Of all the pieces I have written for this site, this is probably the hardest. This is because it’s an ever evolving and ‘unfinished’ piece of history, shrouded by obscurity and suppression; masterminded by control.
I first became interested in North Korea, and thus the Korean Wars (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953), when a friend of mine suggested I watch a certain documentary by Vice.
Honestly, the amount of off-the-wall events that occur when a journalist bribes his way into the country is not something I can explain, you just have to watch it for yourself. The whole thing is in one word, bizarre.
Trust me, it will make you question a lot.
In a follow up post I will get around to explaining how we got to this state of affairs. However, yesterday saw the release of a new Human Rights Watch video, which I feel compelled to share. “North Korea: Tales of Camp Survivors”,features rare interviews with former political prisoners who survived years of systematic abuse, torture, and starvation in the North Korea’s notorious prisoner camps.
The video’s release (17th Feb) coincides with the release of a new United Nations report which found that North Korea is responsible for crimes against humanity and called for an international tribunal to investigate and hold perpetrators accountable for the atrocities committed within the regime’s prison campss.
The commission’s 400-page set of reports and documents, detailed “unspeakable atrocities” committed in the country, “the gravity, scale and nature” of which “does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”
“These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”
Again, I urge you to watch this video detailing the horrific atrocities committed by the regime:
In a nutshell this video has reminded me of one important thing.
History is not just in the past, it is in the making today. It may be unchangeable but we do have the power to alter its course.
Please share this post to draw global attention to the report.
‘Inside North Korea: The Back-story’ Coming Soon
Find a breakdown of the 10 key paragraphs from the report here
Keep on top of the story here: ‘China Rejects UN Report’
Image Source: Buzzfeed
