The White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2016 aims to draw more attention, in Korea and abroad, to North Korean human rights violations and provide the basic data needed for discussion and activities for improvement of the situation by objectively investigating and analyzing the status of human rights in North Korea through comprehensive and systematic handling of the related issues. This White Paper bases its views of the human rights circumstances of the North Korean people on the framework of international human rights standards. As is well known, North Korea is a State Party to major international human rights treaties including international covenants on human rights, etc. To identify the extent to which the individual rights recognized in each covenant are respected and guaranteed, we first reviewed the relevant laws of North Korea and looked at the related realities. Such analysis is meaningful in that we can identify the level of compliance by North Korea in the laws it has enacted on its own as well as the degree to which it has fulfilled its international obligations as a State Party to these treaties. Under the circumstances where we do not have direct access to internal information on North Korea, the Korea Institute for National Unification (hereinafter KINU) uses in-depth interviews of North Koreans who have escaped North Korea and settled in South Korea as the most important tool to investigate the realities. The White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2016 incorporates information from the in-depth interviews of 186 interviewees selected in consideration of demographic and social background of the North Koreans who have recently escaped from North Korea to South Korea. In addition, we refer to materials, in South Korea and abroad, related to North Korean human rights including official documents from North Korea and the United Nations (UN), etc. This White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2016 mainly describes what was investigated in 2015, with the major focus of investigation and analysis being the events taking place within 5 years from the year of this investigation. Moreover, it mainly includes events experienced or witnessed by North Korean defectors. As for North Korean laws, the latest versions of the ones collected by KINU are used.

Summary_17 ChapterⅠ Purpose for Publication and Research Methodology 1 Purpose for Publication_46 2 Research Methodology_49 ChapterⅡ The Reality of Civil and Political Rights 1 Right to Life_60 2 Right to Not Receive Torture or Inhumane Treatment_76 3 Right to Not be Forced into Labor_86 4 Right to Liberty and Security of Person_93 5 Right to Humane Treatment in Detention_101 6 Right to Freedom of Movement and Residence_127 7 Right to a Fair Trial_142 8 Right to Privacy_170 9 Right to Freedom of Ideology, Conscience and Religion_181 10 Right to Freedom of Expression_195 11 Right to Freedom of Assembly and Association_216 12 Right to Political Participation_226 13 Right to Equality_236 ChapterⅢ The Reality of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1 Right to Food_256 2 Right to Health_277 3 Right to Work_298 4 Right to Education_312 5 Right to Social Security_326 ChapterⅣ Vulnerable Groups 1 Women_342 2 Children_353 3 Persons with Disabilities_367 ChapterⅤ Major Issues 1 Political Prison Camps_398 2 Corruption_411 3 Overseas Defectors_428 4 Overseas Workers_465 5 Separated Families, Abductees and Korean War POWs_491