北、韓国兵捕虜を「奴隷化」　子孫の代まで搾取　人権団体報告

【ソウルＡＦＰ＝時事】韓国の人権団体は24日、北朝鮮が韓国兵捕虜とその子孫を数世代にわたり国内各地の炭鉱で奴隷労働に従事させてきたとする報告書を発表した。（写真は資料写真）
　北朝鮮では１９５０～５３年の朝鮮戦争後、数万人に上る韓国兵捕虜が韓国に帰されず、国内にとどめ置かれた。
　韓国・ソウルに本部を置く人権団体「北朝鮮人権市民連合（ＮＫＨＲ）」は報告書で、捕虜たちが奴隷のような状態で炭鉱での苦役に従事させられ、その過酷な境遇は子孫にも引き継がれたと指摘。「住居や仕事を替えたり、高等教育を受けたりすることを完全に制限されてきた」と説明した。
　国連は、２０１４年に発表した北朝鮮の人権に関する報告書で、朝鮮戦争後に北朝鮮に残った韓国兵捕虜は少なくとも５万人で、うち５００人前後が存命中だと結論した。
　ＮＫＨＲの報告書を執筆したヨアンナ・ホサニャク氏はＡＦＰの取材に応じ、韓国政府は捕虜らの窮状を無視していると批判。北朝鮮との首脳会談では文在寅（ムン・ジェイン）大統領もドナルド・トランプ米大統領（当時）も人権問題を取り上げなかったと指摘した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/02/25-11:59）

North Korea used South Korean prisoners of war and their descendants through several generations as slave labour in a vast network of coal mines, a rights group said Thursday.
Tens of thousands of South Korean prisoners of war were never returned by Pyongyang after the 1950-53 Korean War.
Instead, they were assigned to toil at coal mines in slave-like conditions, with their children and grandchildren inheriting the brutal fate, according to the Seoul-based Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR).
North Korea's so-called songbun system classifies citizens according to their socio-political background, from the loyal core to the neutral and the hostile.
This songbun has been passed down to their children and grandchildren who are bonded to labour in coal, lead, zinc, magnesite and other mines, the report said.
They are completely restricted from changing residence, job, or attaining higher education.
Pyongyang invaded the South in 1950 and by the time the armistice was signed, hundreds of thousands of captured soldiers were held on both sides of the DMZ.
While the Geneva Convention requires all POWs to be repatriated once hostilities end, Pyongyang returned only 8,343 South Koreans.
A UN human rights report in 2014 concluded that at least 50,000 POWs from the South remained in the North after the war, and that around 500 were still alive.
But their plight was ignored by the Seoul government, the author of the NKHR report, Joanna Hosaniak told AFP.
There is no knowledge and there is no interest in the issue in South Korea, she said.
We are not raising this problem during summits with North Korea, because none of the human rights issues were raised during the summits, whether with President Moon or with President Trump.
- 'Bosom of the republic' -
Pyongyang insists it protects genuine human rights and dismisses accusations of abuses by the international community.
It maintains that all POWs were returned according to the armistice terms, with a government official previously saying that any who remained did so out of a wish to remain in the bosom of the republic.
Coal was a top export item -- largely to China -- and foreign currency earner for Pyongyang, until its export was banned in 2017 under UN Security Council sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
But an annual report to the UN by independent monitors last year said North Korea earned hundreds of millions of dollars through illicit coal exports in 2019, which historically contributed to the country's prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Satellite imagery shows continued production at coal mines, independent investigators say, as the country suffers from severe energy shortages.