Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

North Korea's Forced Labor Enterprise: a State-sponsored Marketplace in Human Trafficking Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

Publisher Marketing: This report examines North Korea and the issues of forced labor and the lack of human rights in that country. From the report: "There are many articles within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments that may pertain to the issue we are observing here today. However, I believe Article I of the declaration most profoundly speaks to my concerns, that all human beings are born free. But in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, individuals are born and subjugated by their government to crimes against humanity. In practice, virtually none of North Korea's residents or citizens can reasonably be assessed as free. The human rights condition in North Korea is grave. Violations by the DPRK are gross, widespread, systematic and continual. To quote from the findings of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, quote, "The gravity, scale and nature of those violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world," end quote. The findings go on to deem the DPRK as seeking to dominate every aspect of its citizens' lives and terrorize them from within. The severity of the human rights situation in North Korea is well known and I applaud the work of the international community including the work of the United Nations for groundbreaking calls for the prosecution of its leaders for crimes against humanity.