European Parliament resolution on North Korea
Date: 2006-06-15
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: North Korea, human rights, political cooperation, political violence

9.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 300 E/521

Thursday 15 June 2006

6.
Reasserts the necessity for the Commission and the Council also to do their utmost to ensure that the
Association Agreement with Syria, which has not yet been signed, leads to an improvement in human rights
in Syria;

7.
Calls on the Commission to assess annually the human rights situation in Syria and its compliance
with the obligations under the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement and to report its findings within the frame-
work of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Syrian govern-

8.
ment and the Syrian parliament.

P6_TA(2006)0280

North Korea: Human rights violations

European Parliament resolution on North Korea

The European Parliament,

— having regard to its previous resolutions on North Korea,

— having regard to the guidelines on EU policy towards third countries on the death penalty (1998) and
inhuman or degrading treatment (2001), and EU guidelines on human

on torture and other cruel,
rights dialogues (2001) and on human rights defenders (2004),

— having regard to the resolution of 16 April 2003 adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights,

— having regard to the statement issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,
the UN Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) of 31 May 2006,

— having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights expresses deep concern at the exist-
ence in the DPRK of ‘torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, [and]
public executions’, as well as ‘all-pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedoms of thought, con-
science, religion, opinion and expression’,

B. whereas the government of the DPRK continues to deny access to the UN Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the DPRK and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, as well as
to non-governmental human rights organisations, which hampers investigation of the human rights
situation; whereas, however, multiple reports, notably by victims who have managed to flee the
country, suggest a most serious pattern of violations, including executions, torture, detention of political
prisoners and inhumane prison conditions,

C. whereas opposition of any kind is not tolerated and any person who expresses an opinion contrary to
the position of the ruling Korean Workers' Party faces severe punishment, as in many cases do their
families,

D. whereas Mr Son Jong Nam, who has lived in China, where he attended church and became a Christian,
was reportedly tortured by the National Security Agency, and was then sentenced to death for alleged
treason without a trial, and without the benefit of any of the procedural safeguards required by inter-
national human rights law,

C 300 E/522

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

9.12.2006

Thursday 15 June 2006

E. whereas four United Nations human rights experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the DPRK, who have called upon the government of the DPRK to postpone the execu-
tion and review the conviction, are dismayed by the response of the government, which described the
experts' letter as ‘a product of conspiracy undertaken in pursuit of the ill-minded aim of spreading
fabricated information while following the attempts of those hostile forces to defame, disintegrate and
overthrow the state and social system of the DPRK on the pretext of human rights’,

F. whereas the DPRK has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

G. whereas, since 2001, the government of the DPRK has reduced the number of grounds for imposing
the death penalty from 33 to 5, but whereas 4 of those grounds are essentially political in nature,

H. whereas the domestic news media are strictly censored, and access to international media broadcasts is
restricted; whereas radio and television sets are tuned to receive only state broadcasts and those who
listen to foreign radio stations risk being punished,

I. whereas any unauthorised assembly or association is regarded as a ‘collective disturbance’, liable to
punishment; whereas religious freedom, although guaranteed by the constitution, is in practice sharply
curtailed; whereas there are reports of severe repression of people involved in public and private relig-
ious activities in the form of imprisonment, torture and execution,

J. whereas witnesses estimate the number of people confined in ‘re-education (labour) camps’, ‘detention
camps’ and prisons at up to 200 000, and reports, notably by those released from camps such as Kang
Chol Hwan, suggest that torture and ill-treatment are widespread and conditions very harsh,

K. whereas many people in the DPRK are short of food and are dependent on the humanitarian aid the
country receives from donors such as the EU, which decided to allocate the sum of EUR 13 715 000 to
the DPRK in 2005, and the UN World Food Programme, which reached an agreement with the govern-
ment on 10 May 2006 to provide 150 000 tons of commodities to 1,9 million North Koreans over two
years,

L. whereas tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to China, leaving the DPRK because of repres-

sion and widespread hunger,

Deplores the lack of cooperation of the DPRK with the international human rights institutions, and

1.
particularly its refusal to follow the procedures of the UN Commission on Human Rights;

2.

Calls on the government of North Korea to:

— comply with the principles set out in the international human rights treaties it has ratified (such as the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and incorporate these principles into domestic law;

— abolish the death penalty;

— release all people detained or imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of fundamental human rights;

— guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of movement for all North Koreans; and

— review existing legislation to ensure that it conforms with international human rights standards, and
introduce safeguards to provide citizens with protections and remedies against human rights violations;

Urges the government of the DPRK to provide information on the case of Mr Son Jong Nam and not

3.
to proceed with his execution;

9.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 300 E/523

Thursday 15 June 2006

4.
Calls on the Commission and the Council to urge the government of the DPRK to end these human
rights violations and to provide information on the case of Mr Son Jong Nam and not to proceed with his
execution;

Calls on the government of the DPRK to review carefully the situation of all those condemned to
5.
death and to grant them a stay of execution, and calls for the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of
Human Rights in North Korea, Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, to be allowed to visit them;

6.
Urges the government of the DPRK to end the severe human rights violations, including imprison-
ment and execution on account of religion or belief, against citizens not affiliated to the state-sponsored
religious federations, and to allow religious believers to meet freely for worship, build and maintain places
of worship and freely publish religious literature;

7.
Recognises that the EU was the first and only party to engage in human rights dialogues with the
DPRK after the Troika visit in 2001, led by Swedish Prime Minister and President of the European Council
Göran Persson, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of
the Council of the European Union Javier Solana, and External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, and
that the dialogue was discontinued as of 2003, when the Council of Ministers sponsored a Human Rights
resolution at the UNCHR without informing the North Koreans; urges both sides, therefore, to endeavour to
restart the human rights dialogue between the EU and the DPRK;

8.
Calls on the government of the DPRK to fulfil its obligations under human rights instruments to
which it is a party and to ensure that humanitarian organisations, independent human rights monitors,
the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK and the UN Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Religion or Belief have free access to the country;

9. Welcomes the agreement between the World Food Programme and the government of the DPRK to
support 1,9 million of the most vulnerable people, especially women and young children; deplores the
ongoing and unnecessary suffering of the North Korean people as a consequence of their government's
policies; stresses that there should always be a targeted and fair distribution of food in the country; urges
the government of the DPRK to end discrimination in its distribution of food in favour of high-ranking
Workers' Party officials and military, intelligence and police officers;

Calls on the government of the DPRK to hand over finally and completely all information on the
10.
citizens of South Korea and Japan who were abducted during recent decades, and to release immediately
those abductees still being held in the country;

11.
Calls on the government of the People's Republic of China to stop repatriating North Korean citizens
to the DPRK, where, regardless of their reasons for leaving, they face harsh treatment, ranging from deten-
tion to torture, long prison terms and even executions; calls on the Republic of Korea (ROK) to assume its
responsibility for North Korean refugees in China and calls on the government of the ROK to allow them to
travel to South Korea;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the government of
12.
the DPRK, the government of the ROK, the government of the People's Republic of China, the UN Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the UN Com-
mission on Human Rights Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture,
and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK.