Former North Korean Political Prisoner Asks the UN: “How much longer must my people suffer?”

Mr. President, last week the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released the ten-year assessment on the DPRK following the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry that described it as “a state without parallel.” The report’s conclusion is devastating. No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world.

Political prison camps still operate. Public executions continue, including those who watch K dramas. Families, including my own, are denied even a phone call or Zoom access as the darkest nation blocks internet access. Forced labor expands. Starvation persist with 40% of the population malnourished.

Meanwhile, munitions and troops are sent to support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine. And China continues to forcibly repatriate North Korean escapees, sending them to gulags, torture, even executions.

I’m among the few who survived through multiple escapes and imprisonment in China and DPRK before finally settling in the UK. I have seen public executions, prisoners dying under torture and children starving to death. Those are not history. They are happening today.

So I ask, Mr. Present, how many more years must my people endure suffering, persecution, and injustice under such oppressive rule when it has already lasted for over 75 years?

I thank you.