A/HRC/16/58
47.
Furthermore, Internet access is restricted to a few thousand people and, currently,
the international Internet network is accessible only by a small minority, a few high-ranking
officials and foreign diplomats via a satellite link with servers based abroad.22 The Intranet
is accessible only by academics, businessmen and high-ranking civil servants with special
clearance.
48.
It is dismal that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ranks 177 out of 178
countries in one NGO 2010 press freedom index,23 which shows the scope for improvement
on freedom of opinion and expression. The extent of restriction on the freedom of opinion
and expression is demonstrated by the nature of punishment placed on journalists. In the
last few months, it has been reported that two North Korean journalists died in 2001 in
Yoduk “Kwan-li-so” No. 15, a prison camp located in the east of the country. This has only
come to light in the recent days through a former political prisoner.24
49.
In speaking to the asylum-seekers in the Republic of Korea, the Special Rapporteur
was also made aware of the risks some of the asylum-seekers undertake by using mobile
phones, especially while trying to liaise with traffickers in order to leave the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea. The defectors in Japan who met with the Special Rapporteur
expressed similar concerns regarding restrictions on and, in many cases, the total absence of
freedom of opinion and expression. Some of them claimed they were not even in a position
to express their worsening living standards and that the only manner in which they learnt
about the outside world was from smuggled DVDs and video CDs.
50.
The Special Rapporteur calls upon the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to
allow space for participation in Government, freedom of expression, access to information,
freedom of association, as provided and recognized in the Constitution and related laws of
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and international standards.
G.
Detention and correctional facilities
51.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea operates two types of prison: prisons
designed to detain political criminals and detention facilities for non-political, ordinary
criminals.
52.
Punishments under the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Penal Code are
classified as “basic punishment” or “additional punishment”. There are four types of basic
punishment: the death penalty, unlimited term of correctional labour, limited term of
correctional labour and labour training (Penal Code, art. 28). The unlimited term of
correctional labour and labour training were added during the 2004 revision of the Penal
Code. The unlimited terms of correctional labour are 15 years and longer, while the limited
term sentences range from 1 to 15 years. Convicts sentenced to unlimited or limited
correctional labour are detained in correctional centres (Kyohwaso) and undergo
“corrections” through labour (art. 30). The criminals sentenced to correctional punishment
are typically “economic or violent, rather than political criminals”, and would be detained
in the Correctional Bureau of the Ministry of People’s Security.25
22
23
24
25
12
Reporters Without Borders, “Internet Enemies 2010 – North Korea”, 18 March 2010. Available from
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c21f6708.html.
See Reporters Without Borders, “Press Freedom Index 2010”. Available from http://en.rsf.org/pressfreedom-index-2010,1034.html.
See Reporters Without Borders, “Two journalists died in prison camp”, September 2010. Available
from http://en.rsf.org/north-korea-two-journalists-died-in-prison-14-09-2010,38355.html.
See White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea, p. 107.
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