining information from foreign sources a death penalty, and he speaks of a shoot-to-fire at the border for fugitives.
Overall, the political, economic and human rights situation in North Korea continues to deteriorate – even the short phase of direct talks between Kim Jong-Un and ex-US President Donald Trump hardly had any positive effects.
guns instead of bread
The humanitarian situation is also downright catastrophic, according to the experienced human rights lawyer, who was previously the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar and made a name for himself in coming to terms with the crimes of the military junta in his home country Argentina.
Forty percent of the population suffered from hunger or malnutrition. Only three out of ten children under the age of two are getting the food they need. But instead of taking care of it, the regime is putting around a fifth of its gross domestic product into armaments, primarily into its nuclear and missile programs. Measured in terms of economic power, this is ten to twenty times what European countries spend on defence.
China’s protective hand
The nuclear armament endangers security in the entire region. That is why the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur calls for a more active commitment by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, good offices and peace efforts. The situation could escalate quickly – especially now that the Ukraine war is monopolizing world attention.
The vast majority of the member countries of the UN Human Rights Council share Ojea Quintana’s final conclusion, including Switzerland, whose representative did not speak of resignation but of frustration. However, individual states, above all China, did not want to criticize the North Korean regime, but rather the UN special rapporteur. He should present things correctly and appear impartial. The Kim regime is not entirely alone.