What you should know about North Korean human rights
January 11, 2024
Posted in: Newsletters
Dear Friend,
The documentary Beyond Utopia, about North Korean defectors, premiered this week on PBS’s Independent Lens and is being considered for an Academy Award later this month. Unfortunately, it lacks crucial context to understanding the human rights situation in North Korea, specifically as it relates to the role of the U.S. and the unresolved Korean War.
Three filmmakers — including Deann Borshay Liem (Crossings, Memory of Forgotten War) —- recently sent an Open Letter to Independent Lens Executive Producer Lois Vossen, criticizing the film’s “unbalanced and inaccurate narrative about Korean history and North Korean society” and lack of “any mention of the ongoing impact of the Korean War and U.S. policies that have destabilized the livelihood and well-being of North Korea’s people.”
Publicity still from “Beyond Utopia.”
Will you help us spread the word? Please read and share the open letter with your network. Find sample language for sharing here. And if you attend a screening, please consider bringing this letter to offer the audience another perspective.
If you want to understand more about North Korean human rights and how we can improve them, read Christine Ahn’s op-ed “How Can We Actually Improve Human Rights in North Korea?” that was published in Foreign Policy in Focus last month. And check out our fact sheet on Human Rights and North Korea.
The main points:
- The ongoing state of war has not improved human rights in North Korea, but in fact has had detrimental impacts on the economic livelihoods and well-being of North Koreans.
- The U.S.-led sanctions regime is worsening the humanitarian situation in North Korea.
- The U.S. travel ban hinders the delivery of humanitarian aid to North Korea.
- U.S.-South Korea joint war drills are not conducive to humanitarian aid work.
The bottom line: Rather than the status quo of pressure and isolation, ending the Korean War with a peace agreement would be more conducive to improving human rights and security, by building trust, sapping the militarism that undergirds human rights abuses, and creating the conditions to engage more effectively on human rights.
Want to learn more about our efforts to build lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and how you can be part of our movement? Join our Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network national call today, Thursday, January 11, at 5pm PT / 8 pm ET. Register here. We’ll discuss our plans for this year for grassroots organizing, congressional advocacy, narrative change, and building partnerships in solidarity across movements. Plus, we’ll tell you how you can support activists in Korea organizing in solidarity with Palestine.
We hope you’ll join us.
Women Cross DMZ