A Very Distant Hope for North Koreans

Ms Shin* didn’t know she was a victim of human rights abuses in North Korea until years after coming to South Korea. Attacked one day by a drunk police officer, she was wounded so badly she was kept in a cell for weeks until her injuries were less likely to draw suspicion from her neighbours. Years later, she continues to suffer from the physical and emotional after-effects of the attack.

At the time, she knew that what was happening to her was unjust. She says, however, that she felt “powerless to do anything about it”. It was only after escaping the North and settling into South Korea that she realised that she was in fact entitled to certain human rights.

Read more: www.policyforum.net

---