Politics
Monday October 2, 2006
Report Shows Forced Abortions Routine in North Korea Women’s Prisons
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Gudrun Schultz
PYONGYANG, North Korea, October 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pregnant women imprisoned under the communist regime in North Korea routinely face forced abortions, a recent report by a South Korean lawyers’ association stated, in the first report the group has released on human rights conditions in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The survey conducted by the Korean Bar Association relied on two years of data collection and interviews with 100 North Koreans who had defected to the South after 2000, the Korean Times reported.
According to statements by defectors, 57.7 percent indicated they had witnessed or heard of imprisoned pregnant women who were forced to have abortions.
Human rights groups have alleged for years that forced abortion and infanticide are common practices inside North Korean prisons, basing the charges on the reports by defectors. The communist government has consistently denied the charges.
In 2005 the Office of the United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights included forced abortion and infanticide in its 2005 report on human rights violations in North Korea.
The report identified the “[c]ontinued violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, in particular the trafficking of women for prostitution or forced marriage, ethnically motivated forced abortions, including by labour inducing injection or natural delivery, as well as infanticide of children of repatriated mothers, including in police detention centres and labour training camps.”
The lawyer’s report on human rights violations also confirmed the routine use of torture and sleep deprivation by North Korean authorities against prisoners. Twenty-two percent of those questioned had undergone sleep deprivation during questioning, or had heard reports of sleep deprivation from others. Widespread torture was reported by 21.1 percent. Sexual harassment, beatings and abusive language were also frequent occurrences.
Read coverage from the Korea Times:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092922422811990.htm
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
HORRIFIC FORCED ABORTION AND INFANTICIDE IN NORTH KOREAN PRISONS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jun/02061007.html
Infanticide of Disabled Babies Commonplace in Communist North Korea
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032207.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.