By Kang Hyun-kyung
North Korean defectors say the communist country is feeling pressure for the European Union-led initiative to bring Kim Jong-un to justice partly because of the possible negative fallout on its source of hard currency.
So Jae-pyong, director general of the Seoul-based non-profit group Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, says the loss of hard currency will be inevitable for the North if the countries, who maintain diplomatic relations, cut them off.
He said in the Middle East there are thousands of North Korean workers and the remittances they send to the North are considered one of the major sources of hard currency for the North Korean regime.
"Countries in the region would feel pressure to end diplomatic relations with the North if public opinion goes from bad to worse because of its notorious human rights records," So told The Korea Times. "They may consider cutting off bilateral relations. If this becomes a reality, the North would no longer have remittances from the region."
According to the local government data, over 7,000 North Koreans are working in the Middle East. Kuwait has the majority share with over 4,000, followed by Qatar with 2,000, the United Arab Emirates host 1,000 and Libya has over 250.
So, a North Korean defector, said his former country has maintained close relationships with several countries in Africa and therefore it fears further diplomatic isolation if the EU-led effort to refer Kim to the international court gains further momentum.
He made the remarks amid growing international concern about North Korea following the U.N panel's fresh disclosure of human rights violations in February.
The U.N. report was drafted by Michael Kirby, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, and was based on testimonies from North Koreans who experienced prison camps.
Cha Kyung-sook, a North Korean defector who experienced prison camp once in 1999 and again in 2000, after her first two efforts to escape the communist country failed, said human rights violations there are ubiquitous.
She told The Korea Times that she and her second daughter lived like bats in the prison camp.
"At night, we slept holding the cell window tightly, so that our bodies didn't touch the lice covered floor. We lived like bats," she said. "We were treated like animals. I lost two teeth after I was badly beaten by a North Korean interrogator."
Cha called on the South Korean government to make human rights in North Korean a top priority, saying many North Koreans are malnourished and suffer from hunger.
On Wednesday, a North Korean seminar hosted by international human rights groups in collaboration with U.N. representatives of Australia, Botswana and Panama will take place in the U.N headquarters in New York.
At the beginning of the forum, Kirby, will speak on the issue and each of the defectors will share their experiences at prison camps before discussing the Stalinist state's abysmal human rights conditions.
Four defectors who were forcibly returned to the North, talk about the human rights violations they experienced at prison camps to raise international awareness of the shocking conditions.
Earlier this month, North Korea hosted an unprecedented session in the U.N. to explain its position on the EU-led effort to bring Kim Jong-un to justice for human rights abuses. Foreign diplomats and international journalists were invited.
Before this, the reclusive state also drew up a draft of human rights and circulated it to U.N. members in an attempt to minimize the EU-led drive to punish the North Korean regime.