Summer Adjournment

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

The 2014 publication of the United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry report into human rights violations in North Korea was a defining moment. No longer was the suffering of the North Korean people overshadowed by nuclear weapons, political stalemates or sensationalist media stories. Instead, human rights rightfully took centre stage as the world became fully aware of a theatre of unimaginable horror situated in the northern half of the Korean peninsula. Detailing evidence that shocked even those of us who have sat with countless North Korean refugees and listened to their testimonies, the UN report documented the most egregious abuses of humanity in the modern era: state-sanctioned starvation, the prolific use of torture, endemic sexual violence, the use of political prison camps, and public executions as tools of social control.

I have spoken on this issue a number of times in the House, but new Members are present so I will give just a few examples of the kind of horrific torture and treatment that people in North Korea experience. Lee Hee-ho gave evidence to the Commission of Inquiry—she later became the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, following the experiences that she suffered with her husband. She told of how supporters of democracy were

“Deprived of any clothing and mercilessly pummelled with wooden bats, deprived of sleep, and had water poured into their nostrils while hanging upside down like so much beef hanging from hooks in the slaughter house.”

Another piece of evidence received by the North Korea all-party group described one woman who was arrested for her faith and

“assigned to pull the cart used to remove excrement from the prison latrines…the guards made her lick off excrement that spilled over”.

Children are kept in classes in prison camps, and there is a story of how one child who had picked a few grains of wheat from a field on the way to class was accused of stealing by her teacher. She was murdered by that teacher—beaten to death with a wooden stick that day. A teenager working in the prison camp accidentally dropped a sewing machine. As a punishment he had one finger cut off. I could go on.

I am proud that the UK, EU and European states were instrumental in the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council resolution that mandated that Commission of Inquiry, and for which our all-party group hosted testimonial sessions. A General Assembly resolution, co-written by the EU, acknowledged the Commission’s findings as crimes against humanity, and encouraged the UN Security Council to consider targeted human rights sanctions and to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court—no fewer than 111 countries demanded that, following the publication of the report.

The COI report has placed human rights on to the Security Council’s permanent agenda, ensuring ongoing scrutiny, and it is clear that since its release, Governments and non-governmental organisations have devoted much thought to how the international community should respond. I am pleased that one recommendation of the Commission—the establishment of a field office in Seoul to monitor human rights violations in North Korea—opened on 23 June. We must press for all the other recommendations in the report to be implemented.

The international community must do more. Momentum must be maintained because every day people in North Korea suffer the most indescribable atrocities in prison camps, in what can only be described as today’s holocaust. We must look for tangible means to improve the lot of the ordinary North Korean, at new forms of diplomacy that can transform North Korean society, and to untrodden paths that lead to unfettered engagement with ordinary North Korean citizens.

We must consider whether the decade plus of on-the-ground engagement inside North Korea, pursued by the international community and commonly termed “critical engagement”, has been enough. Is there any evidence that our engagement policies to date have transformed North Korean society for the better, improved human rights, or compelled North Korean decision makers to alter their violent course? In the wake of the horrific contents of the Commission of Inquiries report, the short answer must be no. North Korean officials continue to commit crimes against humanity in spite of our ambassadorial presence in Pyongyang, and in full knowledge of international human rights law. As Justice Michael Kirby noted in the final page of his COI report the North Korean Government

“has for decades pursued policies”—

indeed, for 60 years—

“involving crimes that shock the conscience of humanity raises questions about the inadequacy of the response of the international community.”

Like my colleagues in the all-party group on North Korea, I am a firm advocate of engagement with the North Korean Government and the North Korean people, but engagement is not analogous to appeasement. Engagement with the North Korean people should not be confined to a small, hand-picked group of elites and outer-elites encountered by our engagement projects. There are 24 million North Koreans who have their substantive rights violated on a daily basis. We must reach those North Koreans.

Our engagement with North Korea in the post-COI era should not simply be renewed, it must be revised. Cracks in North Korea’s façade are appearing: a burgeoning unofficial economy; normative changes in society and an elite group of decision makers who operate without checks or balances, all point to opportunities of influence. We should not set out to collapse the DPRK, but embassies and Government should work to affect tangible change and not just pursue engagement for its own sake. The question is what next, after the publication of the COI report? I do not have all the answers, but here are some.

The international community should invest greater time and resources in understanding how North Korea organises its power structures. How is power transferred all the way from Kim Jong-un to a local party secretary who allows the abuse of women and children? Closer working with non-governmental organisations and others to facilitate the exchange of information with North Korea should be supported. In addition, the foreign policies of concerned Governments should work in a more co-ordinated manner to exhibit increased energies to address human rights atrocities suffered by the people of North Korea. This should not be exclusively, or even primarily, occupied with the nuclear threat. Emphasising the importance of human rights should be a thread of steel running through all diplomatic engagement.

China should be pressed to end immediately its practice of the forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees. It should be called on to permit refugees to travel to neighbouring countries, and it should allow international observers to look into the conditions in which North Korean refugees live in China. Any future six-party talks should ensure that pressing for human rights improvements are a prominent element of negotiations. Further accountability measures should be pursued through UN Security Council channels. There should be fact-finding missions. A UN General Assembly resolution could determine the creation of tribunals to try North Koreans, possibly even in absentia, and other alternative justice mechanisms to complement the International Criminal Court process.

The North Korean Government must be challenged when reports reach our ears, such as those recently published by John Hopkins University that anthrax and other biological agents have been tested on disabled people in North Korea. Every effort should be made to ameliorate the desperate plight of the North Korean people themselves. We should pursue ever more creative ways of breaking the information blockade that new technology such as DVDs, mobiles and USBs provide, and urge radio stations, in particular the BBC World Service, to broadcast directly into the Korean peninsula.

Finally, we should support the provision of aid through reliable NGOs, such as UNICEF and the Red Cross. UNICEF is warning of North Korea’s worst drought in 100 years. This is critical in a country that is already utterly malnourished and where the Government are incapable—indeed, often unwilling—to provide even the most basic sustenance to many of their people. During its last drought in the 1990s, millions of people were reduced to eating grass and bark as they starved to death. Let us respond to the call from UNICEF and provide this basic help to the people of North Korea.