THE NORTH KOREAN HORROR SHOW
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579172030037107074?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
A U.N. panel hears good advice from a prison survivor.
A United Nations commission is finally investigating human rights in North Korea, and last week it opened a window on the gruesome facts it is discovering.
The commission has traveled to several countries to hear the testimony of North Korean exiles and experts who follow the Hermit Kingdom. On Monday in New York, Michael Kirby, the retired Australian judge who is leading the probe, said the evidence points to “large-scale patterns of systematic and gross human-rights violations” in North Korea.
One first-person account was delivered in Washington on Wednesday by Jo Jin-hye. The young woman described how most of her family had died of starvation in North Korea, including an infant brother who succumbed in her arms. An elder sister went to China, where the family believed she was sold as a bride to a man in another part of the country.
Ms. Jo fled with her mother and a younger sister to China, where they were arrested by Chinese police and repatriated to North Korea. She was taken to a detention center, where guards wearing boots “stomped on my bare feet.” She testified that she observed guards place a plastic bag over the head of another detainee: “They did this several times until he confessed.” His crime? Like Ms. Jo, he had left North Korea without permission.
Jin hye Jo Associated Press
As her testimony was ending, Ms. Jo asked to make a final point. When people hear about food shortages and other deprivations in North Korea, she said, they want to find a way to help. “This is a normal way to respond,” she said. “But North Korea is not a normal country.” Sending humanitarian aid is a mistake: “By doing this you are just lining the pockets of those who rule North Korea, not the North Korean people themselves.”
Several humanitarian organizations don’t operate in North Korea for that reason. But the U.N. continues to send humanitarian aid, such as $200 million in food authorized in June. Mr. Kirby’s reply to Ms. Jo offers hope that the commission might accept her wise advice. “You can be sure that we are considering the matter you just raised,” he told her. The commission will report its findings in March.
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