North Korea executed children and pregnant women, Seoul report claims

North Korea publicly executed six-months pregnant mother, carried out human experiments and forced women from ‘list of dwarfs’ to undergo hysterectomies, human rights report claims

• Investigation into North Korean rights abuses has been made public for first time
• Six teenagers were executed and human experiments conducted, report says

North Korea has committed horrific human rights violations including executing children and pregnant women, carrying out human experiments and forcibly sterilising disabled people, a South Korean report has claimed.

The pariah state has also put citizens to death for being homosexual, for their religion and for trying to flee the country, the report by the South’s Ministry of Unification states.

Horrifying testimony also reveals the regime forced nurses to write up ‘a list of dwarfs’ and conducted hysterectomies on a woman with dwarfism, as well as human experiments.

The extensive 450-page report details egregious human rights abuses in North Korea, including the right to life and liberty, as well as freedom from slavery, torture and other inhumane treatment.  

It is based on damning testimony from more than 500 North Koreans who fled from their homeland and was collected from 2017 to 2022.

A North Korean soldier looks out from behind barbed wire at a camp. Deaths and torture regularly occur in detention facilities, a South Korean report has found

A South Korean soldier, left, experiences what it is like to be held in a North Korean cell at the Korean War exhibition in Seoul in 2010

In a move that is sure to infuriate despot Kim Jong-un and his regime, the ministry revealed its yearly report to the public for the first time ever today as it aims to lift the lid on the North’s ‘gruesome’ human rights abuses.

Chilling testimony from today’s report states that a six-month pregnant woman was executed by the regime.

The reason for her killing was said to be that a widely circulated video showed her pointing at a portrait of the late Kim Il-sung while dancing in her home.

More disturbing testimony revealed that six teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were executed by shooting.

They were said to have been charged over watching video footage originating from South Korea and smoking opium at a stadium in the city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province.

It also details that the regime carried out human experiments, with officials at the Ministry of Social Security allegedly blackmailing families into letting their relatives become human test subjects under the threat of sending them to prison camps.

Human subjects were reported to have secretly been fed sleeping pills and forcibly taken to a facility called Hospital 83 to undergo various experiments.

Disabled people, particularly those with dwarfism, were also deprived of their human rights and had medical procedures conducted on them against their wills.

Pictured: Inmates at a North Korean prison camp. Rampant state-led rights abuses have taken place in communities, prison camps and elsewhere, the reports states

In 2015, nurses at one hospital were reportedly told to create a ‘list of dwarfs’ which was then used to prevent people with dwarfism from giving birth. 

One woman with dwarfism was allegedly forced to undergo a hysterectomy – a surgical procedure to remove her womb and prevent her from having a child – in 2017.

Rampant state-led rights abuses were said to have taken place in communities, prison camps and elsewhere, including public executions, torture and arbitrary arrests.

Women in detention were subjected to inhumane conditions including torture, forced labor, sexual violence and starvation.

Detention facilities saw deaths and torture occurring regularly and some people were summarily executed after being caught trying to cross the border, the South Korean ministry said.

A total of 11 political prison camps were identified by the Unification Ministry, with five currently in operation.

‘North Korean citizens’ right to life appears to be greatly threatened,’ the ministry said in its report.

In a move that is sure to infuriate despot Kim Jong-un and his regime, the South’s Ministry of Unification revealed its yearly report to the public for the first time

‘Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South Korean videos, and religious and superstitious activities.

The report came as South Korea seeks to highlight its isolated neighbour’s failure to improve living conditions while racing to boost its nuclear and missile arsenals.

Seoul began compiling yearly reports on Pyongyang’s alleged human rights abuses in 2018 following the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Acts in 2016.

While the Unification Ministry is required by law to make an annual assessment of the North’s human rights situation, this year marks the first time the report has been made public.

The previous South Korean government, headed by liberal-leaning Moon Jae-in, avoided making the reports public due to what it saw as the need to protect the identities of the North Korean defectors who testified.

The country’s current president, the more conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, expressed his administration’s desire to ‘fully expose’ the North’s ‘gruesome human rights violations’.

Starving prisoners line up to face another day of gruelling forced labour in some of the first ever photos to show inmates at a North Korean prison camp (taken in 2021)

President Yoon said the report’s publication should better inform the international community of what is going on in the North.

He added that the rogue state deserves ‘not a single penny’ of economic aid while it pursues its nuclear ambitions.

The approach by Yoon is a distinct departure from that of his liberal predecessor, who faced criticism for his less outspoken position on the North’s rights as he sought to improve ties and build rapport with the North’s leader.

North Korea has roundly rejected criticism of its rights conditions as part of a plot to overthrow its rulers. 

While the South Korean government’s findings could not be independently verified, they were in line with UN investigations and reports from non-governmental organisations. 

Nearly 34,000 North Koreans have settled in South Korea but the number of defectors has fallen sharply in recent times because of increasingly tight border security.

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