The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International, meeting at its 80th World Congress in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 29th September to 2nd October 2014 Resolution on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)

                                     ( 2 OCT ~ 29 SEP 2014 )

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is the most closed society in the world. In recent years, horrific reports have emerged ofthe brutal and inhuman treatment of hundreds of thousands of people who dared to say even one word contrary to the official received view.

In March 2014, a report by a UN Commission of Inquiry appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2013, recommended that the UN Security Council refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights carry out investigations.

The report found that crimes against humanity were committed in North Korea over amulti-decade period "pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State."

Alleged crimes included "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, forcible transfer of persons, enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation." With regard to freedom of expression, the report noted that "intensive state indoctrination occurs in an environment where the exercise of the right to express facts and opinions critical of the state or its official ideology is not tolerated…"

A witness told the Commission told how he was discouraged since his youth by his parents from aspiring to become a writer as no one could write freely. In North Korea, he said that it is only permitted towrite about matters which put Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-Il and the Workers’ Party of Korea in a good light. Writers who write beyond this remit are liable to be arrested and treated as political criminals.

Media and related information are state-controlled: it is illegal to listen to foreign radio, watch foreign TV or foreign videos.

Local police ensure that radios for sale are pre-tuned to government stations and sealed before being sold. The media is heavily controlled and censored, and "forms the backbone of an enormous propaganda machine."

Reading of books from the Republic of Korea is punishable as a crime of espionage. Chinese books are also prohibited.

There is extensive wiretapping of telephones. Only the elite may own computers and use the Internet ? permission only granted to visiting foreigners recently following a visit by Google, but still barred to the vast majority of North Korean citizens.

Surveillance teams of inspectors raid homes (especially in towns and cities close to borders) to see if families are watching or listening to foreign films and radio or television broadcasts. People caught listening to foreign broadcasts are detained and sentenced to long prison terms.

Article 48 of the Press Law empowers the State to criminalize any statement, publication, news or article that is critical of the State or its organs.

Article 103 of the Penal Code stipulates that anyone seriously disturbing the social order shall be punished with up to 5 years of correctional labour and, in serious cases, their leaders shall be punished with up to 10 years of correctional labour.

Such crimes include merely listening to broadcasts from the Republic of Korea, circulating printed matter from the Republic of Korea; and spreading unfounded rumours.

But even worse - once people are in prison and labour camps, they disappear completely and often die there. A small number have been released and have escaped to tell their tales.

The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International urges the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to:

? Implement the recommendations in the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report, and in the reports of the UN Secretary General and of the Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aimed at improving the situation of freedom of expression in the country;

? Uphold the right of people in the Democratic Republic of Korea to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression;

? Release immediately and unconditionally all individuals held solely for peacefully exercising that right

? End the use of forced labour camps and to clarify the fate of all individuals sent to them;

? Promote literacy and the act of creative writing as a fundamental and indivisible part of the right to freedom of expression. It also urges the international ommunity to:

? Respect the principle of non-refoulement and not to return anyone to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who would be at risk of serious human rights violations, including crimes against humanity

? Refer the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court

? To implement all the recommendations to the international community contained in the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report, and in the reports of the UN Secretary General and of the Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aimed at improving the situation of freedom of expression in the country; 

                                            BISHKEK - 1 OCT 2014

I am participated in a imprisonment writer committee department conference. and I am attested that "The 90% of north korea's books is focus on propaganda system and president. even president ment is quoted at a book like text book, documentary literature, reference book"

Bishkek = Il Lim