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A group of prominent North Korean defectors has told the U.S. Congress that North Korea's human rights situation has worsened in recent years. They say tens of thousands of North Koreans held in political prison camps have little food or water and face torture and abuse. A recent U.S. State Department report on human rights in North Korea estimated that the government is holding 150,000 to 200,000 people in political prison camps. It said prison conditions were harsh, prisoners were tortured and some women underwent forced abortions.
Former North Korean prisoner Kim Tae Jin, who spent four years in such a camp before escaping to South Korea in 2001 is now a leading pro-democracy activist. "I am actually a living testimony to the horror and pain they [prisoners] have to go through," he said. Kim told a congressional hearing in Washington Thursday most political prisoners in North Korea are jailed for having a religion or because family members were accused of crimes. He says that from day one, he and other prisoners got a minimum amount of food and did not have water fit for human consumption. Kim says he only was allowed to drink water dripping from a toilet and had to use the same water to wash his dishes.
U.S.-based human rights groups say North Korea's government also deprives its people of almost all political and civil liberties. Choi Zoo Hwal is a former North Korean military colonel who defected to South Korea in 1995. He told U.S. lawmakers that few North Koreans dare to oppose the government because they see it as a divine authority. "There is no freedom to choose jobs, the place to live in or the freedom of religion whatsoever in North Korea," he said. "And North Korean residents have to live under horrendous supervision and control."
The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on North Korea last month deploring what it called widespread rights abuses in the reclusive country. North Korea's delegation rejected the accusation.
Another North Korean defector, Kim Seung-min said the United States could improve the situation by supporting a radio station like his, that informs North Koreans about conditions in and outside the country. He says North Korea has tried to jam signals from his station, Free North Korea Radio, since it began broadcasting from Seoul five years ago. He says the station is undaunted, because it believes North Koreans should have access not only to food, but also freedom of thought, or "mental food" as he calls it.