North Korea 2014
Yearbook 2014
North Korea. In February, a commission of inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council presented a report concluding that the regime in Pyongyang was guilty of crimes against humanity. The investigation was based on testimonies of “indescribable abuse” which included murder, torture, mass violence and forced labor, not least in the labor camps that were estimated to accommodate at least 100,000 people.
North Korea population in 2020 is estimated at 25,778,827. The report prompted the UN Human Rights Committee in November to urge the Security Council to report North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Pyongyang rebuffed all charges and responded by threatening new nuclear weapons blasts.
New satellite images from the Yongbyon nuclear plant made the outside world suspect that preparations were underway for a fourth nuclear test. Despite UN bans and sanctions, North Korea also conducted several new test shoots of short- and medium-range robots during the year.
In June, North Korea filed a complaint with the United Nations and the United States about an American film comedy that was being produced and was about a murder plot against the country’s leader Kim Jong Un. When the film company premiered at the end of the year to an advanced cyber attack, Pyongyang was accused of being behind it. The computer intrusion resulted in not yet released films being made available online.
Three Americans arrested in North Korea were released in October and November, leaving no American in custody in the country. Two of them had been arrested six months earlier, while the third had been arrested two years earlier and sentenced to 15 years of labor camp for “illegal religious activity”.
Kim Jong Un’s little sister Kim Yo Jong was reported to have received a high political post in the ruling Labor Party. As far as is known, she was the only one in North Korea’s ruling dynasty, alongside the leader, who had a prominent political position.
In November 2014, the UN General Assembly’s 3rd Committee passed a resolution condemning North Korea for systematic, widespread serious human rights violations, including crimes against humanity. The resolution was adopted by 111 votes to 19, with 55 abstentions.
According to topb2bwebsites, South Korean sources of propaganda Kim Jong-Un executed a number of high-ranking officers, including the Secretary of Defense in 2014-15.
The country test-launched in January 2016 its first hydrogen bomb. Foreign experts, however, doubted the claim, as the blasting power was no greater than the test blasts in 2013. It should have been at least 10 times greater. A new similar bomb was set to detonate in September. The UN Security Council responded with further sanctions.
In May, the Korea Workers Party conducted a congress, for the first time in 36 years.
Serious floods cost at least 138 lives in August 2016 and according to reports. World Food Program (WFP) 69,000 on the run. The government asked the international community for humanitarian assistance, but the assistance was minimal due to political opposition to the country.
During 2016, 1416 North Koreans managed to leave the country and flee to the South. Often, the flight took place via third countries, and North Korea therefore tightened security guarding the border with China. But often there was talk of guest workers North Korea had sent abroad to provide foreign currency to the country. About 50,000 North Koreans worked in 40 different countries. In Western propaganda media, they were referred to as slaves.
Demography and economic geography. – East Asian state. The country (25,026,588 residents, according to an estimate by UNDESA, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2014) recorded, according to UNICEF, an annual population growth rate of 0.9% between 1990 and 2012 (the year in which life expectancy at birth reached 70.0 years of age). The UN stated that, between 1995 and 2005, the DPR of Korea requested external humanitarian assistance (mainly food aid), in order to meet the basic needs of the population. Malnutrition is also listed as a humanitarian priority by UNICEF, whose estimates have calculated that in 2012 almost one in four women of reproductive age (15-49 years) was malnourished. Despite the slight improvements recorded since 2009, the National nutrition survey in 2012 also reported worrying data for children under five years of age. identifying malnutrition as the cause of health problems such as stunting (27.9%) and low body weight (15.2%), especially in the Ryanggang province. The development projects for the period 2011-15 identify two fundamental objectives in food security and rural development. Following the torrential rains of July 2012, aid (access to drinking water and health care) has also become essential to avoid epidemics.
Economic conditions. – The government, after the easing of the restrictions in 2002, which had allowed some forms of semi-private trade, in 2005 reduced the scope of the reforms, re-centralizing an economic system still characterized by firm political control. The 2009 revaluation of the currency produced significant inflation. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-Sung’s birth in 2012, the country embarked on efforts to develop Special Economic Zones with China. In 2013, the government implemented 14 SEZs (Special Economic Zones) for foreign investors, although the initiative is still in its infancy.
