Freedom of Expression

The government of North Korea allows very little freedom of expression in comparison with most other nations. It is very arguably the world's most totalitarian state. People who express opinions contrary to those officially condoned are subject to arrest and placement in prison camps. The media is controlled by the government and the people are kept from receiving foreign broadcasts. North Korea is officially an atheist state and restricts freedom of religious expression. Amnesty International reports that large numbers of Christians are being held in prison camps. People who gather in public to protest, though this is rare, are usually placed under arrest as well.

Prison Camps

According to satellite photography and testimony from escaped former prisoners, North Korea has between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners working as slave laborers in concentration camps. In these camps, inmates face beatings, torture, starvation, hard labor in horrid conditions, and in some cases executions.

Emigration

North Koreans in China

An estimate of up to 100,000 North Koreans live illegally in China. Many leave North Korea to escape economic hardship and some due to political persecution. China periodically returns North Koreans to North Korea. After interrogation by North Korean military, most are sent to political prisons while others who are considered a threat to the state or had contact with South Koreans face execution.

Defections to South Korea

About 6,000 defectors are estimated to live in South Korean society. Upon arrival, the defectors are educated about South Korean society in Hanawon . The government provides adjustment funds of about $9,000 per defector. Many of them have had difficulty making successful social, economic, and psychological transitions in to their newly adopted country.

External links

• North Korea: Amnesty International's Human Rights Concerns
• U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
• from Guardian newspaper (UK): "Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag " (Feb. 1, 2004) (discusses Camp 22 in North Korea)

Sources

• Development and Society Volume 30 Number 1, June 2001, pp. 126 NORTH KOREAN DIASPORA: NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS ABROAD AND IN SOUTH KOREA Yoon, In-Jin. Korea University.