DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
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refuse to recognize. In October the special rapporteur reported that COVID-19
preventative measures made it impossible for diplomats and international
organizations to continue operating inside the country and lamented the resultant
decline in the amount of first-hand knowledge available to the international
community concerning the human rights situation in the country. He further stated
that the number of escapees from the country who arrived in South Korea during
the year declined significantly.
The UN special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities has not visited
the country since 2017. The visit did not focus on allegations of human rights
abuses, and the government continued to resist the special rapporteur’s mandate.
Government Human Rights Bodies: The government’s Association for Human
Rights Studies denied the existence of any human rights violations.
Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
Women
Rape and Domestic Violence: The government criminalized rape of women.
Conviction of Rape is punishable by reform through labor for up to five years; if
the assailant “commits a grave offense,” a term of more than 10 years; and if the
rape was “particularly grave,” a life term or the death penalty. No information was
available on how effectively the law was enforced. The 2014 UNCOI report found
the subjugation of inmates and a general climate of impunity created an
environment in which guards and other prisoners in privileged positions raped
female inmates. This was reconfirmed in OHCHR reporting on women who
attempted to flee the country, were forcibly repatriated, and finally escaped for
good. The women testified they had been subjected to widespread, systemic
sexual violence while detained after repatriation. The 2018 HRW report You Cry
at Night but Don’t Know Why reported endemic sexual and gender-based violence
and detailed cases of sexual assault or coerced sexual acts by men in official
positions of authority between 2011 and 2015. When cases of rape came to light,
the perpetrator often escaped with mere dismissal or no punishment. For example,
HRW reported a 2009 case in which a woman arrested for illegally fleeing the
country was raped by a police chief. After she told her lawyer, the lawyer refused
to mention it during her trial and said nothing would be done and the woman could
be punished more severely for bringing it up. As noted in the KINU white paper
for 2019, the law prohibits domestic violence, but the UN Committee on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women expressed concern that
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2020
United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor