Haggard and co-author Marcus Noland's Study Cited in State Department Report
2011 Human Rights Reports: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
05/25/2012
U.S. Department of State
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is an authoritarian state led by the Kim family for more than 60 years. On December 30, Kim Jong Un was named supreme commander of the Korean People's Army following the December 17 death of his father Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un's grandfather, the late Kim Il Sung, remains "eternal president." The most recent national elections, held in March 2009, were neither free nor fair. Security forces report to the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, and to the civilians and military officers that form the National Defense Commission, the supreme ruling body of the state.
Citizens did not have the right to change their government. The government subjected citizens to rigid controls over many aspects of their lives, including denial of the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement and worker rights. There continued to be reports of a vast network of political prison camps in which conditions were often harsh and life threatening.
Defectors continued to report extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners, and torture. The judiciary was not independent and did not provide fair trials. There continued to be reports of severe punishment of some repatriated refugees and their family members. There were reports of trafficked women among refugees and workers crossing the border into China.
Click here to read the Press Release.
Click here to read the full report.
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Stephan Haggard is the director of the Korea-Pacific Program at IR/PS, where he specializes in the Korean economy. In 2011 Haggard published Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea with co-author Marcus Noland, with whom he had previously authored Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform. Dr. Haggard writes the "North Korea: Witness to Transformation" blog at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
