The support group for North Korea was established as part of a continuation effort following the Rafto Price for the year 2000. North Korea can be characterised as one of the worst totalitarian and closed societies in the history of the world. “The beloved leader” Kim Jong-II is one of the worst tyrants in modern times and is in charge of a regime were human rights consistently are broken. (7-MAY-2004).

 

In year 2000 the Rafto Price was given to the president of South Korea, Kim Dae-Jung for his “sunshine policy” towards North Korea and the effort to promote democracy, peace and human rights on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea can be classified as one of the most totalitarian and closed societies in the history of the world. “The beloved leader” Kim Jong-II is one of the worst tyrants living today and in his regime the whole spectre of human rights is systematically broken in bestial ways. Political opposition is not tolerated and civil organisations are banned. The civil society does not exist in North Korea and the government has a complete monopoly for all kinds of information.

 

Organisations who work for human rights are not allowed to enter North Korea, and the access to information about the conditions in the country has been scarce. The Rafto Foundation has after the Rafto Price in the year 2000 established a good network in South Korea, and this is an important resource in the work to gather and spread information about the situation in North Korea.

 

The North Koreans are currently the smallest minority group in Norway, there is less than a handful of members. This illustrates how difficult it is to escape from the regime in North Korea. It is assumed that as many as 70,000 North Korean fugitives are trying to escape through the People´s Republic of China every year. However, the People´s Republic of China has signed a bilateral treaty where they have agreed to send back North Korean fugitives. These fugitives are treated as criminals by the North Korean Government because they have tried to leave the country without permission.

 

The newly formed support group wish to set focus on the terrible punishment many North Koreans receive from the Government in North Korea. This includes terrible torture of prisoners in concentration and slave camps, random executions, torture, indoctrination, hunger and death. The world society must be more aware of the terrible suffering by many North Koreans. The support group was established on the North Korea Freedom Day and this day also marked the start of the Congressional hearing in the USA about the “North Korea Freedom Act of 2004.”

 

The main objectives of the support group are:

 

1) Gather knowledge and information about the situation for human rights in North-Korea, in order to 

 

2) set t he human right violations in North-Korea on the national and international agenda to

 

3) i ncrease the pressure on the Government in North Korea to improve the situation for human rights for

    North-Koreans.

 

 

The support group for North-Korea (SNKorea) at the Raftohouse consists of;

  • Thor Inge Lone, Secretariat SERH, spokesman for SNKorea.
  • Thomas Bryde, Secretariat SERH, spokesman for SNKorea.
  • Helge Liland, accountant, the Afghanistan-Committee.
  • Jannike Strømme, AFS International exchange.
  • Sunniva Lofthus Sandø, Secretariat SERH
  • Therese Jebsen, adm. leader SERH.

 

The support group has room for more members.

If you are interested, you can call us or write;

 

Phone:  (+47) 55210930

E-mail: mail@raftohuset.no