U.N. envoy accuses N. Korea of increasing punishment of defectors

SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Yonhap) -- Human rights conditions in North Korea remain
"extremely grave" with punishment of repatriated defectors growing increasingly
harsh in recent years, a U.N. special envoy on the issue said Friday.

"The current situation is extremely grave," Vitit Muntarbhorn, U.N. special
rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said in a press conference in Seoul,
citing "stricter punishment against people leaving the country of origin."
Muntarbhorn, who was paying his last visit to South Korea in his six-year tenure
in the post, said North Korea made adjustments in recent years to reflect the
idea of human rights in its legal system but they lack substance.
"There have been formal improvements, but in terms of substance, there have been
very serious transgressions," he said. Muntarbhorn, a Thai professor, has
repeatedly been denied entry to North Korea.
A U.N. General Assembly committee in November last year blasted human rights
conditions in North Korea, citing "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment of punishment" along with public executions.
Muntarbhorn said defections from the impoverished North have decreased in the
past several years, noting punishment against those repatriated has turned
stricter. Under a treaty forged in 1998, China is believed to repatriate North
Korean defectors that its authorities capture.
Muntarbhorn said North Korea increasingly chose to send those repatriated to
labor camps instead of prisons in 2003 and 2004, but that trend has changed in
recent years.
"That slight mitigation (in punishment) has been reversed," he said.
(END)

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