North Korea's "Ghost Ships"

Strange--and tragic--stories out of North Korea are not unusual: the regime's brutality at times overwhelms its secrecy so that credible accounts of starvation, torture, arbitrary execution, and other crimes make their way beyond its tightly sealed borders. But this latest story, even by North Korean standards, is macabre.

The Los Angeles Times reports today that since last November at least fourteen North Korean boats carrying over thirty partially decomposed bodies have floated ashore along Japan's west coast. Initial speculation centered on the possibility that the "ghost ships" were carrying defectors who had tried to escape North Korea on boats instead of attempting the overland crossing into China. But when a Japanese scholar, North Korea expert Satoru Miyamoto, examined photos of the boats, he realized that they had belonged to the military's commercial section. The dead, he believes, were members of the military pressed into service as fishermen in an effort to alleviate North Korea's dire shortage of food. Miyamoto's theory suggests that those found on the boats perished as a consequence of their own inexperience as fishermen--and, no doubt, the pressure of unreasonable demands being made on them.

Last summer, the North Korean government spoke openly about the impact of drought on the country's rice production. UN assistance to North Korea has declined over the course of the last decade as a consequence of the international community's efforts to punish the regime for its nuclear activities.

To Sweeten the Deal?

What do Dennis Rodman and 10,000 tons of sugar have in common? You can insert your own punch line, but a new report from the panel of experts appointed by the United Nations Security Council to monitor the sanctions regime imposed on North Korea suggests that both may have been involved in the shipment of prohibited goods.

Last summer, Panama intercepted a North Korean ship traveling from Cuba to North Korea with 10,000 tons of sugar in its hold. Beneath the sugar were containers holding two disassembled MiG-21 jet fighters and fifteen MiG-21 engines, all being shipped to the DPRK for repair. (North Korea is one of the few places in the world where Soviet-made weapons from the 1950s can be sent for repair.) The report, according to the New York Times, shows that "North Korea is using increasingly deceptive techniques to circumvent international sanctions."

Reuters reported recently that the panel of experts was investigating whether Rodman, whose travels to North Korea were lampooned last fall in this brilliant ad for Foot Locker, may have violated the ban on shipments of luxury goods (including spirits) into the DPRK.

Meanwhile, amid dancing in the streets, North Koreans have just voted unanimously to approve Kim Jong-un and his entire slate of parliamentary candidates.

China's Response

China responded today to the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, "We believe that politicizing human rights issues is not conducive toward improving a country's human rights." She also noted China's opposition to referring the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court, something recommended by the Commission of Inquiry.

China's defense of North Korea is, of course, self-interested. While China's human rights record is not like North Korea's, there are elements of repression and social control in China that also merit international scrutiny and condemnation. Furthermore, North Korea's atrocities have to a considerable degree been aided and abetted by Beijing--directly in the many cases of refoulement involving those who have managed to flee from North Korea into China and indirectly in the many diplomatic negotiations that have occurred over the years among members of the UN Security Council seeking to impose more effective sanctions on North Korea.

At a time when the international community is trying to move, haltingly, toward a new global ethic of collective responsibility in cases involving crimes that shock the conscience of humanity--as those in North Korea clearly do--China has positioned itself as the chief obstacle.

A Warning to the Supreme Leader

On Friday, the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a body established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, released the results of a year-long investigation into conditions in North Korea. The 372-page report was characterized by the BBC as "one of the most detailed and devastating ever published by the United Nations."

A letter from the Commission of Inquiry dated January 20, 2014, warned Kim Jong-un that he could face international prosecution for crimes against humanity under the doctrine of command responsibility. After describing the concept of military command responsibility, the letter states, "On the same basis, a civilian superior will incur personal criminal responsibility if (1) the civilian superior knew, or consciously disregarded, information which clearly indicated that subordinates within his effective responsibility and control were committing crimes against humanity, and (2) the civilian superior fails to take all necessary and reasonable measures within the superior's power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to competent authorities for investigation and prosecution."

The Commission of Inquiry's findings and recommendations are detailed and extensive. Some are addressed to China, urging respect for the legal principle of non-refoulement. The report urges the UN Security Council to refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court for investigation and prosecution. These and many other recommendations are offered against the backdrop of this stinging rebuke to the United Nations:

The fact that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as a State Member of the United Nations, has for decades pursued policies involving crimes that shock the conscience of humanity raises questions about the inadequacy of the response of the international community. The international community must accept its responsibility to protect the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from crimes against humanity, because the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has manifestly failed to do so. In particular, this responsibility must be accepted in the light of the role played by the international community (and by the great powers in particular) in the division of the Korean peninsula and because of the unresolved legacy of the Korean War. These unfortunate legacies help not only to explain the intractability of the human rights situation but also why an effective response is now imperative. (Para. 1217)

The findings of this report may offer nothing new in terms of our understanding of what has been happening in North Korea, but the Commission of Inquiry deserves gratitude for thoroughly documenting the extraordinary human rights disaster existing there and boldly challenging the international community to move beyond the status quo that has persisted since the end of the Korean War. It will be interesting to see how the UN Human Rights Council, which must accept or reject the report's conclusions and recommendations, will now respond.

Yes, Virginia, There Is an East Sea

Is it the "Sea of Japan" or the "East Sea"? In 1992, South Korea and North Korea raised an objection before the Sixth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names regarding the use of "Sea of Japan" to refer to the body of water that lies between Japan and the Korean peninsula. The Korean position is that the term "Sea of Japan" became common only when the Japanese occupied Korea and that the earlier name, "East Sea," is therefore more appropriate. Japan argues that its preferred name actually predates both Japan's occupation of Korea and the common use of "East Sea" to refer to the body of water.

It now appears the matter has been settled.

Joining the state's Senate, the Virginia House of Delegates has voted (81-15) to require state-approved textbooks, when referring to the "Sea of Japan," to note also that the body of water is called the "East Sea." Governor Terry McAuliffe is expected to sign the bill into law.

The BBC reports that Japanese ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae contacted Governor McAuliffe to warn him that Japan's economic ties to the Commonwealth of Virginia could be damaged by passage of the bill, but McAuliffe seems to have been influenced more by the hundreds of Virginians of Korean descent who descended on Richmond to lobby for it.

Ski Lifts and Human Rights

This is too good to pass up.

North Korea is building its first ski resort but can't get ski lifts due to international sanctions against the regime. The response? An official media outlet stated, "This is an intolerable mockery of the social system and the people of the DPRK and a serious human rights abuse that politicizes sports and discriminates against the Koreans."

Details are available here.