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SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean refugees say that sexual violence against women in their former homeland is part of everyday life. But a new report suggests there is little chance that abused women in the North will have the opportunity to say "MeToo" anytime soon.
The extremely patriarchal society of North Korea makes many women feel helpless to hold accounts of sexual violence, many are ashamed of being abused and some choose to remain silent because of the weakness systems for maintaining order and support, according to a report released Thursday by New York- Human Rights Watch based on interviews with 106 North Koreans who have left the country, more than half of them after 2011.
Three women who left North Korea and three South Korean experts, interviewed separately by the Associated Press, agreed that sexual violence is a serious problem in the North, although the voice and economic power of women has gradually increased in recent years because of their role in society. burgeoning capitalist style markets. Some said that North Korean women did not even understand that widespread assault and harassment were abuses.
"Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, untreated and widely tolerated secret," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "North Koreans would probably say" MeToo "if they thought there was a way to get justice, but their voice was silenced in Kim Jong Un's dictatorship."
The report comes as US-led global diplomacy focuses on North Korean nuclear disarmament. The country's catastrophic human rights record has, however, been largely ignored. This is not the first external documentation of sexual violence in North Korea, but the report is likely to anger North Korea, which often complains of what it claims to be persistent hostility in the United States.
Kim's propaganda service has described North Korea as a "socialist paradise" and opposes external criticism of its rights conditions as an attempt by the United States to force regime change. A dispatch of 2016 stated that every woman in the North was "highly esteemed and respected" and that she "can all lead a life worthy of heroin", but that is also the country that called the former South Korean woman, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye a "prostitute".
According to the report "Cry at night but do not know why" and the six people affected by the PA, sexual violence against women is rampant in North Korea. They say it happens in detention centers, open markets, checkpoints, trains, streets and military bases.
The report details sexual abuse by men in power, such as prison guards, police officers, prosecutors, soldiers and market watchers.
"Interviewees told us that when a guard or policeman" chooses "a woman, she has no choice but to comply with all her requests, whether for reasons sexual, financial or other, "says the report. "Women in detention have little choice if they try to refuse or file a complaint later, and risk sexual violence, longer periods of detention, beatings, forced labor, or increased their commercial activities. "
A woman interviewed in the report said that a police officer had repeatedly penetrated her with her fingers while questioning her illegal stay in China. Another said that women in a detention center were forced to leave with a guard who raped them every night. They said that "clicking, clicking, clicking was the most horrible sound" because it meant that the key was spinning in the door of their prison cells. Several traders also described male leaders at checkpoints conducting intrusive body searches of young women, spending more time checking their chest and hips and sometimes under their underwear.
Other authors of the report stated that the police did not consider sexual violence a "serious crime" and that it was "almost inconceivable" to consider asking the police to report their suffering because of potential repercussions. Ubiquitous social stigma prevents victims from remaining silent, the report said, adding that all respondents described "widespread impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence and lack of justice for survivors". lack of support mechanisms.
The women who spoke to the PA said that they did not even know what exactly was sexual abuse when they were in North Korea.
"High ranking men (army officers) often tapped the hips and breasts of female soldiers or put their hands under their uniform around their necks when they passed them. We have seen this many times, but we only thought our leaders had particularly favored it, "said Lee So Yeon, a woman who served in the Northern Army before her 2008 escape.
A second woman said that a guard at the detention center had tried to rape her but had gone away after stating that her body was covered with lice. A third woman said that sexual abuse was considered shameful for women because people thought that they had to have it themselves.
The Human Rights Watch report was released as North Korea struggled to gain political and economic concessions from the United States in nuclear negotiations. The North is unlikely to take any significant steps to improve the status of its rights, as the US and South Korean authorities do not intend to openly raise the issue in the nuclear talks.
"When we think of horrific rights conditions in the North, I know we should tackle this problem immediately, but it's also something we can not solve overnight," said analyst Cho. Han Bum of the Korea Institute for National Unification of Seoul. If current diplomacy continues, "the status of Northern rights will not get worse until the country continues to open," said Cho.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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